Our founder

Penelope Tobin foun­ded Bar­rier Break­ers in 2000 as a research and edu­ca­tion char­ity ded­ic­ated to “inspir­ing human devel­op­ment cre­at­ing pos­it­ive change”, and has been its cre­at­ive dir­ector since then. An expert in soft skills devel­op­ment and eval­u­ation, she is cre­ator of the award-winning soft skills devel­op­ment and eval­u­ation method approach, Bar­rier Break­ers Meth­od­o­logy (BBM). Build­ing on the suc­cess of this approach in the 3rd sec­tor, she estab­lished the ‘for-more-than-profit’ com­pany, Bar­rier Break­ers (UK) Ltd in 2010.

Ori­gin­ally a jazz pian­ist and com­poser, Penelope Tobin star­ted her musical career aged 18, and sub­sequently toured and recor­ded with numer­ous groups, com­posed music for com­mer­cials, and led jazz ensembles – ran­ging from a sex­tet in Lon­don to a 17-piece jazz orches­tra in New York. As well as being a pian­ist, com­poser, and vocal­ist, she has always been a ded­ic­ated edu­cator and it was her exper­i­ence as an artist edu­cator that dir­ec­ted the lon­git­ud­inal research from which BBM evolved, includ­ing an invest­ig­a­tion into over­com­ing bar­ri­ers to cre­ativ­ity, and an explor­a­tion of the rela­tion­ship between the artist’s way of work­ing and 21st cen­tury skills needs.

Penelope has devised and delivered numer­ous change pro­grammes, is sought after as a speaker and facil­it­ator of soft skills, advises at board level, and writes widely on the subject.

She has a BA (Hons) in Per­form­ing Arts from Middle­sex Uni­ver­sity, and an MA in Lead­ing and Man­aging Organ­isa­tional Change from City Uni­ver­sity, Lon­don. She’s a Fel­low of the Royal Soci­ety of Arts.

 

Find out about speak­ing appear­ances.

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