Candice Motran was part of the first group of Associates to take part in the On Purpose Leadership Programme. The Oxford MBA was originally an aerospace engineer and worked at both CAE and United Airlines before deciding to switch paths in pursuit of a career in social enterprise. This switch may not have been as successful had she not met founder Tom Rippin while at Oxford and participated in On Purpose.

 

“You meet every single person involved in social enterprise in London and you get to know about every event there is,” she said. “It provided great entry into the social enterprise scene in the UK and we got McKinsey-like training via Tom.”

 

Candice’s first experience of social enterprise was during her time with Engineers Without Borders Canada. She saw that it was possible for charitable organizations to be sustainable without relying on donations. However, it wasn’t until she did a gap year in South-East Asia and Australia that she really became interested in it.

 

While in Cambodia, she came across a restaurant called Friends which hired orphans and used all its profits to run a community centre next door. Seeing how successful this model was, she began planning her own social enterprise revolving around a guest house. After returning to normality in Canada, she began working in the aerospace industry yet found that she didn’t enjoy it. Inspired by a former Engineers Without Borders member, she applied to do an MBA at Oxford.

 

“I decided that I didn’t know anything about business,” she confessed. “I was told that there was a strong focus on social entrepreneurship [at Oxford], so I applied.”

 

Studying at Oxford led her to meet Tom, who was in the process of setting up On Purpose. He would come to the campus and ask the MBAs for their opinions and suggestions.

 

“I graduated at the worst possible time; it was September 2009 and the world was completely changing,” Candice said. “From my perspective, it wasn’t too bad but it was bad for the finance people who had secured jobs and then had them withdrawn due to Lehman Brothers collapsing.”

 

The recession meant that she wasn’t tempted by other offers and stuck to her goal of working in social enterprise. She offered to help Tom market On Purpose and, while doing so, he convinced her to apply for the scheme. 

 

Through being part of On Purpose, she interned at both the HCT Group, headed by Dai Powell, and the Young Foundation. Every Friday, all the associates would gather at the On Purpose offices and receive training in specific areas.

 

After finishing her internships, Candice was given the opportunity to extend her stay at the Young Foundation and that was followed by a two year stint at the Foundation Growth Consulting LLP. In June, she began working at the Big Society Capital as a Social Impact Associate.

 

Candice still participates in On Purpose activities. She attends fellows' and alumni weekends in order to meet and socialize with the new cohorts. She has also gone back to deliver social impact measurement training during the Friday sessions. 

 

Asked what the future held, she said: “Canada’s about five years behind the UK when it comes to social enterprise. So it would be nice to learn and then go back. ”

 

She also has plans to start her own social enterprise, at some point, based on the guest house idea she had in Cambodia.