Heather Frankham

Heather is our Founder and the inspiration behind Origin Workspace. Through her journey building her first business, she recognised the importance of the wider business community in Bristol and wanted to create a space for other entrepreneurs and scaling businesses that was inspirational and enabled them to find others that would support them on their journey. Heather established Origin to make a positive impact on the community and the surplus created by the business is donated to The Origin Foundation, which provides grants to local charities supporting children and young people across Bristol.

Heather’s background is in education. A teacher by training, she worked in primary and secondary schools across Bristol before moving into Further Education, where she founded and grew Lifetime Training Group into the UK’s largest apprenticeship provider. After selling Lifetime in 2016, Heather has continued her commitment to high-quality education and skills development, supporting other education businesses to grow and succeed. She is a Non-Executive Director of Knovia Group (including Paragon Skills, Babington Business College, Tempdent and Shaping Lives) and the Founder of Bud Systems, a software platform designed to help training providers deliver more effective learning.

In addition, Heather invests in early-stage businesses through Angel Investors Bristol and Bristol Private Equity Club, with a particular focus on impact investing — backing organisations that combine strong growth potential with positive social or environmental impact.

Heather is the current Chair of Youth Moves 224 – a charity that provides Open Access Youth Programmes to young people in South Bristol. The charity is currently building a new Youthzone that will open in 2026 opposite Imperial Retail Park in South Bristol. This £12M project, being delivered in partnership with national youth charity – OnSide, is funded by the Youth Investment Fund, Bristol City Council and philanthropic donations from Trusts and Foundations, private individuals and local and national businesses. Once open the centre will support over 4000 people across South Bristol – open 7 days a week with upto 250 people per session participating in sports, music, dance, theatre, cooking, creative art, science and technology sessions.

Watch Heather share her journey and insights on Jazz Shapers on Jazz FM here.