Lara Morgan is CEO/MD of consumer services businesses with global experience and a track record of delivering accelerated and exceptional growth. She is an inspirational leader with a legacy of building world-class teams and aligning organizations behind a clear strategy.
Having started as a sales person Lara continues to practice daily the art of selling and creating win-win customer partnerships. Relentlessly learning Lara has specific expertise in strategy, customer insight and brand development, multichannel and multisite management and organic or M&A/partnership driven expansion.
Her first business, Pacific Direct was founded in 1991 at the age of 23. Having arrived in the UK with little or no hotel experience, Lara quickly grew Pacific Direct into a specialist global supplier of luxury high end brands to five star hotels, which she has become world renowned for. Lara sold this business after 17 years for £20 million having acquired battles scars and experience spanning extremely large organizations to small start-ups. She has been involved in multiple disciplines, including, luxury brand licensing, marketing and retail operations to commercial and private label development. She has also managed and owned factories in Czech and China. Lara’s investment strategy is pinned to improving life’s journey, she invests in the fantastic British brands, dryrobe, the ultimate change robe, Gate8 lightweight time-saving functional business luggage and KitBrix, modular sports kit bags. ActiveBod and Global Amenities Direct are two other companies that Lara has built in line with her port folio strategy.
Lara also makes time to grow her own particular brands, Global Amenities Direct, luxury room solutions taking her back full circle into the hotel industry. Her passion for fragrance and functionality in natural aromatherapy products lead her to develop, design and produce Scentered, a mood management approach which supports mindfulness and which through fragrance restores lifestyle balance. Focused on portability and convenience all Lara’s interests build time for people.
Lara’s specific experience is in brand strategy, customer segmentation and proposition and creative marketing. Her specific sector experience includes specialty retail, brand merchandising, consumer health, education, well-being travel, leisure and hospitality.
On a personal level, Lara is a proud mother of three teenage girls and a committed volunteer and philanthropist. She is actively engaged with various global non-profits as a trustee/board member or advisor. She speaks regularly at industry events. She has also appeared and commented on current affairs and business issues with Sky and BBC News and has also appeared on the popular BBC 2’s “The Apprentice: You’re Fired”
She has been a finalist in Ernst and Young Entrepreneur 3 times and was a finalist in the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year Award. In 2009 Lara received the much coveted 美姬阁 Entrepreneur Alumna Award. She is a published author of the Amazon best-selling business book “More Balls Than Most and is a co-founder of Start Up Britain. Taking all this in her stride she also manages to train for charity bike rides and triathlon, coming 10th in the 2011 World Championships.