Meet our 2023 Speakers
Susanna Lawson - OneFile Ltd
Susanna started her career as a psychology graduate from the University of Manchester, and went on to work with adults with learning difficulties in the NHS. Susanna then had to complete a NVQ in care to prove her practical competencies – and her involvement in vocational training began.
After completing her NVQ levels 2 and 3, she soon moved up the ranks, and was appointed the National Contract Manager for an independent training provider, responsible for over 1,000 apprentices across the UK. Throughout her journey she witnessed huge inefficiencies at every stage of the sector, and decided with her partner to build a technology solution: OneFile.
OneFile developed from a back bedroom start up into the leading edtech software in the post 16 vocational training sector. OneFile has grown to a team of over 80 with over 1.3m users.
OneFile received a Queens Award for Innovation in 2017 and 2022, SaaS Business of the Year and CIPD People Management. Susanna was awarded Outstanding Achievement award at the EVAs and was Institute of Directors regional winner for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. OneFile was also listed the Best Companies Top 100 companies to work for in 2021.
Having bootstrapped the business and never taken external investment, Susanna and her partner exited OneFile in October 2021, selling to Harris Computers, part of the Constellation Software group, the 2nd largest tech company in Canada. Susanna remains an ambassador for OneFile – promoting apprenticeships as well as being a non-exec director and advising start up and scale up businesses.
Susanna started her career as a psychology graduate from the University of Manchester, and went on to work with adults with learning difficulties in the NHS. Susanna then had to complete a NVQ in care to prove her practical competencies – and her involvement in vocational training began.
After completing her NVQ levels 2 and 3, she soon moved up the ranks, and was appointed the National Contract Manager for an independent training provider, responsible for over 1,000 apprentices across the UK. Throughout her journey she witnessed huge inefficiencies at every stage of the sector, and decided with her partner to build a technology solution: OneFile.
OneFile developed from a back bedroom start up into the leading edtech software in the post 16 vocational training sector. OneFile has grown to a team of over 80 with over 1.3m users.
OneFile received a Queens Award for Innovation in 2017 and 2022, SaaS Business of the Year and CIPD People Management. Susanna was awarded Outstanding Achievement award at the EVAs and was Institute of Directors regional winner for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. OneFile was also listed the Best Companies Top 100 companies to work for in 2021.
Having bootstrapped the business and never taken external investment, Susanna and her partner exited OneFile in October 2021, selling to Harris Computers, part of the Constellation Software group, the 2nd largest tech company in Canada. Susanna remains an ambassador for OneFile – promoting apprenticeships as well as being a non-exec director and advising start up and scale up businesses.