Zoe Holland, Frenkel Topping Group’s Non-Executive Director, has been awarded MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours for her services to charity.
Recognising Zoe’s 30-year history with charities including her role as Vice-Chair of the SBA – the Solicitors’ Charity, Parent Ambassador for Young Minds as well as the charity she founded during the Covid pandemic, Silk Elephant, the award is testament to a career-long commitment to use ‘law for good’.
With an impressive career as a legal entrepreneur and a deep-rooted social conscience, Zoe has used her professional platform to champion underrepresented groups, particularly the brain and spinal injured community.
Zoe was the 8th woman in the organisation’s 160-year history to be appointed as Vice Chair of the SBA – the Solicitor’s Charity and was part of the core trustee team for the charity to use the Joseph Rowntree Minimum Income Standard, ensuring equality for beneficiaries.
In March 2020 she set up registered charity, Silk Elephant, from her home in Manchester, delivering ‘simple acts of loving kindness’ to vulnerable people and bereaved families all over the world.
Handmade gifts and care packages have been sent to over 110,000 people across the UK as well as to the USA, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Recipients include familes of brain and spinal injured and terminally ill children as well as children and adults with severe autism. She also launched an International Kindness exchange with a charity in the US to support elderly people during COVID.
Zoe grew the number of volunteers to 750 within two months, with ages ranging from seven-year-olds to 92-year-olds, and 13 kindness ambassadors who built the distribution network across the UK. At the height of the pandemic, the charity also delivered gifts to 900 elderly and foster care homes across the UK and over 1000 frontline care packages to NHS and frontline carers.
On receiving the award, Zoe said: “I’m thriled and deeply honoured to receive this award for my 30 years supporting charities focussed on vulnerable people. It is also particular recognition for my charity, Silk Elephant, for its work during the pandemic and all the brilliant people who’ve helped me make it thrive.”
Zoe has also supported brain and spinal injury charities such as CBIT, SIA and Headway. In July 2020 she was awarded the UK’s 1434th Point of Light, by then PM, Boris Johnson, and was awarded the High Sheriff Award in Greater Manchester for services to the community.
She supports young neurodiverse adults (aged 18 to 23 years) through her pro-bono coaching scheme, ‘Future Bright’, helping them celebrate neurodiversity such as ASD, ADHD and Aspergers.
In 2014 Zoe was named ‘Outstanding Innovator of the Year’ at the Claims Innovation Awards, ‘Legal Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the Modern Law Awards, and in 2015 was a finalist in both the ‘Great British Entrepreneur Awards’ and Lloyds Bank ‘National Business Awards’ Entrepreneurship category.
Richard Fraser, Frenkel Topping Group CEO, said: “Zoe is an extraordinary entrepreneur, a talented business and legal mind and a passionate advocate for using corporate influence for good. This latest accolade is further validation of all of that. We are delighted that she has been recognised by the new King and share her pride in putting her important charitable work on the national and international stage.
“Through the Frenkel Topping Charitable Foundation we see the great need in the personal injury and clinical negligence community for this kind of support and it is fantastic to see Zoe’s work recognised in this way.”
