Princess Beatrice crowns Opus fundraising with boardroom position

A for-profit social enterprise which goals to domesticate a brand new wave of British entrepreneurs has recruited HRH Princess Beatrice amongst a brand new crop of board members.

Sky News understands that OPUS, a paid-for membership group, will unveil the 34 year-old royal as a director in a public announcement on Friday.

Princess Beatrice beforehand acted as a patron of Opus however is known to have joined its board this month.

Its six-figure seed funding spherical, which will even be a part of Friday’s announcement, is claimed to have been closely oversubscribed and consists of well-known names from the political and enterprise arenas.

Opus describes its community as an “opportunity community” and says it contains “a highly vetted network of rising leaders from a diverse set of sectors and roles, either managing a budget, a team or both”.

Its new funding will present the means to develop member providers and develop its community of members, who it describes as “rising leaders”.

Princess Beatrice mentioned she was “excited” to deepen her work with the corporate, including: “Having been a part of Opus since its inception, it is clear that there is an incredibly impactful opportunity to generate scale with this platform.”

The elder daughter of Prince Andrew has additionally labored at Afiniti, an American expertise firm whose founder turned embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal in 2021.

David Cameron, the previous prime minister, was an adviser to Afiniti however resigned through the row, which erupted whereas Princess Beatrice was on maternity depart.

Adam Marshall, the previous British Chambers of Commerce director-general, and Miguel McKelvey, one in every of WeWork’s co-founders, are additionally becoming a member of the Opus board.

Kerry Fennell, Opus’s managing director, mentioned: “Leadership can be lonely, but at Opus we believe that careers and leadership should be a team sport.”