Paul Scholes

After gritting my teeth through forty years of accounts and tax returns, I retired as an accountant in 2019. My early career revolved around the standard practices, wants and needs (in that order) of SMEs but, in the mid 90s, under the influence of my late wife Sue, I was introduced to the shadowy world of the Voluntary Sector becoming more involved with charities and social enterprises and discovering what is now known as “purpose over profit” and how inequality and waste is seen as accepted consequences of how we run business and our economy.

Around the same time I became more aware of the background noise surrounding global warming and happened across James Lovelock’s writings on his Gaia hypothesis. Much as Greta Thunberg experienced many years later, these writings sparked a series of “Why is nobody panicking?” moments and literally changed my outlook on life.

I am so lucky therefore to have found ACT and, as co-lead of the new Economy and Business group, I can bring together my love and passion for the living world, my kids and grandkids with a determination to raise doubts over, and eventually negate, our obsession with economic growth, the relentless driving force behind the climate and ecological emergencies.