Our Past Speakers

	Lara Morgan, Founder of Pacific Direct

Lara Morgan,
Founder of Pacific Direct – My people are my success

Lara Morgan, the founder and CEO of Pacific Direct, left school at 18 to get a job in Hong Kong selling business gifts to banks and airlines. After three years she moved to the Middle East and ended up as National Accounts Manager for Yellow Pages in charge of 128 staff. Soon after the Gulf War started in 1991 she moved back to the UK to sell business gifts. The Dorchester in London became her first client, and before long she was operating Pacific Direct as a sole trader from her one-bedroom apartment.

From there Lara never looked back. Her company now manufactures and supplies luxury branded toiletries and guest amenities to Hotels, Cruise Lines and Airlines in 110 countries worldwide. Pacific Direct also owns manufacturing plants in the Czech Republic and China, has offices in the United States, UK, Germany, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong, and has around 400 employees.

Some people are naturally driven, but Lara Morgan is a virtual whirlwind! She has always believed "if there is a will, there is a way." She places huge emphasis on people and culture, with a strong vision and clear company strategy. Pacific's open style and inclusive management continually drives forward business excellence within best practice models and the European Quality Award Framework.

The winner of many prestigious awards, Lara was runner up in the Ernst & Young national Entrepreneur of the Year awards in 2002. In 2005 she famously took all of her staff to Barbados for a week to celebrate £1M in profits for the first time, and a year ago sold a stake in the business for £20M. 

At the lunch, Lara explained how she sold her business, set out some of the lessons learned and talked about her plans for the future.