FEATURE
Meet the Teesside CEO who ’ s slept rough 80 times !
WAKE-UP CALL
With CEO Sleepout named as the chosen charity for the Tees Business Awards 2024 , its own CEO , Bianca Robinson , talks to Peter Barron about the deepening homelessness crisis …
PICTURES : CHRIS BOOTH
T
here ’ s a wintry wind whipping up off the waves at the end of Saltburn Pier . All but a few gulls have taken shelter somewhere warmer – but Bianca Robinson is used to the cold .
As the driving force behind the Teesside-based national charity , CEO Sleepout , she ’ s no stranger to sleeping under the stars : joining other business leaders in raising awareness , and vital funds , for grassroots charities supporting homeless people .
So far , the mum-of-twins has completed more than 80 sleepouts for the charity that ’ s raised millions of pounds since it was established by former mayor of Middlesbrough Andy Preston in 2013 .
And Saltburn – on the North-East coast – is a daily source of inspiration .
“ It ’ s a magical place with such a strong sense of community , where people look out for each other ,” she says , pushing an annoying wisp of blonde hair back into place .
“ Never a day goes by when I don ’ t appreciate where I live . I can walk out here and see the endless horizon across the North Sea .
“ No day is ever the same – there ’ s always a different view , a different light .”
It ’ s a stark contrast to the lives of those the charity was set up to help : people with no horizon ; facing the same struggle every day ; with the same view of the street ; immersed in darkness .
Saltburn is Bianca ’ s adopted home , but she grew up nearly 12,000 miles away in Wellington , the New Zealand capital , where she and her sister Toni were privately educated .
“ There were pockets of poverty but never any sign of rough sleeping in New Zealand back then ,” she recalls .
Dad Denis had his own advertising company and was a well-known face in the city , with a vintage claim to fame that he designed the original label for bottles of Villa Maria wine .
Mum Daphne was an associate for a blind judge in family courts . She and Denis parted when Bianca was 13 , with Daphne going on to work for the Israeli embassy as well as studying for a double-degree and being a single mum .
Despite her privileged upbringing , Bianca was brought up to have strong social values and was a member of Greenpeace at 11 . Then , her eyes were opened to poverty during a family trip to America a year later .
“ When we got to New York , I couldn ’ t believe it . People were pushing their entire belongings , with nowhere to go , and we saw amputees begging on the streets ,” she recalls .
With ambitions to follow her father into advertising , Bianca studied for a degree in Visual Communication Design at Wellington ’ s Victoria University before travelling across America and then making her way to London .
For six weeks , she sofa-surfed while trying to establish herself , and that humbling experience gave her the hunger to succeed in a sales role . Selling hair treatment vouchers on a commission-only basis , she did so well that she was asked to open an office in Edinburgh , where she got a deeper insight into homelessness .
“ Some nights it was minus-15 degrees , and there ’ d be hardened rough sleepers pitching down for the night with no sleeping bags , and I ’ d think , ‘ You ’ re not going to make it through the night ’.
“ I talked to them , bought them a hot drink or something to eat , and tried not to be judgemental .
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