20 | Tees Business
B
y her own admission, Claire Preston
has always been a hard worker, as well
as someone with a strong sense of
adventure and burning desire to work with
people; ideally helping in some way.
Those attributes have just led to her
winning the first-ever Tees Businesswoman
of the Year award, although she insists she is
only just getting started.
Claire, 50, is CEO of hugely successful
Middlesbrough company Lexonik, acting as
the driving force behind a growing business
that has gone international through her
vision and team’s determination and was the
brainchild of fellow director and founder, Katy
Parkinson.
And having been “overwhelmed, totally
surprised and slightly embarrassed” to win
the main accolade at the inaugural Tees
Businesswoman Awards, organised by Tees
Business magazine, she hopes more of the
region’s females can draw inspiration from
the well-received Wynyard Hall event and
become business high flyers themselves.
“I never thought for one minute I would
win the award - it was flattering to be
nominated, let alone make the shortlist,”
Claire admits.
“It was bittersweet as well in a way,
because we are a team and Katy has
developed an amazing programme and had
the courage to set up the business in the
first place.
“I was incredibly fortunate to come across
Katy and to be part of this amazing journey.
She is such a fantastic ambassador for the
business and just so knowledgeable and
passionate about what she does as a literacy
and dyslexia expert.
“I think the awards have gone down so
well because what they are trying to do
is not only celebrate existing success but
promote aspiration too.
“And I think that’s why so many people
have been behind it. Not because they see
themselves as victims or feminists but
because they want to inspire others locally to
just get out there and do it.
“There’s almost a mentality of ‘If we can
do it, so can you’ and certainly if I can do it,
anyone can.
“One of my absolute role models - and I
would love to learn how to fly one day - is
Amelia Earhart. She was the first woman
to fly solo across the Atlantic, and did three
jobs to save up the money to get her pilot’s
licence. There’s determination for you.
“It’s important to get out there and go for
it - not to make excuses that it’s hard being
a woman - because you never know what’s
around the corner.”
To say Claire has gone a circuitous route to
winning her award and enjoying success with
Lexonik is an understatement. She joined
the start-up business six years ago and the
company – formerly known as Sound Training
- now has a £1.5m turnover which she feels
can expand around tenfold in the next five
years.
As a teenager eager for new challenges,
and despite liking the idea of being a teacher,
Journey - Claire (right) chats with
Lexonik’s founder director Katy Parkinson.
“What we do not only enhances
understanding of the English
language but also the world around
us, and we are set for exponential
growth in the USA.”
she dropped out of Marton Sixth Form
College - “one of my A-Levels was Business
Studies, ironically, but I’ve always been quite
enterprising” - and headed to London.
Numerous stints working in the capital and
back home followed, doing everything from
nannying to training and managerial work for
adults with learning disabilities, and she even
spent a year as an air hostess.
Her desire to travel also took her to South
Africa for charity work, and to Spain and
Japan to teach English, but she credits
the experience working in restaurant
management for giving her the transferable
skills which she has put to good use with
what she believes is her true calling and
mission with Lexonik.
Claire managed Islington culinary
institution Frederick’s for a time before being
involved in the rollout of a small chain of
London restaurants, having also worked for
Masterchef judge John Torode at Smiths of
Smithfield.
“I started off waitressing at first with
very little confidence because I wasn’t sure
what I wanted to do. I was taking a career
break if you like and didn’t want to rush into
anything,” she recalls.
“But what’s really interesting is that
a lot of the skills I developed working in
restaurants, although in a different setting
and industry, were completely transferable;
helping to grow a chain of restaurants
and develop scalable quality systems was
fundamental to our success and has been
completely applicable over the last six years.
“I decided I needed to be based back up
here after having my daughter, and I wanted
to find something that I could really get my
teeth into.
“And I kept being drawn back to education
and training.”
Claire did a degree in education at Teesside
University and upon graduation contacted
teacher Katy after hearing about Sound
Training following its inception in 2011.
Although there were no initial openings,
she went on to join the firm as a teacher
before being promoted to her current role,
and the company has been on the up ever
since.
Lexonik use a unique teaching programme
– devised by Katy – that rapidly improves
reading and writing skills and understanding
of the English language by breaking words
down into their component parts.
It has benefited more than 60,000
students from the age of six to international
students and prisoners in jails including
Teesside’s Holme House and Wandsworth in
the capital.
And Claire says it is about to explode in
2019 following extensive spadework which is
bearing fruit in the Middle East and America,
where Lexonik’s programme is set to take off
in Texas, specifically in deprived Brownsville
on the US-Mexico border.
“It’s incredibly exciting,” says Claire. “And
I think one of the reasons we are successful
is because we have a vision - we are on a
mission to improve literacy levels around the
world. It’s a business but it’s not just about
the money. It is amazing to witness the
impact in such a range of settings.
“The international schools who use
our programme in Oman and Dubai are
blown away by the results. And to see
prisoners looking forward to one hour of
comprehension a week is so incredibly
rewarding.
“What we do not only enhances
understanding of the English language but
also the world around us, and we are set for
exponential growth in the USA.