Now it’s Princess Bea, the business consultant
PRINCESS Beatrice is to become a business consultant after turning her back on her fourth job in five years.
The eldest daughter of Prince Andrew and his ex-wife the Duchess of York has left her post with a Manhattan investment firm to pursue her ‘entrepreneurial ambitions’.
At the moment, however, her business plans appear to be on hold while she holidays in the Greek islands with friends, following a trip a few weeks ago to the South of France.
In June well-placed sources said the Queen’s grand-daughter had been ‘let go’ from her role in New York.
This was strongly denied by aides who maintained she was only in Britain for the month of June because of a ‘work project’ and to support the Queen during her 90th birthday celebrations.
Sources insisted she had moved to ‘another department within the same company’, Sandbridge Capital, and would return to work in early July.
Last week, however, the Daily Mail was told Beatrice had not been at her desk for two months. Callers to the firm were told that Beatrice York (the name she uses for professional purposes) ‘is no longer with the company’.
Sources close to the 27-yearold princess say she has now resigned to form her own ‘startup’, backed by Sandbridge.
Sandbridge, based in Manhattan’s Trump Tower, advises and invests in fashion, health and consumer businesses and boasts brands including Topshop and Karl Lagerfeld in its portfolio.
The source said: ‘She is creating a start-up consultancy backed by, and in association with, the group she worked with. She and some other people have set up a consultancy business under the auspices of Sandbridge Capital.’
The friend said she had not been sacked, saying: ‘She was working, she resigned and is now concentrating her efforts on this start-up. She wanted to be more entrepreneurial, so she has set up her own unit within the group, but as a separate unit. ‘
Asked what this entails, they said: ‘She was working as a financial consultant for Sandbridge Capital and is now doing the same thing but independently.’
A friend said: ‘Beatrice is a young girl making her own way in the world and finding her feet. She has changed jobs a handful of times but she is no different from any other privately educated girl of her age. She should be applauded for striking out on her own, not vilified.’
According to her CV on business website LinkedIn, after leaving university Beatrice worked between September 2011 and January 2012 as a ‘research associate’ for her mother’s charity Children In Crisis. She moved to investment firm Cabot Square Capital in February 2012 but quit 16 months later amid speculation she was spending more time on holiday than in the office.
She took her next job, as an ‘international production analyst’ at Sony Pictures, in January 2014. But she quit the £19,500-a-year post after a year.
Palace aides said afterwards that she was busy ‘exploring her career options’ – but that didn’t stop her enjoying a string of luxury holidays. Between December 2014 and December 2015 the princess – who receives no government funding – racked up 18 foreign jaunts including a trip on Roman Abramovich’s £1.5billion super-yacht in Ibiza.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: ‘Princess Beatrice continues to pursue a career in business. Beyond this we have never commented on individual employers. We would not comment on how the princess is spending her private time.’
‘Making her way in the world’