The genius behind Prince Harry’s favourite charities, businesswoman KEDGE MARTIN (below), has always been brilliant at forging connections and now she is using her know-how to help others fulfil their dreams. meets the fairy godmother of reinvention

Catherine O’Brien

Lowri Tan was a model student. Bright, hard-working and focused, she excelled at sciences and achieved a master’s in biochemical engineering. A blue- chip career followed, first at BP, then at Cadbury and Kraft Foods, for whom she travelled the world. ‘I was well-paid and successful but not fulfilled,’ she says. ‘I couldn’t believe this was going to be my life for the next 40 years – but I couldn’t see the alternative either.’

As her 30th birthday approached, no lightning bolt of inspiration had presented itself, so Lowri decided on a high-risk strategy and quit. ‘Some people said I was brave, but others thought I was naive,’ she recalls. For a couple of years, as she eked out her savings, her prospects seemed wobbly.

Today, however, at the age of 35, Lowri has rediscovered her purpose. Her working days are spent not in state- of-the-art factories or laboratories but in her small London studio where she has reinvented herself as a silk artist with a signature scarf business. ‘I’ve learnt that sometimes you have to take a step back to move forwards,’ she says.

Lowri is a millennial, a generation frequently dismissed as entitled, self-absorbed and lazy. Having spent time talking to her, I can vouch that she is none of these things. And Kedge Martin, the woman who helped Lowri achieve her career turnaround, agrees: ‘All of us, no matter how successful, go through bouts of confusion – and doubt – about what we are doing,’ she says. ‘And the best thing we can do is start talking about it.’

Kedge is not someone you will necessarily have heard of, but you may know something of her work. Back in the early 2000s, she created the charity WellChild out of what was then