Sarah began her career as a banker with a specific focus on the financing needs of early stage SMEs throughout the UK. Latterly she was part of the senior management team at SG Warburg that set up a new bank (RBS Trust Bank) from scratch. Following an MBA, Sarah spent time living and working in Eastern Europe, providing technical assistance to local banks under the EBRD's SME financing facility.

As the programme manager for Lithuania, Sarah's role encompassed training and mentoring, advice on marketing, reviewing high level controls and client reporting. Most recently, Sarah has been working as a Senior Consultant at SQW Consulting (a sister company to Oxford Innovation) where her area of specialism has been business support and access to finance. In this role, she has recently managed an evaluation of Business Link services in the South West for SWRDA and a study on the supply side equity gap for BERR.