Julie Walker – Founder

Julie founded Purple Spinnaker in 2001, after a successful career in the software industry, to pursue her passion for people, business innovation, social tools and working in a global market.  

Julie’s can do attitude has led to some great challenges both at work in her free time. 

A few days after a chat over a coffee in early 1997, she found herself on plane to Hong Kong to setup the Greater China and ASEAN operations for a software company and had a great 2 years creating the core team and working in the region.

In 2000, Julie crewed on 2 legs of around the world yacht race and returned to the UK to setup Purple Spinnaker, where she identified an opportunity for social media based loyalty solutions in the travel and financial services industry.  After 2 years of working on the business and trying to assure companies that individuals would join online communities and that yes, they could be made safe, the project was put on a back burner

Since 2003, she has been involved in a number of entrepreneurial innovative projects, including a Global Project Directors role with Ogilvy, where she led a project to create a new global business service, working between London, New York and Singapore.

Julie’s passion for all things social led her to study part time for a Masters in Strategic Marketing in 2004, focusing on why customers participate in online communities while gaining a more in depth knowledge of loyalty and customer insight strategies. 

Julie has worked with global law firms, international banks, global advertising agency networks, global publishers, FMCG brands, Football Club and a number of start-up’s in the software, social media and customer insight markets.