Orlena Yee

Orlena completed a MA in Anthropology of Food in 2016 as a part-time student and spent the rest of her time exploring the food space through diverse employment ranging from working on farms to cheese-making and teaching cookery classes for a local community focused charity. She joins On Purpose as part of her endeavour to maximise her potential usefulness in addressing the social challenges we currently face, particularly those related to food. As a curious food practitioner, she is particularly interested in seeking creative solutions to reduce food waste and to encourage a change towards thinking about food more sustainably. She believes that social enterprise is part of the solution in driving this change. Previously, Orlena enjoyed an enriching career in the asset management industry as a fund manager where she was responsible for making key investment decisions for up to $30 billion of assets under management. Her area of expertise was in global and emerging market bonds. She hopes to draw on her investment experience and combine it with newly honed tools from her anthropology degree in order to find a niche in the social enterprise landscape where she can put her skills to use. Along with her MA in Anthropology of Food from SOAS, University of London, Orlena also has a MSc in European Studies from the London School of Economics and a BA in Political Science from Tufts University. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst, has a certificate in Innovative Food Systems Teaching and Learning and a certificate in Community Health. Orlena spends as much time as possible eating, cooking and exploring the great outdoors through running, walking, cycling, playing frisbee; which then leads to eating again, of course (preferably outdoors)!