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As part of Fast Forward 2026, participants will gain access to a team of experienced mentors, each bringing a distinct area of expertise to help founders navigate growth with confidence. From leadership and recruitment to brand, innovation, governance and investment, our mentors provide tailored support designed around the challenges and opportunities facing ambitious screen businesses today.
This week, we're introducing Cecilia Thirlway, Fast Forward mentor for Communications and Brand.
About Cecilia
Cecilia Thirlway is a communications professional with more than 30 years' experience working with organisations of all sizes, with a particular focus on the creative industries and emerging technologies. She lectures at the University of Bristol's Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and is a Fellow of the RSA.
Cecilia helps founders develop clear, compelling communications that articulate their business's unique value, engage key stakeholders and support long-term growth.
Why is mentoring particularly valuable during a period of business growth?
Growing a business depends on everyone pulling in the same direction to achieve the same goal, but often it means that you're too busy to stop and discuss what those goals are, or whether everyone understands them in the same way.
Mentoring creates space for founders and leadership teams to achieve clarity of direction and think about some of the bigger questions that need answering in order to all be on the same page about what happens next.
Which aspects of our cohort's growth journey do you feel you add the most value to?
As a communications professional with over 25 years' experience, my particular strength is in helping founders distil, and then express, their business's unique value, objectives and strategic plans in a way that reaches and inspires all their stakeholders, from customers and employees to partners and investors.
What do you enjoy most about mentoring and supporting businesses on this programme?
It's the big and the small moments, the "a-ha" moments in conversation where we unlock a new way of thinking or perspective on the business, but also being a tiny part of a business's journey from one phase of growth to another.
I learn as much from each cohort as they do from me.
What do you hope businesses take away from working with you?
A renewed sense of clarity about what their business does, who it's for and, just as importantly, who it's not for, as well as a clear understanding of what their next steps are going to be.
Ready to Fast Forward Your Growth?
Fast Forward is Creative Enterprise's six-month growth programme for ambitious screen businesses looking to strengthen their commercial foundations, unlock new opportunities and build long-term resilience. Through tailored mentoring, expert-led workshops and peer learning, participants gain the tools, insight and confidence needed to scale sustainably.
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Applications for Fast Forward 2026 are now open.
Find out more and apply: https://creativeenterprise.wearecreative.uk/fast-forward