Lisa Wilkinson

Lisa Wilkinson is family director of Amalgamated Holdings Wilkinson Limited (AHWL), the family office for the Wilkinson family. As the third generation to lead the family’s business interests, Lisa shares oversight of the strategy across AHWL’s investments currently in UK venture capital and property.

AHWL was established in 2017 as the selected vehicle for the family’s diverse investment portfolio. Since then, AHWL has maintained and grown several investments specifically focusing on early-stage British entrepreneurs and businesses counterbalanced by heritage real estate developments.

AHWL provides seed capital investment in innovative UK start-ups to support British business, economic growth and sustainable job creation. Through Wilkinson Future, the venture capital arm of AWHL, the family has invested in over 40 British-founded businesses across multiple sectors, from healthcare to technology. It supports these companies with long-term, collaborative support and strategic advice.

Lisa has a specific interest in the investment and preservation of UK heritage property across both commercial and residential real estate by rendering fit developments for modern-day purposes. Through Wilkinson Property, the real estate arm of AHWL, the family invests in unique, modest, small-scale, historical sites that require significant investment for their continued use and preservation. Wilkinson Property seeks to invest for the long term to protect the developments and those that benefit from them. In 2018, AHWL acquired 120 Colmore Row in Birmingham, a Grade II-listed commercial office building. In 2021, AHWL also acquired 13 St Peters Gate, a listed property in Nottingham, which it redeveloped into commercial office space and student accommodation.

Lisa Wilkinson is one of four grandchildren of James Kemsey (JK) and Mary Wilkinson who founded the UK value homeware retailer Wilkinson's in 1930, which was formally renamed in 2012 to the name by which it was popularly known of wilko. Lisa joined wilko as a non-executive director in 2004 sharing responsibility for representing and maintaining the values of the family on the Board. AWHL held the family’s shareholding in wilko until it ceased trading in August 2023.

Before joining the family business in 2004, Lisa spent over 10 years in private legal practice specialising in Discrimination and Employment Law at multiple leading commercial law firms including Eversheds, Edge Ellison (now merged into Hammonds Suddards Edge) and DLA.

Lisa graduated from the University of Leeds with joint honours in English and History and went on to complete legal qualifications at De Montfort University.