Leanne Pero

Leanne Pero is a London-based community dance entrepreneur who founded her first community dance company, The Movement Factory, when she was 15 years old. Through her vision, Pero successfully fundraised £250,000 to run community dance programs and events all over London, Kent and Surrey. Most recently, Pero was named Chief Executive Officer of the world iconic brand Pineapple Dance Studio’s first charity, Pineapple Community.

Pero was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer at the end of 2016, and after completing chemotherapy and undergoing a bilateral mastectomy, she was given the all-clear in 2017. She set up her own cancer charity, the Leanne Pero Cancer Foundation, in 2019 and founded the UK’s first all-black female cancer exhibition, “Black Women Rising—The Untold Cancer Stories,” aimed at spreading awareness of cancer in the BAME community.

Pero’s accolades include a highly commended nod as one to watch in Management Today’s 35 Women Under 35 as well as a nod at the Women of the Future Awards in 2012. She won the Black Business Initiative Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008, 2010 and 2014, won Southwark Community Champion Award in 2008, won the GLE London Rising Star of the Year Award in 2009, won a Southwark Volunteer Centre Rising Star of the Year Award in 2010 and a London Youth community champion award in 2017.

Her credits include work for Nike, Kelly Holmes Education, The Rio Ferdinand Foundation, Pimlico Plumbers, Mr Delicious UK, Ed Tracey, Southbank Centre, The Media Trust, Houses of Parliament, Gordon Brown and has been featured in and on media outlets such as Sky News, BBC News, The Sun newspaper, Metro and the guardian.

She self-published her first book at the beginning of 2016 titled “Take Control,” a self-help style book aimed at 18-30 year olds detailing her life hardships as a victim of sexual abuse and a troubled business woman battling depression.