Author

Freer Spreckley attended Summerhill School and, on leaving, from 1965 for seven years, hitchhiked around the world.
In 1972 he became involved in the liberation of Bangladesh, travelling on foot with the Bengali freedom fighters setting up oral rehydration clinics in rural villages to help combat dehydration caused by the severe cholera outbreak. In 1974 Freer, with others, acquired a 19-house hamlet in the South Yorkshire moors and set up a commune called Lifespan that is still going strong.
In 1978 he moved to Leeds, working with the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM), to establish Beechwood College as a workers co-op providing training and a development centre for worker co-ops. While at Beechwood, Freer coined the term Social Enterprise and created the internal Social Accounting and Audit system, including the financial, social and environmental planning and measuring criteria, later called the Triple Bottom Line, in 1978.
In 1981 Freer wrote the short book ‘Social Audit-A Management Tool for Co-operative Working’. Since then, Freer has worked in international development in 67 countries, advising and training clients in organisational restructuring, social enterprise management, programme design and development, monitoring, evaluation, and impact planning and assessment.
In 2021 he produced a new book entitled ‘Essential Social Enterprise’. He lives with his family in Wales, supports social enterprises, and is active in local environmental initiatives.