A man called Frederick

When I was a child, I spent eight months living with my grandparents in Arklow, a small town on the southern Irish coast. It was that year in which I became close to my grandfather, Frederick Kerr, or as people in town called him, “the last gentleman in Arklow.”

Pop was the most selfless person I have ever known. He wasn’t wealthy, but that did not stop him from helping those less fortunate than he.

Each week there would be a knock on the door, and the person on his doorstep never left empty handed. As a younger man, he was a champion sprinter, but his sporting trophies ebbed away as many clubs asked if he would donate cups and shields.

My grandmother Laura would regularly scold him for his generosity – but that didn’t seem to dull his spirit. His philosophy was simple – take what you need and give as much as you can.

When I named my charity, I wanted to pay tribute to my grandfather and the enormous kindness he showed to anyone who needed it.

Paul Barry-Walsh,
Frederick’s grandson

Carrying Frederick’s legacy forward

For over 20 years, Fredericks Foundation has continued my grandfather’s vision by proudly providing loans to the financially excluded and helping over 2,000 organisations achieve their goals.

In 2021, we decided we could help more people by shifting our focus to social enterprises and charities. Our goal is to support and help scale social enterprises by providing them with financial support through revenue share agreements, tailored mentorship, and board level guidance.

The success of our clients underpins the financial sustainability of Fredericks and allows us to have an ongoing impact through reinvestment of funds.

Meet the Team

Paul is the founder of Fredericks Foundation. He started his career at IBM where he worked for nine years. After departing the global tech giant, he founded Safetynet, one of the UK’s leading providers of business continuity services. His next venture was Netstore, a provider of cloud computing.

After a long and successful career in business, he was inspired by memories of his grandfather’s generosity to found Fredericks Foundation in his name. Starting in 2001, Paul led Fredericks Foundation to become one of the UK’s leading microfinance organisations.

In 2008, Paul was granted the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion and won a Beacon Award for Creative Giving. In 2009, he was named ‘Philanthropist of the Year’ at the CNBC European Business Awards.

In 2020 Paul was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to enterprise and charity.