Anne, along with her parents, bedridden grandfather and brother, was raised in a two bedroom council (government subsidised) house in the small rural town of Thurso situated at the most northern tip of Scotland. Anne’s passion for making things started when she was two years old. At seven she started her first job, delivering milk early in the morning before going to school. Aged nine she took on a second job with a paper round to earn pocket money. Aged twelve she created her own jewellery business selling items to school friends. She put this money towards her move to London. This creative and enterprising spirit and disciplined routine is the root of her work ethic which survives to this day.

Anne dropped out of school at fifteen without bothering to sit any exams. She had proved herself to be one of the smartest students in her high school, excelling at art, math, technical drawing and metal work. This was not enough to satisfy the ambitious teenager who was bored by the school routine. She believed that academic qualifications would play little part in a world where she knew ambition and drive would make her a success. It was time to get out and explore the world for herself and make her mark. Excited yet anxious, she moved to London within months of leaving school with the intention of becoming Britain’s top hairstylist; one of the movers and shakers in the fashion world.

On arriving in London, where she knew no one, Anne walked into John Frieda’s hair salon, the most exclusive in Britain at that time, and asked for a job. Anne was immediately employed and given the hallowed position of John Frieda’s junior. Being his junior meant a training like no other. Within a record time of one year, at the age of sixteen, Anne had become a stylist in her own right and was well on the way to fulfilling her ambitions. Her life now a daily glamorous whirl; often going to work in the back of a Rolls Royce, dining with Cary Grant and having President Mitterrand of France open the door for her, weekly appointments at Royal Palaces and attending Red Carpet Events. Very little time was spent in the salon. Instead her work showcased in the world’s most renowned fashion magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Elle, working alongside the world’s top photographers such as David Bailey or at catwalk shows for the likes of Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent. Here she created the looks of the day on models including Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Jerry Hall and Naomi Campbell.

A near fatal car accident, while heading home to Scotland on holiday, tore Anne’s entire world apart. In one split second Anne’s blossoming career in fashion where she had been acclaimed as one of the top three hairstylists in the country was over and her life changed forever. Crippled and suffering spinal damage in six places, she lay flat on her back, bedridden for almost a year. Usually unstoppable in her optimism, Anne could not see a light at the end of the tunnel. However, Paul and Linda McCartney and her then boss John Frieda intervened, found and funded alternative treatments for her. Slowly Anne began to rebuild her life, confounding doctors by regaining her ability to walk which made it possible for her to rebuild her life and take her first faltering steps towards a new future. Anne underwent months of recuperative treatments, gradually re-gaining her mobility and her determination once more to succeed at life and all it had to offer.

Anne married her husband within ten days of meeting him. Shortly afterwards they bought their first apartment. This is where Anne had her first taste of interior design. Anne’s innovative designs and use of colours were a direct result of staring at a white ceiling for months on end following her accident. Friends started asking her for decorating advice. News of her refreshing approach spread by word of mouth and within months she was inundated with requests. Anne’s first remodelled apartment caused a stir with the Editor of British Vogue, Alexandra Shulman, popstar Jay Kay from Jamiroquai and supermodel Kate Moss all vying for it.

A career as an interior designer beckoned. Not just any interior designer but one who would make her mark, her drive to succeed being a legacy of her accident. At the age of twenty three, Anne quickly built up a successful multi million pound design business employing forty people with contracts rolling in from the rich and famous. A waiting list quickly formed of prospective clients all willing to wait up to twelve months to commission Anne McKevitt. So diverse is her talent that she has worked on individual projects with budgets ranging from $100 to $75 million.

Anne’s personal client list is very extensive, reading like a who’s who. The following are the most significant names: Sultan of Brunei, Michael Caine, Naomi Campbell, Dyan Cannon, Catherine Deneuve, Faye Dunaway, Linda Evangelista, Sir Bob Geldof, Queen Of Greece, Duchess of Gloucester, Jerry Hall, Sir Elton John, Queen Noor of Jordan, Annie Lennox, Sophia Loren, Paul McCartney, Kate Moss, Joan Rivers, Anita Roddick, Queen of Spain, Ringo Starr, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Raquel Welch and Bill Wyman, as well as the late Paula Yates, George Harrison and Linda McCartney.

Anne became aware that there was a much broader market for her ideas and concepts. Her vision was to make everyone feel that they could have a designed living space attainable on the tightest budget. Style that the folk back home in Scotland could afford.

Anne made her television debut in March 1996 where for the next decade, Anne became a prime time TV star and celebrity in the UK where she was viewed by millions, on her lifestyle television shows and through her books. She instigated a colour and contemporary style revolution that transformed the British nation’s homes and gardens through her books and eighteen series of lifestyle TV programmes which she presented and designed for on the BBC and ITV. Anne also filmed for a number of US networks including CBS, Fox, Discovery and the Home & Garden channel. Anne has also appeared on Canadian, New Zealand, Swedish, Hong Kong, Japanese, South African and Zimbabwean TV networks as well as her BBC shows being syndicated and viewed in a further 22 countries. Her celebrity earning power is ranked higher than fellow Brits David Bowie, Ewan McGregor, Michael Caine and Kate Winslett. OK! Magazine positioned Anne jointly with Liz Hurley as a top celebrity.

Anne has written five bestselling and critically acclaimed design books, which are sold in sixteen countries. Her first book sold a staggering one million copies that broke new ground in this category of illustrated books, making it the 20th bestselling book of the 90’s in the UK.

Her work has appeared in hundreds of magazine publications in the UK and internationally, and she has featured in thousands of newspaper articles around the world, the magazines include; Vogue, Harpers & Queen, Elle, Hello, OK!, Good Housekeeping, House Beautiful, Home & Garden, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Living Etc, Forbes, Time, She, Ideal Home, Radio Times, TV Times, Your Garden, Company, Chief Executive, New York Times, Sunday Times, The Times, Sun Herald, Vive, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Post, New Yorker, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Cape Town Argus, Irish Times to name a few…

Anne’s first book Style on a Shoestring was published and became an international best-seller. Additional books by Anne are; Home Front Kitchen Book, Anne McKevitt’s House Sensation, Anne McKevitt’s Home Makeover, critically acclaimed Anne McKevitt’s Designer Know How and Anne McKevitt’s Style Solutions.

Anne’s design work and projects have received numerous awards including:
Best Home in Scotland - UK National Home Builder design awards sponsored by The Guardian newspaper. Best Home for the Future in the UK - UK National Home Builder design awards sponsored by The Guardian newspaper. Best Interior Layout - What House Awards sponsored by The Sunday Times newspaper. Civic Trust Award 2001 - Saltier Society. Housing Design Award 2000 - Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, Regeneration Achievement Award 2000 - Supreme Award - Charted Institute of Building Scotland, Good Building Award 2000 - Royal Town planning Institute Awards for Planning Achievement 2000. Commendation for Planning Urban Renaissance. WH Smith Literary Awards nominated Designer Know How for book of the year.

The Anne McKevitt brand of homewares launched and generated multi-million pounds of sales in the UK. Taking the concept to the US put the homewares line into a whole different platform and delivering the design of 1600 products in a three year period with a retail value of $975 million.

Anne was awarded  Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World 2002, recognised by The International Herald Tribune as a World Class Entrepreneur, named by Time Magazine as one of four International Business Leaders to Watch, placed at #30 in The Sunday Times 500 Most Powerful Britons and Forbes Magazine stated in 2003 “at the head of the pack …Anne McKevitt

Anne is a member of President Bill Clinton’s Clinton Global Initiative, she sits on the Women’s Leadership Board at Harvard, John F Kennedy School of Government, the Advisory Committee for Brisbane Graduate School of Business at Queensland University of Technology. In 2005 Anne took up the honorary position of Executive - in - Residence at Brisbane Graduate School of Business, QUT. She chaired the judges for the 2006 Ernst & Young, Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. All of this an astounding achievement when you consider the teenager who left home at 15 without sitting any exams.

Anne McKevitt is hailed as a leading authority on consumer lifestyle changes, competitiveness and diversity, both nationally and globally. She has advised and guided many multinationals world-wide. These include: Mercedes, IKEA, Royal Doulton, Peugeot, Ernst & Young, Wal*Mart, Deloitte, Waterford Crystal, Jeep, Bloomingdales, Saks, Pottery Barn, Moet e Chandon, Freeman’s, Sainsbury’s, Debenhams, Wedgwood, Marks & Spencer, Commonwealth Bank, Optus and Hewlett Packard. She is also a much sought after speaker having performed live at events to audiences of 25,000 people.

At the height of her fame and success and due to start into a lucrative new global TV deal, flying back from LA for the third time in one month, Anne knew she was ready for a big life change in every direction. She decided it was time to fulfill her dream of ten years; living in Australia. She was granted a ‘Distinguished Talent’ visa by the Australian Government and now calls Australia home. Here she reshaped her work life and now concentrates on her multiple business activities, humanitarian work and education. Some have said it was a brave move, leaving behind her TV celebrity status. Instead Anne found it totally liberating to focus on her life as a serial and social entrepreneur. With 3 billion people on the planet existing on less than $2 a day, making poverty history through the medium of micro loans to the third world communities is Anne’s main humanitarian focus, and as she says; “this is way more important than what colour someone should paint their bathroom!”

As well as her own charity projects, Anne has worked with micro finance charity Opportunity International Australia during 2005 and 2006. Anne is a moral vegetarian of some 33 years and a lifelong environmentalist. She passionately believes that we must respect our planet and all that live on it. She feels the link between environmental disregard and world poverty needs to come to the forefront and be top of mind with every individual in the affluent western world.

Fall 2007 saw Anne McKevitt’s business reputation take her into global political circles. At the Clinton Global Initiative she worked together with 52 past and present Presidential & Prime Ministerial heads of state to address the issues and make personal commitments to implement changes on poverty alleviation, global health, climate change and education. Following this in December 2007 she was invited to The White House and Capitol Hill to take part in discussions and attend briefings on Foreign Policy, Labor, Legislative Affairs and Climate Change and subsequently fulfilled a long held ambition to visit the Oval Office.

Anne is currently authoring a series of business books and as well as her new ground breaking book Power of Proximity in which she looks at the power we all have to make great and significant global changes in our lifetime.  She continues to grow her portfolio  of businesses. Her personal pastimes include, photography, abstract painting, kayaking, year round sea swimming, surfing (not very well!) body boarding and chilling out at the beach when she should be in the office.