[2] Prior to founding Bridges in 2002 alongside Philip Newborough and Sir Ronald Cohen, she spent a decade working in community and development finance with Shorebank Advisory Services and the World Bank Group.
[5] She then spent eight years with ShoreBank Advisory Services, the advisory arm of ShoreBank, a U.S.-based community development bank (now owned by Triodos), where she ran small business lending programmes in Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, advised on microfinance in Bangladesh, the Middle East and Mongolia and did research in the US community development finance sector.
[7] In 2002, Giddens, Cohen and Philip Newborough co-founded Bridges Fund Management, to invest private equity capital in entrepreneurial businesses in under-served areas in the UK.
She currently sits on the Responsible Investment Advisory Group of the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA).
In 2014, Giddens delivered the keynote speech at the BVCA's annual Summit, highlighting private equity's increasing interest in impact-driven businesses.