Female Heroes
Geeta Sidhu-Robb is a multi-award
winning entrepreneur and founder of Nosh Detox, a company offering bespoke
health packages and unique, natural health solutions to achieve optimal
well-being.
Nosh Detox has been valued at £3 million with a £700,000 turnover in just its fourth year. The business grew 100% in 2009, 200% in 2010 and over 300% in 2011.
Geeta's many accolades include: Exceptional Working Mother of the Year at the Everywoman Annual Conference (2008); Best Diet Delivery Zest Magazine (2009); Vogue Magazine's ‘Best Detox’; Business Woman of The Year at the World Sikh Awards (2011); and Best Detox in London; Evening Standard Magazine (2011).
Susan Cooney
is Co-Founder and Head of Marketing & Sales at MahiFX, a new
proprietary-built foreign exchange trading platform which launched earlier
this year and gives retail FX customers access to same tight spreads and cutting
edge technology as institutional FX traders.
Prior to founding MahiFX, Susan worked in forex trading at investment banks. In mid 2004, whilst she was working at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein selling e-FX technology to UK banks, Susan was asked by colleagues David Cooney and Tim Cartledge to join the team moving across to Barclays Capital. David was later to become her husband and co-founder.
In 2005 Susan was asked to recruit and head up a new team to expand Barclays’ institutional e-FX sales efforts in Europe, where she took the controversial approach of hiring people based on their character, rather than experience. In what was probably an Investment Banking industry first, Barclays backed this initiative and what was jokingly referred to as ‘Barbie’s army’ was born. 8 people were hired from all walks of life. The initiative was a success, which contributed to tremendous growth in Barclay’s eFX market share.
Susan went on to hire teams in Singapore, Hong Kong and the US. Susan’s e-FX career has taken her to many countries of the world, meeting many people and has given her valuable insight into the requirements of an FX trader. Insight that has helped her to contribute to much of the MahiFX functionality.
Kathy Douglass is CEO of The Greensheet, a Texas-based publication connecting local buyers and sellers, with nearly a million readers - the largest free weekly circulation in the state.
The Greensheet was
founded in 1970 by Kathy Douglass’s mother Helen Gordon, a tough entrepreneur
who faced incredible resistance from the male-dominated Texas business network.
Ms. Gordon showed great resolve in getting the company off the ground and
turned The Greensheet into a classified publication powerhouse By the time she
retired, Ms. Gordon had grown the company to one of the most successful in the
state.
Kathy picked up
where her mother left off in 1994, continuing the strong performance of The
Greensheet. In 2005, the company successfully entered the offset printing business
at a time when the move was very difficult to make. That same year, Ms. Douglass
managed to secure The New York Times as a client. The Greensheet has printed
the Houston edition of the Times as well as several other major publications
ever since.
Ahead of
Mother’s Day, first lady Michelle Obama thanked her mother, Marian Robinson,
for being her “rock” at an event she spoke at honoring military mothers and
wives for being “outstanding role models” for their children, communities and
country.
Like many working mothers, Mrs. Obama, a lawyer by training, has struggled with raising children while working a full time job (President Obama mentions the First Lady’s struggles in a White House Forum on Women and the Economy.) In 2007, she decided to go part time to spend more time with her children and work on her husband’s presidential campaign.
Sarah
Stanley is Founder & MD of Unique Home Stays, a multi-million pound
company which she has grown from a cottage industry (literally).
Unique Home Stays provides luxury private house accommodation to travellers and holiday-makers worldwide. Specialising in self-catering and bed and breakfast properties, the company has more than 140 homes in its exclusive portfolio; a number which continues to grow year on year. All of the properties marketed by the company are real homes rather than purpose built holiday accommodation, so they contain the character and quirks that you would expect from a well-loved family home, while maintaining an exceptional luxury standard.
Sarah had the idea for Unique Home Stays whilst working as a chef. She saw an advert in the newspaper looking for people to host students. Thinking ‘there’s no money in students’, Sarah came up with the idea of hosting travellers in luxury private homes, and the idea for her business was born.
I first came across Inês’
wonderful work two years ago, while researching girl empowerment communities
for my documentary project The Illusionists (for which Inês eventually became
an ally, supporter and sponsor).
I was instantly captivated by Inês’ vision, drive, determination, and altruism. Her enterprise 7Wonderlicious is focused on overturning gender stereotypes, empowering girls to achieve their full potential: the site contains a multitude of resources for girls and parents alike and is constantly updated with inspiring blog posts.
Inês’ latest initiative is “A Chain of Girl Goodness“: she aims to create a values-driven online marketplace – similar to Etsy.com – focused on empowering products for girls. In order to create a prototype for this online platform, Inês is currently running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Help make it happen here: www.indiegogo.com/GirlPower.
Etta Cohen is
Founder of Forward Ladies, the UK’s largest network for women in business, with
a database of approx 13,500 professional women.
Forward Ladies runs more than 350 events a year including an inspirational speaker programme, annual International Women’s Day conferences, Women in Business Awards, business breaks, training and development workshops, mentoring and social events.
After launching in the north of England, Forward Ladies launched in Scotland in 2011 and In London earlier this year.
In 2006 Etta was the winner of the Institute of Directors Judges Special Award for her work with women.
A passionate advocate for empowering women through business, Etta is dedicated to Forward Ladies; “My life philosophy is that we should all be supporting each other. As Madeleine Albright said ”There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” The ethos and values of Forward Ladies are built on this. We shouldn’t judge others, success is different for each individual. We should be there to encourage women every step of the way and therefore develop a pipeline of talented women.”
One of the nice
things about angel investing is not only meeting and working with incredible
entrepreneurs, but the network of angel investors that I work has proven to be
pretty incredible too.
I was introduced to Lori Fields by some other angel investors. More than likely because of my background in the schmata industry. They were right. I so get Lori's business and am impressed with what she has done after buying the business from someone who originally grew it and then let it implode. She saw an opportunity and went for it and now Neighborhoodies, which allows customers to design their perfect hoodie, is well on its way back to a healthy growing business.
The UK Minister for Civic Society,
Nick Hurd, last week presented a cheque for £20,000 to Emma Mulqueeny of Young
Rewired State. The funds were raised through crowdfunding website peoplefund.it.
Young Rewired State, asked the public to back them so they could hold a Summer ‘Festival of Code’ where kids would be taught to code and get help and support from leading edge mentors and coders.
The project enjoyed support from Stephen Fry and Martha Lane Fox who tweeted for people to back the bid. It was also featured in Techcrunch, The Observer and Guardian.
Meredith
Xavier is Founder and Principal of Ligné Agency, a boutique business development firm representing
clients in the interior design industry, which she founded in 2009 aged just 24.
Meredith has since opened two Ligné satellite offices in Sao Paulo and Houston, in addition to her office in Los Angeles.
Always ambitious,
Meredith graduated high school a year ahead of schedule. Whilst studying Art
History in California, she developed a fascination for composition of interior
spaces. During her senior year she pursued her interests in design, working at
Christie’s in Beverly Hills.
After graduating college in 2006, Meredith moved to London to attend Christie's Fine and Decorative Arts Connoisseurship Program. At just 22, she received her Masters in European Fine & Decorative Arts before returning to Los Angeles, where she began dealing art through her first company, Meredith Laing Fine Art.
Through her work at the Pacific Design Center Meredith has designed hotel art installations around the world including Presidential Suites for the Ritz Carlton in Miami, the Marriott Hotel in Dubai, Hilton Times Square in New York, and an installation at the UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles.
Upcoming Events
21 May 2012 - 09:00 - 23 May 2012 - 19:30New York, US
22 May 2012 - 09:30 - 24 May 2012 - 19:00Astana, Kazakhstan
