Judges
We are enormously grateful to our esteemed judges for their time and expertise.
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Chair Sarah ran her own company for 19 years – Mayday Group – a four branch specialist employment business and agency providing catering staff. Other business interests include being joint founder and Director of Simple Solutions Ltd. which makes folding toddler’s loo seats called ‘Toodle-loo!s’ which are sold to the retail industry in the UK and overseas. Sarah is a non-executive director of JobCentrePlus, the UK’s largest government agency and holds many other advisory positions including UK Commissioner for Employment and Skills. |
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Maxine Benson MBE Recognising the gap between women-owned businesses in the UK versus male-owned after returning from 10 years in New York, Maxine Benson set-up Everywoman Ltd with co-founder Karen Gill in 1999. everywoman strives to help women achieve their aspirations and realise their business ambitions. It is now the UK’s leading provider of resources and support services for women in business with over 35,000 members. |
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Deirdre Bounds Founder of i-to-i Meaningful Travel & Motivational Speaker Deirdre is one of the North of England’s most successful entrepreneurs, founding i-to-i the world’s leading Meaningful Travel company on the back of her own Career Break. Since its launch from a bedsit in 1995, i-to-i has been widely recognised as the leader in the Gap year travel with 15,000 travellers a year with turnover in 2006 of £9 m and offices in the UK, Ireland, USA and Australia. Deirdre has achieved many distinguished awards such as Director of the Year 2005: Institute of Directors and Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Finalist) 2004. |
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Cath Collins Cath began developing her unique range of luxury scented products in 1996 and in 2006 expanded her horizons by joining with OKA Direct, the Interiors experts. Her fragrances are sold through selected stockists worldwide as well as all the OKA shops and to an increasing mail order database via catalogue and the web. Cath Collins products can also be found in the bathrooms of exclusive hotels both here and abroad. |
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Karen Gill MBE Karen started Everywoman Ltd in 1999 with business partner Maxine Benson, having a left a successful 15 year career in the hospitality industry. everywoman has since developed a portfolio of services including a website – www.everywoman.com, events, training, leadership and management qualifications as well as a series of business guides. Through these services, everywoman provides opportunities for women to enhance their entrepreneurial skills. |
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Joanna Hansford Managing Director, Jo Hansford As Managing Director of the world-renowned Jo Hansford Salon in the heart of Mayfair, Joanna Hansford manages a highly complex business. She has experienced many facets to running her mother’s vibrant Mayfair salon and over the past nine years has been responsible for the creation of numerous innovations that have kept the Jo Hansford name at the forefront of colour and style. She has recently worked on the creation and launch of the Jo Hansford colour care range of premium hair products which has already won numerous awards and is currently expanding the distribution throughout the UK, UAE and US. |
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Sharon Hilditch MBE Sharon started her first beauty business at the age of 17 and launched Crystal Clear International in 1995, with a £15,000 bank loan. Today, the company exports to over 20 countries, has a celebrity following supplying stars like Madonna, Cindy Crawford and Victoria Beckham and recently launched an exclusive skincare range into leading department stores. Sharon won the NatWest everywoman Award in 2004. |
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Rowena Ironside Consultant and Non-Exec Director Rowena is a business angel and a general manager with 30 years experience in the ICT industry. She has extensive experience building services teams and managing cross-cultural integrations. In the 1980’s she was one of the founders of Mentis Computing, a professional services company based in London that was successfully sold after 4 years of growth. Rowena now works in a non-exec or advisory role with a variety of young companies, both commercial and not-for-profit. She is a Director of Cupcake Mum, the members’ club for mums and mums-to-be that was launched in April 2008 in Putney. She is also currently COO of The Prince’s Rainforests Project. Rowena has an MSc. in Management from the London Business School (Sloan Masters, Distinction). |
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Liz Jackson MBE Aged 25 in 1998, Liz Jackson founded Great Guns Marketing in the lounge of her rented flat with £1,000 grant and a £4,000 loan from The Princes Trust. Great Guns Marketing is now the UK’s premier business to business telemarketing company with eight regional branches, a growth rate of 45%, and a clutch of awards including the 2004 National Business Award for Customer Focus. Liz was awarded the 2003 Women Mean Business Award and in 2007 received an MBE for service to business. |
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Joy Nichols MBE Joy Nichols is one of the most successful black business women in the UK. She began as a freelance secretary before officially establishing The Nichols Agency in 1984, which now has offices in London and Johannesburg. Joy has sustained the agency’s upward trajectory by forming a consortium tasked with enabling other SME’s and BME’s to overcome the huge obstacles that hinder their progress. She also holds the Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion. |
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Mandy Nickerson Managing Director, Bales Worldwide Mandy started her career as a hotel cook and receptionist with aspirations to become a General Manager. A few years later she wanted to experience the tour operator’s life. She joined the family business Bales Worldwide in 1977 and excelled in different roles within the company. She worked her way up, became a Director in 1997 and was made Managing Director in 2001. Six years later and she has managed to successfully steer Bales Worldwide through one of the hardest times the travel industry has known. |
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Avril Owton MBE Avril Owton owns and runs the award winning Cloud Hotel in Brockenhurst. Having overcome adversity to develop a highly successful hotel and rescue it from the brink of recession she was voted Hampshire Business Woman of the Year 1995 and Shine Woman of the Year 2006. As the Chair of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Branch of the Institute of Directors, the founder of the Wessex Women’s Network and a regular speaker for national organisations, Avril has become a recognised business force and motivator for women colleagues. |
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Christina Vaughan Christina is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Image Source, the world’s leading independent producer of royalty free stock photography, and brings more than 18 years of experience in the creation, distribution and marketing of commercial imagery to the company. Christina set up the business on her own in 1999 and it has grown to gross sales of over $40 million worldwide, trading through a network of more than 200 photo agencies in over 80 countries. The company holds the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade Category. |
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Perween Warsi CBE, MBE, DBA Perween Warsi has, in twenty years, masterminded the development of the UK’s fastest-growing independent food manufacturing company, S&A Foods. She has also driven innovation in the work place, implementing a learning and development centre for her employees and a women in management course to further the careers of women within S&A. In 2005 she was awarded the First Women Lifetime Achievement Award. What means the most to Perween are the many awards she has received for her products, ranging from quality awards to innovation awards. At the National Curry Awards in September 2006, S&A Foods won the award for ‘Best Chicken Tikka’. |
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Managing Director, Prosperis Ltd Beverley Webster ran a manufacturing company for over 20 years designing and manufacturing tunneling equipment for the mining and construction industries. As the first woman and youngest ever president of her sector trade association, she was awarded an OBE in recognition of services to the coal industry. She now runs Prosperis, a Leeds & Sheffield based wealth management company and from personal experience brings an understanding of the pressures facing owner / managers in balancing business and personal financial planning. |
