Inspirational Women
Did you know there are over 70, 000 women who work in the City and Canary Wharf. Day in, day out these women make a contribution to one of the most successful business districts in the world. In addition to the role they play, many of them also manage families, navigate their way through professions that have and will always be classed as male dominated – above all they display true grit, determination and the ability to balance successful careers with ever demanding aspects of daily life.
WATC are so proud to have so many inspirational members across our community that we decided to profile these women in the hope they may inspire our other members. We have picked a a variety of professions, from Directors to Charity workers, from Head of Networks to authors & CEO’s. We hope you enjoy finding out more about these inspirational women and we would like to take this opportunity to thank them for sharing their stories for the benefit of the WeAreTheCity network. Go be inspired…..
Do you want to showcase yourself for other members to see? Is there someone you know who inspires you?
Do you have an inspirational story. We would like to hear from as many of you as possible. All you need to do is contact us and tell us your story, it’s that simple.
See our current list of Inspirational Women here
Amy Hathaway – Forever Angels Baby Home
Amy Hathaway, founder of Forever Angels talks to WATC about the orphanage she established in Tanzania.
Why did you set up Forever Angels ?
As a child I remember watching images of Ethiopian orphans on the news during their famine. The images really shocked me and I decided then, aged 9 or 10, that I would one [...]
Inpsirational Women – Julia Robertson
Julia Robertson
Julia Robertson is the Managing Director of Tate Recruitment. Tate recruitment has 21 offices and have been running since 1985. Tate Recruitment has been voted by the Sunday Times as ‘Best Companies to work for’ in 2007 and 2008. Tate achieved the coveted ‘Two Star Status’, which means it has been graded as ‘outstanding’. [...]
Inspiration Women – Gwen Rhys – Founder and Director of Women in the City
Gwen Rhys is the Founder & Director of the Women in the City, an organization that aims to raise the profile of senior level professional business women working in London’s business hubs, and the impact they have in leading teams, developing talent, supporting the progress of women in the wider business world, and contributing to [...]
Inspirational Women – Alison Maitland – Co Author of “Why Women Mean Business”
Alison is a writer, speaker and conference moderator, who specialises in leadership, women in business, corporate responsibility and the changing world of work. A former Financial Times journalist, she is co-author of the acclaimed book Why Women Mean Business: Understanding the emergence of our next economic revolution. Alison is Director of The Conference Board’s European [...]
Inspirational Women – Amanda Steadman – Founder – Weathbabes
What made you decide to set up your company?
I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. At 7 I was selling Blakes 7 wristbands that I had made to other infant school pupils…Mrs Vousden wasn’t impressed! I did start a coaching practice in 2001 alongside my corporate role and went fully self employed in 2004. Myself [...]
Inspirational Women – Barbara Campbell – Barbwire Enterprises
What made you decide to set up your company?
When my son was 5 years old I wanted to take him to the theatre. We’d done the Jack and the Beanstalk stuff, and I’d even taken him to Opera’s (I do like that kind of entertainment and so did he until aged 11 his cousin, whom [...]
Inspirational Women – Caroline Halsey – Company Owner – Polly & Prince
What made you decide to set up the company?
During university and after graduation I helped to manage and run a mail order company called baby gem. It was a start up when I joined and grew over the years into a busy company. I loved every aspect of my job there, it was varied and [...]
Inspirational Women – Christina Ioannidis – Founder of Aquitude
Christina knows all about perseverence and how to overcome the challenges faced with on a day to day basis. That is why Christina setup Aquitude to provide others with inspiration and guidance on how to be successful in this climate. We speak with Christina regularly and Aquitude also provide WATC members with some great articles. [...]
Inspirational Women – Christine Lawrence (WIBF)
With over 20 years in the Financial Services Industry. Christine is currently the Chair of Women in Banking and Finance where she is responsible for building effective strategic relationships with corporate sponsors and principal partners, for budget and governance, and for ensuring the delivery of WIBF programmes to a high standard. Previously she was a [...]
Inspirational Women – Claire Brierley – MD – Brierley Associates
Claire Brierley setup and runs Brierley Associates
What made you decide to set up Brierley Associates?
I had been thinking for a long-time about starting something myself and a few of my clients at the time had approached me to see if I would consider going it alone, but the real decision came following the loss of [...]
Inspirational Women – Claire Fegan – Company Owner -Aniah
What made you decide to set up your company?
I had always wanted to run my own business and after 12 years working client-side for other people, I just felt ready to set up on my own. It was a case of now or never.
What have been your biggest challenges so far in the company?
I resigned [...]
Inspirational Women – Elizabeth Harrin – Project Management – Spire Healthcare
Why did you take this career path and how did you get to where you are today?
I fell into project management: I had no idea that such a job existed. When I left university I joined the American Express graduate training scheme. One of my placements was in the Business Engineering division and I suddenly [...]
Inspirational Women – Founder – Kate Starkey Couture
Kate Starkey, spent five years working for a Mens’ tailor in London. It was whilst surrounded by the strongly male dominated tailoring world, that Kate felt there was a missing piece in this market. After a year of market research Kate founded Kate Starkey Couture, a rapidly expanding women’s tailoring firm based in the City [...]
Inspirational Women – Hayley & Donna – Founders of Mouth2Mouth TV
Mouth2Mouth are a relatively new voice over agency based in W1. Voice Over Agencies supply all the voices you hear on commercials, virals, games, promos even those corporate training DVD’s you sit through at work along with documentaries and cartoons – ANYTHING that needs a voice!!
Hayley Criddle and Donna-Marie Allsop have been friends since Primary School [...]
Inspirational Women – Heather White
Heather White has been described not so much as a person but as a phenomenon. As an authority on networking she sweeps aside much of the nonsense and focuses on what is authentic, practical and produces long term results. Her speaking approach is direct, interactive and fun. She gets straight to the issues which hold [...]
Inspirational Women – Izabel Grindal – Thomas Reuters
Izabel Grindal is chair of the Reuters professional women’s network. Below she shares her tips having set up a very successful women’s network from scratch.
Why did you take this career path and how did you get to where you are today?
I trained as a journalist and joined Reuters because they are one of the biggest [...]
Inspirational Women – Julie Hurst – Founder – Signature Style
Julie Hurst’s career background is in international business. Her keen interest in fashion and style was a personal passion until a fellow short course student at the London College of Fashion encouraged her to consider personal styling full time. After successfully completing formal style and image training at London’s leading image training centre at the [...]
Inspirational women – Justine Trueman – Author of “Detox your Finances”
Justine Trueman is author of “Detox your Finances” – The Ultmate Book of Money Matters for Women. Justine lives in Paris so we were very lucky to spend some time with Justine to understand how the book evolved and why it is so relevant at the moment
What made you decide to write a book?
I had [...]
Inspirational Women – Karen Stuart – Global SDM
Karen Stuart works as a Global Service Delivery Manager in the City. When she is not in the City, she spends a majority of her time travelling around the world for her clients.
Karen was born in South Africa and is married with 2 children and commutes from Colchester, Essex.
Why did you take this career path [...]
Inspirational Women – Kubi Springer – Managing Director – Sisterhood TV
Some of you may have seen Kubi either at one of our events interviewing people or perhaps on the TV. If you have not met Kubi before then you have missed out on one of the most energetic and passionate people we have ever met. Kubi has been spending a great deal of time filming [...]
Inspirational Women – Lorna Rogers – Respite Nurse
Lorna Rogers is 30 years-old and lives in Witham. She has been working as a carer with EPIC Children’s Respite Service since it began in 2004. EPIC is partly funded by Little Havens Children’s Hospice and provides respite breaks in a child’s home.
Lorna was recently Highly Commended in the Individual Category at The Association for [...]
Inspirational Women – Lorraine Cussen – Superintendent – City of London Police
Lorraine Cussen is the highest ranking female officer in the City of London. We asked Lorraine to give us an insight into her career and to impart her experience for the benefit of our members. Lorraine certainly knows how to survive in a male dominated industry, however the length of time it took her to [...]
Inspirational Women – Lynne Cantor – President of WIBFS-C, Toastmasters
Lynne Cantor is President of the WIBFS-C, Toastmasters. Lynne has extensive professional experience and is also a member of the Toastmasters association. Through her extensive skills and City experience, she is able to help members of the group to improve their public speaking skills and build their confidence when addressing large audiences.
Toastmasters run sessions from [...]
Inspirational Women – Maggie Berry – Managing Director of Women in Technology
Maggie Berry is the managing director of Women in Technology. Maggie has been a mentor to the WeAreTheCity Team and has given guidance and advice to us. We took some of her valuable time (once again) to ask her a few questions
What made you decide to set up your website?
The website was set up as [...]
Inspirational Women – Mavis Amankwah – Managing Director – Rich Visions
Mavis Amankwah has been described as ‘a trailblazer and pioneer in her field’. She is the managing director Rich Visions, a marketing and PR agency, and is also the founder of NV Fashion and Beauty. A former journalist, IT consultant and event manager, Mavis now divides her time between running her businesses, PR coaching, raising [...]
Inspirational Women – Michelle Brailsford
Michelle Brailsford leads the EPWN London Network and runs her own successful Consulting company in Training and Development called Jupiter Consulting Group.
We found time to ask Michelle a few questions.
Q
What made you decide to set up your company?
One day I simply got tired of the battle. I spent the first 15 years [...]
Inspirational Women – Michelle Brailsford – Jupiter Consulting Group Owner
What made you decide to set up your company?
One day I simply got tired of the battle. I spent the first 15 years of my career trying to convince (mainly) white, middle aged males (who were predominantly left brained) the best way to manage a talent pool that was diverse, young and often right brained. [...]
Inspirational Women – Nahid de Belgeonne – Company Owner – Good Vibes Fitness
Nahid set up Good Vibes fitness just over 3 years ago after experiencing just a couple of sessions on a powerplate . 2 months later she opened her first studio ! Nahid is an excellent example of an inspirational women as she has followed her dream, and although she started with nothing, she invested time [...]
Inspirational Women – Ronke Lawal
The Islington Chamber of Commerce appointed New Chief Executive – Ronke Lawal.
Ronke joined the Chamber in early January after spending 5 years running her own business as an advisor to small businesses, mainly on business development, marketing, events and PR.
With a good knowledge of the Borough, having studied for her A levels at City and [...]
Inspirational Women – Sarah Blow – Founder of Girl Geek Dinners
Sarah Blow developed the Girl Geek Dinner Network from discovering there was a need for like minded people to be recognised and provide a vehicle for networking with other IT professionals. In just over 3 years from start up, Girl Geek Dinner Networking events and groups are now held around Europe, the US and Asia [...]
Inspirational Women – Suzanne Doyle-Morris – Speaker and Author, “Beyond the Boys’ Club”
Suzanne Doyle-Morris, PhD is an author, academic, entrepreneur, international speaker and accredited executive coach specialising in strategic career development and leadership coaching for high-potential executive women. She is International Coach Federation accredited and is a member of the Professional Speakers Association. She is one of the world’s top experts on gender equality, diversity in the [...]
Inspirational Women Profile – Charmian Ingham – Speech & Voice Coach – Omega Age
Inspirational Women Profile – Charmian Ingham – Speech & Voice Coach – – Omega Age
Charmian Ingham is a Speech and Voice Consultant who helps individuals and teams attain vocal confidence and deliver effective communication. Having developed a creative and highly effective Programme with proven methods and techniques, Charmian delivers real results for those wishing to [...]
Inspirational Women – Sam Shaw – Chair of Morgan Stanley’s Womens Network
Sam Shaw is a Vice President in Technology and is also Chair of Morgan Stanley’s FirmwideWomen’s Network “Women’s First Choice”. Sam has been with Morgan Stanley since 2001, and in financial services since 1993.
Why did you take this career path and how did you get to where you are today?
I had two main criteria [...]
