Inspirational Women in Business to Celebrate International Women’s Day
Tuesday 8th March is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate women's achievements and to take action for equality. With this blog, I thought I would take some time to get into the spirit of the day and celebrate some of the most inspirational women in business.
The theme for IWD 2022 is Break the Bias. There are a host of events and activities planned to help people challenge bias against women, address stereotypes and stamp out discrimination. It is all about the imbalance of power that remains in society today, and that is very much the case in many aspects of the business world. This is why it is so important to me to highlight the success of amazing women who have managed to fight against those restrictions and blaze a trail.
So here are some inspirational women in business:
Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE
Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE is a tech titan, who boasts many years of experience at some of the biggest businesses around, including Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard and Deutsche Bank. But corporate success is not her only driving force. Dr Imafidon co-founded and became the CEO of Stemettes in 2013. This social enterprise encourages young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). The organisation is credited with helping 50,000 girls across Europe become involved with these essential, traditionally male-heavy fields.
Not only did Dr Imafidon become the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing, at the age of 11, but she also received her Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford at 20. In 2020 she was named the most influential woman in UK tech and she has even become the new presenter of TV gameshow Countdown recently. How is that for a varied career?
Sharmadean Reid MBE
Sharmadean Reid MBE opened her first WAH nail salon in 2009, creating a place for women to “hang out, form friendships and build communities." Within a year, she opened concessions in branches of Topshop and Harvey Nichols
In 2017, she founded Beautystack, a cross between social networking and a booking system for independent beauty businesses. Sharmadean managed to raise more than £1 million in seed funding to launch this innovative and successful concept. The next step was to create The Stack, which is a female-led media organisation that Reid says will “level-up the fortunes and wellbeing of women as we embark on a new era of unapologetic female-led revolution.”
Sharmadean also created Future Girl Corp, a business boot camp for women entrepreneurs.
Yvonne Bajela
Yvonne Bajela’s background is in investments, having been the youngest investment manager at Mitsui & Co before going on to lead more than $200 million in investments. However, Bajela was not satisfied with the way the investment world worked and decided to make the change she wanted to see.
Bajela founded Impact X Capital, a UK based venture capital fund that invests in companies led by underrepresented business leaders, particularly black and female entrepreneurs. She also gives regular workshops on how to scale start-ups for women in leadership.
Your Favourite Inspirational Women in Business
Who are your favourite inspirational women in business? Who do you look up to? Contact me and let me know. I'd love to hear about them, whether they are already famous or someone from your family or community who is doing great things.