chairman@c-wise.org.uk

Jo has been a serial entrepreneur  for over 20 years. Her company, The Knowledge Hive, provides mentoring and leadership training to CEOs of social enterprises and budding entrepreneurs, as well as support to young companies. Through her networks, Jo enjoys brokering business opportunities and taking on new challenges!  Most recently she featured as a Business Champion on the BIG Lottery/BBC1 series on rural regeneration, Village SOS, where she established a social enterprise in a tiny Welsh village and created the Myddfai brand.

A graduate of Birmingham University, Jo lived and worked in Germany, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait before settling in the UK and brings lateral thinking the world of small business!

Her first business, Papeterie,  set up with a £60 a week Enterprise Grant, imported handmade and decorative papers from around the world. In the ten years from 1991, Jo’s company supplied a wide range of businesses from small crafters to international manufacturers. Jo moved to Kent in 2002 and spent four years as Head of Enterprise at Canterbury Christ Church University, creating innovative knowledge management workshops for hundreds of small business owners. Her team won an International Information Industry award in 2005.

A mother of three, Jo’s mission is to share her passion for enterprise, matched by her desire for women to achieve greater equality of opportunity and access to markets and career options. C-WiSE was created to address these issues.

www.theknowledgehive.com

niki@conservativewomen.org.uk

Niki was elected Chairman of the Conservative Women’s Organisation in 2011, after three years as Deputy Chairman.

She is a web developer and Internet marketeer by day.

www.nm-consulting.co.uk

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sponsorship@c-wise.org.uk

Sophie is the founder and MD of Sophie Gunther Ltd, providing business development, membership, sponsorship, events and marketing services for a variety of clients, involving daily engagement with international corporations, senior government officials, thought leaders, charities, and NGOs. She has twenty years professional expertise working across the full marketing spectrum, from building market leader brands such as Pantene, Duracell and Shell, via advertising, branding and digital media, to delivering the inaugural G’dayUK for the Australian State Governments, Qantas, Tourism Australia and Austrade. She is a London-based businesswoman with a global perspective, having worked in New York as well as London, with a valued and ever growing international network.

Sophie has played a key role as a volunteer activist and fundraiser for the Conservative Party over the past decade. Formal positions have included 8 years as Secretary for Holland Ward in the Kensington & Chelsea Conservative Association, 4 years as the Chairman of Fastrack donor club, Committee member of Team 2000, founding Committee member of the Conservative Friends of Poland, Chairman of the Kensington, Chelsea, Fulham & Hammersmith Conservative Association Ball 2007, and Chairman of the Blue Ribbon Dinner 2008 in support of the Conservative Women’s Organisation. Sophie currently serves as Sponsorship Officer on the Steering Committee of the newly launched CWO CWISE group.

Sophie also regularly serves on committees in support of various charities and foundations including, most recently, those supporting the 2010 MacMillan Cancer House of Commons/Lords Tug of War and the British Foreign Legion 2010 Poppy Ball.

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Shazia has successfully worked as a PR consultant since graduating from Cardiff University with a Masters in International Relations. She has managed national and international PR campaigns for an array of household names.

Shazia is Managing Director of Peachy Pink, a global cosmetic textiles firm that specialises in producing ladies underwear. Her company has fast become a household name as she supplies her products to two of Britains biggest Department store chains, Debenhams and House of Fraser. Peachy Pink is set to distribute to retailers across the globe over the next year and Shazia was recently named Asian Entrepreneur of the year and presented with her award by Home Secretary Theresa May.

Shazia was born and educated in South Wales and made political history as the first Asian woman to address a Welsh Conservative Party conference. She has also previously stood as a council candidate and was the Parliamentary Candidate for Leigh in the General Election.

Shazia was part of the team of twenty from the party that took part in Project Maja, the Conservatives international social action project in Bosnia. The project saw the team build a house for a refugee family, refurbish a classroom in a local school and turn it into an IT Suite and construct a football pitch. She has always been actively involved in work in the community and was recently handpicked by the American Government to take part in a programme on community activism in Washington DC.

www.peachy-pink.com

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Angela was born and brought up in Newport, South Wales. She has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, a Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Development from the University of Northumbria and a PhD in Information Studies from Sheffield University. Since completing her PhD she has had a varied career, including a senior lectureship in Information and Library Management at the University of Northumbria, Head of Library Division at UWIC and Deputy Regional Director of the Open University in Wales. Angela is currently owner and director of her own research and training business, Enlli Associates Ltd (since January 2006).

Angela is the Welsh Conservative Candidate for the Vale of Glamorgan Assembly seat. This is the number one target seat for the Conservatives in the forthcoming Welsh Assembly elections to be held in May 2011. She was the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for the neighbouring constituency of Cardiff West in the 2010 General Election, achieving a 5.3 per cent swing and halving Labour’s majority.

Angela is the Wales Chair of the Conservative Women’s Organisation. She is a member of the Wales executive committee of CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. She is also a warranted Guide leader. In her spare time, Angela supports her son who plays rugby for his local team; she enjoys going to occasional pub quizzes when time allows

After studying singing and flute at the Royal College of Music, Jane forged her business career as a sales professional in Financial Services and Engineering.

During her time with Scottish Amicable, she worked with a range of start-up businesses in the UK and Europe. More recently, Jane co-founded Global Inkjet Systems, part of Cambridge’s internationally renowned Industrial Inkjet cluster, and as Director of Sales, helped to develop the international distribution network. Jane now works in the voluntary sector as Job Club Leader and Development Director for GB Job Clubs. She chairs Dorset and Wiltshire’s European Funding programme through the Local Action Group “Sowing SEEDS”. She is a member of the Parliamentary Candidates’ List and accredited speaker on climate change.

As Board member on Total Place exploring improved service delivery for older people and Founder Chairman of Shaftesbury 50+ Forum, she is an authority on age-related issues.

Jane’s style is to find common ground on which to build campaigns and relationships. She believes in a State which encourages and enables grass-roots community involvement, practical action and common sense. (As Bob Walter MP says “Jane’s ability to get things done is second to none”.)

Married with an adult daughter, Jane was a working single parent and knows the realities of life.

In her elusive spare time, Jane is a keen golfer, teaches and plays flute in a Church band, and makes cakes. She is also a qualified riding instructor.

www.gbjobclubs.org

Helene is Founder and CEO of leading women’s network Pink Shoe Club, with its Enterprise Forum and Annual Enterprise Summit & Debate. She sits on the Entrepreneurship Advisory Board for the Technology Strategy Board; and on the Advisory Board for the Institute for Creative & Cultural Enterprise (ICCE) at Goldsmiths, London University.

Helene is also a senior Parliamentary Adviser, including the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Entrepreneurship, which she helped establish; as well as a Non-Executive Director and media commentator.

Previously Chief of Staff and Special Adviser to The Lord Ahmed, and before that to The Lord Taylor of Warwick, she has worked at the centre of Government for over 12 years, She was a founding member of Conservative Business Relations, SE & Greater London; member of the Government think tank on small business; and a contributor to the Schwab Foundation report on social enterprise.

As Head of Diversity and Government Relations for Hays plc, in 2006 Helene created the Hays Executive Inclusion Network and Leadership Programme; and she was previously an adviser to the Shadow Cabinet on diversity. Helene is also an adviserto Tessa Sanderson CBE, and helped set up the Tessa Sanderson Youth Academy, training young people for the 2012 Olympic games.

A serial entrepreneur, in 2005 Helene established ‘Eat:Fit’ a social enterprise providing healthy snacks to over 200 UK schools. She has won several awards, including the RSA T-Mobile Award and a Kids Taskforce Award; and has been a judge at the National Business Awards for 5 years, including ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’.

www.pinkshoeclub.com

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