Group Steering Committee
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Charlotte Vere, Chairman C-WISE
chairman@c-wise.org.uk Charlotte is a versatile and successful social entrepreneur and businesswoman with experience of the private, public and third sectors. Previously as CEO of Big White Wall, a socially responsible business, Charlotte led a team which developed an innovative way of providing mental health therapies online. Big White Wall has already helped 3,000 people with poor mental health and it won the 2009 Guardian Award for Innovation in Community Engagement. In 1989, fresh from a degree in Biochemical Engineering, Charlotte started her working life in finance. Over 10 years, she forged a successful career structuring working on large mergers and acquisitions with board level executives. Charlotte has also completed an MBA at a world-class business school. www.charlottevere.com Follow Charlotte on Twitter |
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Niki Molnar, Deputy Chairman CWO & Secretary C-WISE
secretary@c-wise.org.uk Niki's career started unexpectedly after leaving Wycombe Abbey when she took the reins of her Fathers engineering company when he suddenly became ill. Deciding not to remain in the role after he passed away, Niki moved into the motor racing world and worked in F3, F3000 and F1 involved with race organisation, operations, hospitality, marketing and PR. Niki found the Internet (such as it was) in 1993. It was a relatively lonely place at the time as she only knew one other person with an email address. After moving to Antibes, Niki's first job in IT was European Marketing Manager for an American networking company based at Sophia Antipolis. After a couple of years she moved back home full-time to Surrey after accepting the role of Director of International Marketing for a software company. It was here that Niki found the limitless possibilities of using websites to market a company. Niki started her own Internet Consultancy in 2001. Niki was co-opted to the CWO Executive in 2006 and in March 2008 she was elected as a Deputy Chairman. In her spare time, Niki is finally studying for a Law Degree. www.nm-consulting.co.uk Follow Niki on Twitter Follow C-WISE on Twitter |
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Katy Bourne, Membership Officer C-WISE
membership@c-wise.org.uk Katy has been described as a 'serial business builder' having had either direct ownership or indirect interests in the success of organisations. Katy's first business was a chain of children's after-school fitness clubs which she set up and ran for six years. Her second venture was to build a leisure/dance company. It grew to become the second largest in the UK over 8 years and was successfully sold to the main competitor who was seeking to consolidate their position in the market. Katy's third enterprise is advising start-up renewable energy companies, introducing potential investors to early stage green-tech businesses. She currently has an active advisory mandate with two 'cleantech' companies - one a vertical wind turbine manufacturer, the other an electrical cycle and vehicle re-charging unit manufacturer. Another aspect of her business has been to obtain venture capital funding to set up a TV channel with OFCOM licence and Sky network launch date. This involved considerably more detailed planning due to the financial complexities and regulatory requirements of broadcasting and she is currently in talks with a potential City sponsor to host this channel on a B2B network. www.katybourne.com |
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Sophie de Schwarzburg-Gunther, Sponsorship Officer C-WISE
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. Follow Sophie on Twitter |
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Shazia Awan
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 Follow Shazia on Twitter |
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Angela Jones-Evans
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 |
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Jo Gideon
Jo has run her own businesses for over 15 years and her company, The Knowledge Hive, provides mentoring to budding entrepreneurs and support to young companies as well as brokering business opportunities. A graduate of Birmingham University, Jo lived and worked in Germany, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait before settling in the UK and brings a pioneering mentality to the world of business! Jo's first business, Papeterie, was an importer and distributor of handmade papers. In the ten years from 1991, Jo's company supplied an impressive 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 courses for hundreds of small business owners. Her team won an International Information Industry award in 2005. Jo's passion for enterprise has shaped her focus as a district councillor in East Kent since 2003. As chairman of a local board, Jo has been involved in commissioning innovative projects and apprenticeships. Jo was on the parliamentary candidates' priority list prior to the 2010 election. Jo is currently working on a really exciting project. She is the business expert assigned to a tiny Welsh village in the Brecon Beacons as part of a BIG Lottery/BBC 1 series called Village SOS (due to be aired in Spring 2011). It will feature a nationwide learning campaign about rural regeneration in the coming year and Jo plans to put Myddfai on the map! Follow her progress on www.myddfai.com. www.theknowledgehive.com |
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Jane Gould
After studying singing and flute at the Royal College of Music, Jane Gould 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 |
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Helene Martin Gee
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 adviser to 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 Follow Helene on Twitter |