Abstract
More and more women are deciding to set up their own company. Statistics show that there are currently 8.3 million women-owned businesses in the US, and it is predicted in the next five years, over half of all small business job creation will come from women-owned businesses. In this session, we speak to successful female entrepreneurs from across the UK, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages for female entrepreneurs, as well as focusing on the implications for business culture.
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About the panel
Professor Sara Carter, OBE, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Head of the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Strathclyde
As well as Professor of Entrepreneurship, Sara is also a Visiting Professor at Nordland Research Institute, Norway. Sara’s research focuses extensively on entrepreneurship policy. Her work includes studies of gender; entrepreneurship & finance; and rewards and lifestyles within the entrepreneurial household. She was a member of the UK Government’s Women’s Enterprise Task Force (2007 – 2009); recipient of Prowess “Women’s Enterprise Researcher of the Year” Prize, and awarded OBE for services to women entrepreneurs in 2008. Sara is also Associate Director of the newly established Enterprise Research Centre (ERC), a high profile initiative, which aims to become the pre-eminent UK source for trusted, robust and independant commentary on SME research and policy. The ERC is a partnership between Warwick Business School, Aston Business School, Imperial College Business School and Strathclyde Business School, and is funded through ESRC, the UK government department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the British Bankers Association and the Technology Strategy Board.
Rowan Gardner, Founder and Chairmain, Bio Launcher Limited
Rowan is a Biochemistry graduate from Oxford. After graduating, Rowan joined one of the University’s spin outs – Oxford Molecular Group, which gave her a taste for high growth, high tech businesses. She opened up their US operations, participated in LSE main board listing and led the IR strategy as the company became the second best performing share on the London Stock Exchange, and grew via numerous acquisitions. Following a short period in Sweden, Rowan returned to the UK, and co-founded Synomics with recognised experts from CERN computing lab and the European Bioinformatics Institute. She helped raise 5.3 million capital to develop a service level architecture for life science data integration. Synomics and Oxford Molecular were brought by Accelrys. Rowan went onto co-found Biolauncher, to advise biotechnology and medical device businesses grow and attract capital. She has worked with over 20 university start ups, several international companies and the NHS to find mechanisms to create value and find investment. In 2007, Rowan recieved a telephone call from the Astia foundation to help launch their investor readiness programme in the UK. She chairs the life science advisory board in Europe, and is a member of the global life science cabinet which shares information to understand current investment trends in the US, Europe and India.
Gerlinde Gniewosz, CEO and Founder, KO-SU Limited
Gerlinde has over 13 years experience across a breadth of industries and countries. She was also the founder of Zuztertu, an innovative educational mobile apps and solutions development company, which originally developed the KO-SU prototype and acclaimed Pollock’s Toy Theatre app for the iPad (included on the Sunday Times app list for the past two years). Prior to Zuztertu, Gerlinde also worked for Yahoo!, forming and returning strategic projects. Her love of mobile technology was born during her time working for Orange UK. She has also had experience working as a strategic consultant in Germany and as a structured finance investment banker in Australia. Gerlinde holds a MBA from Harvard Business School and a Batchelor of Commerce (first class honors and university medal) from the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Nathalie Gaveau, CEO and Founder, Shopcade
Nathalie Gaveau is a serial entrepreneur, founder and CEO of social shopping platform, Shopcade. The company has its offices in London and New York, and is backed by business angels, including Carrefour’s – Daniel Bernard; Eidos’ – Ian Livingstone and the BBC’s Lord Birt. Prior to setting up Shopcade, Nathalie was co-founder of French eBay competitor, PriceMinister, which was subsequently sold to Rakuten for 200 million euros in 2010 and was noted as one of the biggest recent exits in consumer web in France. Shopcade’s application allows users to discover new products, create lists of items they want, and recieve deal alerts. Trends are made in real-time by users and their friends and followers. Shopcade is partnered with over 60 000 brands ranging from high street to unique designer brands. Since September 2012, Shopcade’s user base has grown 200% with downloads growing 40% each week since March.
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For further information, please contact entrepreneurship@imperial.ac.uk
This event is part of the Best Practice 6-part series. The series is organised by The Entrepreneurship Hub at Imperial College Business School and in supported by the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).