The European Professional Women’s Network (EPWN) along with the INSEAD Women’s Network is holding this interactive panel discussion. Join us if you are running your own company, planning to create your own business or just curious to learn how successful women entrepreneurs have done it. Join us if you hold a corporate role that requires innovation, creativity and Intrapreneurship.
Our panel features 6 successful women entrepreneurs at different stages in their business:
Alice Avis (MBA 88D) Chairman, Sanctuary Spa Holdings.
Alice joined Sanctuary Spa as a Non Executive Director in 2001 when the business was
failing. Under her guidance, Sanctuary became one of London’s leading spas, and the
Sanctuary Spa range the second best selling beauty brand in Boots. In 2005, Alice
became CEO, leading a £23m deal to buy back the license for the Spa products and
refinance the business, which was sold to PZ Cussons for £75m.
Dena McCallum (MBA 92J) Co-Founder, Eden McCallum, the leading firm of independent consultants. Founded in 2000, the firm has served over 200 clients on more than 700 projects through its pool of 400 consultants. Eden McCallum was recently recognised as one of
Britain’s fastest growing private companies in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 and Harvard Business School has published a case on its innovative business model.
Julie Meyer (MBA 97D) Founder & CEO, Ariadne Capital Ltd.
With over 20 years investment and advisory experience helping start-up businesses, Julie is the founder & CEO of Ariadne Capital, founder of Entrepreneur Country and co-founder of First Tuesday, which was sold for $50million in July 2000. She is also a dragon on BBC’s Online Dragons Den and is among the Wall Street Journal’s Top 30 Most Influential Women in Europe.
Marcelle Speller (MBA 82J) Founder and CEO, Localgiving.com
Marcelle began her career in advertising and then marketing with blue chip companies
including American Express and Heineken. In 1996 she co-founded Holiday-
Rentals.com, Europe’s leading website for advertising private holiday homes. After selling
the company in 2005, Marcelle set up Localgiving.com, described by The Policy Exchange
as ‘a unique and significant step forward in the use of the web for philanthropy.’
Margaret Heffernan, after five years at BBC Radio, Margaret ran the IPPA, representing
the interests of film and TV producers. She then joined CMGI in the US as a VC investor.
She has published ‘The Naked Truth: A Working Woman’s Manifesto on Business’ – one
of the best career books of 2004; and ‘How Does She Do It?’ – a ‘must read’ for female
entrepreneurs. Margaret writes for Reader’s Digest and Real Business magazine. She is
Professor of Entrepreneurship at Simmons College, Boston and Bath University.
Ila Panik, Founder and CEO of U4U Limited, a social enterprise with the mission
to develop leadership ability in girls aged 11-18. Ila began her career in corporate social
responsibility with Future Considerations where she was Business Development
Manager, Carbon Solutions. She holds an MBA from London Business School and has
recently won first prize in the FreshIdeas award for Business with a Social Conscience.