National Women's Enterprise Day Speakers
The National Women's Enterprise Day on Friday 20th November has a star studded line up of speakers including Jo Fairley founder of Green & Black, Rita Shah founder of Shabra Plastics and digital marketing and social media guru Krishna De.
Jo Fairley
In 1991, Jo Fairley co-founded the pioneering organic chocolate company Green & Black’s (with her husband Craig Sams), which has now gone on to be ‘bigger than Marmite’ (in sales terms) and ‘cooler than Prada’ (according to two Coolbrands surveys. In 2005, the brand was sold to Cadbury’s, but Jo remains in an ambassadorial role, travelling the world as the brand grows internationally in countries including the US and Australia. In 2008 Jo and her husband Craig Sams collaborated on Sweet Dreams: The Story of Green & Black’s (Random House).
Jo now runs Judges Bakery - an organic one-stop shop - and The Wellington Centre, an 11-room ‘boutique’ wellbeing centre, in her home town of Hastings. She continues to juggle this with her writing career: although she left school at 16 (with six ‘O’ Levels), by the age of 23 Jo was the youngest-ever magazine editor in the UK, editing first Look Now and then Honey Magazine. She is a Contributing Editor to the Mail on Sunday’s YOU Magazine, as well as to a very wide range of publications including the forthcoming National Geographic Green.
She is the co-author (with Sarah Stacey) of the bestselling Beauty Bible series of books, the world’s bestselling beauty books, including: The Beauty Bible, Feel Fab Forever: The Anti-Ageing Health & Beauty Bible, The 21st Century Beauty Bible, The Handbag Beauty Bible and most recently The Green Beauty Bible, which combines her ‘green’ expertise with her insights into the beauty world. She is also author of The Ultimate Natural Beauty Book (all these books published by Kyle Cathie). Jo and Sarah’s website, www.beautybible.com, is among the most successful beauty websites in the UK, with 55,000 subscribers.
For eight years Jo chaired the Soil Association’s Health Products Standards Committee, helping to set the standards for organic and natural bodycare in the UK. She is a ‘matron’ of the Women’s Environmental Network, runs makeover workshops for young women at Centrepoint and sits on the Human Rights Watch Film Festival committee.
Rita Shah
Rita Shah, Kenya born, has won many awards since she set up Shabra Plastics/ Recycling with a business partner twenty years ago. Recent accolades is include being voted the overall winner of the Permanent TSB Ethnic Entrepreneur of the year award 2006 and the Women Mean Business HP Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2009. The Monaghan-based business recycles and manufactures plastic bags and sacks and is the leading reprocessor of plastic waste, post consumer bottles and plastic film in Ireland. In addition to winning the overall prize, Rita was selected as the Technology Entrepreneur of the Year. Rita brings a wide range of interests and experience as a lead entrepreneur, in particular in the areas of manufacturing and envrionment. More information about Rita Shah
Krishna De
Krishna De (http://www.krishnade.com) is an award winning brand engagement, digital marketing and social media author, mentor, professional speaker and commentator and her expertise in digital influence, social media and communications is featured in several books including World Wide Rave, published by Wiley in 2009, and The Career Doctor: How to Get and Keep the Job You Want published by the Currach Press, 2009.
She was recently appointed as an Ambassador of Female Entrepreneurship in Ireland for the Enterprise Europe Network supported by the European Commission.