Today marks International Women’s Day, a fitting occasion to announce the 2023 finalists for the Bold Woman Award and Bold Future Award. Created by the renowned champagne brand Veuve Clicquot, these awards reflect women’s creativity and innovation for entrepreneurial success. Madame Clicquot took the reins of the champagne House after her husband’s death, despite the social restraints determined to hold her back.
The Bold Woman Award has been running since 1972, making it the first and longest-running international accolade for female business leaders. The award has honoured some of the most notable businesswomen in the UK, including Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID vaccine inventor, Jo Whitfield, CEO of Co-Op Food, and renowned architect Dame Zaha Hadid.
The 2023 awards focus on female founders who found new ways to innovate the fashion, finance, investment, and manufacturing industries. Each finalist is assessed through four key areas: “successfully reinventing traditions, demonstrating entrepreneurial daring, championing better representation of female leaders and maintaining an ethical approach to business”
The Bold Woman Award finalists are:
Tessa Clarke – the co-founder and CEO of OLIO food-sharing platform, which now has over five million users and saved 25 million portions of food from becoming waste.
Louise Hill – Louise co-founded Gohenry, after witnessing a friend’s child purchase a real truck instead of a toy one with their parent’s credit card. The prepaid debit card and financial education app is designed to teach kids and teens how to be smart with money, which has raised over $55 million in venture capital funding and attracted over two million active users.
Clare Hornby – Clare has seen rapid success with her fashion brand ME+EM. Since childhood, she has been inspired by fashion by making her own clothes and selling second-hand Italian shoes in an Oldham stall. Since then, the brand has expanded to six boutiques, 120 employees, and raised £55 million from investors.
The Bold Future Award recognises female leaders and entrepreneurs of the future. The finalists are:
Izzy Obeng – Izzy founded the non-profit Foundervine, which seeks to eliminate social and financial barriers to propel innovative ventures. Since supporting 5,000 diverse-led business endeavours since 2018, Foundervine has substantially impacted the industry.
Victoria Prew – Founder and CEO of fashion rental service Hurr, Victoria has raised over £4 million in funding and secured partnerships with Selfridges and Mulberry.
Karen Scofield Seal – Spinning seaweed threads into gold, Karen develops seaweed-based products as co-founder and CEO of Oceanium. With products designed to combat the global climate crisis, Oceanium has raised over $7.5 million in funding in its beginning entrepreneurial stages.
This year’s judges consist of industry titans and experts, including Kristina Blahnik, CEO of Manolo Blahnik; Pip Jamieson, founder of The Dots; Sian Westerman, co-chair at British Fashion Council Trust; and Naomi Kerbel, former global head of TV and radio at Bloomberg.
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on 31 May 2023.
To discover more, visit: veuveclicquot.com
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All imagery courtesy of Veuve Clicquot.