Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Women entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and studies on women’s employment journeys have significantly increased in recent years, highlighting their growing importance in the business world and in particular SME’s (small and medium enterprises).
Despite this progress, women face additional hurdles compared to their male counterparts, including challenges in accessing financing, balancing work with family responsibilities, overcoming organisational barriers, breaking silos and accessing opportunities to progress within their organisation.
Evidence suggests that women have huge potential to transform organisations and ability to exhibit remarkable resilience in overcoming adversity and successfully advancing their careers.
This phenomenon highlights the necessity of empowering, enabling and equipping women to overcome the barriers that women encounter while also recognising their ability to make a real difference to organisations and our communities.
Jordan Dargue, is a founder, investor, senior executive NED and seasoned investment expert. Her boundless passion for innovation, coupled with a remarkable track record of achievements, positions her within the realms of growth and investment.
Jordan's transformative influence is evident through her leadership in orchestrating multi-million equity-based investment rounds, cultivating award-winning investor networks, and offering unwavering support to thousands of SMEs on their journey toward expansion and investment.
Jordan is co-founder of Lifted Ventures. Lifted exists to increase the flow of early stage capital to female founders and promote the significant business benefits of backing women. The Lifted Ventures flywheel has an angel network at its core, alongside education, community and consultancy.
Previously Jordan was co-leader and board director of multi award winning NorthInvest, and in 2020 she co-founded Fund Her North and Women Angels of the North, a collective of women in VCs and angel investors who support female founders to get equal access to finance.
Rachel has spent 30 years driving commercial and company growth across sectors, primarily tech and software as a service, always for other people, as commercial director and also as CEO. The first 10 were in manufacturing, and the next 20 in tech and SaaS including machine learning and AI, and she now only works with people who make her smile, where they can work together and enjoy doing so. B2B still needs a focus on the C - if it doesn't work for the end user, then it won't work well for long; having worked this across a wide range of verticals, including loyalty, FMCG, proptech, ecommerce, gamification, steel and lingerie, Rachel has also seen that the values of generosity, expertise, transparency and decency apply everywhere and has used these to grow and scaled businesses, both from start up and those already with turnover. She has had significant experience with investors in VC, angel and some PE networks, believes in making introductions for mutual benefit and loves meeting new people and making connections. Curiosity, courage and coachability are the 3 main areas of her work; keep asking questions, avoid complacency and ask the questions you may not want to hear the answers to. Keep learning and you can be coached, and coach your own clients and colleagues. This is sales and growth, but maybe not as you know it.
Saskia Roskam is the co-founder of The Biskery. An award-winning bakery crafting personalised and branded biscuits that bring a touch of kindness to all your occasions.
She is driven by a mission to spread UK-wide appreciation one biscuit at a time. While proudly prioritising quality ingredients, eco-friendly packaging, and sustainability in every area.
At heart, The Biskery is committed to empowering working mothers by offering flexible, family-friendly employment - because making life a little sweeter is our business.
Danielle is a founder of Mexi Bean - a fast casual Mexican restaurant franchise and Kalm. - a luxury holistic wellness studio. She loves creating brands, launching new businesses and making ideas happen! When she’s not working, Danielle travels the world with her three children.
