Adam Smith Business School

Wednesday 30 October 2024, 5:30 pm - 8:00 pm

The Hothouse, Level 2, The Adam Smith Building, 2 Discovery Place, Glasgow

In celebration of Women Entrepreneurship Week 2024, the Adam Smith Business School is delighted to invite you to our event celebrating women entrepreneurs in Scotland on Wednesday 30th October. The Adam Smith Business School wishes to continue supporting this event and celebrate the progress we have made since the project began just over 10 years ago. 

Register on Eventbrite now

This is a fantastic opportunity to honour women entrepreneurs, and to connect, learn and empower!

We are delighted to welcome our panel members:

Evelyn McDonald, CEO of Scottish Edge

Evelyn McDonald is the CEO of Scottish EDGE, a competition aimed at identifying and supporting Scotland’s early-stage, innovative, high-growth potential, entrepreneurial talent.  Previously run by Scottish Enterprise for four rounds, Evelyn oversaw the spin out of the competition in Autumn 2014 to the private sector led Scottish EDGE C.I.C. The introduction of lending to the winners in Round 5 has created a revolving loan fund to support future applicants.  In addition, the small team of seven have introduced mentoring, alumni events, training and a business support package to winners as well as the innovative EDGE Pledge. 

Scottish EDGE has now invested over £26.5 million in 635 businesses including notable Scottish business success stories such as Ooni, Beer52, Amiqus, TV Squared, Current Health, Bella & Duke, Integrated Graphene and Appointedd.

Prior to joining Scottish EDGE, Evelyn had a long career at the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust, and latterly the Prince’s Trust, firstly in Operations and then running a Growth Fund which invested loans of up to £25,000 in businesses which had previously been supported by the Trust including BrewDog and Safehinge Primera in their very early stages. Evelyn is also the Chair of the Scottish Design Exchange, a social enterprise supporting creative talent, an assessor of the Small Business Charter Award and a member of the advisory board at the Smart Things Accelerator Centre

Gillian Fleming, CEO and co-founder of Mint Ventures

Gillian is a Strategic Advisor, Non-Exec Director and Angel Investor for start-up and spin-out companies. She has 25 years’ experience in the entrepreneurial ecosystem advising and nurturing early-stage ideas and projects to successfully transition through to company creation and raise investment.

She also has a wealth of venture capital deal expertise and as an experienced investor director.

Currently as an entrepreneur in residence at the University of Stirling she is delighted to be supporting more women to consider entrepreneurship as a career.

With a background in sales and marketing for the energy and engineering sector her breadth of expertise includes renewables, oil and gas, infrastructure, manufacturing, biotech, food & drink, digital marketplace including fin tech, civ tech, health and wellbeing tech.

On a mission to make angel investment more accessible to women both founders and potential investors, Gillian is Co – Founder, Director and CEO of Mint Ventures (Syndicate) Ltd, a women-led angel group focused on investing in women led and diverse teams with an environmental, ethical or social purpose.

Gillian is an Entrepreneurial Scotland Saltire Fellow, motivational speaker and judges for various accelerator programs and business competitions.

Jo Chidley, founder of Beauty Kitchen

Jo Chidley is a circular economy expert, chemist, herbal botanist, and founder of Beauty Kitchen and Reposit. I am obsessed by circular design, cradle to cradle principles & collective action through collaboration.

My passion for circular ingredient’s & packaging have always pushed Beauty Kitchen to the limit of what is possible for people & planet, there is so much to learn.
I have been championing a Reuse Revolution through active collaboration & innovation with some of the globes largest single use producers & users. Having previously launched an indie beauty brand called Beauty Kitchen which is 1 of the highest scoring BCorps, I’m co-chair of the BCorp Beauty Coalition & the Stakeholder advisory committee for Cradle to Cradle, being part of this collective action has been my proudest moment. This heritage was instrumental in developing the world’s first closed-loop solution for beauty packaging and has powered the service behind the ground-breaking Reposit programme. 

Susan Aktemel, director of Homes For Good

Susan started her career in adult education. In 1991 she committed to using her skills to help people improve their lives. From 1994-2012 she created and grew Impact Arts, now a leading, dynamic Scottish charity.

Susan then combined her property experience with her commitment to improving people’s lives to create Scotland’s first social enterprise letting agency, with the aim of changing the private rented sector for people who need homes most. Since 2014 she has raised over £20 million in social investment for Homes for Good, creating a portfolio of over 340 quality homes for people with limited housing choice.

In 2017 she received an Honorary Doctorate from Strathclyde University for achievements in Social Enterprise, and in 2019 was inducted into the Strathclyde Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs.   She was then awarded the inaugural Trinity College Social Innovation Prize at Judge Business School Cambridge. She was appointed as Visiting Professor in Social Entrepreneurship at the Hunter Centre, Strathclyde Business School in February 2020, and became a Senior Enterprise Fellow in January 21 at Strathclyde.

Susan is also an Entrepreneurial Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London, a and a commissioner on the Adebolwale Commission on social investment.

 

The panel will be chaired by our Head of School, Professor Eleanor Shaw.

Doors will open at 5:30pm prior to the official start at 6:00pm. There will be a panel session followed by refreshments and an opportunity to network with panel members and fellow attendees.

Key times:

17:30-Arrival and registration

18:00- Welcome

18:10- Panel discussion starts

18:40- Q&A

19:00- Networking and refreshments

20:00- Event ends

 

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Further information: business-events@glasgow.ac.uk 

First published: 17 October 2024