As part of our coverage of International Women's Day, we take a look at some of the women from across the 海角视频 who are making their mark on their respective industries.
Our 46-strong list reflects this year's theme of #ChooseToChallenge and showcases women from England, Scotland and Wales who have overcome individual challenges to get where they are today - and are playing a key part in challenging gender stereotypes.
BusinessLive is running a series of articles to mark this year's event - from this comment on why International Women's Day still matters to our profiles of all .
Have we left someone out of our Rising Stars? Why not let us know in the comments section
In alphabetical order they are:
Yvonne Bajela
Yvonne is a founder and principal of 海角视频-based venture capital firm Impact X Capital Partners that invests in companies led by underrepresented founders at the seed and Series A stages.
She set up her company in 2019 and was last year named by Forbes as one of 30 entrepreneurs under 30 in finance after investing more than $200m in various startups across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
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She is also a committee member of the London Chamber of Commerce, sits on a number of other boards and is a guest lecturer at City University in London. She is also an advocate for “female empowerment”.
Lesley Beach and Bernadette Spofforth
The entrepreneurial duo behind Splash About International bought a brand with a strong USP for helping infants swim and keeping pools safe with the watertight Happy Nappy.
Lesley arrived from a food manufacturing accounts background, yearning for her own business, while Bernadette brought sales and marketing to the fore. They aim to add further acquisitions when the world gets back to getting wet.
Now global, Amazon, Boots, JoJo Maman Bebe, Sainsbury’s and US retail icon Macy’s all stock it and new products brought to the fore.
The past year has also seen the company buy a business with more mature lines, as well as an open door to the leisure and holiday park markets.
Before the pandemic, the business brought all its pick and pack operations in-house in North East Lincolnshire, while December saw it bestowed with a fourth consecutive Mother & Baby Awards title.
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Lucy Bramley
Fashion entrepreneur Lucy Bramley has been busy making waves in the fashion industry after launching her brand Ruched and Ready.
Her brand is designed to flatter women of all shapes and sizes, and has generated following from fashion influencers, celebrities and stylists.
It came after Liverpool-based Ms Bramley said she struggled for years to find dresses to suit her own curvy body shape.
Lucy, 26, is "taking Instagram by storm", and celebrity fans include Love Island’s Stephanie Lam and YouTube star Rachel Leary, as well as influencers Dabz, Melissa Sophia and Jess Flanagan, who have all been seen wearing dresses from the label.
Designed and produced in the 海角视频 from high quality materials including velvet and stretch fabric, each piece has a name such as ‘You Got It Girl’ and ‘Own It’, reflecting the brand’s mission to inspire body confidence in all women.
Jordan Brompton
The high energy co-founder of award-winning micro generation specialist Myenergi puts the spark in the electric vehicle charging sector.
It has raced onto the scene in an electrifying five year spell, from Jordan and inventor Lee Sutton to a 140-strong team and the emergence of a new statement headquarters by the Energy Estuary on the outskirts of Grimsby.
The charismatic sales specialist has brought in high profile figures including Charley Boorman and Robert Llewellyn to push the products and the EV sector at large, while also becoming a mum and penning a children’s book.
Helen Burkinshaw
Having graduated with a Distinction MA in HR Management in 2019, Helen Burkinshaw, 26, is already making her mark in the world of small business policy, inclusion and growth.
Throughout 2020 Helen has taken a leading role in The Women’s Organisation’s research and lobbying around COVID support measures for women and struggling businesses, having authored the organisation’s key report ‘Rethinking the Economy for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future’.
She also led the 海角视频’s Women’s Enterprise Policy Group’s research activity around their Framework of Policy Actions to Build Back Better for Women’s Enterprise.
The Women’s Organisation have seen significant changes in support following their lobbying work across the last year, particularly around disparities in financial support for female entrepreneurs having taken maternity leave ahead of COVID 19 and businesses in shared office space being excluded from rate relief, with Helen taking a leading role in these campaigns.
Hannah Chapman
Young entrepreneur Hannah, 25, is the founder of multi-million pound wax melt and candle business Ava May Aromas - which she set up from her parents’ kitchen table with no financial help or backing.
Her dad tried to persuade her to get a job. Two years on, she employs more than 20 people at the Andover, Hampshire-based business and has sold more than half a billion wax melts - and her dad is now her full-time business partner.
On her website, Hannah said: "The entrepreneurial journey has had many ups and downs but I can honestly say it has all been worth it. I am so excited to see what the future holds."
Lucy Cohen and Sophie Hughes
Lucy Cohen grew up in a family of self-employed creatives, and while she saw they were fantastic at what they did they were not so great with the tax and accounts side of their businesses.
At 23 she saw a gap in the market for a low cost, subscription-based accountancy service. Customers would send her their information in a purple envelope.
Lucy told Sophie Hughes, a former school friend and another newly qualified accountant, about her idea and she was onboard.
Fifteen years later and the Bridgend-based Mazuma is no longer just the purple envelopes, it has its own app, online platform and proprietary technology that is specially designed for Mazuma’s market.
By 2023 they are forecast to have over 10,000 subscribers as well as an extensive reach across the industry.
Joelle Drummond and Sarah McNena
Founded in Mumbles in 2019, Drop Bear Beer Company had the aim to ‘disrupt’ the traditional view of the non-alcoholic beer market.
The brewery, which was started by Sarah McNena, from Melbourne, and Swansea-native Joelle Drummond, produces 100% natural beverages that are below 0.5% ABV, vegan-friendly, low calorie, low sugar, and additive-free.
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In the short time they have been producing the company has already scooped several industry awards, including international recognition at the World Beer Awards where its Yuzu Pale Ale took bronze, plus a Great Taste award for its Tropical IPA.
Earlier this year they secured a £1.5m equity investment from former Admiral chief executive Henry Engelhardt. The company is now are now assessing possible locations in South Wales for a brewery, which could eventually scale up to 20,000 sq ft, with the aim of starting production in October this year.
Teri Ellington
Teri, of Ingleby Barwick, started out with just a laptop and £80 in cash and slept on the sofa for six months.
Jump forward just over two years and the 24-year-old is a successful jewellery entrepreneur and owner of Elllington Timepiece.
Her designer watches sell all over the world, and the young entrepreneur also speaks openly about the crippling anxiety and agoraphobia that kept her housebound for months.
As well as growing the business, buying out investors two years early, she helped to inspire youngsters in New York.
Jenny Emslie
Emslie quit studying politics and sociology after just a year at Edinburgh university to pursue a career in marketing, working for clients including Virgin Media and NSPCC.
She set up Sunshine Communications in 2015, Scotland’s first 24/7 social media agency. Over the last five years it has grown at 200% a year and she employs 14 people looking after clients including Edinburgh Airport, Alton Towers, Macsween Haggis, Quality Meat Scotland and Edinburgh Leisure.
Her biggest inspiration has been her father Donald Emslie, former chief executive at SMG Television.
Rachael Flanagan
Rachael Flanagan could not afford a vacuum cleaner and spent her last £20 on flyers to launch her cleaning firm shortly after failing her business studies A level.
Within three years she was named the Great British Entrepreneur Awards Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Mrs Bucket recently celebrated its 15-year anniversary and the businesses has a multi-million pound turnover, with plans to expand.
Last month Ms Flanagan announced the business is creating 150 new jobs as it embarks on its latest growth phase. At the end of 2020 Mrs Bucket had around 250 employees.
The Swansea headquartered business, which has clients across South Wales and the south west of England, is experiencing growing demand for its cleaning and decontamination services in response to the continued threat of Covid-19.
Darina Garland
Darina and her husband Kristian Tapaninaho were running their own education events consultancy, Suklaa, when Finland-born Tapaninaho changed their lives by inventing an affordable small wood fired pizza oven in his back garden.
He launched it on global crowdfunding website, Kickstarter, to see if anyone else wanted one and to raise some money to take it into production.
The campaign was a success and Broxburn-based Ooni Pizza Ovens was brought to life by its backers at the end of 2012. Over the last three years it has grown at an average of 105% with sales to over 100 countries and today employs 89 staff. One of Garland’s biggest inspirations has been former US President Barack Obama. So she contacted him and now he has an Ooni.
Rachael Gent
Experienced property lawyer Rachael Gent launched her own practice - Gent Law - in 2020, after clocking up 14 years in the industry.
Rachael, who lives in Staffordshire, started out working in the admin department at a law firm in 2006 and went on to become a qualified solicitor in 2013.
In the last 12 months Gent Law, which is based in Trentham, Stoke-on-Trent, has grown from a team of two to a team of seven.
It is a specialist property law firm which offers a range of services to help clients buy and sell properties, including sales and purchases, remortgages, equity release and shared ownership.
Karen Hewitt
When Karen Hewitt’s two young children started growing out of their clothes, she began selling them online. She and husband Stephen soon noticed those featuring characters sold particularly well, which led them to start their own company, Character.com, from a garage in a quiet part of Gower.
It has now evolved into one of the fastest growing business in the 海角视频, and has licenses for more than 130 different brands, with a product range from Peppa Pig to Paw Patrol, Star Wars to Harry Potter, and plenty of Disney superstars.
Sara Hill
One of many bright lights in the South West’s burgeoning tech sector, Exeter entrepreneur Sara Hill founded HRtech platform Role Mapper in 2019.
The platform allows companies to design and manage more inclusive job descriptions, helps businesses to reach and retain talent they may miss and streamlines administration surrounding the recruitment process. It aims to encourage the hiring of a diverse workforce and allow employees’ more flexibility around work commitments if required.
Role Mapper was chosen by Tech Nation as one of its 10 ‘Rising Star’ early stage scale-up companies at the forefront of technology across the 海角视频.
Shamila Iqbal
Young entrepreneur Shamila Iqbal followed in her father’s footsteps when she launched her own company last year.
Shamila established bathroom business Bathroom Mountain with her business partner Jay O’Neill in September 2020, selling everything from baths, sinks and showers to radiator, taps and accessories such as cabinets and mirrors.
At first, the pair were running the company between them, answering phones, picking and packing.
But just six months on, the company – which is based right next door to Shamila’s father Mo Iqbal’s successful Tile Mountain business – employs more than 20 staff at a 90,000 sq ft warehouse in Stoke-on-Trent.
Work is ongoing to create a showroom at the company headquarters as part of future growth plans.
Kalkidan Lagesse
Kalkidan is behind the slow fashion brand Sancho's in Fore Street, Exeter and is a campaigner for fair, transparent trading.
Her latest concept is Shwap, an online platform to sell and buy pre-loved sustainable fashion.
She explained in an that businesses operated by black women and other marginalised groups “naturally lift up” those below them economically.
She said: "I have met so many wonderful people, women in particular, who are creators, who have stories to tell and dances to share and I have realised that those situations in my life that I have found to be uncomfortable, they have also found uncomfortable and that is incredibly validating."
Ishani Malhotra
Multi-award winning stem cell research specialist Ishani set up Carcinotech in 2018 to capitalise on the technology she invented for rapid cancer drug testing.
She has established a partnership with bioprinting company Cellink to research treatments for brain tumours and breast cancer. Carcinotech, based at Roslin Innovation Centre near Edinburgh, uses bioinks to print microscopic 3D models of cancer cells which can be used to test potential treatments.
She has already been recognised as a Rising Star by Life Sciences Scotland in 2019, and is part of the Unlocking Ambition Scotland Can Do cohort of 2020/21.
Hannah Matterson
The CEO of development agency Generator took up the role last February, and has steered the music, digital creative and tech organisation through a very testing year.
The agency provides support to people from very different backgrounds, from musicians to software SMEs, and Hannah has a wealth of experience in the industry which has helped Generator to adapt in the pandemic to help its 500-plus members.
She previously worked at roles at Sage Gateshead, Sunderland Culture and MAC Trust, where she has focused on partnership development across all of the creative industries to drive forward the economic development of the North East, but is now putting all her energy into providing a voice, as well as support, to the North East’s creative workers.
Sophie Milliken
Sophie is currently the managing director of Newcastle based graduate recruitment and employability consultancy, SRS, which is the 海角视频’s leading provider of assessment-centre simulations for universities and has trained more than 30,000 students at these events.
It supports employers with the design and delivery of everything to do with graduates and apprentices, and universities to ensure students effectively showcase their talents to employers.
She was recently appointed as chair of charity Smart Works Newcastle, which helps unemployed women get back to work in the North East.
Martine Moore
Setting up a business as a new parent and then finding yourself in a global pandemic is enough to test any person’s confidence – but Martine Moore’s fledgling business outsourcing company, 6tine, is flying.
Martine, from Leigh, attributes her remarkable progress to a cutting-edge mentoring package, Excelerate Labs, provided by local business support experts The Women’s Organisation.
Joining the business growth programme saw Martine set a course for driving the business forward, starting first with building her own confidence.
Across 2020 Martine has already expanded her team, moved from the business starting home in her spare bedroom in Wigan to impressive city centre offices and is looking to recruit more staff in 2021 having expanded her client base and seen an increase in turnover.
Kim Mountford
Ambitious Kim Mountford took a leap of faith in 2017 when she combined her expertise in architecture and construction to launch her own architectural practice, MODE Architects.
The company started off in a small office in Stoke-on-Trent to provide a ‘one-stop shop’ for clients before relocating to a bigger premises in Newcastle-under-Lyme and employing its first employee in 2018.
Now Kim is spearheading plans to transform a three-storey office space in the city centre into a new base for MODE Architects.
The company will use the top floor of the Piccadilly building while the other two storeys will be transformed into offices for like-minded tenants who are also looking to relocate.
Kim is also a trustee of regeneration charity Urban Vision North Staffordshire which works to preserve historic buildings.
Zara Nanu
The Bristol-based gender analyst and social entrepreneur set up her software company in 2015 to help businesses comply with gender pay gap regulations.
Before that she worked in the charity sector for about a decade focusing on women’s rights, including trafficking in human beings and exploitation, education, employment.
Zara set up Gapsquare after realising there was inequality of economic rights and a divide between the charity sector and business.
“We have developed software that helps companies comply with regulations automatically but also gets them insights into why they have the gap and how they can address it quicker,” she said.
“Women working together to support each other’s work is what will help shift things around. We might live in a world of inequality, but we do not have to accept it as a given. Together, we can make transformational change and create a more equal world in which we can all thrive.”
Izzy Obeng
Izzy launched Foundervine, a social enterprise specialising in digital start-up and scale-up acceleration programmes, in 2018.
Her company’s ambition, she says, is to address the social and economic inequality that’s faced by women and young people from under-served communities when starting a business or social enterprise.
Izzy’s business has worked with more than 2,000 entrepreneurs since it launched and last year teamed up with Barclays to launch the Black Founder Accelerator - a 12-week scheme including product development, sales strategy, operations and leadership.
Samantha Payne
Samantha co-founded her Bristol-based technology company, which makes bionic ‘superhero’ limbs for amputees, in 2014 with Joel Gibbard.
The company’s multi-grip bionic hands - or so-called ‘Hero Arms’ - are created using 3D printing tech and are the only advanced device that’s affordable enough to be available on the NHS.
The arms are also available through national healthcare systems in major western countries including France, Germany, and the US.
Open Bionics launched private sales in May 2018, with the ‘Hero Arm’ fast becoming the best-selling multi-grip bionic hand in Britain.
The business has also teamed up with Disney to design film-themed arms for users, including Star Wars BB-8, Marvel’s Iron Man and Frozen bionic covers.
Emily Precious and Vanessa Fuller
Young accountants Emily and Vanessa started Premier Tax Solutions in 2013 – at the age of just 26 – with a shared vision to reinvent the way the accountancy industry was perceived.
Their ambition was to create a modern practice and steer people away from the perception that all accountants are ‘stuffy and old-fashioned.’
From the beginning, the friends recognised that customers wanted clear, ‘easy to understand’ figures and were early adopters of smart technology.
Over the last seven years the pair have built the business into a growing firm of approachable Chartered tax advisers – which work across two offices in Staffordshire – and specialise in everything from accounts processing and payroll to VAT and tax returns.
Premier Tax Solutions has also gained Xero Gold partners status and today boasts a portfolio of more than 600 clients.
Sophie and Hannah Pycroft
The sisters from Barry - founders of Spectrum - have built a company that is worth more than £12m, which has deals with the Hollywood studios.
Spectrum Brushes have released collaborations with Disney for a Little Mermaid Collection, and a Paramount deal saw a Mean Girls-inspired collection that sold out immediately.
Spectrum Collections are a vegan and cruelty-free beauty brand and sell their multi-coloured brushes and brush sets all over the world. The brand has a cult following, with fans uploading photos of their colourful buys on social media so rapidly they have no need for a big marketing budget.
Jules Quinn
After launching her business The Teashed while still at university, Jules has steadily grown the business with sales both in the 海角视频 and abroad. With new products in the Popaball range, selling well on the high street as well as online, Jules has steadily grown the business with sales both in the 海角视频 and abroad.
Carrie Rose
The co-founder of agency Rise at Seven only launched in 2019 but the 27-year-old has already grown the Sheffield business to more than 60 staff and turnover of £4m in just 18 months, thanks to securing contracts with the likes of Missguided, made.com and Pretty Little Thing.
Carrie recently sought to help students into new careers as well as help the firm’s growth - offering to cover the costs of students’ accommodation if they jumped ship, quit university and joined Rise at Seven.
Melissa Snover
American businesswoman Melissa Snover has made her home in the 海角视频 after studying at Lancaster University and has now set up a base in the Digbeth area of Birmingham.
The New Yorker previously built up and sold vegetarian gummy sweets Goody Good Stuff to Cloetta, the Swedish firm behind Chewits, and has now turned her attention to the vitamins market.
She launched Nourished in autumn 2019 which produces made-to-order gummy 'stacks' using 3D printing technology and containing seven different vitamins from a choice of 28.
A year ago, she secured a funding round worth £2 million and is shortlisted in the health category at the 'SXSW Pitch' at this year's South by Southwest media and tech festival taking place later this month..
Karin Sode
Together with her husband David Pike, Karin set up community interest company People’s Energy in 2017 with the support of 2200 crowd-funders raising £387,000 with the mission to be different to existing energy suppliers by putting customers first and tackling fuel poverty.
They have no external shareholders, promise to share profits with their customers, and offer renewable energy. In the first three years of operating, they have 270,000 customers, turnover of £250m, and employ nearly 400 staff in Danderhall and Musselburgh with plans for another operation in Selkirk. Before People’s Energy, Sode owned a people development consulting business, working with some of the world’s leading brands.
Lisa Thomson
Lisa started her Human Resources career with Wolfson Microelectronics, a high tech spin out from the University of Edinburgh, who also funded her to undertake her HR post graduate studies part time at Edinburgh Napier University.
She then worked at a number of high growth technology companies and in 2014 took redundancy when her then current employer needed to downsize.
Realising there was a gap in the market for tailored HR support for start-up companies, she received a funded place on an entrepreneurship programme studying at Babson College Boston for four months through Entrepreneurial Scotland and then launched her own business - Purpose HR.
She now has a team of eight and enjoyed turnover growth of 167 per cent between 2018 and 2020.
Gracie and Sophie Tyrell
Sisters Gracie and Sophie Tyrell set up the 海角视频's first sugar free shop online and have managed to get their health-conscious treats on the shelves at Sainsbury’s.
The pair, who grew up in Bath, left behind high-flying careers to pursue their dream of starting their own product range.
Gracie worked in film and TV in the 海角视频 and Sophie was a Business Development Director for a design agency in Singapore.
But when Sophie discovered she had serious food intolerances while recovering from illness, the sisters started on the new venture together.
They say that the pandemic has changed how people shop and eat, and with snackers reaching for the sweet stuff, they decided to make their sugar-free products available from their online shop and delivered direct to the door.
Jigna Varu
Last autumn, Jigna Varu was appointed chief executive of Home-Fresh, a spin-off of Leicester-based Micro-Fresh.
She has risen through the ranks after joining the global exporter of antibacterial products on a short-term contract just seven years ago.
Micro-Fresh, founded in 2006, is a formula that prevents mould growing on products such as sofas, shoes, socks, towels and pillows while Home-Fresh uses a version of the formula to stop mould spreading inside whole buildings, from homes and schools to offices and student accommodation.
She recently : "I got chucked in at the deep end.
"One of the first projects I did in my first week was to check the efficacy of Micro-Fresh in plaster so I worked on the new formulation for Home-Fresh, did the whole business model and basically helped conceive it from day one."
Laura Wall
Laura Wall is an artist, illustrator and author best known for her Goose series of children’s books.
She gave up an enviable post working for a television company to become a full time artist in 2010.
Since then, she has held five solo exhibitions with the latest one selling out in the first half hour of the show, created huge outdoor murals and seen her Goose series grow to 13 books available in over 40 countries and translated in 12 languages.
She has developed her own homeware range from note pads to paddle boards and sells online and from her gallery in Teignmouth.
Lizzie Ward
Lizzie Ward took the reins at SAS Water Ltd around 10 years ago and has led the company through year-on-year growth.
Based in Leek, Staffordshire the company has a team of water safety professionals and commercial plumbers and works with companies, charities and the public sector across the 海角视频 to ensure commercial water is safe from legionella and other waterborne bacteria.
Lizzie has grown the business through the introduction of new services including a specialist hotel, spa and leisure brand and development of training programmes for companies.
She’s extremely keen on raising awareness and is well known for her water safety tips on LinkedIn, where she gives good advice across a range of water safety topics, both for home and professional use.
Lizzie has also overseen a rebranding project which saw the company evolve from its former Safe and Secure name to SAS Water.
Isabella West
Online venture Hirestreet was launched two years ago by former investment banker Isabella West, 27 – winner of the North East young business executive of the year award – to disrupt the fast fashion market.
The company emerged from Ms West’s mission to stop unwanted outfits ending up at landfill. Customers book out outfits in advance, hire them, then return them.
Isabella quit her six-figure salary working in London to launch Hirestreet in Newcastle, taking on consultancy work to raise the funds needed.
As the 海角视频’s first high street rental service the firm is flourishing. Ms West also appeared on Forbes 30 under 30 Europe list
Helen Wilson
Sunderland diver turned environmental entrepreneur Helen Wilson launched The Bottle Shop as a recycling business with a difference after seeing first hand the devastation dumped plastic is wreaking on our oceans.
The modern take on old-fashioned milk rounds sees Ms Wilson give customers receive weekly deliveries of household products, with a choice of more than 160 things to choose from.
Six months since launching Ms Wilson has hundreds of customers and has had to expand into a new distribution hub, where she is planning major expansion outside of the region.
Charlotte and Sophie Wilson
Sisters Charlotte, 33, and Sophie, 26, set up women’s activewear brand YANA last year. Despite the cancellation of events the sisters, born in Skelton, North Yorkshire and now living in Newcastle, have tackled the downturn head on with their company YANA, creating a collection of high-quality activewear that “can be worn to work out or relax in”.
The pair - who also run a property development venture - rounded off the year by getting backing from high street giant John Lewis, selling their clothes in pop-up shops in Newcastle and Leeds.