Cartier announced laureates of its 2011 Women’s Initiative Awards. On October 14, at the Annual Global Meeting of the Women’s Forum in Deauville, France, the eight international winners that received a Cartier trophy were named.
Photo: a snapshot from cartierwomensinitiative.com
2011 laureates included Carolina Guerra, a young engineer from Colombia working to recycle highly toxic waste; Benita Singh and Summer Rayne Oakes, two enterprising sustainable fashion advocates from North America; Kresse Wesling, who recycles industrial waste into luxury accessories in Bournemouth, Europe; Lorna Rutto, who recycles plastic waste into durable fencing posts in Kenya; Rana El Chemaitelly, who runs a series of edutainment centers teaching children engineering skills in Lebanon; and Chunhong Chen, from China, who owns a company producing a water-saving toilet.
Each of these business ladies received $20,000 in funding, access to networking and visibility and a full year of coaching support to help them successfully develop their businesses.
Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards was created in 2006 by the jewelry and watch maker Cartier, the Women’s Forum, McKinsey & Company and INSEAD business school with the aim of identifying and supporting projects by women entrepreneurs. Celebrating role models in entrepreneurship and providing emerging business women with coaching programs, the Awards encourage sustainable business projects. Since its inception, the Awards have accompanied over 75 talanted female business-owners and recognized 20 laureates.
The program is annual. To apply women from any country aged over 18 and with a good command of English have to go to the Awards web site and complete a form. The criteria requires the project should be ‘for-profit’, in its initial phase (1—3 years of existence) and have a new original concept. The next application stage starts on November 7, 2011 and ends on March 13, 2012.
Another iconic brand that recognizes and supports women business initiative, Veuve Cliquot, holds its annual Awards to celebrate the most successful business women in the UK.
