On March 28th, Veuve Cliquot held the 39th annual Veuve Cliquot Awards ceremony dedicated to celebrating the most successful business women of the UK with the strong commitment towards environmental and societal issues. This year, the first award went to Michelle McDowell MBE, a civil engineer who was responsible for the £70m re-development of the Royal Albert Hall. Aside from the grand prize, Ms. McDowell was also granted a title ‘Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year’.

Image: www.telegraph.co.uk. Michelle McDowell, 2011 Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year

Ms. McDowell, 47, works in the industry where women constitute only 2% of the employees. Aside from the Royal Albert Hall project, her other large-scale projects include makeover of the Wimbledon’s All England Lawn Tennis Club in 1997.

However, successful career is only a part of the sucess. The key criterion for the judges in 2011 was the activities in mentoring and supporting of other women by the finalists. Given the fact that Ms McDowell was working on creating a BDP scheme at Cambridge University to provide bursaries to female students of engineering and acted as a judge for the Inspire Award for Women in the Built Environment, it’s easy to understand the choice of the judges.

Ms McDowell said, “I see my role as this year’s winner of the award to hopefully inspire and act as mentor for women in what is historically a male dominated industry and wider business world.”

The other finalists were Susie Hewson, Director of feminine hygiene brand, Natracare, Jillian MacLean, Founder and managing director of Drake & Morgan restaurant group, and Joanna Shields, EMEA vice-president of social networking site, Facebook.

Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year award is held annually by the champagne brand with the aim to recognize and celebrate the most committed and successfull business women. The award is named after the founder of the brand, Madame Cliquot, the first business woman of her time.

The prize is a silver trophy shaped as a La Grande Dame bottle containing a special vintage produced from the vineyards exclusively owned by Madame Clicquot during her lifetime. The winner will also take a trip to the home of Veuve Clicquot in Reims together with the winners from other countries.