Celebrating Success Best Businesswomen Awards Style

There is literally nothing better in business than celebrating success! So I was delighted to sponsor Businesswoman of the Decade in this year's Best Business Women Awards a special category to mark 10 years of these prestigious awards.

I have been to many awards, and none have created the celebratory atmosphere that these awards accomplish. I have been a sponsor since 2021, and each year, the event showcases businesswomen from a wide variety of industry categories, including coaching, business services, STEM, Children and Families, marketing and animal services. They also have generic categories such as Most Inspiring Businesswoman, Best Business, and Best Solopreneur.

This year I presented the Businesswoman of the Decade to Gillian Jones-Williams (She/her/hers) founder of Emerge Development Consultancy Ltd .

I thought it would be great to share some information on Gillian. When I read about her, it was clear to me why the judging panel had chosen her to receive this coveted award.

Gillian started Emerge in 1997, and it is an established coaching, learning and development consultancy with a proven track record of designing and delivering corporate people development programmes. They have successfully devised development solutions to optimise organisational performance and assisted them when navigating change. Gillian is also the founder of the award-winning international RISE Empowering Women's Development Programme.

Gillian is also an author, a motivational speaker, a Master Executive Coach, and a passionate supporter of Women's Development.

Gillian was one of the early adopters of coaching in organisations and has co-authored two books on the topic: 50 Top Tools for Coaching and How to Create a Coaching Culture. She works with many organisations to support them in creating a coaching culture, particularly one linked to inclusivity and engagement.

She also published 'Locked Down but Not Out' in early 2021 – a diary of the Pandemic and the struggle to save the business when COVID-19 shut down training rooms. All proceeds of the book go to the bereaved families of NHS workers.

She has led many D & I initiatives to help organisations strategise, but also in times where situations have happened that meant emphasis needed to be put on specific groups of people, i.e. delivering Sexual Harassment training in the music industry, #BlackLivesMatter and, more recently, delivering Male Allies workshops for Women's Safety.

Being crowned Businesswoman of the Decade is an incredible accolade. But as you can see it was well deserved by Gillian.

The other women in the category, who went on to win a Silver Award and two a special recognition award, were also amazing women who have been in business for more than ten years. You are all incredible example of female entrepreneurs. Well done to you all.

ANNIE ARMITAGE - Annie Armitage – Photographer

Becky Wall BEM -A Plush Flush. Becky was presented with a special recognition award for services to the Toilet Industry.

Mindy Gibbins-Klein FRSA -The Book Midwife. Mindy was also presented with a special recognition award for services to the publishing industry.

Rachel Dunford – Rachel Dunford Consulting

Sophie Preston-Hall - Catering Elite Recruitment

Vicky Grammatikopoulou – Vie Aesthetics Ltd

Zeenat Ahmed-Peto - Zeenat Ahmed-Peto Cognitive Hypnotherapy

What an incredible evening and I am already looking forward to 2025!