THE AMBITION ACCELERATOR PODCAST

I interviewed some incredible women when I was writing The Ambition Accelerator. I’m delighted to share their stories and advice with you in a podcast.

The Ambition Accelerator podcasts are available below. You can also read more about the women who feature.

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SARA DAVIES MBE

Sara Davies MBE is the founder and creative director of Crafter’s Companion. She was born in Coundon to entrepreneurial parents, Frank and Susan, and today lives in County Durham with her husband Simon and her children, Oliver and Charlie.

Sara established Crafter’s Companion while studying for a Business Management degree at York University. During a placement at a small craft company, she spotted a gap in the market for a tool that could create bespoke envelopes for handmade cards. With help from her retired engineer father, Sara designed and launched a ground-breaking craft product called The Enveloper.

After securing a slot on TV shopping channel Ideal Word, The Enveloper became an instant hit, selling 1,500 in the first ten minutes and 30,000 units within six months of the initial demonstration. This demand led Sara to develop her first line of innovative products for the craft market. She left university with a first-class honours degree and a business turning over half a million pounds.

Today, Crafter’s Companion is a household name in the industry. It has expanded its range of papercraft products to include sewing and needlecraft items, in addition to its own brand of art materials, Spectrum Noir.

Crafter’s Companion has appeared in the Sunday Times’ SME Export Track 100 list four times. It ranked at number 73 in 2019, 31 in 2018, after experiencing 72% year-on-year-growth in export sales, 52 in 2017 and number 26 in 2015.

To date, the business has proudly collected more than 30 awards for the company’s achievements and for Sara’s accomplishments as an entrepreneur, in addition to a multitude of craft industry awards for its innovative craft products. These include the Ernst & Young UK Emerging Entrepreneur, Shell Livewire Young Entrepreneur, Women of the Future Award and the Stevie Women in Business award for Young Entrepreneur, as well as International Business of the Year at the Federation of Small Businesses Awards.

Sara has also been recognised in the ‘Who’s Who of Britain’s Business Elite’, CNBC’s UK’s ‘Top Ten Brilliant Entrepreneurs’ and received the Creative Entrepreneur of the Year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

In 2016, Sara was presented with an MBE in the Her Majesty’s Birthday Honours List, for services to the economy.

The entrepreneur is passionate about championing women in business, mentoring and the North East of England.  Most recently, Sara was named as the youngest entrepreneur to join BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den.

LARA MORGAN

Lara Morgan is a British entrepreneur whose investment strategy in primarily wellbeing products is pinned to improving life’s journey. She has a portfolio of six consumer services businesses including Scentered.com, Kitbrix Yogi Bare and Gate 8. She is an inspirational but extraordinarily down to earth leader with a legacy of building world-class teams and aligning organisations behind a clear strategy. Lara is a philanthropist and active board member/advisor on various global non-profits as well as sweating her way round annually with Ride-25 by bike for the 1morechild charity.

SHERRY COUTU CBE

Sherry Coutu is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who serves on the boards of companies, charities, and universities. She chairs or has chaired Founders4Schools, Workfinder, Raspberry Pi (Trading), Digital Boost and the Scaleup Institute. She also serves as a non-executive Director of Pearson plc, London Stock Exchange plc, DCMS, and as a Trustee of Raspberry Pi Foundation.

With more than 60 angel investments, three IPO’s, and numerous JV’s and acquisitions behind her, Sherry has extensive experience in early and mid-stage companies having had senior positions in product management, research, finance and operations.

KATY LEESON

Katy Leeson is the Managing Director of Social Chain UK, an IPA woman of tomorrow finalist, Public Speaker, LinkedIn Top Voice and Campaign Female Frontier Awards honouree. Alongside this, Katy hosts her own chart-topping podcast, "I Shouldn't Say This, But", aiming to confront taboo topics often avoided by Managing Directors, sharing her experience of being a woman in a predominantly male role, with guest appearances from business leaders from the world's best loved brands.

Social Chain is a Global Social Media Marketing Agency, working with some of the largest brands in the world including Superdry, Arla, Coca-Cola and Boohoo. Katy's impressive career and accomplishments led her to secure the managing director's position after just six months at Social Chain. Not only has she secured a number of key retainers for the business, but a large proportion of her time is invested into focusing on culture. Katy has bought a number of policies into Social Chain which have allowed for the seamless expansion of the business and its culture across its five locations.

ALICE HALL

Alice Hall is an entrepreneur from Newcastle upon Tyne. Starting her first business with £90 and growing it to £25million turnover, she has gone on to set up various ecommerce businesses in the food, property and interior design sectors. Alice has been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 and won a range of other prestigious awards.

AYESHA NAYYAR

Ayesha is a renowned award-winning solicitor with over 20 years of experience in the legal field. In 2019 she was a winner at The Law Society’s Excellence Awards, Best Business Women Awards and The Asian English Awards. She was a Presenter in the 5 episode BBC series Crime, Are We Tough Enough? She has also made guest appearances on BBC Breakfast, The Victoria Derbyshire Show, The Steph Show and Sky News. She has written articles for numerous publications and blogs. She has a live call in show on a local radio station.

She has her own law firm which is based in Manchester which deals with various areas of law including personal injury, family law, criminal injuries compensation and civil litigation. Ayesha is proud of her working class heritage and being a Pakistani Muslim woman who is making strides in her industry.

STEPHANIE KAUFFMAN

Stephanie Kauffman is a managing partner with Tahoe Ventures, a strategic consulting and advisory firm. Stephanie advises in several areas for the firm including growth acceleration, digital transformation, strategic alliances and post M&A marketing integration strategies for global brands, corporate investors, start ups and non-profits.

A long time marketing, strategy and brand partnerships leader at Universal Studios, Stephanie worked in various roles of increasing responsibility, eventually becoming the Senior Vice President, Global Brand Alliances for the Studios’ worldwide film, home entertainment and theme park businesses. Under her leadership, Universal forged landmark partnerships with global brands on blockbuster film and theme park integration and marketing campaigns including the multi-year Fast & Furious and Dodge franchise partnership. Stephanie was also a part of the leadership team that launched and built the global Despicable Me/Minions consumer products & brand alliance franchise into a multi-billion dollar program at retail around the world. She has also held chief partnerships roles with TripAdvisor and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Stephanie serves on the Board of Directors for the International Women's Media Foundation which champions strengthening women's roles and voices in global media. She resides in the New York City suburbs with her husband and three stepchildren.  

JACQUELINE DE ROJAS CBE

"If we are to thrive in our digital future, all our voices must be heard when designing technology. If not, we risk creating a world for the few and not for the many."

President@techUK | President@digileaders | Co-Chair@Institute of Coding

Non-Exec: Rightmove plc | Costain Group plc | FDM Group plc | Business Advisor & Mentor at Merryck 

A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in all its forms. Passionate about redressing the gender balance via advisory positions at @TheYouthGroupHQ, @accelerate-Her and the @girlguiding association.

In 2016 she entered the @Computerweekly Hall of Fame after being voted Computer Weekly's Most Influential Woman in IT 2015; she was listed on Debretts 2016 500 People of Influence and named in Europe’s Inspiring Fifty most inspiring female role models for 2017. Presented the 2017 Catherine Variety Award for Science & Technology.

2018 Women in Tech Award for Advocate of the Year acknowledging her contribution to diversity and #IB100 – Most influential BAME leaders in tech. Awarded the Digital & Technology Award at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards 2019. Included in World’s 100 most influential people in digital government 2019: https://tinyurl.com/y2rel5p7

Woman of the Year awarded by Women in IT Excellence 2019

Listen to her life and music choices on Desert Island Discs podcast March 2019.

Jacqueline was honoured as CBE for Services to International Trade in Technology in the Queen's New Year Honours list 2018.

LINDA PLANT

Today, Linda runs her Linda Plant Business Academy empowering the next generation of business leaders, as well as her highly successful property development and interior design businesses.

Linda built her career from humble beginnings to become one of Britain’s most successful business leaders. Now she is helping others to forge their own career and business path too, with her Linda Plant Business Academy and Blueprint Business Course: Lindaplant.com

After leaving school at 16, Linda progressed quickly from selling fashion from a Leeds market stall, to launching her international knitwear brand, Honeysuckle, which she sold for millions. After taking the company back, she later became one of the first women to head a fashion company flotation becoming a PLC.

As a pioneer female business leader, Linda continued her business successes in a series of challenging executive roles, whilst consecutively growing and selling her electronics company after three short years, for substantial profit.

Linda is known as ‘The Queen of Mean’ for her no nonsense interviews of BBC The Apprentice’s final five candidates, providing advice to Sir Alan Sugar over 5 seasons.

Linda’s passion for business and entrepreneurship has also been recognised with a number of business awards and as a judge of the top female entrepreneur for HSBC’s Panel of Forward Ladies.