Women take on inspirational role in Business Week

Pictured (from left) are Sarah Whitfield, Justine Curran, Kathryn Shillito and Diane Gordon Freeman.

HULLBID is already hatching plans for Humber Business Week 2017 after an evening of lingerie and leadership proved a big hit with some of the region’s leading businesswomen.

Kathryn Shillito, HullBID city centre manager, said the second “Inspiring Women” dinner underlined the significance of the event in the Business Week schedule. The challenge will be to continue to improve.

Kathryn said: “Our speakers were once again superb and our audience comprised a lot of female business leaders and business owners who have been very successful in their own careers.

“They recognised the value in spending time listening to the speakers and in networking together, sharing their career experiences as decision makers but also unwinding a little as well.”

A capacity audience of 80 businesswomen, most of whom work within the HullBID area, enjoyed an event which was free of charge as a result of the sponsorship from the venue, the Holiday Inn Hull Marina.

Speakers Diane Gordon-Freeman, owner of Hull-based online lingerie business Alterego, and Justine Curran, Humberside Police Chief Constable, told of the challenges they have faced in getting to the top in their professions.

Diane told how she left school with no qualifications after a childhood which saw her live in seven different locations in seven years. She went back into education, built a career in the NHS and then in 2007 set up Alterego, where she now leads a team of eight.

She said: “I went from being a straight A student to a straight U student, went back into education and worked my way through the NHS. But I had 25 years left of my working life and I felt like a hamster on a wheel ­– so I moved into being self-employed in the middle of a recession.

“I ran the business from my garage for four years but we have implemented step changes in the business over the past nine years. There are now eight of us and we have been nominated for a number of awards.”

Justine is the national lead on public order in a career which has included senior roles in overseeing the policing of football internationals, the Labour Party conference and Stop The War protests as well as leading counter-terrorism operations. But she told how the media often focus on other issues.

She said: “The newspaper cuttings refer to me as a mother and there’s been a fascination within the media about someone who has a family being in this role.

“Living in a digital age, women get a lot more abuse on social media. I thought we had got over that but of the top 10 abused people on Twitter eight are women and two are black men.

“But there are strengths that women bring to leadership and to dealing with the challenges around that.”

Kathryn added: “The word inspire can be interpreted in many ways – to motivate, to stir, to encourage, to enthuse, to rouse. This single, very important word should be adopted in every business plan in every organisation, large or small. To inspire is core to driving a business and motivating a team to success.

“Looking round the room I felt inspired to see so many successful female business owners and leaders from law firms, accountants, manufacturing companies, retail, licensees and more.”

Sarah Whitfield, General Manager of the Holiday Inn Hull Marina, said the dinner provided a big opportunity as sponsors and hosts.

She said: “It’s about business to business relationships. I am a woman at the head of a business and for me it’s important to be at an event like this with other women. It’s great to hear from other women in business and it is good for us to support other businesses large and small in a community where we do business ourselves.”