Diamond & Colours Network Night

This week, in conjunction with BCMS, Clarendon Fine Art and  Evelyn Partners we hosted the latest meeting of the Diamonds & Colours Network, a fantastic group of female founder business owners and entrepreneurs working in a variety of industries..

Trying hard not to make this a London-centric group, this latest meeting was hosted in Clarendon’s Birmingham gallery owned by female entrepreneur Helen Swaby, a perfect spot to mix and mingle with some more regionally based ladies as well. 

Keynote speaker for the night was the fabulous Rosemary Conley – at 75, this force of fitness and diet guru has ridden a particularly hard entrepreneurial and personal path. After leaving school at 15, training as a secretary and working as a Tupperware dealer, Rosemary started her own slimming classes in 1972 with an investment of just £8. In 1983 she published the first of 36 books that were to sell in their millions around the world, alongside millions more of her fitness videos, while starring in her own TV shows on BBC and ITV. She became one of the most popular diet and fitness experts the world has seen. Having built a global empire, her business took a turn for the worse and sadly she experienced the darker times of owning an empire. She now lives in Leicestershire with her husband, and they are “happier than ever”. Her story is compelling and is covered in her newly released biography, a candid work titled,  “Through Thick and Thin”. Well worth the read this Christmas.

Along with Rosemary, our founder Alison Cooper took up a panel position, sharing her carbs to carats story and counselling on scale-up businesses and exit earn-outs. She was joined by Dr Shakar Jafari, Founder & CTO of TrueInvivo with a truly inspiring story of fleeing from Afghanistan to overcoming cancer, Pal Bhusate CEO and Founder at Kinseed Limited, a tech platform with the ability to transform the NHS inspired by the birth of her child and Rupal Patel, author of From CIA to CEO.

If you’re a female founder and you’d like to attend our next event, feel free to get in touch and we’ll keep you posted of where we will be next.

Lots of Love, 

Alicia J x