Inspiring Women Series:  Mentor Event 


London - HSBC Private Bank, Wednesday 24th September


On 24th September, a large group of delegates assembled in HSBC on St. James's Street for the latest in the Inspiring Women series.  

The audience included a mix of entrepreneurs from companies like Socialite London and The Language Of and delegates from larger companies including Rolls Royce, Shell and BT.





Send the elevator back down!

The evening was hosted by Satnam Rana, presenter and reporter from BBC Midlands Today, who introduced the theme of the evening by telling us about Kevin Spacey and Jack Lemmon's mentor relationship quoting Spacey saying "Jack became an extraordinary mentor, and he always said that if you've been fortunate enough to be successful in the business that you wanted to be in, then it is your obligation to send the elevator back down."


After a welcome from Yvonne Bear, Regional Commercial Director at HSBC who hosted the event, Suzanne Doyle-Morris led an interactive session and outlined the benefits of having a mentor, how to approach one and how to make the relationship work.

Next up was Lamia Walker from London Business School who gave an overview on their studies of corporate best practice in Europe and reported on the positive effects of mentoring on career advancement.

Satnam then interviewed inspiring eco-entrepreneur Kresse Wesling who is a government Social Enterprise Ambassador and also runs EAKO, Babaloo and Bio-Supplies.  Kresse shared her own personal experience and outlined her organic and informal approach to mentoring.



The Mentors - Enter the competition!

Finally, our panel of Mentors had one minute to convince us why we should choose them as mentors.  

Karen Darby, founder of SimplySwitch which sold for £22m in 2006, started her minute with a song and promised to take her mentee's business from hero to zero should they choose her...

This is certainly one reason to download an application form and submit your entry for a chance to have one of these inspiring businesswomen act as your mentor for 6 months.  



Get networking!

During the networking there was a lot of energy in the room as people chatted, shared ideas and took advantage of the opportunity to make lots of new business connections.  

Business Link in London, Heart of the City and The Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business made themselves available to talk to delegates at their stands.

People who attended left feeling inspired and ready to get a mentor to take their career or business to the next level.

Read more about the speakers and agenda in this section and we look forward to seeing you at future events.