Last week was a fantastic week for our CEO Julie Hawker who won the Social Enterprise Women’s Champion at the UK Social Enterprise Awards, held on London’s South Bank. In addition to this, Julie was also nominated and won the Director of the Year award at the Venus Devon awards ceremony.
Julie’s national Social Enterprise UK award is acknowledgement of her commitment to social enterprise and the good that it brings to the UK economy. This was a very strong category and recognised Julie’s ability to inspire and empower other women to achieve whilst exhibiting her own enterprising spirit and drive.
The Venus award judges were looking for an outstanding director or board member of a company with more than 10 employees. This win demonstrates Julie’s commitment to women in business, especially within the technology industry.
On winning the awards Julie said;
“What an honour and thrill it is to receive these awards. I’ve been leading Cosmic and its work for many years, and during that time I have been supported and inspired by colleagues, associates, partners and supporters of our work, and so it’s a delight to be able to share this award with all of them. To be recognised in the local and national arena with major awards like these means so much.”
Chairman of Cosmic’s board Dave Ratcliffe commented;
“At Cosmic we are all delighted that Julie’s contribution and skills have been recognised; Julie is an inspiring leader who works across many disciplines to great effect. Her well-grounded leadership skills and vision have enabled Cosmic to flourish and I am sure these awards will be an inspiration to other women to reach their potential and their goals.”
Peter Holbrook CBE, Social Enterprise UK’s Chief Executive, said:
“Social enterprises are needed more than ever to tackle the social and environmental problems facing Britain. Every year the Awards are a celebration of the social enterprise sector, but this year was truly remarkable. It was the largest Awards we’ve hosted to date with more than 400 guests and a wonderful evening for the UK’s social enterprise business community.”
Social enterprise facts and figures*
• There are 70,000 social enterprises in the UK, contributing 24 billion to the UK economy and employing 1 million people.
• Social enterprises are experiencing a start-up boom – 35% are three years old or less, three times the proportion of SME start-ups.
• Social enterprises are much more likely to be led by women than mainstream businesses - 40% of social enterprises have a female leader, compared with 18% of SMEs and 5% of FTSE 100 companies.
* Leading the world in social enterprise, a report published by Social Enterprise UK, 2015 - www.socialenterprise.org.uk/advice-services/publications/state-social-enterprise-report-2015