This international Women’s Day two of the North’s biggest development agencies for women, The Women’s Organisation and Northern Power Women, are coming together to stage a panel event discussing the big issues.

We’ll be asking: Going beyond the PR stunts & publicity around International Women’s Day, what needs to be happening in practical terms across our boardrooms, homes and political spaces to effect real change, drive equality and level the playing field once and for all?

Hearing from those who have done it, we want you to leave the event feeling empowered and equipped with the practical tools to go out and make change happen in your everyday life. 

We invite you to hear from our panel of changemakers and find out how you can #BeTheChange…

MEET THE PANEL…

Cllr Sara Rowbotham

Former frontline NHS Sexual Health Worker, who cared for victims of the Rochdale grooming scandal, and whose evidence later led to the conviction of nine child abusers as depicted in hard-hitting BBC drama, Three Girls.

Between 2003 and 2014, Sara worked for the NHS Rochdale Crisis Intervention Team, tasked with identifying young people who were vulnerable to child sex exploitation. During her tenure, she began to suspect that girls in the area were facing systematic sexual abuse from a group of older Asian men.  From 2004 onwards, she made 181 referrals to police and social services detailing the abuse and sexual grooming of young people. In 2012 she told the Rochdale inquiry her bosses had ignored scores of warnings. She was made redundant two years later in 2014.

Sara’s work helped to bring about the conviction of nine men in 2012, and ten more were convicted in another investigation in 2015. A total of 47 girls were identified as victims of child sexual exploitation.

In 2018 Sara received a Special Recognition at the NHS Heroes Awards and was made an honorary member of the Council of the NSPCC. Today, she is a local councillor and the Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Health & Wellbeing at Rochdale Council.

Rob Mukherjee

Director of Transformation – EveryCloud UK

Rob is Director of Transformation at EveryCloud, a leading cloud security and communications consultancy. He is a regular public speaker on Diversity & Inclusion and The Future Of Work.

Rob has won numerous awards for his work on inclusion – including the Northern Power Women “Agent Of Change” and Women In Sales (Europe) “Best Male Mentor” awards – and is currently listed in the EMpower Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executives and the HERoes Top 40 Advocates Of Women In Business.

Irene Afful

Founder & Director of Ametrine Enterprise Solutions

Irene is the Founder of Ametrine Enterprise Solutions Professional Coaching & Consultancy. Having previously served as a police officer for 25 years, Irene overcame race and gender barriers and discrimination to become the first ever black female inspector in the history of Merseyside Police. As a pioneer and role model, Irene coached and mentored other minority staff for promotion and lateral development, helping them to build resilience for success. She designed, developed and delivered a leadership programme which was instrumental in increasing the recruitment of BME, females and other minority groups to the force.

Today, she pursues her passion for driving diversity & inclusion by supporting businesses & individuals by offering a variety of tools, programmes and consultancy services.

Dr Paula Burkinshaw

Senior Research Fellow into gender and leadership at The University of Leeds Business School.

A leading voice on gender and leadership, Dr Paula Burkinshaw’s qualitative research with women in middle and senior management stretches across a wide range of sectors from higher education, academia to medicine and health, and the retail sector. Her work delves into the enablers and barriers to women’s leadership careers. Specifically, her core message puts an emphasis on ‘fixing’ organisational cultures.

And our host…

Simone Roche

CEO & Founder of Northern Power Women

Simone is the founder of Northern Power Women – a collaborative campaign to accelerate gender diversity from the North. Starting her career in the Royal Navy, it wasn’t until she became the Director for a campaign supporting women in the events & hospitality industry – and became a champion for the Government Equalities Office – that gender equality grew to be her passion.

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As always, there will be opportunity to network with other local women in business and to chat to the The Women’s Organisation’s team to find out what support is available to grow your enterprise.

Join us on International Women’s Day, Friday 6th March 2019 9.30am-12pm at The Women’s Organisation, 54 St James Street, L1 0AB

Thank you to our event partners Natwest for helping to make this event possible.  Please note as this is partnership event, by booking via eventbrite you are consenting to your details being shared with both The Women’s Organisation and Natwest.

About Business Club

The Women’s Organisations Business Club is an exclusive women’s only networking group which is open to female business owners.

Membership is open to female business owners only and is per individual not per business. Additional staff members can be booked onto individual events as you go. Our events will mostly be held at our flagship building, 54 St James Street in Liverpool but members are welcome to join from anywhere.

How much does it cost? 

We don’t have a membership fee as such. All we ask is that you make a one-off donation to The Women’s Organisation charity. This donation will help towards the cost of running Business Club and help us continue to deliver our support for women in business. The minimum donation is £25 and this instates you as a ‘member for life’ – that’s right, no annual renewal fees. We also welcome larger donations, just specify the amount when completing your membership form.