A special thank you from the March8 Mentorship Programme
As the first ever March8 Mentorship Programme has come to an end, we wanted to take some time to thank our fantastic mentors and mentees for the hard work and dedication they put into the programme.
So we’d like to pay tribute to the eight leading ladies below, who took time out of their busy schedules to help educate, motivate and elevate the next generation of female leaders.
Pamela Laird, Moxi Loves
You may recognise our first mentor, Pamela Laird, from BBC’s popular TV series, The Apprentice, where Sir Alan Sugar awarded her third place in season 15. After working closely with a number of beauty professionals, Pamela decided to launch her brand Moxi Loves based on her extensive experience within the industry. She says: “It came to me one day that I could develop my own beauty brand based on my knowledge and the gaps that I saw in the market. And that’s how Moxi Loves was born.”
Jeanette Mwendwa Gitobu, Women in Wind Global Leadership Programme
As an energy sector professional, Jeanette Gitobu is driven to master the art and science of providing innovative solutions to complex problems. Jeanette has extensive experience in the oil and renewable energy industries in Kenya, and holds the position of Director for the Women in Wind Global Leadership Programme and is a Policy Advisor at the Global Wind Energy Council.
Adaku Okafor, PhoenixRize Consulting
On her quest to help public and private sector organisations create inclusive work environments, Adaku Okafor founded her very own consultancy company, PhoenixRize Consulting. Adaku’s aim was to create environments where everyone can thrive and succeed regardless of the race, ethnicity, age, gender - or whatever diversity dimension they may have.
Anna Jakielaszek, See Be Mean
Anna Jakielaszek has always been interested in understanding what makes people tick. So much so, she founded her company See Be Mean, an organisation that provides training and consultancy related to diversity, inclusion and leadership development.
Frances Holmes, Speak Out Revolution
Focused on eradicating bullying and harassment in the workplace, Speak Out strives to break barriers around diversity and inclusion to create more equal workplaces. As both Frances and her fellow co-founder have engineering backgrounds, which is typically a male-dominated industry, they’re familiar with the challenges that women face as a minority group.
Alma Arzate, Apotex Inc.
Alma Arzate, who has over two decades of global experience in supply chain and operations across the automotive, electronics, and medical device sectors. With a Bachelor's of Business Administration, Alma describes that she ‘fell’ into her supply chain career, after applying for her first professional role.
Gosia Syta, Time To Walk Your Talk
Working closely with women in male-dominated professions, such as tech, energy and law, Gosia teaches women how to stand up, speak up and succeed. Her work is particularly focused on those looking to advance their confidence when at networking events, and delivering presentations.
Kasia Lanucha, Intercultural Consultant, Trainer and Coach
Intercultural trainer and coach, Kasia Lanucha, has built a career connecting people from different cultures. She works to support business owners and managers with their intercultural interactions through her business, as well as students and staff at the University of Cambridge.
A special thank you to our mentees
But of course, the mentorship wouldn’t have been a success without our amazing mentees, so from all of us on March8, we’d like to say a big thank you to our nine mentees: Ruqaiyah Angeles, Rifat Chowdhury, Ilaria Testa, Fazila Yunus, A'Kia Harris, Farah Saleem, Lucie Brown, Christie Stapleton and Zenifar Hathiari.
To give you a brief insight to how our mentees found the programme, we asked Ruqaiyah Angeles to share her experience. She said: “My experience with my mentor, Jeanette, has been insightful, self-reflective, and empowering.
“She taught me how to be an independent boss woman who creates boundaries, focuses on personal health and development, all while being able to productively manage time and finances.
“Our monthly wellness kept me in-check and regular communication has assisted in our relationship building. March8 has done an incredible job with the pairing and I could not have asked for a better mentor.”