Women and the Big Society 2011: Somerset House Debate

Women and the Big Society 2011: Blast from the past or new vision?

A RSAWSN event in association with the Big Society Network

28 June 2011, 18.30 to 21:00 Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA

Louise Burfitt-Dons FRSA is a humanitarian, whose pro-social projects include children’s charity Act Against Bullying which she founded in 2003; raising awareness of the consequences of our warming planet and empathy. She set up the UK Kindness Movement and is co-founder of Kindness Day UK which launched in 2010. Louise is frequently on the radio and TV and has contributed to various magazines and newspapers on all the above issues. She initiated the RSAWSN whose mission is to raise women’s profile in society by greater involvement in public speaking.

Joana Picq comes from a career in business development at IBM, Microsoft and VMware across Latin America and EMEA, where she managed acquired businesses, ensuring their scalability to corporate size across the regions. She since became a multiple entrepreneur, founding AchaLa.com.br, Matchik.com and Fluxer UK. She is now COO of The Next Women, the online business magazine for women founders, and Entrepreneur in Residence at xMillion Capital, and sits on the Advisory Board of Astia and HotwirePR. Joana is French-Brazilian and has a civil engineering degree from PUC-Rio and certificates from the University of California and the London School of Economics.

Patti Boulaye FRSA is the President/Founder of “Support for Africa” charity which has built five healthcare clinics in Africa and a school in Lesotho with Sentebale, Prince Harry’s charity. Patti’s sell out “Reaching Out” concerts at the Royal Albert Hall featured Didier Drogba, pop stars and a 3000 strong Gospel Choir. Patti is a West End star and Actress of Theatre, Films, TV and has released 8 albums. She is also a song writer, choreographer, a painter and qualified Social, Business and Protocol Etiquette consultant.

Steve Moore FRSA is the director of the Big Society Network. Steve was born and raised in Belfast where he co-wrote an acclaimed satirical review Now Before The Weather The War which toured the country to a mixture of rave reviews and mild bemusement. He joined the Government in 1987 and led a range of high profile employment and welfare initiatives under the pioneering Lord Young. He then moved to Australia where he worked with Time-Life and the great documentary film maker Ken Burns. Upon returning to London he worked on a range of large regeneration projects including London’s Bankside, the Thames Gateway and Deptford and Brixton City Challenges and became a Director of SOLOTEC and the Learning and Skills Council.

Since 2002 Steve has established and led three start-up businesses. He has been employed as an advisor to Microsoft, the RSA, the BBC, PWC, Department for Education and Skills, Enterprise UK, NESTA and UnLtd. Steve has curated and facilitated over 80 major conferences and festivals. Steve is a strategic adviser to Channel 4 Television.

Mary O’Hara FRSA is a journalist and writer, Alistair Cooke Fulbright Scholar and Cambridge graduate who grew up in the Falls Road area of Belfast. Mary has worked for the Guardian and Observer on social affairs and as a freelancer for a range of publications specialising in human rights, crime, health and social justice. She directed and co-produced `Beyond the Railings’ 2007 for Current TV. Her prestigious awards include ‘Mind Journalist of the Year’ and the 2008 Press Award at the Mental Health Media Awards. She is a trustee of the charity Stand To Reason which is committed to fighting stigma with regards to mental health.

Servane Mouazan loves helping women social innovators to be more influential and better connected. Since 2001, the Oguntê team have developed thousands of passionate women leading social ventures and helped them align campaigning and commercial objectives, to create better social and environmental impacts. They also lobby and advise in private and public sectors to further social & gender responsibility. Servane is the founder of the Women's Social Leadership Awards, a Board Director at Social Enterprise London, a UK Ambassador for Women in Business. She was highly commended Social Enterprise Mentor of the year in 2007 by the New Statesman and awarded by the Global Women Inventors and Innovators Network in 2009.

In 1991, journalist and magazine editor Jo Fairley co-founded the pioneering organic chocolate company Green & Black’s (with her husband Craig Sams), which also launched the UK’s first Fairtrade product, Maya Gold, in 1994. In 2005 Jo bought a local bakery in Hastings, where she is based, creating a one-stop organic and natural food store which has gone on to win several awards. She continues to write books (most recently, The Anti-Ageing Beauty Bible and The Green Beauty Bible and The Ultimate Natural Beauty Book), and to write for publications including Elle, Red and You. Jo travels increasingly widely on the international motivational/corporate speaking circuit addressing a wide range of audiences (including Deloitte’s, The Hay Group, Allen & Overy, as well as many enterprise agencies and business networking organisations). She is a matron of the Women’s Environmental Network.
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Michelle Clothier is co-founder and Managing Director of Livity, a youth-specialist communications and engagement agency that works alongside young people every day to co-create campaigns, content and communities that improve the lives of young people and the fortunes of its clients. Livity's pioneering, financially and socially successful business model has earned it a place at the forefront of the burgeoning Social Enterprise movement, multiple awards, accolades, imitators and admirers. In 2008 Michelle won the Lambeth Business Woman of the year Award. Other achievements include winners of Courvoisier Future 500’s Most Improved Entrepreneur 2010, being placed 57th in the Social Enterprise Top 100 2010 and finalists in the Third Sector Excellence Awards for best social enterprise and highly commended in the cause-related category at The Marketing Society’s Awards for Excellence 2010.

Shireen Irani is the founder and executive director of i-Probono, an online network connecting organisations in need of legal assistance with lawyers and students who want to use their skills for the public good. Before qualifying as a lawyer, Shireen read Development Studies at Sussex University and worked in the social sector in the UK, US and India. She was recognised as the Young Achiever of 2011 at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards for her longstanding commitment to creating social change.

Chair and Speaker Biographies