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A PURE AND SIMPLE SUCCESS – Jennifer Irvine

Surrey based entrepreneur Jennifer Irvine is the founder of The Pure Package, a gourmet food service, which tailors menus to specific individual needs to provide a selection of healthy and organically sourced meals and snacks, direct to your doorstep. Jennifer is a highly accomplished and successful women, wife and mother, living in Virginia Water. She has been widely acclaimed and boasts an array of awards including Harper’s Bazaar Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2007, BT Essence of the Entrepreneur 2006 and London’s Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2005. Jennifer’s expertise and enthusiasm positions her perfectly as Ambassador for Enterprise for 11 Downing Street.

A dedicated entrepreneur from a young-age, Jennifer ran a profitable business as a young girl on her family’s self-sufficient farm in West Cork, Ireland, where she sold fresh eggs and free-range chickens. Jennifer translated her passion for food received on her home farm, into a professional qualification and gained an Honours Degree in Food Marketing from the University of Reading. Jennifer held positions setting up a new shop for Neal’s Yard Dairy in Borough Market, as well as within the Deals Restaurant Group and the Conran Group.

Her motivation to create such a unique enterprise was sparked when she realised, as she sent her busy husband off to work everyday with a healthily prepared packed lunch, that there was a gap in the market for a carefully tailored nutritious home delivered meal service. From a kitch experiment in her home in Surrey, Jennifer now runs a business with turnover in excess of one million pounds supplying delicious, organic, environmentally friendly food to foodies, celebrities, sports stars and models throughout London. This is even more impressive as Jennifer has never taken out any bank loans and has retained full independent control of the business throughout, highlighting her commitment to develop the business ‘her way’.

Jennifer remains driven, determined and inspirational, with future plans for diversification of the company into ice creams, vitamins and to franchise the Pure Package brand internationally. She represents a non-traditional path to successful business, however her long placed passion for food has displayed that with a passion and infectious enthusiasm there are no boundaries to success.

Winners of 2008 NatWest everywoman Awards are announced

Kate Craig-Wood, from Guildford, Surrey is winner of Demeter category, sponsored by IBM

The UK’s leading female entrepreneurs are today recognised for their inspiring achievements at the annual NatWest everywoman awards, acting as shining role models for the next generation of young women wanting to go it alone. Kate Craig-Wood, from Guildford, Surrey, has been chosen as the winner in the Demeter category, for women aged 26 to 35, with her company, Memset.

The awards were founded six years ago by everywoman, the leading organisation for women in business, to showcase the successes of female business owners, many of whom have overcome significant hurdles to get to where they are.

Recent research carried out by everywoman, in association with NatWest found that female small business owners are in fact more ambitious than their male counterparts and are more likely to predict business growth. The winners of these awards are cases in point, showing that they continue to achieve success, regardless of the challenges they have faced.

Having achieved a Masters degree in Biomedical Sciences, Kate commenced her career in an area she had little experience in, IT consultancy and business development within the internet hosting sector. In 2002 she launched Memset, offering high quality, flexible dedicated server packages, and the company is now one of the UK’s leading web and IT hosting providers, with growth in the region of 75% year-on-year, an annual turnover of £1.2 million. In 2006 Memset became the UK’s first CarbonNeutral ISP. 
Kate has overcome personal hurdles having undergone a gender reassignment in 2005, which involved numerous operations, whilst still successfully running the business. Ironically, she has since had to encounter challenges trying to be taken seriously as a woman in a male-dominated industry, having to go the extra mile to prove her knowledge.

In addition to the day to day running of the business, Kate  is a member of the British Computer Society’s Data Centre Specialist Group, and recently undertook the world’s first skydive over Mount Everest to raise money for Computer Clubs 4 Girls, which aims to attract more girls to the sector, by improving their technology skills. 

The winners were announced at a ceremony held today at The Dorchester Hotel in London, attended by pioneering figures from business, the government and the media, as well as high profile entrepreneurs such as Dame Mary Perkins, founder of Specsavers and Patron of the everywoman awards.

Karen Gill, co-founder and director of everywoman comments, "Since the start of the credit crunch, the determination demonstrated by the many female entrepreneurs we come across every day has been astounding. Our recent research found that women business owners have a huge desire for growth, and these winners are shining examples of that – they are continuing to strive for success, despite the challenges life throws at them. The calibre of the candidates in this year - the sixth year of the awards - is stronger than ever and these winners are truly an inspiration to other women who are thinking of starting up their own venture at this time."

Helen Cook, Leader, UK Women’s Leadership Team, IBM adds, “IBM is delighted to sponsor the everywoman Demeter Award for the fifth year and would like to congratulate Kate on her outstanding achievement.  Kate is a real inspiration and role model, helping to give confidence to other young women starting out on a similar journey.  IBM is also widely recognised as a role model – not only for its solid track record in innovative technology which continues to shape the business world – but for its inclusive employment policies that enable women to reach their full potential".