During the Dragons Den style event on 6 November, four businesses will pitch in their products to the judges, and one will be crowned as the overall winner and “one to watch”.
The judges are Christina French, CEO and co – founder of ESSENCH; Craig McVoy, founder and CEO of Turnkey; Nigel Hall, chair and Board Advisor to multiple start-ups; and Sharonjit Clare, former independent chair of the WMCA race equalities taskforce.
Christina French (pictured) was a finalist in the first iteration of the competition in 2023.
With over 12 years of entrepreneurial experience and a background in engineering, Christina began her business journey by founding Diverse Sparks Ltd, an electrical contracting firm where she honed her skills in project management and client relations.
She co-founded ESSENCH Cosmetics Ltd, a company dedicated to producing ethical and safe beauty products.
She said: “Being part of the GBCC Female Entrepreneur Competition in 2023 opened so many doors for me.
“The exposure, connections and experience were priceless. It gave me the platform to showcase my business and step up to new opportunities.”
Craig McVoy is the Founder and CEO of Turnkey, a Scaleup Builder launched in 2022 to help high-potential startups unlock market opportunities and scale successfully.
With over 25 years of corporate experience, Craig has held executive roles across some of the world’s most recognisable brands—including John Lewis, RBS, BMW, LV=, Mercedes, and Direct Line—where he specialised in designing and implementing growth strategies and scaling businesses at board level.
Craig’s vision for Turnkey is to deliver £10m+ exits for over 50 scaleup businesses within the next decade.
Craig said: “Turnkey has a sincere desire to support more female entrepreneurs, committing to investing in underrepresented founders to remove the bias that exists in the market today.
“Our experience of female founders is that they work twice as hard, are fully committed to achieving their goals, and tend to be more resilient in their pursuit of their goals.
“I am genuinely excited to see what ventures are presented to us in this pitch competition, as the last few years have showcased some great businesses”
Nigel Hall is a chair, board advisor, NED and mentor to multiple start-up and scale-up founders.
Over a 40-year career across Tech, Media, Digital, and Telecoms, he has founded, bought, built, scaled, and exited several businesses from early-stage ventures to global operations and held senior internationally based roles including CEO, COO, and CTO/CIO in start-ups, scaleups and corporate businesses.
He chairs a leading innovative Cambridge-based global industrial design business, the Award-winning Tech accelerator BetaDen and leads the Innovation Board for the Worcestershire LEP.
Sharonjit Clare - born and raised in the West Midlands - has a professional background in financial services.
Her powerful advocacy for equality and inclusion has seen her become a key influencer in the region - addressing a number of areas of WMCA work including economic policy and improving women's safety as co-chair of West Midlands Women's Voice.
She has worked with national bodies including the UK Cabinet Office on diversity in public appointments and honours - developing a formidable reputation for being constructive yet persistently insistent in inspiring, demanding and mobilising action.
The competition is designed to showcase the best of the region’s women-led SMEs and start-ups, while addressing some of their barriers to growth.
