Five women entrepreneurs received the Second Annual Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards during a ceremony held at the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society in Deauville, France.
These laureates were selected by an international jury of entrepreneurs and members of the business community for the creativity, sustainability and social impact of their start-up projects.
From an applicant pool of 400, one winner from each region (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America) received a Cartier trophy, US$20,000 cash award, and will benefit from a full year of coaching from Cartier, McKinsey & Co., and INSEAD Business School.
The Laureates for Asia are Filipinos Renee King and Caroline Cua, co-founders of Tamang Timpla Foods, a food manufacturing startup that promotes naturally pure and healthy Filipino foods. Tamang Timpla’s star product is the Calamansi Squeeze, a pure and convenient, ready-squeezed, un-sweetened calamansi concentrate with a shelf life of six months.
“More than ever, our economies need the spirit of enterprise, the taste for challenge,” said Bernard Fornas, president and CEO of Cartier. “Small businesses play a key role in building the global economy. We believe that these brave and spirited laureates will be drivers of change for their communities and the future of their countries.”
The Laureate for Africa is Mame Diene, founder of Karistal (Senegal), a local laboratory promoting the finest African cosmetics and essential oils; for Europe it’s Laura Chicurel, founder of Chicurela (UK), a producer and distributor of ecofriendly salmon skin leather; for Latin America it’s Dr. Cynthia Guy, founder of the Instituto de Implantes Cocleares (Panama), the only provider of cochlear implants for people with severe and profound hearing loss; for North America it’s Mona Jhaveri Brown, founder of Foligo Therapeutics (USA), a biotech company aiming to improve the detection and treatment of ovarian cancer.
Applications for next year’s Cartier Women’s Initiative Award may now be submitted until Feb. 13, 2009. Log on to www.cartierwomensinitiative.com.