FLO Members being recognized at International Women Entrepreneurial (IWEC) Awards 2014

The International Women Entrepreneurial (IWEC) Conference and Awards 2014 was held at Stockholm, Sweden from November 16-19, 2014.The theme of this year’s conference was”Ensuring the Health of Your Business in a Competitive Global Market.”

FLO is one of the founder members of the IWEC Awards along with Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, which was set up in the year 2007. This platform honors women-owned businesses throughout the world and facilitates woman-owned business connections.

Women entrepreneurs from over 15 countries – UK, Peru, India, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, the United States, Turkey, the Philippines, Australia, Serbia, Taiwan, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh were honored for their achievements. The firms led by these women represent a turnover of nearly 4 billion dollars, with 15,000 employees.

3 women entrepreneurs, who were awarded from India, are FLO members:

• Poonam Mahajan, Director, Signage Systems India, New Delhi ;

CEO of Signage Systems India. She is value channel partner of Fortune 500 American corporates 3M and DuPont, for their Building Innovation product`s, and has been awarded the Nakshatra Award by DuPont South Asia.

Her company has provided signage solutions for Indian headquartered multinational like Tata Group for their automobile division in India, Africa and South Asia, they have customers in other countries like Mauritius and Belgium. They are expanding in fast emerging economies of Asia, South America and Africa.

• Ratna D. Reddy, Managing Director Shri Shakti Schools PVT .LTD., Hyderabad , Telangana

Mrs. Ratna, Managing Director of Shri Shakti Schools Pvt. Ltd. and the Founder Director of an Educational Institution of Hyderabad, which works under the brand name of ‘CHIREC’. She had brought up the school in stages from a summer camp to an educational institution with 3200 students, 360 academic and administrative staff and 400 no. of supporting staff, over a period of 26 years with constant innovation in educational practices.

CHIREC offers education to the children of Hyderabad, India. It has Exchange Programmes for the students and teachers with Thayer Academy, 745 Washington St, Braintree, MA 02184, Boston, USA.

CHIREC is looking forward to more exchange programmes with other interested schools in different parts of the world.

• Nafisa Nimakwala, Managing Director, Phorum Gold Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai, Maharashtra.

She is a Promoter Director on the Board of Phorum Gold with more than 23 years of experience in the jewellery industry. The Company is one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of gold and diamond studded jewellery.

2004 was the year where the Company bagged a prestigious project to make a religious stone for the city of Najaf which incorporated 3000 carats of rubies. The Company comprises of 300 workforce of which 75% employees are women.

Phorum’s customers range from Wockhardt, Lokhandwala Builders, Bollywood personalities and Council General of Bahrain. She has offices in Dubai and 4 showrooms in Mumbai.
Ms Anuja Narain Agarwal, Treasurer FLO and Dr. Manju Kalra Prakash, Executive Director FLO participated in the programme.

IWEC recognizes the challenges and the opportunities in the shifting paradigm for women in the 21st century and thereby provides a global forum for women of variouscountries to network, explore, promote business ventures among its members and work for the growth and development of women in the region through cooperation and interaction.