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The Women of the Year Luncheon & Awards was established in Nottingham in 1982 as a ladies’ luncheon to raise monies for a charity called The Winged Fellowship Trust.
Over 40 years on, we continue to support our chosen charities each year. In recent times we have been proud to support charities including Revitalise, Marie Curie and The Princes Trust: Women Supporting Women.
Over the years, the event has grown from being a regional ladies’ luncheon to a national awards ceremony with a key focus on business. The event now plays host to around 600 guests and recognises the achievements of women in business and women that have strived to achieve the unthinkable in the most challenging of circumstances across the country.
Zalena Vandrewala is a commercial litigator with Top 50 National Law Firm, Freeths LLP. Having been recognised for her work in the Legal 500, Zalena has conducted and resolved a wide range of commercial and general disputes nationwide over the last 17 years. Zalena is also a mentor for start-up and SME businesses throughout Cheshire and Staffordshire and is passionate about supporting young people in business to help achieve their goals.
Having worked with Women of the Year Luncheon & Awards for some time, in 2009 Zalena was appointed to the Board of Directors. In 2018, Zalena was then appointed to Chair of the Board and Director of the Women of the Year Luncheon & Awards. In her time with the organisation Zalena has helped to grow the audience from 350 to over 600 guests and has been instrumental in forging working relationships with many female representative organisations to further raise awareness of women in business.
Fleur Sexton Chief Executive and co-founder of multi-ward winning PET-Xi Training, one of the most hard-hitting and dynamic training providers in the UK with a reputation for success with the hardest to reach people.
Deeply committed to changing lives through education and employment, since 1995 she and her team have delivered impact, inspiration, and value to 250,000 learners in a wide range of communities across the UK, making social mobility a reality by finding and breaking barriers, improving life chances and making communities stronger. Fleur invests much of her time and 10% of company profits into these activities, to which both she and PET-Xi bring enthusiastic engagement and active hands-on participation.
Fleur is a Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands and has recently been made an Honorary Doctor of the University (BCU), she was formally Businesswoman of the Year 2017, and she was on the Commonwealth 2022 Legacy & Benefits Committee. Fleur is currently a Board member of C&W Chamber of Commerce, The CW LEP Skills Board, C&W Champions, Historic Coventry Trust, Birmingham City University Business School Advisory Board, West Midlands Regional Business Council, Director of Women of the Year as well as Chair of the Coventry Music Trust and is a member of their Community Orchestra.
She founded and runs the PET-Xi Foundation, which raises money to directly break barriers for individual young people nationwide and co-founded Metropolis Training Restaurant 2021.
A true people person, Wendy enjoyed a career delivering impactful culture change programmes across diverse business for over 20 years. As HR Director for FedEx in 2000, the development of “Delivering Peace of Mind” transformed the business in readiness for acquisition in 2006. This culminated in Wendy becoming Personnel Today – HR Director of the Year.
Following the same success, Wendy moved to Steelite International in 2008 becoming Group HR Director and delivering another culture programme in a traditional manufacturing environment that had gone through significant depression since the 1980’s. Wendy introduced “Stepping up to the Plate” in 2009 as a programme of change which created training opportunities for everyone, from employees being able to learn how to read and write, through to a new business foundation degree with Staffordshire University which was open to all employees regardless of level within the organisation. Her passion is to improve links between education and industry and to ensure that business requirements are communicated to education to ensure young people are fit for purpose.
She became instrumental in the acquisition of Royal Crown Derby by Steelite International in 2012 and led the business through a rebranding and new product line programme – which was out of her area of expertise. Culture change, of course, soon followed.
Ready to leave the corporate world, In 2015 set up her own business, Strategi Solutions Group. With culture change at the heart, Wendy saw an opportunity to align three core business streams: People, Marketing and Creative. All working simultaneously to help businesses thrive through change, using her wealth of experience to support every step of this journey.
The company is now an employer of choice in Staffordshire, committing to cultivating local talent, and has gone on to win numerous prestigious awards. Wendy was the winner of Inspiring Workplaces Inspiring Leader 2022, Strategi was a finalist at the Engage Awards 2022, winners of Best SME HR and Marketing 2021, National Business Awards, Personnel Today Awards and the Staffordshire Chamber Awards to name a few!
Emma Elston MBE, Co-Founder & CEO of a leading waste container repair and refurbishment firm. She is passionate about the creation of a circular economy, and has used this focus to drive success for her business which saves local authorities and waste companies money by refurbishing and reusing waste & recycling containers.
UK Container Maintenance is now the biggest container refurbishment & re-manufacturing company in Britain with Head Quarters in Cheshire.
Emma also devotes significant time mentoring people from all walks of life, either helping them make the step into the world of business or providing them with advice that makes a difference to their outlook. As a keen supporter of start-up businesses, Emma will often provide considerable investment in those with a bright future.
In 2015 Emma was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List. Emma’s business motto is “Lead with passion, positivity & integrity. But most of all just be you”.
Sharon was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s New Year Honours List 2017 for her services to Skills, Science and the Economy.
As a former winner of the category ‘Business Woman of the Year’, Sharon joined our board of directors in 2021 and is committed to promoting and celebrating the achievements of female role models across the UK and all areas of society and business.
Sharon’s efforts have also been recognised through awards including Institute of Directors West Midlands Director of the Year 2016, East Midlands Chamber Team of the Year 2016, Inspirational Woman of the Year Enterprising Women Awards and East Midlands Chamber 2017.
Emma Elston MBE, Co-Founder & CEO of a leading waste container repair and refurbishment firm. She is passionate about the creation of a circular economy, and has used this focus to drive success for her business which saves local authorities and waste companies money by refurbishing and reusing waste & recycling containers.
UK Container Maintenance is now the biggest container refurbishment & re-manufacturing company in Britain with Head Quarters in Cheshire.
Emma also devotes significant time mentoring people from all walks of life, either helping them make the step into the world of business or providing them with advice that makes a difference to their outlook. As a keen supporter of start-up businesses, Emma will often provide considerable investment in those with a bright future.
In 2015 Emma was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List. Emma’s business motto is “Lead with passion, positivity & integrity. But most of all just be you”.
Fiona has over 20 years’ experience at a senior level within the cultural sector. Her career spans both artistic and business leadership: previous employers include Curve Theatre, Wales Millennium Centre, Sydney Film Festival, and Sydney Opera House.
Fiona was appointed Artistic Director & Chief Executive of Birmingham Hippodrome in October 2015. She is currently President of UK Theatre, Co-Chair of UK Dance Consortium, and serves on the boards of Stage One, Arts Council Midlands Regional Council, and West Midlands Growth Company. In October 2018 Fiona was presented with the inaugural WOTY ‘Woman with Edge’ award, and now serves as a Director on the Women of the Year Board.
As each year passes, Fiona agrees more and more with the words of the legendary Joan Rivers..‘I wish I could tell you it gets better. It doesn’t get better. YOU get better’
Emma Elston MBE, Co-Founder & CEO of a leading waste container repair and refurbishment firm. She is passionate about the creation of a circular economy, and has used this focus to drive success for her business which saves local authorities and waste companies money by refurbishing and reusing waste & recycling containers.
UK Container Maintenance is now the biggest container refurbishment & re-manufacturing company in Britain with Head Quarters in Cheshire.
Emma also devotes significant time mentoring people from all walks of life, either helping them make the step into the world of business or providing them with advice that makes a difference to their outlook. As a keen supporter of start-up businesses, Emma will often provide considerable investment in those with a bright future.
In 2015 Emma was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List. Emma’s business motto is “Lead with passion, positivity & integrity. But most of all just be you”.
Jenny Campbell is known to millions as one of the investors from the long-running BBC series Dragons’ Den. After leaving school at 16, she began her working life counting cash in a bank, rising through the ranks to become one of the few senior female bankers in the UK.
She left the corporate world to lead a management buyout of a failing cash machine business and then turned it into into a leading pan-European concern, which she sold to an American Company quoted on the New York Stock Exchange.
Winner of Business Woman of the Year 2014 at Women of the Year Luncheon & Awards, Jenny is now the Vice President of The Princes Trust Enterprise Fellowship Programme which helps young people harness their entrepreneurial spirit.
Women of the Year’s 2022 nominated charity:
