Women founders programme launches

Opportunity North East is partnering with IMPERIA™, a leading global resource for the development of women founders, to launch a programme especially designed to empower, support and strengthen the growing community of women entrepreneurs in north east Scotland.

A first of its kind initiative in the region, the programme is part of ONE activity to develop and strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem including helping founders from under represented communities to start and grow their own business.

Delivered by lifelong entrepreneur and IMPERIA founder Jennifer Iannolo, participants will take part in three days of in-person sessions at ONE Tech Hub, with additional coaching and community support and activity through August and September. IMPERIA is based in New York City, with a presence in 16 countries worldwide.

Based upon IMPERIA's unique founder-first framework of Self-Directed Empowerment™, participants will focus on strengthening their CEO skills from the inside out as they craft a reliable, sustainable sense of confidence, strengthened agility and resilience. Eighteen women entrepreneurs from digital tech, life sciences and food & drink businesses are signed up to take part in the inaugural programme which starts on Wednesday 24 August.

Commenting on the programme, Jennifer said: “As the daughter of a Highlander (my mum is from Beauly), I‘ve always been struck by the courage and power of Scottish women. When I visited Aberdeen in March 2022 to work with some women founders here, I was instantly struck by the potential to expand their opportunities and leverage their ambition. I wanted to be part of this community and help them move forward, and I’m thrilled IMPERIA and Opportunity North East were able to make this initiative happen in under six months.

“We have an incredible cohort of women founders, and I’m excited to take them on a transformative journey of what it means to be a woman carving out a path in the world for her ideas.”

Having made Aberdeen her home for the summer Jennifer will also provide support to the wider founder community as the first Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at ONE Tech Hub. As EIR Jennifer will draw on her own lifetime of experience as a founder, and more than a decade spent coaching and mentoring high-profile entrepreneurs from Grammy nominees to Forbes 30 Under 30 superstars, to offer one to one coaching sessions focused on helping founders to get unstuck, ask better questions, and benefit from an objective, powerful sounding board. Open to all entrepreneurs, these coaching sessions can help guide founders through critical growth stages such as transforming from a founder in survival mode to a leader and CEO.

Karen O’Hanlon, Director Digital Tech, Opportunity North East said: “As a world class coach, keynote speaker and champion of women’s entrepreneurship, Jennifer is an outstanding first entrepreneur in residence.

“The fact that Jennifer is spending the summer in the north east is a great reflection of the talent and potential in the region and her energy, enthusiasm and experience will be a great catalyst for our community.

“Embedding a global mindset and ambition at the earliest possible stage in the entrepreneurial journey is important and connecting founders to a global community of like-minded entrepreneurs and experts offers that opportunity with these new initiatives.”

Together with the women’s founder programme, the entrepreneur in residence marks a next step in supporting entrepreneurship in the region and is part of ongoing ONE activity to create ambitious and confident entrepreneurs and stimulate an increase in scale and number of innovation driven low carbon business start-ups.

For more information on these initiatives contact info@onetechhub.co.uk