Keynote SpeakersSahar Hashemi OBE is one of the UK’s most inspirational female entrepreneurs.
Sahar believes if you’re human, you’re an entrepreneur.
Described as a “powerful catalyst to drive entrepreneurship within big corporations” Sahar is the founder of two disruptive businesses. She has seen up close how the unique spirit and energy that exists in a start-up, can dramatically transform behaviour and performance.
This first-hand experience has led Sahar to develop a simple roadmap for those who want to capture some of this start-up energy for themselves or their business, no matter its size. Her work has attracted international attention and made her a bestselling author.
Who is Sahar Hashemi?
A former lawyer, Sahar started Coffee Republic – the UK’s first chain of coffee bars with her brother Bobby. They built Coffee Republic to 110 stores and a £50 million market cap in five years.
Later she founded market segment-defining sugar-free sweets brand Skinny Candy, selling it to confectionery conglomerate Glisten PLC in 2007.
Along the way she learned entrepreneurs aren’t born, they’re made. Entrepreneurship isn’t an innate personality trait but a step-by-step process anyone can follow. Which is why she called her book Anyone Can Do It. If someone, like her, who had never shown a shred of leadership or creative potential could do it, then anyone can. The book has been translated into six languages and is the second-highest selling book on entrepreneurship in the UK.
Since moving on from her businesses, Sahar has worked to bring a start-up mindset to big companies facing relentless change and in need of more agility and innovation.
Her most recent book ‘Start-Up Forever’ is the culmination of her work speaking to 400 organisations about the actionable, practical steps that can bring out anyone’s inner entrepreneur. It was named The Financial Times Best Business Book of the Month in March 2019.
Awards:
She has been repeatedly recognised for her work. In 2011 she was nominated by Director magazine as one of its Top 10 Original Thinkers, alongside Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Jonathan Ive.
In June 2012 she was awarded an OBE for services to the UK economy and to charity.
She has been named “Pioneer to the Life of the Nation” by HM The Queen and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.
She recently co-chaired the UK government Scale-Up Taskforce shaping government policy towards growing SMEs.
Sahar currently sits on the board of the Scale-Up Institute. She is also a patron of Child Bereavement Charity UK and on the advisory board of the ECB HUNDRED Cricket Competition, BFC Fashion Trust and Change Please Coffee, a social enterprise that trains and hires homeless people to run coffee bars.
Sahar Hashemi – Keynote Speaker:
An internationally recognised speaker, Sahar Hashemi’s captivating and uplifting speeches are unique as she converges her own enthralling ‘story’ with key themes of change management and employee engagement.
Sahar knows what blocks entrepreneurial behaviour in large organisations, and what it takes to unleash it. She offers practical, day-to-day advice, not vague theory. And by drawing on her deeply personal story, she connects with audiences through the heart, not just the head, to bring about real, long-lasting change.
Sahar makes a strong impact, igniting the audience with a ‘can do’ spirit and the tools and habits to ‘make it happen’.
Topics include:
- If you’re Human, You’re an entrepreneur
- The Switched-On Mindset – Igniting Creativity and Innovation
- Entrepreneurial Mindset in Your Organisation.
- 8 Habits for a Switched On Mindset
- Anyone Can Do it – Awakening the Entrepreneur Within
- Life Outside the Comfort Zone – An Entrepreneur’s Journey
- Entrepreneurial Leadership
- Standing in the Customer’s shoes
- What makes an Entrepreneur
- Anyone Can Do it – The journey of turning an idea into a business
