Congratulations to the 12 female founders who have been selected to participate in the upcoming rounds of the Advisory Board Centre’s Certified Chair™ Executive Program.
The 12 program participants are:
- Joanna Apps, Logan Startup Hub
- Andrea Blunell, We’re in Tech
- Sonya Comiskey, Southern Cross Beef and Epicurean Beef
- Dr Erin Evans, Ardacious Pty Ltd
- Karen Joyce, GeoNadir and SheMaps
- Maryna Kovalenko, Syla
- Adele Laughton, UNPACKD and Free From Baking Co.
- Sarah-Jane Peterschlingmann, ATech
- Stephanie Piper, Elkei Education
- Jessica Taylor, QENDO
- Jo Ucukalo, Handle My Complaint
- Siobahn Whitehead, Passport360
The Certified Chair™ Executive Program is a research-backed and evidence-based program specifically designed to empower senior executives, directors and professional services providers to establish, chair and facilitate the kinds of advisory boards that drive results for dynamic and high growth potential businesses.
On completion of the program, the participants will gain recognition as a Certified Chair™.
Advance Queensland has partnered with the Advisory Board Centre to sponsor 12 Queensland female founders to participate in the program.
One of the latest recipients of the program and founder of QENDO, Jessica Taylor, applied for the program to build on her knowledge as a Chair for the Australian Coalition for Endometriosis, and develop her professional network. After completing her Certified Chair™ accreditation, Jessica said, “the program immediately transformed my confidence in my board meetings and I now feel empowered to assist in obtaining the best outcome for all involved.”
Looking to the future, Jessica believes her Chair certification and best practice understanding will help enable her to achieve her goals of, “establishing a peak body for newly recognised national action and organise a commercial venture board.”
Previous Certified Chair™ program participant and founder of Botanical Chemist, Tanya Goodwin, had a similar experience and was impressed about how much the program helped her and her business.
Tanya’s business was paired with Chair Mary Goodwin, and advisor Mark Cranny, both Certified Chairs™, as well as Kim Giliam. Tanya felt fortunate to be able to access some great advisors with incredible levels of experience.
Tanya said, “I came to the Female Founders program looking for unbiased mentoring advice from experienced professionals and the confidence to be able to move forward with the next stage of business growth.
“My mentors challenged my thinking and assisted with business growth planning which allowed me a clear path to move forward. The advice I received simply would not have been possible on my own. There were things I hadn’t thought about and I feel much better equipped and more confident, ready for my business to grow.
“This program was about arming me with the knowledge to help avoid unnecessary pitfalls and setting me up to have the best chance of success.”
Tanya is now excited to grow Botanical Chemists’ key product range and showcase it to the world, and her advisory board has laid the foundation.
Visit the Female Founders Program page to learn more about how we’re supporting Queensland female founders.
