Women mean business at a “Brilliant Breakfast” in support of Prince’s Trust

Colourist to the stars Daniel Galvin Jr MBE joined forces with award-winning entrepreneur Alison Cooper and Coutts bank to host a celebratory “brilliant breakfast” last week as part of The Prince’s Trust Women Supporting Women initiative.  

More than 60 power women – and a handful of men – descended on the legendary wealth management company’s Strand headquarters to enjoy a sit-down brunch and raise much needed funds to help support vulnerable young women into education, employment or training.

Guests at the Farrer & Co-sponsored event were treated to a performance by twice-Grammy nominated British-Australian saxophonist Amy Dickson followed by a panel discussion featuring four successful female scale-up entrepreneurs and a lively auction conducted by gallerist Tamara Beckwith and Escape to the Country and Magic FM presenter Sonali Shah.

Long-standing Prince’s Trust ambassador Galvin Jr, who supports the charity through sales of his children’s hair care range Dubble Trubble as well as apprenticeships for young people at his Belgravia salon, told how he had mentored fledgling businesswoman Abigail Fletcher during the pandemic while she was setting up her new beauty booking platform Eleventh Hour Beauty. “I told her she could contact me 24/7, which she took full advantage of,” he joked to laughter. “This is the role of an ambassador and she was right to keep her dreams alive,” he added on a more serious note.

Fletcher, whose app enables people to book last minute hair and beauty appointments, said the support she’d received from the Prince’s Trust enabled her to empower other women in turn, bringing the process “full circle”.

Alison Cooper, who sold her £40million airline catering brand En Route to The Emirates Group in 2017, explained how she’d set up her bespoke jewellery venture Alicia J Diamonds as a way of “selling happiness” by creating “bold rings for bold women”. “I was so busy working, I didn’t enjoy the sweet success [before],” she told guests. As well as offering her time and business expertise, Cooper contributes to the Women Supporting Women initiative by donating 3% of the proceeds from the brand’s ready-to-wear Bold Ring collection directly to The Prince’s Trust.

After hearing from new founders Amanda Cronin, who has just launched her debut skincare range Amanda Caroline Beauty, and personal stylist and fashion designer Brenda Beverley, who designs made-to-order capsule collections, Coutts’ head of entrepreneurs proposition Greg Kyle-Langley chaired a panel discussion on the investment challenges faced by female entrepreneurs. Taking part were tech philosopher and filmmaker Somi Arian; fashtech start-up Little Black Door co-founder Lexi Willetts, Skndoctor founder Dr Ewoma Ukeleghe, and FemTech Lab co-founder Katia Lang. All agreed that more support and education were needed to help women access a fairer share of investment opportunities. 

Auction prizes including a helicopter ride, weekend getaway in Sandbanks, a Daniel Galvin Jr make-over and an Alicia J Diamonds amethyst ring helped to bring the total raised to more than £16,000.

“A heartfelt thanks to everybody involved for making it such a successful occasion and raising a lot of funds, which will help so many young women unlock their full potential,” summed up Galvin Jr.

princes-trust.org.uk