Debbie is Regional Director for West Berkshire , and currently  manages several groups in the area encompassing, Hungerford, Newbury, Thatcham, Aldermaston, Theale and Pangbourne. She discovered the power of networking in 2008 and was committed to helping others realise the benefits, from that moment on.

After qualifying as a Management Accountant while working for the John Lewis Partnership, Debbie worked in a variety of financial roles for companies such as Price Waterhouse , IBM and HP.  While at IBM she  qualified in Sales, and then moved into  Marketing in Hewlett-Packard,  where  she worked in a variety of roles for the last 17 years.  Until recently Debbie worked for HP focussing on the Financial Services Industry, in international marketing.  Debbie has now left corporate life so she can focus on her Athena role, as she would like to become more  involved with supporting and working with small and medium sized businesses locally.  Following her qualification as an NLP practitioner she plans to develop further, her skills as a business and personal coach and expects them to enhance her skills as an Athena RD.

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Co Regional Director for the North Surrey Region.

Having worked for a number of years as a secretary in a large IT company and a Corporate Solicitors, Tricia moved into IT, initially as a Systems Trainer, then progressing onto an IT Consultant working on Corporate and Government contracts.

As a mum of three children, Tricia decided to set up her own business, consolidating her secretarial and bookkeeping training with her IT skills.  Her company Mundane Tasks supports small businesses with their administration and bookkeeping requirements, which would otherwise divert their attention from the core business function.

Tricia joined the Richmond group of The Athena Network and soon became to appreciate the value of such networking support for women in business.

Regional Director,   Brighton & Hove

Tracey is the Regional Director for The Athena Network in the Brighton and Hove areas.

Tracey has worked in both the travel and marketing sector prior to starting her own Financial Education business 3 years ago.

Genistar is the business that Tracey and her husband Scott have been building along with another Electrical Contracting business, City Electrical and Building Services.

Through their team effort and hard work both businesses are now very successful.  The businesses have grown through building good relationships with clients who are happy to refer via word of mouth.

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Regional Director, West Chilterns

Sylvia was born and bred in Glasgow and left school with excellent qualifications, pursued a career in nursing, midwifery and intensive care and was rapidly promoted to ‘Theatre Sister’ in Open Heart Surgery.

With an intense interest in health and nutrition she started her own Health Food business and ran an independent shop and a franchise in House of Fraser, Glasgow.  After a move to the south of England, Sylvia worked for several years in sales in the Pharmaceutical Industry where she had excellent training in sales/marketing and presenting.

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Regional Director, Essex Central

Regional Director for The Athena Network’s Essex Central area.  Sue has an extensive wealth of knowledge in the corporate market gained from her 20-year career with the HSBC Bank; Working in business banking, having responsibility for a portfolio of SME accounts taught her the key skills required to successfully support today’s business.

Yellow Pages gave her the best sales and marketing training in the country, here she built an impressive track record winning her numerous awards for developing effective marketing strategies for local businesses this being fundamental to their year on year growth.

Today she successfully runs several companies from her home and is passionate about supporting the business ladies of Essex to do the same.

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Regional Director, South East Hertfordshire

Rosy Holt is the Regional Director for South East Herts and Enfield with fast growing groups of pro-active business women in Potters Bar, Barnet, Borehamwood and Radlett as well as Enfield.

Rosy joined Athena in 2008, when she was looking at networking opportunities to promote a business she only has time to dabble in these days, (event floristry).  She wanted something that was convenient enough to fit in with her other commitments and that could slot without too much trouble into her life style, she didn’t want anything too pressurised, but didn’t want to be classed as “a lady who lunched” either.  Although The Athena Network fitted the bill she did not join a group, she bought the franchise!

Rosy believes that there are many business ladies out there who would benefit both personally and professionally from the support and inspiring opportunities that Athena offer those that actively seek them.  It is very important that the groups Rosy runs are friendly and welcoming, enabling ladies from various professions to join together to share business knowledge, contacts and expertise in order to increase their businesses without feeling overpowered.

Following a long career in the travel industry based in Italy, Rosy co-owned and ran a successful hotel booking agency in central London for ten years, until on her way to work one morning she decided she wanted more much more from life and went about turning her life round and now is involved with a few carefully chosen businesses.

In September 2010 Rosy with another ten or so others, including a number of fellow Athena lladies, is going out to Tanzania to help renovate a primary school located at the foot of Kilimanjaro, close to the Kenya and Tanzania border.  The objective of the trip is to help renovate three classrooms, construct 14 toilet holes and start the construction of a safe clean kitchen at the primary school, not much to ask for by today’s standards.  If you are able to support us by attending any of our local events please do email Rosy for details.

One of the great rewards of running Athena groups is standing back and watching the results whether that is strategic alliances, new business, friendship and support, or just watching ladies reaching outside of their comfort zone and finding the experience quite enjoyable.

Rosy Holt

Regional Director – The Athena Network

Telephone: 01707 271466

Mobile: 07711 361368

Email: Click Here To Email Rosy

Regional Director for the City and West Essex regions

Due to her exposure to a diverse mix of people, Stella is a natural communicator who understands people, their lives and motivations with ease.

Since being involved with The Athena Network, Stella has been directly involved in the ‘art of networking’ and has had the opportunity to connect with Athena members in a friendly and supportive environment. She has spent time encouraging ladies to get to know each other better whilst hosting the Cappuccino Connections networking sessions – which have proved to be a real success for Athena members and non-members alike.

Outside of Athena, Stella has just started her own fledgling business JUSfitness. JUS is an organisation dedicated to ensuring independent businesses & individuals can come together under one singular branded banner and offer the benefits of their collective expertise in a particular field. In this case, as JUSfitness, Stella has assembled a team of specialists offering products and services dedicated to holistic fitness, health, beauty and well being.

With a banking & fitness background, Stella has an extremely loyal and respected client base and has a real passion for helping people which she continues to do within Athena.

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Regional Director, Thames Valley & Greater West London

Poonam Kanwar

Poonam is the Athena Network Regional Director for the Thames Valley & Greater West London regions.

After a successful corporate career with BT covering sales, training, new product development and marketing management Poonam was looking for something else! She had always wanted to work for herself and so when the opportunity came to venture out as an independent Consultant she jumped at it. The only problem was that Poonam found leaving the security of the corporate world was not only incredibly isolating but more importantly she soon realised she didn’t know where to look for help. She no longer had the internal directory that gave her access to all the functions she needed! On the recommendation Poonam attended her first ever networking event – an Athena meeting and she was hooked. Where else could you walk in to a room and meet almost all the professions you would need to either set your business up or help take it to the next level, whilst gaining new clients? Not only that but there you could also get help looking after your own wellbeing!  In the adapted words of Victor Kiam she loved it so much she bought the franchise!

In addition to The Athena Network Poonam also runs her Coaching & Consultancy business (www.seeds-of-success.co.uk) working with SME Business Owners and Young People (ages 8-19) helping to identify and achieve their fullest potential.

Through the very nature of her businesses Poonam meets many women both in business and personally. Poonam is passionate about networking in The Athena Way as she can see not only the opportunities it can bring other business women, but also the support system and personal development it promotes which is often missed when leaving the corporate world. Networking has brought her not only work, but genuine friends as well.

Poonam Kanwar

Regional Director – The Athena Network

Telephone: 07887 505913

Email:Click Here To Email Poonam

Regional Director, Eastbourne & Lewes

Michala is the Regional Director for the Athena Network in the Eastbourne and Lewes areas

Michala has worked for Lloyds TSB for 11 years and 2 years ago started a financial education business in Brighton called Genistar. Through working with people Michala found it extremely rewarding to help people with their financial situations and to provide them with a financial plan that suites there OWN life to reach their Own goals and dreams

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Regional Director, Edinburgh

Margot Grantham

Margot is the Athena Network Regional Director for the Edinburgh region.

As Regional Director for Edinburgh, Margot aims to have Athena Network groups meeting all round the city centre, the suburbs and Leith providing businesswomen with the connections and the support to develop and manage winning products and services.

Margot’s business background spans almost 25 years in business working across a range of disciplines. Her strengths lie in business development, marketing insights and strategy and she has recently used these to support the business mentoring programme run by the Scottish Chambers of Commerce in conjunction with Scottish Enterprise.

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