Fund Her North: InspireHER Talks with Dr Beatrice Lafon, Chair at The Handbag Clinic and NED

Are you a female entrepreneur looking for some business inspiration?

Introducing our second InspireHER Talks with Dr Beatrice Lafon, Chair at The Handbag Clinic and experienced Non-Executive Director

Beatrice Lafon is a NED/Chair, experienced in Financial & Operational Restructuring, CVA, and M&A, a Business Coach helping Founder led businesses scale up and an Ex Chief Executive with an outstanding record in the launch, rapid turnaround and profitable development of major Retail Businesses in the UK, Europe and the USA. She brings over 35 years of Pan European and US retail experience, underpinned by a tremendous record for achieving results, fast.

Beatrice has extensive Executive experience in Buying & Merchandising, Strategy and Proposition Development, coupled with strong Operational and Leadership skills. She has worked for blue chip retailers such as Marks & Spencer, J Sainsbury's (where she launched the first DIY transactional website in the world in 2000), BSkyB (part of News Corp) and the Kingfisher Group, sizeable private businesses such as Pimkie, River Island, Tchibo and Animal and PE backed businesses such as Claire’s, TJHughes, and Kondor. Beatrice operated at CEO level for nearly 20 years across the UK, Europe and the USA, she is known for her “turn around" expertise. She led the sale of TJ Hughes in the UK, the repositioning and return to profitability of The Etam Group in The Netherlands, the recovery of Claire’s Stores Inc (USA), the recovery of Pimkie (France) and the repositioning and sale of Kondor (UK) to DCC Plc.

Since 2016 she has been building a plural career, initially joining SuperDry as NED. She was a NED for HappyChic (Jules, Brice, Bizzbee) based in France and for Oosterdam (Pimkie, Orsay, Grain De Malice, Rouge Gorge) based in The Netherlands, until her interim CEO appointment to help recover Pimkie. She remained a NED at Orsay GMBH. In 2020, as Chair of TMLewin, a leading global menswear brand backed by Bain Capital, she led the business through CV19 and its sale as a going concern to SCP. She also joined the board of Pizza Express Group PLC, to help drive its Restructuring. She helped Solent Group x2.5 its ebitda in 3 years and Exit to The Humble Group in 2021.

She is currently Chair at The Handbag Clinic, Chair at Wave Direct Ltd, Chair at Crosstown, NED at PENTI (Turkey), NED at Orsay (Germany) and NED at Spartoo SA (France), the leading Footwear & Apparel Marketplace in Europe, selling over 20 pairs of shoes every second.

InspireHER Talks:

The InspireHER series of events spotlights a prominent female leader to share their experiences and learnings from their journey through the process of raising investment at different stages of business growth.

Each session features a facilitated Q&A session to pose direct questions and take inspiration from women who have built, led and exited businesses with the benefit of external funding.

Agenda:

12:00 - 12:05: Welcome and introduction to Fund Her North

12:05 - 12:55: Speaker story (Dr Beatrice Lafon, Chair at The Handbag Clinic and Experienced Non-Executive Director and Sarah Hex, Fund Her North representative at Mercia Asset Management)

12:55 - 13:00: Closing remarks

About Fund Her North:

Fund Her North is a Northern-based, volunteer collective of over 30 women (in PE, VC’s, funding organisations and angel groups), with a combined investment power of over £650 million. Each of the members of the Fund Her North collective has already made a lasting effect on female entrepreneurs in the North, with a combined investment track record of over £160 million invested in female-led, start-up businesses.

Fund Her North exists to give northern, female entrepreneurs equal access to funding to help them successfully scale their businesses. We do this by providing connections, education, and by holding their hands through the fundraising process. We support women founders through every stage of their growth journey, from start up, to scale up and exit.

As a first of its kind in the region, Fund Her North has built a network of over 200 members and a 30-strong Women Angels of the North syndicate to support female founders operating across the innovation and creative sectors in the North with access to investment.

Through a programme of events throughout the year, Fund Her North aims to educate and inspire women entrepreneurs across a series of topics and facilitate the development of supportive networks.

www.fundhernorth.com