Entrepreneur & Humanitarian

Jacinta McDonell launched the highly successful US franchise Anytime Fitness with her brother Justin into Australia in 2008. With over 2700 clubs and 2 million members worldwide, it has become the quickest growing segment of the world s fastest growing fitness chain, and is Australia’s number one health club chain.

As well as setting up and managing Australia’s most successful fitness brand, owning 20 franchises with her brother, and being a mother of three young children, Jacinta’s entrepreneurial spirit has led to the development of several other business and personal ventures over the past 12 months, making her a true inspiration to Australian business women.

In late 2015 Jacinta launched Urban Yoga – a world first yoga concept.  The flagship studio is based in Surry Hills, find out more about URBAN YOGA.

A strong advocate of using Business For Good – Jacinta established The Human Kind Project last year, which is a for-purpose foundation that enables businesses to build brand equity whilst creating social change. She and her team now work tirelessly to fund and support organisations that deliver change in the world.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HUMAN KIND PROJECT

Entrepreneur

In the short time since launching in 2013 on the Logies Red Carpet, the Karen Gee Collection has developed a strong and feminine aesthetic with a loyal and diverse following. Founded on three core values – simplicity, elegance & timeless – this brand is one that encompasses the very essence of these principles through its beautifully crafted garments and attention to detail.

It embodies the notion of self-worth, confidence and inner beauty – simply enhanced by the likes of unique and custom designs made with the utmost care and love. It offers exclusive pieces that flaunt every facet of the female form, and it has produced not just a designer and clientele, but a family. Welcome to the world of Karen Gee.

With an emphasis on style and elegance, the brand was founded on Karen’s desire to define beauty in far broader terms. Each and every design promises the perfect fit – featuring flattering shapes, simple silhouettes and superior cuts. The Karen Gee Brand celebrates ALL women – regardless of shape, size, background or taste. Every woman deserves to feel special, and every woman IS beautiful.

Entrepreneur

Monique is the co-founder of b.box for kids – an Australian company that designs and manufactures innovative baby products. In 2009, together with business partner Dannielle Michaels, the duo started b.box with an idea and together they have built the company from a one product business to a multi-award winning brand. b.box is currently distributed in over 750 stores nationally and in over 20 countries, with more on the way.

Most recently, the duo has won the Australian Government’s 2015 Australian Small Business Exporter of the Year Award, the Governor of Victoria 2015 Award for Women in International Business, and the 2016 Telstra Victorian Small Business of the Year Award. They were also last year’s winners of the St George Bank Ausmumpreneur of the Year

As co-founder, Monique is responsible for the day to day operations and finance of the business. She is also responsible for all production and manufacturing, including liaising and sourcing with our factories in China.

Prior to starting b.box, Monique worked in the energy trading industry in risk management, prior to that worked with leading “Big 4” professional services firm PwC. Monique is a chartered accountant.

RHIAN ALLEN Founder and CEO of The Healthy Mummy

www.healthymummy.com

Rhian Allen is the Founder and CEO of Australia’s largest parenting health site for mums, The Healthy Mummy. With a passion for health and nutrition, Rhian Allen established The Healthy Mummy in 2010 and 7 years later The Healthy Mummy has over 1 million following across social media as well as over 900,000 unique page views each month on the website. 

Now a mum of two, Rhian is committed to supporting women and mothers through their health journey, and providing them with the product, tools and support to reach their health and weight loss goals.  The Healthy Mummy provides content on all facets of parenting, including healthy recipes, lifestyle, exercise, pregnancy and children. Included in the Healthy Mummy offering are the 28 Day Weight Loss Challenge App, Healthy Mummy smoothies, exercise DVD’s, super green supplements, kids smoothies, kids books, fitness clothing and over 45 recipe books, all of which are best sellers and are used by 100’s of thousands of mums all over the world. The Healthy Mummy has now helped mums lose more than 3 million kilo’s, over 1 million members across her website and social platforms and on track to turn over $20 million in 2018 with a $12 million turnover on 2017. Rhian appears across TV, newspaper publications, magazines, radio and online publications on a regular basis and is a leading Woman in business with The Healthy Mummy being the fastest and biggest growing Mums only health and weight loss company world wide.

CEO of Candice Meisels PR

Candice Meisels is a PR Consultant specialising in start-ups and small businesses. Her objective is to assist start-ups and entrepreneurs achieve brand awareness and media coverage with limited budget. Candice has worked in PR management, strategy and implementation for the last decade. She has worked for companies based in Europe, the UK and South Africa and Australia.Career highlights include representing major video game Publishers,working in European PR for Disney in London and setting up my own PR consultancy specialising in start-ups, SMEs and everything in between.