Convertyourfollowers.com was created to serve one major purpose; to educate brands and individuals on how to convert their social media followers to customers. Sophie saw that even major brands failed to convert fans to sales, so she set up convertyourfollowers.com to educate the world and help business owners improve their sales. 

The proven process was first tested on a giveaway collaboration with BALMAIN and a celebrity entrepreneur. Within 24 hours, they received 950 email subscribers which were then retargeted with email marketing campaigns. Sales of the entrepreneur's beauty brand were up by 38% that month with no cost. The process was so successful that Shark Tank's Kevin Harrington said, “This is such a niche and unique business model which I think is a lifeline for businesses.” 

Sophie is now shattering glass ceilings by educating business owners and individuals on how to implement this process themselves to cut out the costly marketing middlemen. Typically, this service would cost thousands of dollars a month, but her goal is to help business owners save their businesses or ensure that they thrive rather than survive the aftermath of COVID. She has won multiple awards for her pro bono efforts to support business owners throughout the pandemic.

Since winning the Gold Stevie Award for Company of the Year, Sophie started to launch her book, How to Convert Your Social Media Followers to Customers. Additionally, Sophie has been featured on billboards in Times Square as an example of an inspirational immigrant who launched two patented technology brands in the past year. Following the success of the BALMAIN campaign, she integrated a $200 voting poll plugin on the celebrity entrepreneur's website and launched a monthly makeup contest to tap into her army of influencers for her makeup and beauty brands. The influencers used their own social channels to ask for votes from their followers, driving 63,000 unique visitors to the celebrity entrepreneur's blog within 24 hours. Many of these visitors gave their email addresses and were retargeted via marketing campaigns which saw sales of her brands increase by 70% the following month. 

Convertyourfollowers.com won Gold for Company of the Year – Business Products – 10 or Less Employees at the 2021 Stevie® Awards for Women in Business.

Interested in submitting a nomination for the 2022 (19th Annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business?

Mission Partners is a social impact communications firm and Certified B Corporation that uses the power of communication to advance social justice. Based in Maryland, their team is made up of passionate women that guide organizations to be more authentic in their words, equitable in their strategies, and intentional about their impact. Through their work, Mission Partners use communications to bridge differences, address injustice, and act in the spirit of service with communities for more just and equitable outcomes. They specialize in offering their services to companies in critical moments of organizational change to help them maintain or improve their levels of success. 

Since its founding in 2017, Mission Partners have counseled hundreds of foundations, nonprofit organizations, and social impact organizations as well as the partners who fund and support their work. Additionally, they have helped organizations refine their strategies, increase their impact and amplify their stories in order to inspire other entrepreneurs. And we regularly invest our own dollars and time back into the clients we represent. They regularly invest their own revenue and time back into the clients they represent, as their goal is to share and strengthen powerful ideas that will improve our world. 

Since receiving their Silver Stevie Award for Women-Run Workplace of the Year - 10 or Less Employees, their commitment to service has been demonstrated in several ways. Mission Partners have participated in community volunteering and monthly learning labs, given paid time off to vote and participate in elections, and had a collective commitment to skills-based volunteering. Recently, they met their goal of delivering $100,000 in skills-based pro bono services to Black-led organizations in 2021, doubling their originally intended amount.

Additionally, after the onset of the pandemic, they focused on creating simple and authentic ways to support their team. Mission Partners rolled out new employee benefits, including paycheck advances, a stipend to support home office expenses, and an allotment of additional time off to support staff through the year. They also instituted a COVID response strategy for client projects, which included significantly discounted rates and granted pro-bono work to existing clients and community partners. The support of their clients and team maintained Mission Partners goal of providing equitable and intentional care in the business world.

Mission Partners won the Silver Stevie Award for Women-Run Workplace of the Year - 10 or Less Employees in the 2021 Stevie Awards for Women in Business

Interested in submitting a nomination for the 2022 (19th Annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business?

Viola Palescandolo is a former naval engineer, and luxury market expert, who founded Black Platinum Gold B.V. in 2017. Viola always had a passion to become an entrepreneur, and after gaining international expertise in the luxury industry, she decided to give a deeper meaning  to the word “luxury.” She founded Black Platinum Gold with no associates or investors, to empower dreamers to go after their goals, and created the first travel auctions platform that makes luxury more accessible without markdowns. Her vision revolved around the difference between price and value, for travelers that want to bring home new values from their journeys.

Her business model is based on a virtuous cycle, which generates value for all the involved parties, including travelers, hotels, and destinations, going beyond simple services in exchange of a fee. Hotels benefit from this agreement because it’s based on barter agreements and they receive, while travelers are able to add significant value within their budget.

Despite the pandemic, Black Platinum Gold has seen over 1,000,000 unique website visitors, partnering with over 100 high-end destinations and hospitality brands and offering auctions in more than 20 countries. Additionally, Black Platinum Gold launched its first official app available worldwide. With this success, Viola’s next goal is to start giving back, with a project that revolves around supporting local initiatives, focusing on environmental sustainability and animal rights as beneficiaries of part of the auctions’ revenue.

Since receiving her Bronze Stevie Award for Female Solo Entrepreneur of the Year, Viola has partnered with major hospitality brands including The Ritz Carlton, Nobu, Kempinski, among others. Black Platinum Gold has expanded to a global platform that is accessible to all travelers, and with this she has received international press coverage by the most influential luxury travel magazines and portals. Viola was invited by David Meltzer to his show for an interview on "how to reinvent the luxury travel business during the pandemic."

Additionally, Black Platinum Gold is about to launch a first-of-its-kind Luxury Travel Auction NFT. Along with the usual benefits of this digital collectible, the winner of the auction for this product will also receive an exclusive travel experience on Lake Como. Together with 15 other guests, the winner will spend New Years in luxury accommodation with other perks including a live music performance on New Year’s Eve, a professional photographer, and all-inclusive food and beverage. Viola's goal with this new project is to combine the tourism and crypto industry together and bring out the best in both. 

Viola Palescandolo won the Bronze Stevie Award for Female Solo Entrepreneur of the Year in the 2021 Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

Interested in submitting a nomination for the 2022 (19th Annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business?

Die Stevie® Awards, Veranstalter der weltweit führenden Wirtschaftspreisprogramme, haben die Ausschreibung für die 19. jährlich stattfindenden Stevie Awards for Women in Business 2022 veröffentlicht. Die Teilnahmeunterlagen und alle Details zum Wettbewerb sind unter http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women erhältlich.

Die Auszeichnungen werden von den Machern der renommierten American Business Awards® and International Business Awards® produziert.

Die Stevie Awards for Women in Business würdigen die Leistungen berufstätiger Frauen in mehr als 100 Kategorien, darunter "Unternehmerin des Jahres", "Weibliche Führungskraft des Jahres", "Mentorin oder Coachin des Jahres", "Preis für das Lebenswerk", "Gleiche Bezahlung", "Frauen helfen Frauen", "Mitarbeiterin des Jahres", "Von Frauen geführtes Unternehmen des Jahres" und "Innovatorin des Jahres". Nominiert werden können alle weiblichen Unternehmerinnen, weibliche Führungskräfte, Mitarbeiterinnen und von Frauen geführte Organisationen weltweit.

Der Einsendeschluss für Frühbucherinnen ist der 29. Juni, der endgültige Einsendeschluss ist der 27. Juli, und verspätete Einsendungen werden bis zum 24. August gegen Zahlung einer Verspätungsgebühr angenommen. Die Finalistinnen werden am 22. September bekannt gegeben, und die Gold-, Silber- und Bronze-Stevie-Gewinnerinnen werden bei einer Preisverleihung am 12. November in Las Vegas bekannt gegeben.

Zu den neuen Kategorien in diesem Jahr gehören: Unternehmensleistung in Diversität & Inklusion, Unternehmensleistung in Nachhaltigkeit und eine Reihe Social Media Award Kategorien für Einzelpersonen und beste Social Media Präsenzen. 

Die Gold-, Silber- und Bronze-Gewinnerinnen des Stevie Awards for Women in Business im Jahr 2021 spiegeln eine vielfältige Gruppe von großen und kleinen Organisationen rund um den Globus wider. Zu den Gewinnerinnen des letzten Jahres gehörten unter anderem:

• DHL Global Forwarding, Bonn, Germany: Woman at DHL Global Forwarding, Freight (DGFF)
• F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Basel, Switzerland: Jessica Bensch, Engagement Partner, Culture Coalition Lead
• Philip Morris International, Lausanne, Switzerland: Marian Salzman, Senior Vice President, Communications
• AlterContacts, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Julia Skupchenko, Co-Founder & Head of SDG Actions
• Veeam, Baar, Switzerland: Lindsey Costello, Director of Design & Development
• EuroHR Solutions, Lummen, Belgium: Inez Vermeulen, Founder & CEO
• Pushed Ltd, Plymouth, Devon, United Kingdom: Karen Meadows, Marketing Director
• Kelley Higney, Founder & CEO, Bug Bite Thing, St. Lucie, FL USA
• Carolyn Aronson, Founder & CEO, It’s a 10 Haircare, Miami, FL USA
• Anita Aherne, Founder, Kids on the Spectrum, Melbourne, Australia
• Kitty Chaney Reed, Vice President of Enterprise Operations, IBM, Armonk, NY USA
• Teresa Sternhagen, General Manager, Toshiba America Business Solutions, Lake Forest, CA USA
• Mani Thiru, Space Industry Development Asia Pacific, Amazon Web Services, Singapore
• Sherry Comes, Managing Director of the Cognitive and Analytics Practice, Deloitte, London, UK
• Sarita Rao, President of AT&T Integrated & Partner Solutions, Dallas, TX USA
• Ellen Polansky, Managing Director and Coordinating Partner, EY, New York, NY USA
• Bitcoin of America, Chicago, IL USA
• Rufus & Coco, Sydney, NSW Australia
• HYYH / EQUO International, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Forbes, Jersey City, NJ USA
• Halkbank, Istanbul, Turkey
• City of Philadelphia - Division of Aviation, Philadelphia, PA USA
• Visa Client Care in partnership with Visa Operational Resilience, Austin, TX USA
• Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA USA
• SiriusXM Radio, Pompano Beach, FL USA

Die Stevie Awards for Women in Business 2022 werden von mehr als 200 führenden Fachleuten auf der ganzen Welt beurteilt, und die Nominierten haben Zugang zu allen Kommentaren und Vorschlägen der Jury zu ihren Nominierungen.

Ergreifen auch Sie die Chance für Ihre Leistungen bei den 19. Stevie Awards for Business ausgezeichnet zu werden und reichen Sie noch heute Ihre Nominierung ein.  

Greenville Developments is a women-owned business headed by Australian business woman, Beverley Honig. The company repurposes unused shipping containers into remarkable spaces including pop-up shops, offices, student accommodations, and most importantly homes for victims of bushfires. In addition to providing sometimes critical living spaces for Australians, Greenville is committed to sustainability in their work.

Beginning with the very foundation of its company, Greenville works to reduce waste by recycling abandoned shipping containers to create shelters and workspaces that do not compromise on safety and longevity. Additionally, the building process for these structures produces a carbon reduction factor of 78% compared to traditional build. This statistic is encouraging given that materials and construction processes throughout the whole building life cycle is responsible for 11% of all carbon emissions in the world. Greenville's goal is to encourage others to decarbonize the sector by eliminating carbon emissions associated with the construction process. 

Greenville is also able to maintain a rapid building process, due to the repurposed shipping containers. Compared to a traditional build, the shipping container structures reduce the time to build by 70% and cost of build by 50% due to the rapid build offsite process and the use of smart materials. 

Since earning the Bronze Stevie Award for Startup of the Year - Business Products Industries, Greenville Developments has partnered with one of the largest global oil and gas companies in Australia to build hi-tech mobile FutureLabs for collaborative STEM research. The FutureLab concept sprang from the desire to create mobile eco-pods to enable inspiration for innovators, universities, and STEM graduates. The growing demand for fast affordable homes has caused them to produce these eco-friendly pods in a way that is more efficient than ever before. 

Through this partnership, Greenville has secured a global presence and has set up partnerships with global channels in Asia and Europe. Its products have been used by universities and communities to develop world leading research and development. Greenville continues to focus on innovation, raising standards in sustainable building, striving to achieve carbon neutrality with eco-friendly building material and practices, and producing innovative and resilient structures. Ultimately, the company hopes to help organizations and people innovate and grow, and help save our planet through the use of carbon neutral materials.

Greenville Developments won the Bronze Stevie Award for Startup of the Year - Business Products Industries.

Interested in submitting a nomination for the 2022 (19th Annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business?

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, has issued the call for entries for its 2022 (19^th annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Entry kits and complete details on the competition are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

The awards are produced by the creators of the prestigious American Business Awards® and International Business Awards®.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor the achievements of working women in more than 100 categories, including Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Mentor or Coach of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Achievement in Equal Pay, Women Helping Women, Employee of the Year, Woman-Owned or -Run Company of the Year and Innovator of the Year. All female entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run, worldwide, are eligible to be nominated.

The early-bird entry deadline is June 29, the final entry deadline is July 27, and late entries will be accepted through August 24 with payment of a late fee. Winners will be announced on September 22, and the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie winners will be honored at an awards ceremony on November 12 in Las Vegas.

New categories this year include Achievement in Diversity & Inclusion, Achievement in Sustainability, and a variety of Social Media Awards categories for individuals and best social media pages. 

The 2021 Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners reflected a diverse group of large and small organizations around the globe. Winners included, among others: 

• Kelley Higney, Founder & CEO, Bug Bite Thing, St. Lucie, FL USA
• Carolyn Aronson, Founder & CEO, It’s a 10 Haircare, Miami, FL USA
• Anita Aherne, Founder, Kids on the Spectrum, Melbourne, Australia
• Kitty Chaney Reed, Vice President of Enterprise Operations, IBM, Armonk, NY USA
• Teresa Sternhagen, General Manager, Toshiba America Business Solutions, Lake Forest, CA USA
• Mani Thiru, Space Industry Development Asia Pacific, Amazon Web Services, Singapore
• Sherry Comes, Managing Director of the Cognitive and Analytics Practice, Deloitte, London, UK
• Sarita Rao, President of AT&T Integrated & Partner Solutions, Dallas, TX USA
• Ellen Polansky, Managing Director and Coordinating Partner, EY, New York, NY USA
• Bitcoin of America, Chicago, IL USA
• Rufus & Coco, Sydney, NSW Australia
• HYYH / EQUO International, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Forbes, Jersey City, NJ USA
• Halkbank, Istanbul, Turkey
• City of Philadelphia - Division of Aviation, Philadelphia, PA USA
• Visa Client Care in partnership with Visa Operational Resilience, Austin, TX USA
• Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA USA
• SiriusXM Radio, Pompano Beach, FL USA

The 2022 Stevie Awards for Women in Business will be judged by more than 200 leading professionals around the world, and nominees will have access to all the judges’ comments and suggestions about their nominations.

Optimum works to transform businesses through the power of its people, innovative technologies, and automated processes. Even during the pandemic, Optimum has significantly grown its client base, team size, and revenue without financial assistance from a male-dominated industry. Optimum strives to help companies modernize their business systems by utilizing their optimized processes, modern technologies, and exceptional customer experiences. 

Since earning her Stevie Award for Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Products, Nooshin continues to lead Optimum which started with minimal capital investment during the difficult economy and market of 2014 in a male-dominated industry, but gained rapid momentum and growth as every single person working at Optimum, from the executive leadership to junior staff, believes in integrity, transparency, quality, great customer experience, and smart work.

Optimum's growth since 2019 has been 87% growth in number of employees and 117% growth in revenue. Additionally, the company now helps many more private, public, and government organizations develop new ways to make their business processes more efficient and "humancentric." Nooshin’s goal at Optimum is to put their people first. As the workforce takes care of clients, she strives to find new organizations that share the same vision and work style as Optimum.

Nooshin Yazhari won the Stevie Award for Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Products.

Interested in submitting a nomination for the 2022 (19th Annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business?

Alexi Paxinos is a hardworking and dedicated tourism marketer. Her competitive and ambitious attitude has catapulted her career forward as she works on building her confidence, brand, and advocacy. This dedication to her work has caused her to be promoted many times over during her first five years at the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC). Her work at the SATC has been particularly impactful as she created a tourism campaign that aimed to support the South Australian tourism sector which had been impacted by the decrease in visitation due to the COVID-19 pandemic and South Australian bushfires that occurred one year prior.

The tourism campaign, which rolled out in less than 90 days from inception, saw nearly 45,500 people make bookings with more than 220 South Australian tour and experience providers, providing an immediate cash injection to these businesses during the traditionally quieter winter months. The end result of this project saw a $12 million increase in economic impact for the state of South Australia and a difference in the lives of many local small tourism business owners.Her work on this project helped her earn her the Gold Stevie Award for Female Employee of the Year. Since then, several iterations of Alexi’s campaigns have been launched by the SATC, and continue to help the South Australian tourism industry recover from the challenges of COVID-19. Focused on the implementation of the SATC’s Wellness Tourism Sector Plan across the state, Alexi is working with various stakeholders to enable South Australia to be positioned and recognized as a leading global wellness destination. So far, she has worked with a number of operators to create new and enhance existing tourism offerings in this sector. She's also working to enact organizational change by influencing decision-makers to encourage the switch to electronic, paperless, COVID-friendly, and eco-friendly business cards and creating better efficiencies across work processes by utilizing software and other technologies.

In addition to her work at the SATC, Alexi became Deputy Chair of Spence Club Inc. in May 2021. Through this, Alexi and her team have led the delivery of a record number of events and achieved the highest event attendance since the Club’s inception in 2015, contributed to the Club’s abolishment of the membership age limit, facilitated closer collaboration with charity partners, and provided increased benefits and scholarship opportunities to professional women in South Australia. 

In the tourism space, Alexi took on the role of Chair of the Young Australian Tourism Export Council of South Australia in June 2021, where she helped build a committee of five, compared to other Australian states with only one committee member. Through this, Alexi and the team have continued to support young tourism professionals through the impact of COVID by continuing to provide professional development opportunities and ongoing events. 

In March 2021, Alexi joined the She Creates committee, a female-led initiative of the Adelaide Advertising and Design Club aimed at developing, promoting, and inspiring women in creative communications in Adelaide. Four months in, Alexi sourced sponsorship that impacted the bottom line of She Creates, creating the ability to deliver longer, higher-quality, and more frequent development opportunities for women in the industry. Alexi is also in the early stages of launching an international education agency to encourage overseas students to study in Australia. Impacted by the COVID pandemic and Australian border closures, Alexi and the team have been using the time to re-evaluate the business goals and identify ways to increase accessibility to Australian education for more people, including those from lower-income family backgrounds.

Alexi Paxinos won the Gold for Female Employee of the Year - Government or Non-Profit in the 2021 Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

Interested in submitting a nomination for the 2022 (19th Annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business?

Kelli Thompson is a leadership coach, speaker, and writer with over 15 years of experience in corporate America and over 10 years in leadership for financial services and technology organizations. Based in Omaha, Nebraska, she founded the Clarity & Confidence Women's Leadership Program, a nationwide, online leadership development program for women leaders. Through this program, she has coached and trained hundreds of women to trust themselves, lead with more confidence, and create a career they love. Her work has since been featured in HuffPost, Next Avenue, Working Mother, Thrive Global, Introvert Dear, HR Daily Advisor, LinkedIn, and via her blog and social media channels. 

In November 2018, Kelli left corporate America to start her leadership coaching practice, but by July 2020, Kelli had lost over 80% of her income due to pandemic-related canceled contracts and events. Kelli used the gap in her schedule as an opportunity to pivot her business to focus exclusively on coaching women leaders. Through her years of corporate experience, Kelli recognized that there was a lack of training programs that focused specifically on women’s strengths and addressed the unique challenges they face in the workplace.

Even so, she was not aware at the time of how important this work would be in the upcoming months as women were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Kelli’s coaching work focused on issues that include how to speak up at work, manage the extra workload that women frequently carry, set boundaries, and navigate career changes to find better pay and work-life balance.

The reinvention of Kelli’s business strategy additionally included offering a unique 8-week leadership program that focuses exclusively on the needs of women. Topics include discovering your leadership strengths, learning to trust your intuition, reducing workloads through delegation, and imposter syndrome. Unlike many traditional leadership programs, Kelli doesn’t help women conform to who their organizations want them to be. Instead, she helps them cultivate their unique gifts and talents so that they can show up as who they are meant to be. 

Kelli asked two clients about what made her work different…

Winners in three categories sponsored by HCL Technologies, to recognize the achievements of female technology leaders, were announced today in the 18^th Stevie® Awards for Women in Business, an international competition that shines a spotlight on women executives, entrepreneurs, employees, and organizations run by women.

The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie winners will be honored during a virtual awards ceremony on Thursday, January 13.

Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners in all other categories in the competition were announced on September 23.

More than 1,500 nominations from organizations and individuals around the world were submitted this year for consideration in categories such as COVID-19 Response, Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, and Startup of the Year, among others. More than 160 business professionals working in eight specialized judging committees determined the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners.

The winners in the categories sponsored by HCL Technologies, a leading global technology company, are as follows:

Excellence in Redefining the Next-Gen Workplace
GOLD STEVIE® WINNER:
BP plc, Houston, TX USA: Tracy Pyle, Head of Citizen Digital Center
SILVER STEVIE® WINNER:
Ascension Health, Milwaukee, WI USA: Meghan Hendricks, Vice President of Relationship and Demand Management
BRONZE STEVIE® WINNER:
T-Mobile, Bellevue, WA USA: Elizabeth Hunter, Senior Vice President – Technology

Leading Through Uncertainty
GOLD STEVIE® WINNER:
Rogers Communications, Toronto, ON Canada: Shannon Bell, Senior VP - IT
SILVER STEVIE® WINNER:
Stanley Black & Decker, West Hartford, CT USA: Leslie Scott, VP & CIO, IT Enterprise Services
BRONZE STEVIE® WINNERS:
SiriusXM Radio, Pompano Beach, FL USA: Christa Petros, Vice President, Product Development
The Standard, Portland, OR USA: Kelli Wilson, AVP, IT Infrastructure and Operations

New-Normal Digital Transformer
GOLD STEVIE® WINNERS:
BMO Financial Group, Toronto, ON Canada: Bindhu Alvar Thiruvenkadathan, CIO, Wealth Management
InterContinental Hotels Group, Atlanta, GA USA: Michelle Griffith, VP, Security Governance, Risk & Compliance
SILVER STEVIE® WINNERS:
Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA USA: Deepika Manglani, VP, Product and Program Management
Merck & Co. Inc., North Wales, PA USA: Denise Allen-Williams, Vice President
Weyerhaeuser, Seattle, WA USA: Amanda McKinstry, IT Senior Director - Enterprise Systems

“We heartily congratulate all of the 2021 HCL’s Red Ladder Women in Technology category winners. On year two of the COVID-19 pandemic, these organizations and leaders have shown that they are able to adapt to anything thrown their way and pivot to an enhanced virtual climate,” said Maggie Miller, Stevie Awards president.

Visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women for a complete list of Stevie winners by category. Registration for the January 13 virtual awards ceremony closes on January 7.