London's most influential entrepreneurs

DR LIZA OSAGIE-CLOUARD

Founder of Solice Health

Dr Liza Osagie-Clouard, an award-winning orthopaedic surgeon with a PhD in stem cell research, is passionate about harnessing science to promote wellbeing in a personalised setting. Patients who use private healthcare often opt for highly qualified professionals, but not necessarily those best equipped to manage their particular issue. Solice, Osagie-Clouard’s annual London-based membership programme, caters to clients’ individual health needs. The philosophy is empathetic care with the very best medics on speed dial.

JESSICA MCCORMACK

Founder of Jessica McCormack

Creativity is the easy part for jewellery designer Jessica McCormack. The hard part, she’s said in Kultura’s first issue, is running a business. But ever since she set up shop in a Mayfair townhouse with hand-picked antiques, art and furniture, Londoners have marvelled at her playful, beautiful collections — named things such as “Beaches” “Hello Sailor” and “Fruit Salad”. Having accrued scores of American devotees, including Zendaya and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, she’s opened a shop on New York’s Madison Avenue, setting the city abuzz.

CLARE HORNBY

Founder of ME+EM

You’ve heard of Clare Hornby’s hero fashion label ME+EM, but how much do you know about its creator? Hornby’s love of clothes was born during her childhood in Saddleworth, on the west side of the Pennines. She raided local fabric stores for Vogue patterns, which she used to make outfits to flatter her tall frame. That ethos of comfort and fit without a designer price tag carried through to Hornby’s first fashion venture, loungewear company Pyjama Room, which she launched in 2007. ME+EM, founded in 2009, is a byword for relaxed opulence.

ESHITA KABRA-DAVIES

Founder of By Rotation

Eshita Kabra-Davies’s inspiration for her fashion rental app, By Rotation, came from a honeymoon to her motherland, India. Disappointed by the lack of clothing rental options in the UK, and shocked by the level of textile waste in Rajasthan, she launched By Rotation in 2019. It exploded, with its user base growing 350 per cent in 2020. KabraDavies’s background as an investor equipped her with the analytical thinking vital for every entrepreneur. Sustainability and remaining digital are cornerstones of By Rotation’s ethos as it disrupts the fashion industry.

IRENE FORTE

Founder of Irene Forte skincare

Being an heiress opens doors, but for Irene Forte, the middle child of hotel mogul Sir Rocco Forte, it’s also come with baggage. When she launched her eponymous skincare brand in 2018, she had concerns about not being taken seriously. It’s fair to say they’ve been allayed, with her products available in more than 100 department stores and boutiques around the world — and popular in the US, where there are no Forte hotels. Their ingredients are naturally sourced from the family’s organic estate in Sicily. The Hibiscus Night Cream is a cult beauty classic.

RUTH ROGERS

Co-founder of River Café

Ruth Rogers CBE is co-founder of the River Café. Having grown up in the country and married an Italian, nothing could have made more sense than opening a restaurant specialising in dazzlingly simple food with fresh, complex flavours. Rogers opened the River Café in Hammersmith with friend Rose Gray in 1987, and has run it solo since Gray’s death in 2010. The restaurant earned a Michelin star in 1997; its kitchen is an incubator for talents including Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. To this day, Rogers remains its most regular customer.

MICHELLE KENNEDY

Founder of Peanut

As the former deputy CEO of Badoo and an inaugural board member of Bumble, Kennedy has long appreciated the value of online communities. When she became a mother in 2014, she immediately recognised the need for a space where women could connect during landmark moments in their lives. She left her role at Badoo, and Peanut was born. It’s since become one of the fastest-growing social networking apps for women. Kennedy’s fund, StartHER, challenges biases in venture capital and helps other female entrepreneurs on their journeys.

DAME ANYA HINDMARCH

Founder of Anya Hindmarch

Dame Anya Hindmarch discovered the special power of an excellent handbag at 16, when her mother passed on a Gucci cast-off. At 18, she lived in Florence for a year, and upon arriving home, she launched her eponymous label inspired by the drawstring leather duffle bags that were all the rage among chic Italian women. Just five years later, her bags were being sold in London, New York, Japan, France and Italy. She has a theory that youth and inexperience gave her an edge. “I’ve found people want to give you a leg up,” she told the New York Times in 1992.

TRINNY WOODALL

Founder of Trinny London

Businesswoman, TV host, author and style icon Trinny Woodall was a household name decades before she founded her cosmetics company Trinny London in 2017. It has become one of the fastest-growing brands in Europe, not least thanks to the trust Woodall has built across the decades with her dedicated audience. Her straight-talking style became her on-screen calling card on shows such as What Not to Wear, and she’s still sharing her frank, witty advice on Instagram, where she highlights female founders via her Elevator Pitch series.

MARCIA KILGORE

Founder of Beauty Pie and more

We have to assume Marcia Kilgore doesn’t hand out CVs at this point, because she’d never fit everything in. The Canadian entrepreneur has been a gymnast, bodybuilder and facialist, and she’s the founder of FitFlop, Bliss Spa, Soap & Glory, Soaper Duper and Beauty Pie. By her own account, it’s no biggie (“I just make things I want to buy,” she told The Guardian in 2022), but don’t be fooled: Kilgore sold a majority stake in Bliss Spa for a reported $30m in 1999, and Boots acquired Soap & Glory in 2014. Despite such achievements, we don’t see her stopping anytime soon…

ANNOUSHKA DUCAS MBE

Founder of Annoushka jewellery

Annoushka Ducas MBE is a British jewellery designer and the founder of Links of London and Annoushka. The brand has consistently produced countless examples of individual pieces that combine elegance, colour, vibrancy with a twist of bohemian spirit hewn into each item. Since 2020 she has been the host of the podcast Life in Charms, in which she interviews other inspiring women in business about the jewels that hold the most meaning and memories for them. Her work continues to celebrate storytelling through jewellery, blending personal meaning with timeless design.

FARAH KABIR

Co-founder of HANX

Farah Kabir was an asset manager at Goldman Sachs when she took the plunge and co-founded her sexual wellness brand in 2017. HANX is a women’s healthcare company with a mission to connect key life stages, from losing virginity, to pregnancy, to menopause, all while revolutionising attitudes around sex, pleasure and intimate health. Having come from a conservative family, Kabir was determined to create a brand that focused on open communication. The online shop’s Naked Truths forum offers a space for everyone to share honest discussions.

JO MALONE CBE

Founder of Jo Malone, Jo Loves and Jo Vodka

Jo Malone CBE is the definition of self-made. She grew up on a council estate, left school at 13 and founded Jo Malone London in 1990 at 27, taking inspiration from everyday scents that evoke emotions and memories. After leaving the company in 2006, she launched Jo Loves in 2011 and now lives between Dubai and Greece, where she continues to generate new business opportunities, guided by her five senses. Malone credits her achievements to her resilience in the face of setbacks, and her creative passion. “If you don’t feel it, no one else is going to,” she told This Morning.

CHARLOTTE TILBURY MBE

Founder of Charlotte Tilbury

Charlotte Tilbury MBE was already renowned as a makeup artist and beauty blogger when she launched her makeup and skincare line in Selfridges in 2013, but no one could have predicted the brand’s success. Its flagship store opened in Covent Garden just two years later. Tilbury’s experience working with photographers such as Mario Testino, designer Tom Ford and Kate Moss has ensured her finger is always on the pulse. She’s won more than 600 awards, worked on more than 100 Vogue covers, and was appointed an MBE in 2018.

SUSIE MA

Founder of Tropic Skincare

Tropic Skincare founder Susie Ma started her business at just 15, recreating her grandmother’s body scrub recipe and selling it at Greenwich market in hopes of helping her mother pay the bills. In 2010, she became the youngest contestant ever on The Apprentice, and remains the only runner-up to have secured investment from Lord Sugar. Since then, Tropic has blossomed into a multi-awardwinning business with more than 30,000 five-star reviews, all built on principles of sustainable, fresh, cruelty-free beauty.

ANNE BODEN

Founder of Starling Bank

Welsh tech mastermind Anne Boden MBE may be diminutive in stature, but she is a sheer titan when it comes to launching a business. Boden founded Starling Bank in 2014 as a digital alternative to high-street banks, and became the first woman to found a British bank in 2016. This firm was a runaway success, and Starling won “Best British Bank” at the British Bank Awards four years in a row, from 2018-2021. Boden stepped down as CEO in 2023, and has since shifted her focus to developing an artificial intelligence business.

MARIA HATZISTEFANIS

Founder of Rodial

Maria Hatzistefanis’s story didn’t begin auspiciously, but she sure turned it around. After being sacked from her job in banking, Hatzistefanis was working as a beauty writer when she spotted a gap in the market for targeted skincare products. She then launched her luxury beauty brand Rodial from her London home in 1999; it’s now available in 35 countries. A woman of many talents, Hatzistefanis then debuted as an author in 2017 with her Amazon hit How to Be An Overnight Success, and has followed up with two more motivational bestsellers.

SHARMADEAN REID MBE

Founder of WAH Nails and Beautystack

A pioneering British and Jamican entrepreneur and cultural innovator. She founded WAH Nails, a boutique nail salon brand blending street art, fashion, and beauty. Later, she launched Beautystack, a digital platform empowering beauty professionals to showcase and sell their services through image-first profiles. Awarded an MBE for services to entrepreneurship and diversity, she continues to drive creative disruption across beauty and tech industries.

VICTORIA PREW

Founder of HURR

Victoria Prew founded HURR, the UK’s leading fashion rental and resale marketplace, when she was just 25-years old. It was this feat that enshrined her place on Forbes’ and Drapers’ ‘30 Under 30’ lists. As CEO she has raised more than $10m of venture capital funding, built a team of more than 40 people and shares her insights with other rising founders.

CLARE GOODWIN

Founder of CGC

Claire Goodwin is a strategic communications expert who cut her teeth at Estée Lauder Companies, where she led the communications strategy globally at Bobbi Brown and Jo Malone London. In 2018, she founded CGC, an integrated communications and talent agency whose clients include Hermès Beauty, Augustinus Bader and Diptyque.

ORLAGH MCCLOSKEY

Co-founder of Rixo

Derry-born designer Orlagh McCloskey is the co-founder and creative director of Rixo, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. She plays an integral role in pushing the boundary’s to the brand’s design process, researching pattern and colour combinations and even hand-painting Rixo’s signature prints.

HENRIETTA RIX

Co-founder of Rixo

Henrietta Rix is the CEO and co-founder of London-based womenswear brand Rixo, known for its vintage-inspired prints and whimsical details. She and her business partner Orlagh McCloskey studied fashion management at the London College of Fashion and started the brand from their shared Fulham flat in their early twenties.

NADJA SWAROVSKI

Chair Emeritus of Swarovski

Nadja Swarovski joined the family business in the mid-1990s, a century after it was founded by her greatgreat-grandfather. She unlocked the brand’s potential, overseeing more than 500 successful collaborations and reshaping the firm’s image from Austrian trinket-maker to global tour-de-force. She stepped down as an executive board member in 2021, and last year she and her husband bought a majority share of British country wear brand Really Wild, with plans for a global revamp in the mix.

EMILIA WICKSTEAD

Founder of Emilia Wickstead

Emilia Wickstead’s elegant silhouettes are a favourite of the Princess of Wales, not to mention Rachel Zegler and Alexa Chung. As she tells it, her big break as a designer came when she phoned Vogue’s fashion editor pretending to be Wickstead’s assistant. The editor looked at her website, loved her work, and gave her a half-page spread. “That is part of who we are as New Zealanders. We get out and do it,” Wickstead said at iD Dunedin Fashion Week in 2016.

MELISSA ODABASH MBE

Founder of Melissa Odabash

Designing beachwear might seem a natural fit for a former swimwear model, but as Odabash told Forbes in May: “The swimwear and resortwear industry barely existed 25 years ago”. Odabash pioneered the evolution from swimwear as a seasonal product to a year-long lifestyle brand, and credits her survival in a now-saturated market to her resilience and ceaseless hard work. Forget long walks — Odabash unwinds by roller-blading by the beach at sunset.

BARONESS SAMANTHA CAMERON

Founder of Cefinn

The UK’s former First Lady is the founder and creative director of Cefinn, a womens-wear brand designed for busy, multi-tasking professional women. The business has gone international hosting a series of trunk shows in New York, Philadelphia and Texas. Before entering Downing Street in 2010 upon the Conservative Party’s victory in the general election, Cameron was also the creative director at Smythson, where she designed leather accessories for more than a decade.

CHRISSIE RUCKER

Founder of The White Company

As one of the the UK’s most succesful entrepreneurs, Chrissie Rucker OBE founded the homewares brand The White Company in 1994 with a small inheritance and a business loan. With early and unremarkable stints as a wedding dress designer and a receptionist at Condé Nast, Rucker segued into fashion journalism and, by way of her vision and self-determination transformed the mail-order company into one with a turnover exceeding £280m.

ANNABEL KARMEL MBE

Founder of Annabel Karmel

Annabel Karmel MBE is the UK’s leading children’s cookery author. Her first book, The Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner, was published in 1991 and endorsed by Great Ormond Street Hospital. She went on to write more than 50 cookbooks on subjects including feeding babies, children and families as well as eating in pregnancy and cooking with children.

MELISSA MORRIS

Founder of Métier

Born in Philadelphia and based in London, Melissa Morris studied sculpture before cutting her teeth in the ateliers of Armani and Helmut Lang. In 2017 she launched the luxury leather goods label Métier, which swiftly garnered a discerning and enviable fan base that includes the likes of Kate Middleton, Rachel Zegler and Nicole Kidman.

SERENA HOOD

Co-founder of Collagerie

Serena Hood is the co-founder and CEO of Collagerie, a curated shopping platform for fashion, beauty, interior and lifestyle products. As former executive fashion director at British Vogue, Hood led sold-out events and wrote countless style stories. She has also worked for US Vogue, Giorgio Armani and Marc Jacobs.

VERONICA CHOU

President of Novel Fashion Holdings

As the daughter of textile tycoon Silas Chou, Veronica Chou has worked hard to forge her own path in the fashion industry. Born in Hawaii, raised in Hong Kong and educated in the US, the globally minded businesswoman has helped spearhead the sustainable fashion movement with her eco-innovative brand Everybody & Everyone.

JENNIFER CHAMANDI

Founder of Jennifer Chamandi

Former investment banker Jennifer Chamandi left the trading floor behind in pursuit of her childhood dream of designing shoes. She founded her brand in 2016, throwing herself into the art of shoemaking by undertaking courses at Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion — even learning Italian in order to communicate with local Italian artisans.

CAGGIE DUNLOP

Founder of Saturn Returns Podcast

After leaving reality series Made in Chelsea, Caggie Dunlop delved into the world of astrology and began exploring the concept of the ‘Saturn Return’, an astrological transit that occurs roughly every 29 years. In 2019 she launched The Saturn Returns Podcast. Her book Saturn Returns, Your Cosmic Coming of Age was published in 2023.

ROXIE NAFOUSI

Coach, speaker & author

Roxie Nafousi is an author, selfdevelopment coach and motivational speaker. Her book Manifest: 7 Steps to Living Your Best Life was published in 2022. The bright-orange-cover-clad book garnered a cult following and was followed by Manifest: Dive Deeper, Manifest For Kids: 4 Steps to Being the Best You and Confidence: 8 Steps to Knowing Your Worth.

LARA MEAD

Co-founder of Varley

Lara Mead is the co-founder and chief creative officer of contemporary womenswear label Varley, which she launched with her husband Ben Mead in 2015. The pair opened Varley’s first flagship store on the King’s Road in Chelsea, before rolling out their other London store in 2023, and opening the first US store in SoHo, New York in 2024.

VENETIA ARCHER

Founder of Ruuby

Venetia Archer was working as a geopolitical risk analyst in Kenya and Somalia when she decided to trade it her globe-trotting position in for a career as a tech entrepreneur. Having noticed a gap in the market for on-demand beauty treatments, she launched Ruuby, a digital beauty concierge which has been dubbed the ‘Uber for beauty’.

ASTRID HARBORD

Co-founder of Blue Sky Friday and the Lady Garden Foundation

Prince Harry’s former flame was the memberships director for Birley Clubs, a co-founder of the private members platform Blue Sky Friday, and also co-founded the Lady Garden Foundation. This women’s health charity is integral in raising awareness and funding for gynaecological cancers through high-profile campaigns and events.

GEORGIE COLERIDGE

Founder of Sheerluxe

Georgie Coleridge Cole is the British founder and Editor of SheerLuxe, launched in 2007 as an online directory of standout retailers and now a major lifestyle platform covering fashion, beauty, wellness, travel, and culture. With over half a million newsletter subscribers and a team of around 60, SheerLuxe has expanded into podcasts, YouTube shows, conferences and boutique commerce. Georgie also leads Luxe & Co, a branding agency with social purpose roots.

WHITNEY BROMBERG HAWKINGS

Founder of FLOWERBX

Former Tom Ford executive Whitney Bromberg Hawkings drew on her experience sending flowers within the luxury sphere on behalf of the fashion designer to launch premium flower delivery service FLOWERBX in 2015. In 2023, she opened a physical shopfront and showroom in Corinthia London, completing the 360-degree customer experience.

ALEXANDRA CARELLO

Founder of Alexandra Carello Consulting

Alexandra Carello got her start in the press office at Louis Vuitton before moving to further roles at Burberry, Jimmy Choo and Net-a-Porter. Carello’s experience in the fashion industry led her to start her own one-woman luxury fashion consulting firm in 2019, which focuses on everything from brand strategy to event ideation.

KATHLEEN BREITMAN

Co-founder of Tezos

Kathleen Breitman worked at a hedge fund and as a consultant before co-founding Tezos, an open-source, community-governed blockchain technology, with her husband Arthur in 2014. In addition to her work at Tezos, she has been an advocate for women in the tech industry and regularly speaks at conferences and events.

VALERIE MACAULAY

Co-founder of La Ligne

Valerie Macaulay is the co-founder and chief creative officer of La Ligne, a New York-based brand that creates French-inspired striped staples for women. Before launching La Ligne, she spent almost 10 years at US Vogue, starting out as a fashion assistant and working her way up to bookings editor over the years.

KENDRA LEAVER-RYLAH

Co-founder of The Wedding Edition

Following a decade-long tenure at Condé Nast, Kendra Leaver-Rylah co-founded The Wedding Edition, a UK-based digital and influencercentric wedding magazine that she now edits. As well as writing and editing for the magazine, she hosts regular high-profile events with brands such as Christian Louboutin, Boodles, BVLGARI and 111Skin.

ISABELLA FOULGER

Co-founder and editor of The Wedding Edition.

CELINE IVARI

Founder and CEO of WholyMe, co-founder of Meshkati Hair Centre.

RAISSA DE HAAS

Co-founder of Double Dutch, in Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30’ 2019.

JOYCE DE HAAS

Co-founder of Double Dutch, in Forbes’s ‘30 Under 30’ 2019.

SARAH ANN MACKLIN

Award-winning nutritionist, founder of The Be Well Collective and Live Well Be Well podcast.

PIP DURRELL

Founder and CEO of With Nothing Underneath, former Tatler Editor and Vogue Stylist

VICTORIA ASPINALL

CEO Solice Health, interior designer at Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve.

ALICE BYROM

Co-founder of The Dish Supperclub and Brand Director of Kipper Club.

AISLING CONNAUGHTON

Co-founder of Cyd Connects, and Tedx Talks speaker.

ALEXANDRA MARGOLIS

Co-founder and creative director of CarWow.

ELLA DONALD

Co-founder and director of Duzi Studio, writer and journalist.

ADE HASSAN MBE

Founder of Nubian Skin

JULES PEROWNE

Founder and CEO of Perowne International, awarded No.2 in PRWeek UK Power Book 2025.

TUGCE BULUT

Co-founder and CEO of Eloquent AI, co-founder of Streetbees.

LOTTIE LEEFE

Founder of the Dura Society.

NATALIE SALMON

UK editor of Hello Fashion, founder of The Modems.

TATUM GETTY

Co-founder of THENA Capital.

CONNIE NAM

Founder of Astrid & Miyu.

KIT KEMP MBE

Award-winning interior designer, founder and creative director of Firmdale Hotels.

RITA KONIG

Founder of Rita Konig interior design studio, winner of Condé Nast House & Garden Designer of the Year Award 2024.

SOPHIE GOODWIN

Creative editorial director of Cabana magazine, advisor to British Museum

MARINA RAPHAEL

Founder and creative director of Marina Raphael handbags, artistic director of handbags at Elie Saab and designer for Swarovski.

FRIDA REDKNAPP

Former model, health and wellness advocate.

EDELINE LEE

Founder and designer of Edeline Lee, nominated for WGSN Breakthrough Womenwear Designer of the Year.

ELEANOR WELLESLEY

Founder and designer of Eleanor Wellesley.

EMILY AUSTEN

Founder and CEO of Emerge, author of bestseller Smarter.

INDIA CLEVELY

Founder and managing director of London Velvet.

LOUISA WENTWORTH-STANLEY

Founder of Tamra.

THERESA VON WANGENHEIM

Social media soup chef and author of There’s a Soup for That.

TEALE TALBOT

Co-founder and design director of Réalisation Par.

ZOE BENYON

Co-founder and FGA and DGA certified jeweller of Robinson Pelham.

VIOLET MANNERS

Founder and CEO of Heritage Explore and host of the Hidden Heritage podcast.

NOËLLA COURSARIS

Musunka International model and founder of the Malaika Foundation.

YOSUZI SYLVESTER

Founder and creative director of Yosuzi, benefactor to Cepin non-profit organisation.

ERIM KAUR

Founder and CEO of ByErim.

GEORGIA DANT

Founder and CEO of Marfa Stance.

CHARLOTTE & BIZZY ARNOTT

Freelance Photographer at Lara Arnott Photography, voted the UK’s leading wedding photographer in Harrods Magazine 2020.

ALEXANDRA LLEWELLYN

Founder and designer of Alexandra Llewellyn and recognised in the Walpole Power List 2025.

GRACE BEVERLEY

Founder of TALA, Shreddy, The Productivity Method and the Working Hard podcast, recognised in Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30’.

ANNA CARTER

Managing partner at Ogilvy UK.

INDIA HICKS

Former model, renowned lifestyle spokeswoman, author and co-founder of India Hicks Inc.

ANNA MASON

Founder and fashion designer of Anna Mason London, recognised by the Walpole Power List 2022.

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