Emma Watkinson | |
---|---|
Born | 1986 (age 37–38) |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | University of Liverpool |
Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, CEO |
Employer | SilkFred.com |
Emma Watkinson is a British entrepreneur who co-founded and is chief executive officer of the online retail business SilkFred. [1]
Emma Watkinson was born in Liverpool in 1986. Her parents were entrepreneurs — her mother ran her own fashion boutiques, while her father started on a market stall and later owned pubs and nightclubs in Liverpool. [1] Watkinson attended Merchant Taylors' Girls' School until 2000. Watkinson and her family moved to Marbella, Spain in 2001 where she attended The English International College. She graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in English. She began her career working part-time on the shop floor at Whistles in 2005 whilst studying at university and then went on to work on buying and merchandising teams for various retailers, including my-wardrobe.com. [2]
In 2010, Watkinson lived in New York City [3] and interned for various fashion magazines and websites, including Guest of a Guest. [1]
In 2011, at the age of 24, [2] Watkinson and her co-founders Stephen Jackson and Kate Jackson set up SilkFred, [4] an online fashion retail platform that sells fashion from independent and emerging brands. [5] They funded the venture with seed funding from angel investors, with additional capital through crowdfunding platform Crowdcube [6] [7] and later private equity firm Livingbridge. [8] The Daily Telegraph reported that the company had sales of £11m in 2016, and generates 90% of sales through social media. [9]
Watkinson is an advocate for female entrepreneurship and is an ambassador for Facebook’s "She Means Business" campaign. [10] She is a mentor at the London College of Fashion and is listed there as an Inspirational Speaker. Watkinson has also taken part in 10 Downing Street's "Business is Great Britain" campaign to promote small UK businesses. [11]
Watkinson was a finalist for "Entrepreneur of the Year" at the London Business Awards 2014, [2] and for "Young Champion of the Year" at The Champion of Women Awards 2017.
Marks and Spencer plc is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home products and food products. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Kathleen Marie Ireland is an American actress, author, entrepreneur, fashion designer, philanthropist, and former fashion model. Ireland was a supermodel in the 1980s and 1990s, initially known for appearing in 13 consecutive Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues, including three covers. In 1993, she founded a brand licensing company, kathy ireland Worldwide (kiWW), which has made her one of the wealthiest former models in the world. As a result of her career in business, she earned a $420 million personal fortune by 2015. In 2021 alone, her company generated retail sales of $3.1 billion. The brand became ranked number 15 in the world and Ireland entered the Licensing Hall of Fame.
TOPSHOP is a British fast-fashion company, which specialises in women's clothing, shoes and accessories. It was part of the Arcadia Group, controlled by Sir Philip Green, but went into administration in late 2020 before being purchased by ASOS on 1 February 2021. It now operates via the ASOS website and app, as well as being sold in Nordstrom stores in the US on Nordstrom.com. TOPSHOP previously had around 510 shops worldwide.
Dragons' Den is a British reality television business programme, presented by Evan Davis and based upon the original Japanese series. The show allows several entrepreneurs an opportunity to present their varying business ideas to a panel of five wealthy investors, the "Dragons" of the show's title, and pitch for financial investment while offering a stake of the company in return.
James Caan is a British-Pakistani entrepreneur and television personality.
Tory Burch is an American fashion designer, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is the Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of her own brand, Tory Burch LLC. She was listed as the 88th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2020.
Fat Face Limited, trading as FatFace, is a British lifestyle brand, based in Hampshire, which creates product ranges across women's, men's, kids, footwear and accessories. FatFace is a multichannel retailer, with an international digital business, and over 180 stores in the UK and 20 stores in the US.
Julie Marie Meyer MBE is an American businesswoman and the author of Welcome to Entrepreneur Country. She is the sole director of Viva Investment Partners. She founded Ariadne Capital Limited and Ariadne Capital Malta Limited, and was a co-founder of the networking forum First Tuesday. In 2009, Meyer was a guest on the online edition of the Dragons' Den TV series.
Otara Gunewardene is a Sri Lankan entrepreneur, animal welfare advocate, conservationist and philanthropist. She is the founder of ODEL, Embark and Otara Foundation.
Dame Natalie Sara Massenet, is a British-American fashion entrepreneur and former journalist, who founded the designer fashion portal Net-a-Porter. From 2013 to 2017, she was the chairman of the British Fashion Council. In 2018 alongside Nick Brown, she co-founded Imaginary Ventures and became non executive co-chairman at Farfetch.
Zalando SE is a publicly traded German online retailer of shoes, fashion and beauty active across Europe. The company was founded in 2008 by David Schneider and Robert Gentz and has more than 51 million active users in 25 European markets. Zalando is active in a variety of business fields - from multi-brand online shopping, the shopping club Lounge by Zalando, outlets in 12 German cities, as well as logistics and marketing offers for retailers. In 2022, Zalando generated revenue of 10.3 billion Euro, with roughly 16,000 employees.
Wiggle is a European online sports retailer, selling cycle, run, swim and outdoor equipment and apparel. It is based in Portsmouth, England.
Bluebella is a British lingerie company founded in 2005 by Emily Bendell, with operations in the UK, US, Australia, France and Italy. It is headquartered in London, England.
Lolly Wolly Doodle was an American company that manufactures women's and children's clothing for sale online. It was founded in 2008 in Lexington, North Carolina, and is now owned by investment firm Stage Fund. After investments by venture capitalists such as Revolution Growth, it expanded to include production facilities in New York City. Most of its products are sold through via Facebook.
Seraphine is an international maternity fashion label and store. The company was founded by French-born designer Cecile Reinaud in 2002. Seraphine is based in London and has stores in Dubai, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States and France. Its clothing is sold around the world through various boutiques and online.
OfferUp is an online mobile-first C2C marketplace with an emphasis on in-person transactions. It was founded as a competitor to Craigslist, differentiating itself with mobile-friendly apps and user profiles with ratings.
Ronaldo Mouchawar, is a Syrian entrepreneur. In 2005, he co-founded Souq.com, the largest e-commerce retailer in the Arab World, making the e-commerce retailer the region's first unicorn. When Amazon acquired Souq in 2017, Mouchewar became vice president of Amazon Middle East and North Africa. He is a veteran of Maktoob, the internet portal purchased by Yahoo in 2009. In 2005, he launched Souq.com which as of September 1 2021 is a defunct e-commerce app replaced by its parent company Amazon.
Christine Hunsicker is an entrepreneur and the CEO and Co-Founder of Gwynnie Bee, a retail industry online clothing subscription service that allows women to access an unlimited wardrobe. The company has shipped over 3 million boxes as of January 2016. Christine Hunsicker grew up in Pennsylvania. She attended Princeton University, where she played field hockey for the nationally ranked team and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1999.
Fashion Nova is an American fast fashion retail company. The company primarily operates online, but it also has five brick-and-mortar locations. Fashion Nova is known to use affiliate marketing, particularly on Instagram. Models, celebrities, and other customers receive payments or free clothing in exchange for generating publicity about the company.
Emma Findlay Grede is a British businesswoman, entrepreneur and fashion designer. She is the CEO and co-founder of the denim company Good American, a founding partner of Skims, and co-founder of Safely.
...on track to make £11m in sales this year... ... and generates 90pc of its sales through social media.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)