Eleanor will be interviewing Rose to discuss her journey as an entrepreneur and the highs and lows of creating an impact business.

Rose has been a pioneer in leading initiatives that help everyone get a chance to build a business that they love. Having started her career in the creative industries, during the “Madchester” era, working in the music industry, she then went into the social enterprise sector and has supported many young entrepreneurs through her time at SharpFutures. She has been the Social Enterprise Advisor to the Manchester City Council and has ensured that everyone who wants to start a social enterprise has the opportunity to. She is a progressive leader with a passion for inclusion.

They will be discussing the role of creativity, providing insights into what makes a good social enterprise, and tips on how to stand out from the crowd in today’s market. You'll gain an understanding into why supporting young entrepreneurs is so important and why we should ensure that all voices are represented.

What will you learn?

• How to build a social enterprise and make it stand out from competitors
• About the importance of creativity in the entrepreneurship world
• The important role of diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship
• Community action and how to spark passion

Who is this for?

All entrepreneurs and business owners, especially social entrepreneurs and impact businesses, who want to learn about building a purpose-driven business.

About the Speakers

Rose Marley - CEO of Co-Operatives UK

Rose Marley has had a richly diverse and interesting career to date. Self-employed from a young age, she cut her teeth in the music business during the ‘Madchester’ era before turning her hand to social enterprise, inspired by the lack of social mobility in the creative industries and in search of something more impactful.

Rose was the founding COO of Manchester City Council developments The Sharp Project and Space Studios where she was a founding director of award winning social enterprise SharpFutures. This led to Rose becoming the Social Enterprise Advisor to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and lead for the young person's opportunities card Our Pass.

Rose is renowned for her ability to galvanise community action, not least in leading Manchester City Council’s response to the Manchester arena attack, leading a global broadcast of choirs singing from the steps of the town hall on the first anniversary.

Eleanor Mills

Eleanor Mills is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Noon (noon.org.uk) a new website, platform and community to empower women in midlife. In all the conversations about diversity, age is the aspect that is most often forgotten in all cultures. Eleanor is passionate about changing the narrative about the latter parts of women’s lives so that they become more representative of the reality.

An award-winning journalist, Eleanor spent 23 years at The Sunday Times as a campaigning columnist, feature writer and latterly as Editorial Director of the paper and prize-winning Editor of the Sunday Times Magazine. She began her career as an interviewer and has interrogated everyone from Mikhail Gorbachev to David Cameron, Theresa May (the famous leather trousers debacle) and Sheryl Sandberg. She was Chair of Women in Journalism from 2014-2021, where she has campaigned tirelessly for more diversity in the media and the necessity for it to be a true reflective mirror of the society it serves rather than a distorting lens.

She is a board member of Reporters Sans Frontieres and believes passionately in press freedom. Her publications include Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs – 100 Years of the Best Journalism by Women and she is working on her first novel, about midlife transformation. As CEO of consultancy InHer Space Ltd (Inherspace.co.uk) she works with high-performing women and CEOs on narrativity, helping them tell their own stories to establish their personal brand and conducts media training. She also works with some of the world’s biggest brands on how they talk to the midlife female cohort.