Bright spark wins a top award
A FORMER Manchester Evening News journalist has scooped the ‘Outstanding Entrepreneur’ gong at this year’s Northern Power Women awards.
Energy boss Cheryl Latham founded the first buy-to-give energy company Brighter World in 2016, which aims to provide ethical energy to consumers.
The 33-year-old who is from Heaton Moor said: “I wanted to empower UK energy customers, giving them the opportunity to change the world, as well as giving them a fair and ethical deal.
“So, for every 2,000 customers that switch to us, we install a solar powered microgrid in a village in Africa – helping to tackle an energy crisis that currently means 600 million people in Africa are without access to electricity.
“People should have the same right to access energy – no matter where they are born.”
In the space of six months, the entrepreneur graduated from her MBA, bucked the investment trend by securing £500,000 investment from the likes of Sir Terry Leahy – former CEO of Tesco – as only 10 per cent of global venture capital is given to female entrepreneurs and launched Brighter World.
Since then she has grown the company to an eight-strong team to support her growing customer base.
She added: “I am delighted to have won a Northern Power Women award and it was a privilege to be in the room with so many inspirational women and men who are setting the agenda for change and helping to close the gender gap.
“The energy industry has the power to empower women here and women in developing countries to help change their lives and the lives of their families.”
These were the second annual Northern Power Women awards, which were founded by Simone Roche.
The awards were held at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester to mark International Women’s Day.