The co-founder of an Aberdeenshire oil and gas engineering business will be the keynote speaker at an event uniting female business ‘angels’ with start-up companies.
Lorraine Porter, who started Stats Group 15 years ago, will address growth-orientated women entrepreneurs and investors at Investing Women’s Catalyst Programme to be held in Inverness next month.
Porter, who along with her brother and co-founder Peter Duguid, has built Kintore-based Stats into a £30million turnover success story employing 250 staff in six countries including Canada, USA, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
The Catalyst Programme is the first of its kind in the UK and brings together female angel investors and budding entrepreneurs in a series of master class presentations, case studies and group exercises in offering and seeking growth finance.
“We are so thrilled to have Lorraine within our Investing Women community and I have no doubt participants in Catalyst Inverness will be genuinely inspired by her story and benefit from her considerable business building experience,” said Jackie Waring, Investing Women chief executive.
“Her achievements are made all the more powerful by the fact that Lorraine is completely ‘grounded’ and has not forgotten what it’s like to be a new-start entrepreneur, juggling a family and social life as well as business.”
The Catalyst Programme will take place at the Glenmoriston Town House Hotel on September 25 and 26. Delegates will benefit from both Highland and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Government support which has enabled access to leading specialists in a wide range of business disciplines.
One of the entrepreneurs who will be participating is Jennifer Hallwood, managing director of Dingwall-based TEFL, the rapidly expanding online language education company.
“The Catalyst Programme has come at exactly the right time for our company as we plan for major expansion of our business in China and Asia which are key growth markets for us,” Hallwood said.
“We already know Investing Women and have heard about and seen the results of this exciting programme and can’t wait to be part of it.”
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