Sahar Hashemi OBE

A former lawyer, Sahar started the UK’s first chain of coffee bars with her brother Bobby, building Coffee Republic to 110 stores and a £50 million market cap in five years. Later she founded market segment-defining sugar-free sweets brand Skinny Candy, selling it to confectionery conglomerate Glisten PLC in 2007.                           

Her first book 'Anyone Can Do It' has been translated into six languages and is the second-highest selling book on entrepreneurship in the UK. Her most recent book 'Start Up Forever' is the culmination of her work speaking to 400 organisations about the actionable, practical steps that can bring out anyone’s inner entrepreneur.   

In June 2012, she was awarded an OBE for services to the UK economy and to charity. She has been named “Pioneer to the life of the Nation” by Her Majesty The Queen and Young Global leader by the World Economic Forum.                                   

Sahar recently co-chaired the UK government Scale Up Taskforce shaping government policy towards growing SMEs.  She is patron of Child Bereavement Charity UK and on the advisory board of the ECB Hundred Cricket Competition, BFC Fashion Trust and Change Please Coffee, a social enterprise that trains and hires homeless people to run coffee bars.