Hosted by Genna Elvin, the founder of the TaDaweb startup, the 10th BIL Business Woman of the Year award ceremony was a superb demonstration of talent, creativity and passion. Luc Frieden, Chairman of BIL’s Supervisory Board, and Karin Scholtes, Head of People, Culture and Communication, opened the ceremony with a reminder of the importance of diversity in business and highlighted the Bank’s key role in supporting entrepreneurship in Luxembourg.

The five finalists, Ilana Devillers (Food 4 All), Stéphanie Jauquet (Cocottes), Aida Nazarikhorram (Lux AI), eLfy Pins (Supermiro) and Karine Vallière (Jumpbox) gave lively pitches for their companies in front of an audience of over 160 people. The panel of experts drawn from BIL partners  Women in Digital Empowerment (WIDE), technoport, Equilibre, Paul Wurth InCub and Schiltz&Schiltz, had the difficult task of choosing the winner. Before the award ceremony, Alexandra Fernandez-Ramos, co-founder of Travelsify and joint winner in 2017, gave a general view of the current position of women in society and in the business world. In her speech, she encouraged women to speak up and take a more active role.

And the winner is…

The jury awarded the BIL Business Woman of the Year prize to Stéphanie Jauquet, founder and CEO of Cocottes. During her pitch, she gave a moving account of her career. Launched in 2014, Cocottes already has 8 shops, 140 staff and major expansion projects in the pipe. The CEO plans on doubling Cocottes’s revenues to 15 million within 2 years.

“Discussions amongst the jury members were very intense, as all five of these talented women deserved this award. The big winner this evening is entrepreneurship. I hope that our event will inspire other women and men to dare to follow their dream through to the end”, said Karin Scholtes, Head of People, Culture and Communications at BIL and a member of the panel.

Launched in 2006, the Business Woman of the Year award puts the spotlight on exceptional women whose talent and energy help to strengthen the Luxembourgish economy. The projects presented by each contestant must be based on sound economic fundamentals, innovative and have a positive impact on the Luxembourgish economy. The latter has been a guiding principle of the competition since its inception.