It was time to pop the corks on bottles of bubbly last week when Mandy Foley-Quin, CEO of Stedmans Hospitality, was named Australian winner of the prestigious Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award 2009.
Recognising exceptional women in business across 17 countries, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, Governor of New South Wales, made the announcement at the lunch attended by over one hundred Australian business power players.
The award’s inception, not surprisingly, was in France in 1972. It honours Madame Clicquot who earned the reputation of ‘la grande dame de la Champagne’. Widowed in 1805, Madame Clicquot took over her husband’s business, building it into today’s internationally recognised champagne house.
Ms Foley-Quin pipped three other outstanding finalists to take out the accolade, thanks to her reputation as an ‘astute’, ‘intuitive’, ‘resilient’ and ‘tenacious’ businesswoman – all qualities representative of Madame Clicquot.
Ms Foley-Quin’s fellow finalists were Elizabeth Gray-Lewis, Managing Director of Gekko Systems, Naomi Simson, Founder and CEO of Red Balloon, and Nicole Hollows, CEO and Managing Director of Macarthur Coal. Ms Hollows was also honoured at the lunch with the global Veuve Clicquot Rising Star award, the first time the accolade has been awarded in Australia.
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