This year marks the first time that Veuve Clicquot is launching its globally renowned Bold Woman Award in South Africa, celebrating the success of businesswomen globally who share the same qualities as Madame Clicquot. Successful South African women in business can now enter this international award by completing a simple form via the Veuve Clicquot global website.
Indeed, the Bold Woman Award continues to take inspiration from a woman whose tenacity and creativity led to entrepreneurial success, Madame Clicquot. Her story is one of boldness, audacity and entrepreneurial spirit - in 1805, widowed at the age of 27 years old, she went on to revolutionise an entire industry. An exceptional achievement in a time when women couldn’t open their own bank account, let alone independently own or run a business.
Madame Clicquot’s creations and innovations were manifold. Not only did she create an identity for champagne outside of France, she also bottled the first recorded vintage champagne in 1810. She then went on to innovate the riddling table system - a technique that clears sparkling wine of cloudy yeast after fermentation. In 1818, Madame Clicquot made the first known blended rosé champagne, known for its liveliness and bursts of fruit.
Over the years, she influenced and transformed an entire industry. Veuve Clicquot decided to pay homage to this great, daring woman by creating the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award in 1972, comprising of two categories: the Bold Woman Award and the Bold Future Award.
Esteemed champagne house Veuve Clicquot, known not only for its finest quality champagne but also for celebrating trailblazing women, now turns a spotlight on South African female business leaders with the inaugural introduction of this award in the country. It’s time to put South African women in business on the map!
The Bold Woman Award forms part of BOLD by Veuve Clicquot, an international program dedicated to supporting women in business. BOLD by Veuve Clicquot presents an opportunity to not only recognise women who are making significant contributions in the business world but also to shed light on the barriers that hinder their success. Bold by Veuve Clicquot is deployed around the world with a series of initiatives and events to generate conversations for more impact and inclusivity. The programme gives women entrepreneurs a voice, encouraging future generations to be even more audacious.
The Bold Woman Award is the first and longest-running international award of its kind, with 2022 marking its 50th year of honouring the impact of female leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship. South African businesswomen will now join the ranks of an illustrious list of 410 winners celebrated by this remarkable award in 27 countries worldwide.
To enter the Bold Woman Award, candidates must be founders or CEOs of a company for more than three years, demonstrated transformational and evolution in her field, supported growth for at least two years, while maintaining an ethical approach to business.
To qualify for the Bold Future Award, candidates must be the founders or the CEOs of a company that has been in existence for less than three years. In that time the candidate must have made a significant contribution to the success of her company by instilling a sense of entrepreneurship and have made a tangible contribution to transformation in an existing market, while bringing ethical change to the company.
To have more impact also means engaging men to challenge society’s limits, so that daring women are more visible and able to fully realise their projects. With this in mind, the Maison launched Bold Champion Award in 2019, an honorary prize created to award a man who participates through his actions towards better representation and consideration of women in society.
Three finalists in each category will be selected by an esteemed jury and will be invited to attend the Bold Woman Award ceremony on 21 July where one laureate in each of the categories will be lauded by a grand jury. The Bold Woman Award winner will travel to Reims, France for an immersion in the history, tradition, and luxury of Maison Veuve Clicquot.
Entries are now open. If you are a leader and role model ready to be recognised for your remarkable success, enter the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award and complete a simple form via veuveclicquot.com.
Entries will close on 31 May. Applicants must be an official resident of South Africa and the business must be based in or operating in South Africa. The finalists will be selected by an independent panel of judges.
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