We Will Roar and Be Heard!
Newham Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Business launches
This week saw East London’s fastest growing business growth organisation – the Newham Chamber of Commerce – host its inaugural Women in Business Network event with emotional, inspiring and celebratory keynote speeches from Mayor Rohksana Fiaz, Mayor of Newham and Daljinder (Dee) Hopal, Associate Director at University of East London and the Founding Chair of the new Network encouraging female founders, business owners and business leaders to “roar like lionesses” about their successes!
Mayor Fiaz welcomed a packed audience of over seventy registered Chamber Members and guests at a special NCC Business Breakfast held at the new Coffeehouse in Stratford, owned and operated by Rebecca Stevenson of Signorelli, the award-winning artisanal bakers and baristas and based in the exciting new Turing Building, Lendlease’s innovation-focussed office complex in Stratford Cross.
“As Mayor of Newham , I myself am effectively the Chair of a £1.5 billion pound organisation and I’m really pleased to share my story and celebrate the immense talent and entrepreneurial spirit of women here in Newham,” announced Mayor Fiaz.
The Mayor continues “Alongside this celebration – and we have to congratulate Newham Chamber of Commerce for having the foresight to lead on this initiative – even today we have to acknowledge the very real barriers women continue to face in business and most importantly, realise and collaborate through both strategy AND action to dismantle those barriers”
The Mayor went on to tell some of her own very personal and poignant stories and encouraged women to not just to speak out but to share and champion women-led business capability and success.
NCC’s Women in Business group Chair, Dee Hopal strengthened this in her welcome, too.
“The Newham Chamber of Commerce Women in Business initiative is committed to ensuring there’s a heard- voice for women entrepreneurs and business professionals here in Newham and a voice that shapes and influences policies that better support women in business now and in the future”.
Whether it’s through addressing gender disparities, ensuring equal opportunities or advocating for better access to funding, the Chamber’s Women in Business group is dedicated to lobbying for policy change and driving Chamber memberships that will make a tangible difference for women in our local community and beyond”.
“We know that being in business can be tough”, states Dee “but with the right support and connections, we can overcome obstacles. And that’s exactly what this group within the Chamber provides—empowerment, encouragement, and a reminder that we’re all in this together”.
Both Dee Hopal and Mayor Fiaz highlighted the opportunities the NCC Women in Business network offers business professionals in Newham and in Dee’s closing words, she made a rallying call for “groundbreaking and uplifting change that will make for a brighter and more inclusive future for the Chamber and for the wider business communities of Newham and East London”.
The NCC Women in Business Network is an integral part of the Chamber’s membership offer which is of course open to all women and men with an interest in business and economic growth in Newham.
28th April 2025