Cartier Honors the 2023 Cartier Women’s Initiative Awardees
In pursuit of global sustainability, Cartier honored a record number of female entrepreneurs with the program's greatest amount of funding to date.
Since 2006, the annual Cartier Women’s Initiative (CWI) has championed and supported a global network of female entrepreneurs. Providing women with the necessary financial, social, and human capital to thrive, CWI is an invaluable influence on the lives and livelihoods of female business owners who seek to solve global challenges through sustainability.
In the 16 years since the program’s inception, CWI has supported 298 women from 63 different countries, awarding a total of $7,440,000 in financial backing. Despite an already illustrious past, Cartier has chosen to up the ante through increased funding and the introduction of new regional and thematic awards to its existing prize roster.
Inside Paris' famous Salle Pleyel music hall on May 10, CWI raised its total number of fellows to 32 — its highest number to date. Candidates were considered for 11 awards, 9 of which were regional, including the newly added Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania awards. The last two were thematic, with the addition of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award — the first to be open to all genders — being a novel advancement within the initiative.
First-place winners took home $100,000 in grant funding, while the second and third-place awardees received $60,000 and $30,000, respectively. Apart from the cash prizes, fellows were given several priceless gifts, including tailored mentoring, media visibility, networking opportunities, and education courses from the prestigious INSEAD business school.
In what turned out to be a star-studded affair, ceremony speakers included Mélanie Laurent, French actress, director, and environmental activist; Nadine Labaki, activist, actor, and director; Yara Shahidi, actress, producer, and activist; and Amal Clooney, co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice.
With this year’s theme being "Forces for Good," the evening reaffirmed Cartier’s alignment with women through a spirit of collaboration. Working with women on a systems level to pursue global sustainability, this omnibus approach to progress embodies the jeweler's unwavering resolve for excellence.
The 2023 CWI winners are as follows:
- Latin America and the Caribbean: Emily Ewell, Brazil, Pantys
- North America: Wendy Owens, United States, Hexas Biomass Inc.
- Europe: Iva Gumnishka, Bulgaria, Humans in the Loop
- Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa: Yvette Ishimwe, Rwanda, IRIBA Water Group
- Anglophone and Lusophone Afric
a: Dupe Killa-Kafidipe, Nigeria, Platinum Fisheries - Middle East and North Africa: Khadija Elbedweihy, Egypt, PraxiLabs
- East Asia: Woori Moon, South Korea, 40FY
- South Asia and Central Asia: Denica Riadini-Flesch, Indonesia, SukkhaCitta
- Oceania: Ingrid Sealey, Australia, Teach Well
- Science and Technology Pioneer Award: Poulami Chaudhuri, India, Helex
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award: Blake Van Putten, United States, CISE