The UWL Alumni Awards 2022 are fast approaching, and we're thrilled to introduce our four shortlisted nominees for the Entrepreneur Award. All four of these alumni studied at UWL and have gone on to found businesses or charities that are doing great work. Learn a little about them below and book your tickets to the UWL Alumni Awards 2022, taking place on 30th March at our St Mary's Road Campus, Ealing.
Jessie Pettit is a Film Production graduate from UWL that has continued her career in the film industry as a short film and commercial media producer. She founded the company London Film House after wanting to develop her own skills and network in the industry. Since, she has written, produced, and directed pieces that are now being submitted to the festival circuit for 2023. Jessie plans on expanding the company internationally to the US market in the near future and providing more opportunities for UK nationals to expand their talents to the US.
Kumba Sagba is a midwife and founder of Motherhood Health Care, an organisation dedicated to reducing the maternal mortality rate in Sierra Leone through its mobile health clinic, particularly aimed at improving access for women in rural areas. Before midwifery, she arrived in the UK in 1999 after fleeing the decade long war in Sierra Leone. She is a former researcher and campaigner on issues such as HIV Aids, the plight and detention of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. She is a women’s rights and maternal health activist and holds a masters degree in human rights law. She is also a wife and a mother of 2 boys.
Nilesh Makwana is a social entrepreneur and public interest technologist. From selling pens and radium stickers in school as a boy in India to being the CEO of a Global Microsoft Partner for Social Impact and many award-winning tech firm in Australia today, he spent many of his formative years in London and at UWL where he studied BA Hons Airline & Airport Management. In 2019 his company was award first inaugural Global Partner for Social Impact Award by Microsoft, his first book as an author Terminal 4 on his journey to inspire other entrepreneurs will be published by Australian and Indian Publisher later this year.
Rachel is the CEO & Founder at My Yard – a Registered Charity in Harrow tackling food poverty utilising surplus food, inequalities & empowerment, especially within the social housing sector. Rachel studied an Msc in Digital Marketing at UWL and started her own lifestyle magazine called Lifescape. After leading a revamp of the Asian House and Home magazine for Asian Voice newspaper, Rachel became more interested in working with her local community and listening to the issues affecting them. This led to her founding My Yard, which registered as a charity, in 2014.
If you want to celebrate these remarkable alumni, eat some great food, and hear some live music, you can attend the alumni awards by registering here!