Auchinleck Academy win pioneering national Investment Competition
Sixth form girls at Auchinleck Academy have beaten off stiff competition to scoop first place in the inaugural Growing Future Assets Competition. Pitching Illumina Inc, a cutting edge medical device company, the girls demonstrated innovative, strategic and analytical thinking, when presenting their chosen business as a viable and recommended investment opportunity.
The Growing Future Assets Competition final took place virtually on 8 and 9 June 2020. The annual event, introducing senior schoolgirls across Scotland to the world of investment, its operation, relevance and impact as well as the range of careers available within the sector. It supports them towards developing an understanding that good investing is about the long-term prospects, profits and sustainability of a company.
The winning team received £1,000 for their school and £200 for each of the team members in vouchers of their choice. The runners up; Eyemouth High School, pitching Greggs also won £500 for their school and £100 worth of vouchers for each team member.
“It was an honour to hear Illumina represented in the Growing Future Assets Competition,” said Jacquie Ross, Vice President of Investor Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility and Communications at Illumina. “Illumina’s culture builds on our commitment to innovation and to enabling a more sustainable and equitable future for all, and we are thrilled our story helped to inspire the next generation of Scottish female investment professionals. We look forward to seeing the contributions each of the participants will make toward improving our global community through finance, corporate responsibility, and beyond.”
Peter Gilchrist, Head Teacher, Auchinleck Academy comments: “At Auchinleck Academy we are so proud of our Business Girls who won the 2020 Growing Future Assets Competition. Well done to Abbie, Ailey, Alice, Eva and Katie who have worked brilliantly on this project from start to finish.”
Mentor for the Auchinleck Academy Team, Laura Fyfe, Investment Analyst at Stewart Investors comments: “I was hugely impressed with the girls’ work on making the case to invest in Illumina. Each of the girls worked immensely hard on their investment report and the initiative, professionalism, independence and critical thinking skills they displayed over the past few months has been incredibly inspiring.”
As a direct result of the success and level of high-quality entries this year, Future Asset have confirmed that they will hold the second Growing Future Assets competition next year. More information on the 2021 event programme, will be available at Future Asset in the coming months.
Future Asset believes that being female should never be seen as a barrier to progressing in a chosen career. Their goal is to enable girls in the senior phase of high school to learn how investment can change the world for the better, gain valuable, transferable skills and consider the benefits of possible future careers.
Emilie Vallauri is a 27-year-old program manager at Techstars with a passion for innovation. Born and raised in Nice, France, Emilie studied business and political sciences before embarking on a career punctuated by innovation and supporting startups.
Zsuzsa has been instrumental in growing Antavo from a startup to a scaleup. As Chief Strategy Officer and co-founder, she is transforming the company into a unique loyalty technology vendor, offering a next-gen, best-in-class solution to the loyalty sector.
Software engineering and product development is my specialisation - and I have had a wide range of experience across the industry. I had a brilliant 22-year long career at IBM, working across a number of roles, which I really loved.
Holly Zoccolan is an entrepreneur and Founder of new parenting app, Carol. Before Founding Carol and entering the tech space, Holly built successful online wellness brand The Health Zoc in 2016.
Anna Gudmundson is the CEO and co-founder of Sensate, a device that emits infrasonic waves that are synchronised to resonate with the specially composed hemispheric audio in the app.
Rebecca is Senior Vice President of Clients, Partnership and Creative Transformation at CreativeX, provider of an industry-first AI driven data platform to help the world’s most loved brands including PepsiCo, Nestle and Facebook achieve creative excellence.
Five sustainable gaming companies that provide great inspiration to startups wanting to do good in the world.
From 31 January, businesses moving goods from the European Union (EU) to Great Britain (GB) will need to comply with new UK safety and security declaration requirements.
Its simplicity has made transitioning from traditional tobacco to vaping a breeze for many.
Bitcoin, the digital currency conceived in 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, is a financial phenomenon. Despite the volatility of global markets, it has demonstrated remarkable resilience.
From university students and young entrepreneurs to senior executives, imposter syndrome remains a common thread in everyone’s personal career journey.
Seeing your ideas materialise, working for yourself, leading others, and becoming a CEO might seem like a dream come true, and indeed, it is for many.
While the benefits of a well-executed PR strategy are evident to practitioners, misconceptions among business leaders often cast PR as fluff, lacking business results.
In an era marked by the cost-of-living crisis, the landscape of consumer behaviour is undergoing a significant transformation. This shift demands a strategic adaptation from businesses.
When it comes to managing spend in a business, the budgeting process can set a high level of accountability. This drives headcount forecasts, subscription-based spend, and key projects throughout the year.
Real-world usage of ChatGPT highlights a challenge that entrepreneurs and business leaders face today in understanding how to harness ChatGPT's capabilities effectively and seamlessly integrate it into business processes to yield tangible productivity.
However, 2022 was the year of the Amazon aggregation downfall. Funding dried up and inflation and rising interest rates hit the highly leveraged aggregators’ debt hard.
It goes without saying that moving away from outdated decision-making processes which rely solely on a handful of senior executives can unlock a realm of opportunity for businesses, but it is useful to begin by considering why exactly there is a need for this change.
Beyond the launch, the challenge then becomes the pursuit to be seen. This is where search engine optimisation (SEO) comes in to act as an ally for your online business. With the high street experiencing dwindling foot traffic, the allure of being a hidden gem has lost its appeal.
When the narrative is almost always the same, it can perpetuate a very particular idea of how a business should be run that has for so long excluded so many.
With the emergence of embedded finance and digital payment solutions, a lot of businesses are experiencing fundamental shifts leading them to become, to some extent, a fintech.
The difference between securing the investment and losing interest often hinges on how effective startups are at conveying their vision and value proposition, so creating a compelling pitch deck has never been more important.
Acknowledging these concerns, Dr. Yousef Alhammadi, the Executive Director of The Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority (ECA), sheds light on a groundbreaking approach that empowers parents to safeguard their children’s digital experiences.
Every business has taken on the responsibility to speed up the process of collecting customer payments without compromising security. It is another way to stay competitive in a business environment with decreasing margins and substantial competition.
Edge computing has emerged as one of the most important trends in IT since the advent of ChatGPT and LLMs.
Are you equipped to embrace the future of tax administration? With the UK's Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative, traditional tax practices are poised for a digital makeover.
Recent instances of Microsoft, TikTok, and Meta facing GDPR fines due to inadequate protection of young people's data underscore the insufficiency of efforts by Big Tech to safeguard the next generation of consumers.
Now, there are opportunities to access accounting software that simplifies the process. This is especially crucial since tax regulations have gone digital, requiring all financial reports, including tax returns, to be submitted online.
Within this exciting landscape, the concept of "smart EVs #1" has emerged, encompassing a range of cutting-edge electric models that combine intelligence, sustainability, and style.
A happy and healthy workforce will bring more productivity, engagement, and loyalty. However, it’s important employer’s realise a ‘1 size fits all’ approach to wellbeing just won’t cut it.
In particular, AI’s potential impact on email marketing cannot be overstated. For businesses, it has the potential to streamline activity, increase engagement, and ultimately drive conversions.
From the humble kitchen table offices to the dynamic innovation hubs scattered across the UK, venture capitalists and angel investors have wholeheartedly recognised the nation's immense potential in spearheading advancements in the tech sector.
You are an early-stage founder, eager to generate buzz and excitement around your business. You live and breathe your startup, but how do you catch the media's attention and inspire them to write about it?
Circular economy is another way of thinking about an economic system that far better matches both the fact that man exists as part of an ecosystem, not separated from it, and how we best create and deliver valuable solutions.
A sales strategy is a plan of action that outlines the approach and tactics a business will use to achieve its sales goals and sell to prospective clients. It details the steps that a company will take to identify, engage, and convert leads.
Bitcoin, the digital currency conceived in 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, is a financial phenomenon. Despite the volatility of global markets, it has demonstrated remarkable resilience.