Growing up in the impoverished East End of Glasgow, Michelle’s entrepreneurial spirit was prevalent from an early age. Speaker Michelle Mone left school at 15 with no qualifications to find full-time employment, after her father was struck down by an illness leaving him confined to a wheelchair. To support her family, Michelle took on a job at Labatt Brewers’ and quickly climbed the ranks from office junior to senior manager, running the Sales & Marketing team by the time she was just 20 years old.
Michelle’s idea for Ultimo was born while attending a dinner dance with her husband: she was wearing a very uncomfortable bra and had a ‘light-bulb moment’ as she decided to invent a bra that was more comfortable than any other bra on the market. Since launching the business, visionary speaker Michelle Mone has established herself as one of Scotland’s biggest exports: in 2000, Michelle won the ‘World Young Business Achiever Award’ at the Epcot Centre, Florida, and then ‘Business Woman of the Year’ at the Corporate Elite Awards in London.
Despite a couple of challenging years in her private life, Michelle now is one of the most globally sought after speaker of the United Kingdom. As a speaker Michelle Mone inspires, coaches and mentors audiences and individuals globally, having visited more than 50 countries over the last two decades. In 2005, Michelle attended a speaking event with Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, leading to her involvement in the Women’s Enterprise Project in the Middle East. Furthermore, Michelle was also asked by Prime Minister David Cameron to conduct The Mone Review to help start-up businesses in deprived areas.
Recently, alongside her long-standing passion for retail and design, speaker Michelle Mone has ventured into the development of luxury apartment towers in Dubai, as well as launching a cryptocurrency investment platform and a business and lifestyle app, Connect 2 Michelle Mone. Through this exciting initiative, Michelle supports, mentors and guides entrepreneurs worldwide providing them with a previously unprecedented way to access Michelle’s world.