We'll be joined by Justine Mitchell, Owner of Chamomile Sanctuary on our forthcoming Leading Ladies webinar. We'll hear more about Justine's career from her time in employment law, her experiences being the only female director of a Scottish Premier Football Club to running an award-winning luxury day spa. 

ONLINE REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS NOW CLOSED, SHOULD YOU WISH TO ATTEND PLEASE EMAILSARAHYOUNG@DUNDEEANDANGUSCHAMBER.CO.UK 

Our Leading Ladies series hears from some of the nation's inspiring female entrepreneurs. We learn more about their career and lessons learnt along the way. The series is open to all and not aimed solely at a female audience, our Leading Ladies can inspire the most senior of business people across the region. 

Justine Mitchell, Owner, Chamomile Sanctuary

Launching the award-winning luxury day spa Chamomile Sanctuary at Edinburgh’s West End ten years ago was one of Justine Mitchell’s proudest moments. The spa now boasts an enviable client list alongside a group of hand-picked brand partners all of which offer wonderful benefits for clients and mirror Chamomile’s own sustainability promise.

Like every other business in the sector the spa had to close for long periods during the COVID-19 lockdowns and is only able to offer a restricted treatment menu when they are able to open. However, against this backdrop Justine created Chamomile at Home – the facial in a box - which won the Pivotal Award at the WEDO Awards.

Starting a beauty business was a complete shift in career direction for Justine having started her working life as an employment lawyer before moving into property development. She then entered the Scottish football world where at that time and at Dundee United she was the only female Director of a Scottish Premier Football Club. During her time at Dundee United she was a Trustee of the Club’s Community Trust and a Director of the Scottish Women’s Football Board. She is a former Member of the Scottish FA Congress and has sat on the Scottish FA Judicial Panel.

She has been a judge of the UK Professional Beauty Awards and in 2016 Justine was thrilled to receive the Inspirational Women of the Year Award from Business Women Scotland. When circumstances allow she regularly speak at business and women’s events.

We'll also be joined by our panelists who will be on hand to answer your questions during the live Q&A session

Panel members 

Ms. Mary Geaney MPA (dist) MSc (dist) BSocSc (hons) CQSW / Chief Executive Officer

Ms. Geaney has held the position of CEO of Rossie Young People’s Trust since June 2016. She is an experienced senior executive who has worked with multiple stakeholders in complex political environments up to and including Ministerial level. She has worked within the public, private and charity sectors – delivering complex change programmes at local, regional and central government levels. She has extensive experience of strategic planning, change management, commissioning and providing services, within robust contract management frameworks.

As CEO she achieves results through leading and developing high performing teams within a context of appropriate governance and financial management. She has led on transformational organisational change as well as leading large start up programmes of large financial value. Her preferred leadership style is collaborative, working with key stakeholders/partners to achieve results operating within principles of reciprocity. However, she is extremely competitive for her organisation at all times. She has achieved formal recognition and awards in a variety of roles for her organisations throughout her career - and always ensures her staff are recognised in any such achievements and awards.

A double Masters level academic with relevant degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Warwick Business School – she is committed to continued professional development to deliver excellence for her organisation.

Since taking up post she has increased revenue year on year, achieved efficiencies, led her team to win multiple National Awards for the organisation, gained formal commendation in Holyrood for the organisation on 2 separate occasions and won the Professional of the Year award in The Association of Scottish Businesswomen National Business Awards 2018.

Dr Mhairi Towler, Founder & Director, Vivomotion

Dr. Mhairi Towler integrates a background in science with animation skills in order to use visual and 2D/3D methodologies to communicate science to a wide audience.

Mhairi gained a degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Dundee. She then carried out postdoctoral work, both in San Francisco and Dundee, in varying fields such as cell biology and human physiology. She was a founder member and Co-chair of the College of Life Sciences Postdoctoral Association. During her time as a postdoc she also completed a postgraduate certificate in teaching and learning in higher education and while studying for this recognised the importance of the visual as a cognitive tool.

While working as a scientist she became involved in several Sci-Art projects and collaborating with artists gave her an insight into the art world that inspired her and influenced her career aspirations with the ultimate goal of becoming a scientific visualisation practitioner. She completed a Masters in Animation and Visualisation at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee in 2012 in order to pursue this goal.
Mhairi is Founder and Director of the multi-award winning animation production company, Vivomotion (www.vivomotion.co.uk). The company offers a service of bespoke animations for scientific communication as well as training workshops for postgraduate researchers and academic staff on the visual communication of research. She was a member of The Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy Scotland from 2012 – 2019 and is an Entrepreneurial Scotland Future Leader.

Cost

Chamber Members - FREE

Non Members - £10.00 + VAT