We have been busy working on a special project that is a labour of love for us, as a female-founded business. In partnership with our friends at Dermalogica, we are pleased to announce the 2024 EmpowHER winner, runner-up and start-up recipients, powered by The Icehouse!

Congratulations to our winners:

EmpowHER Winner: Megan King, of Finding Voices

Finding Voices is a small family centered practice, specialising in individualised and functional speech-language therapy for children and young adults.

Megan is a New Zealand Trained Speech Language Therapist, with a Bachelor of Speech and Language Therapy from Massey University. Approaching ten years of practice, with experience in a wide range of contexts. We loved Megan's passion for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, complex communication difficulties and speech sound disorders.

EmpowHER Runner-Up: Anita Sherry, Sherry Kitchen 

Sherry Kitchen Catering and Deli is owned and run by the passionate Anita Sherry. A self-trained cook, Anita brings an unrivalled energy to her business and the community it serves.

Start-up Winner: Alicia Haszard, PĀMU 

PĀMU is a Māori owned and operated brand from New Zealand created by founder Alicia in 2022. Alicia is a passionate innovator and entrepreneur with a deep commitment to creating high-quality affordable products that are both stylish and functional. Her aim was to provide wahine with timeless jewellery pieces that are not only affordable but have a taste of luxury.

With a background in design and business, Alicia has a knack for creating products that are both practical and aesthetically pleasing to suit everyone. As an eczema sufferer Alicia found it difficult to buy affordable jewellery that wouldn't irritate her skin and cause a severe rash. It was very important to her that the jewellery she was creating was hypoallergenic.

With a total prize pool of over $31,000 in prizes and exclusive mentorship, these female-founded businesses are set for incredible growth with money can’t buy access to not only our NZ CEO, Roanne Jacobson, but Natasha Bourke from Dermalogica NZ and Liz Wotherspoon at The Icehouse for one-on-one bespoke business coaching.

We were overwhelmed with the high calibre of entries for the 2024 EmpowHER scholarship. Thank you to those of you who voted.

We look forward to sharing the journey of these amazing female entrepreneurs as they take their businesses to the next level.