Manning “a trailblazer and pioneer in business”

12/06/2008 - London

Female entrepreneur of the year and CEO of Reading Room, Margaret Manning, has won another high profile award in 2008, confirming her status as one of the UK’s most pioneering businesswomen.

Margaret, who was also named Female Entrepreneur of the Year at the Fast Growth Business Awards in 2008, won ahead of three other extremely successful businesswomen in the science and technology section of the First Women Awards.  The awards recognise women who are “trailblazers and pioneers in business.”

The First Women Awards, in association with Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets, were presented at the London Marriott Grosvenor Square on Wednesday, June 11, 2008.  They were judged by leading women in business including Baroness Hogg, chairman of 3i.

Reading Room has also been shortlisted this year alongside BT, Dell and Lloyds TSB for the award for the Best Company Advancing Women in Technology at the BlackBerry Women & Technology Awards.

And Margaret has been outspoken in her views about women in the workplace.  She was featured widely in the press for her attack in March 2008 on Sir Alan Sugar’s reported comments about women at work.  Margaret denounced his remarks as “total tosh” and “patronising and superficial”.

In the largely male-dominated digital communications industry 56 per cent of Reading Room senior managers are women, an extraordinary statistic considering how under-represented women are across the digital industry as a whole.

Reading Room’s success in attracting, retaining and advancing female talent, unique in the digital sector is due in part to Margaret being the highly visible female face of Reading Room.

Margaret Manning said: “It is flattering to win this award.  It has been a fantastic year for Reading Room in every way but particularly in terms of gaining recognition for the success that many women have enjoyed in our thriving digital communications business.”