Sahar Hashemi OBE

Sahar Hashemi founded Coffee Republic, the Uk's first US style coffee bar chain with her brother and built it into one of the UK's most recognised high street brands with a turnover of £30m. Giving up highly professional jobs, she a lawyer in London and he an investment banker in New York, they staked everything on a dream – and made Coffee Republic one of the main players in the 'coffee revolution' that transformed a nation of tea drinkers into one obsessed with 'triple decaf half-caf lattes.

Sahar left the day to day management of Coffee Republic in 2001 and has written a book called 'Anyone Can Do It – Building Coffee Republic from our Kitchen table' which tackles some of the fears and answers some of the elusive questions about what it really takes to become an entrepreneur. Its a personal story about two people who stopped 'thinking about it' and 'did it'. 'Anyone Can Do It' has reached #1 on the Amazon business chart. It is 'suggested reading' for the London Business School entrepreneurship course.

In 2005 Sahar launched Skinny Candy, a high profile brand of sugar free sweets. It has already received wide press coverage and is available across big department store chains throughout UK.

She proves that passion is all you need - ‘its your fuel!’ and what turns you into an entrepreneur. As a keynote speaker Sahar’s energy is infectious, delegates leave the event inspired and motivated to stop ‘thinking about it’ and ‘get on with it’!'

Her latest book ‘Switched On’ is based on her experience working with big corporations about activating the creative entrepreneurial mindset. As a business motivational speaker she uses her personal experience to bring to life the tools employees need to leave their comfort zone, come alive at work, be the one to spot opportunities, have inspired ideas, make them happen and ultimately become indispensible.

She was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum Davos.

"She took her audience on a 30-minute ride-taking them through a heart-tugging and sincere tale of how she made it big in business ... Her story was a little like the Alchemist, and the audience wouldn't stop clapping even after Hashemi stepped down from the stage" Exchange4Media