The Winners of Veuve Clicquot’s Bold Woman Awards 2024

Veuve Clicquot isn’t all fizz and bubbles. Female entrepreneurship is also something massively on their radar. Keeping close tabs on pioneering women in the entrepreneurial landscape to develop a solid list of Bold Woman Award nominees. This year, the champagne house brought together a series of women from every corner of the industry from creativity to STEM. This included our own SPHERE Digital Editor and CEO of ILN, Lisa Barnard, who took a seat in Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House to be a part of the 52nd year of this empowering award ceremony.

Winner of the 2024 Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award, Tracy Blackwell, is the Co-founder and CEO of Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC). As the leader of this specialist insurance firm, Blackwell has built the company up to being a FTSE 100-sized business. Paying the pensions of over 350,000 individuals and increasing its asset portfolio to £50 billion since its beginning in 2006. A large sum of £13 billion is invested back into UK infrastructure. Working towards a number of projects including the Wirral, the UK’s largest urban regeneration project.

Looking ahead to up-and-coming entrepreneurs of the future, the Bold Future Award by Veuve Clicquot was awarded to Francesca Brady. As the Co-founder and CEO of AirRated, Brady is the brain behind the innovation of AirScore. Many of us think of pollution and air quality as being strictly an outside issue. AirScore brings our attention from smoggy streets and into our own homes, to equally focus on the importance of air quality indoors. AirScore acts as a marker for indoor air health that is available for everyone and is something we must begin to turn attention to as we look ahead to the future.

The judging panel comprised of Kristina Blahnik, CEO of Manolo Blahnik; Pip Jamieson, Founder of The Dots; Pippa Lamb, Partner at Sweet Capital; Sharmadean Reid, Founder of The Stack World; and Sian Westerman, Co-chair at the British Fashion Council Trust. This carefully selected group of industry luminaries decided to grant Brady the Bold Future Award, as they were particularly impressed with her ability to implement strong academic acumen into strong strategy for business success.

The panel also spotted similar traits in enterprising spirit between Blackwell and VC’s own Madame Clicquot. This is the woman who paved the way for Veuve Clicquot in the 1800’s, growing it into one of the world’s largest champagne brands. “In 1805, Madame Clicquot was the original Bold woman, and our two winners this year encapsulate everything she stood for,” said Jean-Marc Gallot, President of Veuve Clicquot. “Succeeding in typically male dominated sectors, both our winners excelled across the four key areas our judges assess,” the company president continued on to say.

A few words from the winners

Francesca Brady explained that the work they do at AirRated is, “incredibly important to people’s health and winning the Bold Future Award is amazing recognition personally, offering a fantastic opportunity to shine a light on indoor air quality." Tracy Blackwell went on to mention that the pension industry she works in “usually flies beneath the radar” and “to be recognised with such a prestigious award will help to raise the profile of this crucial industry.” PIC’s investment in UK infrastructure “brings a measure of intergenerational equity,” Blackwell clarified, “as we back the pensions of older people with the infrastructure and housing needed by younger, and future, generations.”

The Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Awards continue to empower women within industry by bringing attention and visibility to the work of incredible female figures. Past winners have ranged from Professor Sarah Gilbert who led the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, to Anne Pitcher, CEO of Selfridges Group. Now Francesca Brady and Tracy Blackwell will go down in history, joining the ever-growing hall of bold women and achieving a place in the newly launched Bold Open Database.

Head back in time and read over last year’s winners here