Mavis Amankwah

Early life and education

Amankwah was born in Newham, East London to a Ghanaian family. Mavis has one son aged 21 and one daughter aged 16.

Having completed secondary school in 1990 at St Angela's Usruline Convent School in East London, Amankwah went on to study IT at the College of North East London where she qualified as an IT Technician.

St Leonard's Primary Care Trust

Amankwah worked as an IT Technician at St Leonard's Primary Care Trust in London for six years. During that time, she spent her spare time organising community events targeting hard-to-reach communities. After working on a few events, Amankwah became the Event Organiser for Miss Ghana UK.

Sleek International

Amankwah joined makeup company, Sleek International, as their ICT manager. As ICT Manager, Amankwah was responsible for developing the IT infrastructure and implementing strategies in line with the company's corporate standards. As well as managing her own team, Amankwah assisted the marketing and PR team with their publicity campaigns that specifically targeted niche audiences in Europe, Africa, Asia and the USA.

Sankofa African Caribbean Organisation

Whilst still working at Sleek, Amankwah decided to set up a social enterprise, Sankofa African-Caribbean Organisation in 2003. The aim of the organisation was to aid young people to fulfill their dreams by working on their personal development, education, career and enterprise skills. Sankofa ceased operations in 2008.

Rich Visions

After leaving Sleek International, Amankwah went on to start up marketing and PR communications agency. Rich Visions is an ethnic communications agency which engages and sustains relationships with hard to reach communities. They have created campaigns for ASDA, Comic Relief, HMRC, Metropolitan Police, HSBC, MoneyGram and for the Digital UK TV switchover.

Rich Visions previously assisted the social enterprise Positive Inclusions, the delivery partners on the government-backed initiative, the Start Up Loans Scheme. The scheme offers loans, business support and mentoring to aspiring entrepreneurs aged 18–30 who want to start or grow their enterprises.

Redbridge Homes and Surrey County Council

In July 2009, after studying the value of Equality and Diversity, Amankwah worked in consulting as an Equality and Diversity (E&D) Manager for Redbridge Homes and Surrey County Council.

Rich Visions Small Business

In 2009, Amankwah launched another arm of the agency. Rich Visions Small Business (RVSB) provides professional Business Support (for start-ups and existing businesses), Funding Assistance, Marketing and PR services to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Entrepreneurs, Sole Traders and Organisations that want to start, grow or expand their businesses and enterprises.

Rich Visions Digital

In January 2012, the digital arm of the company, Rich Visions Digital, was formed.

Author

Amankwah wrote a self-help book for businesses and entrepreneurs called 44 Ways to Grow Your Business or Brand: a step-by-step guide to increase profit.

Business Ambassador

In January 2013, Amankwah was appointed as the Business Ambassador for a social enterprise called Positive Inclusions. The organisation works with young people from hard-to-reach communities to improve their personal, social, career and business skills. Positive Inclusions were working on the Start Up Loans Scheme as one of the official "Delivery Partners" on the project delivering the scheme. Amankwah, as Business Ambassador for Positive Inclusions, is working on promoting this scheme to budding entrepreneurs and raising awareness as well as offering personal mentoring and business plan/cashflow forecast assistance.

Young UpStarts

Mavis was featured on a programme called 'Young UpStarts' which was aired on satellite TV channel London Live on 15 June 2014. Mavis was seen mentoring and guiding a young lady on her journey into the world of business ownership.

Public speaking

Amankwah is a public speaker who has spoken at various conferences and seminars over the years. She was a keynote speaker at the prestigious Business 2012 event, alongside Stedman Graham (Oprah Winfrey's partner), Lord Alan Sugar and Sir Richard Branson.

Amankwah holds workshops and one-to-one mentoring programmes. She launched business club, Diva Visions and Women Like Me in or female business owners, career professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds. It currently consists of 100 members.

Media coverage

Amankwah has been featured in over 200 press titles including The Telegraph, Virgin, The Drum, The Guardian, The Voice to PR Week. She has been included in PR Week's Powerbook for five consecutive years (2009–2015).

Accolades

Amankwah has won 12 business and community awards and been featured in over 200 media publications.

In 2012, she won two awards out of four nominated categories at the first annual Women4Africa Awards (Business Woman of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year).

Winner of the ‘Innovation Award’ in 2007 GAB Awards – Media category Winner of the 2008 Black Business Awards – Innovation category Winner of the 2010 ‘Outstanding Achievement in Business’ Women In Enterprise award Winner of the 2011 ‘Outstanding Career Achievement ’ Powersis Award Women4Africa Awards in 2012 – ‘Business Woman of the Year’ Women4Africa Awards in 2012 – ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ Winner of the Junior Chamber of Commerce ‘Outstanding Young Persons of The World’ 2013 Finalist of the Great British Entrepreneur Award 2013 African Business Excellence Award 2014 Ebony Business Recognition (EBR) Awards 2014 – Finalist ‘Women’s Business Coach of the Year’ and ‘Motivational & Inspirational Business Women of the Year’ Winner of the 2015 ‘Speaker of the Year’ iWOP Winner of 2015 100 Outstanding Africans Making a Difference Finalist ‘Entrepreneur Of The Year’ National Diversity Award 2015 Winner of 2015 ‘Inspirational Award’ Back2Black Award

In 2012, Amankwah judged for the Ghana UK-Based Achievement Awards (GUBA).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/business/sme-home/news/12062424/would-your-sme-survive-without-top-staff-member.html http://www.prweek.com/article/931172/profile-mavis-amankwah-managing-director-rich-visions https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/why-entrepreneurs-should-embrace-failure-in-2016 http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/apr/14/mavis-amankwah-rich-visions