She is the founder and CEO of Lionesses of Africa Public Benefit Corporation, which she says is “a 930,000+ strong community working to grow women’s entrepreneurship in Africa and supporting the start-up dreams of all women on the continent.”
“I passionately believe it’s time to provide the support, the business tools and inspiration to ensure the next generation of women-led businesses in Africa can flourish and fulfil their potential”- Malenie Hawken.
According to lionessesofafrica.com “Melanie is on a mission to drive large-scale change for Africa’s women entrepreneurs, the most underserved on the planet.”
The website says that “she believes it is possible to support the development of a new generation of women entrepreneurs who can become the change agents Africa so badly needs.”
Her profile indicates that she has been an entrepreneur for most of her life, with over 3 decades of experience in media, publishing, and communications.
The good lady wants to build a powerful network of women entrepreneurs committed to sharing, inspiring and connecting with one another for accelerated success.
“Melanie passionately believes it’s time to provide the support, the business tools and inspiration to ensure the next generation of women-led businesses in Africa can flourish and fulfill their potential,” notes the website.
In an interview with Dr. Tanja Glootz, she says: “I think there is a mind shift that we will see quite quickly. Too often we say about a start-up that it needs funding. But the secret is: We don‘t need funding, we simply need sales, we need access to markets to get that product out there. Yes, you may need funding when you are going to grow your business. When it‘s a manufacturing upscale, there could be a new factory needed, or there could be an expansion of a particular product range that needs an injection of cash. That‘s true. But when we are talking about the situation at the beginning of a journey, it‘s different. If you have access to markets, then you can get your product out there, you can get into big supply chains and thus you will be getting volumes of sales – and that‘s your funding.”
Melanie was born in England, but she is a global traveler all her life, splitting her time between Africa, the US and Europe. She holds an Honours Degree in History of Art from University of London.