On March 6, Ambassador Robert Sherman and wife Kim Sawyer, with the participation of the Minister of Education and Science Nuno Crato, hosted a reception at their residence to launch the Connect to Success MBA/Masters Consulting Program. The launch of this component of the Embassy’s women entrepreneurship program was timed to also highlight International Women’s Day on March 8, and included over 80 attendees.
The Ambassador and Kim Sawyer, together with Minister Crato, as well as representatives of five top Portuguese university business programs and some of their students, were on hand to formally announce the pairings of MBA/Masters business consulting teams and their associated women owned businesses, participants of the Connect to Success program. Following initial remarks by the Ambassador, Minister Crato and Kim Sawyer, the Ambassador and Ms. Sawyer led the distribution of certificates and announcement of the pairings.
Five of Portugal’s top business schools are participating currently in the MBA/Masters Consulting Program, including: Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, ISCTE Business School, Lisbon MBA, Nova School of Business and Economics, and the University of Porto Business School. Fourteen women-owned businesses were selected by these schools, from a large pool of applications.
During his key-note speech at the event, the Ambassador discussed the main points of the Connect to Success program. He said that “Connect to Success was launched in July 2014, and since then we have seen an overwhelming level of enthusiasm both in the number of businesses registered and the quality of applications received.” Kim Sawyer added that “over 200 companies have registered into the program through the WEConnect website. This demonstrates that Portuguese women have an entrepreneurial spirit.”
