WOMEN HELPING WOMEN The Sunshine Coast Business Women’s Network has gone from strength to strength since its origins in 1992.
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n January 1992, Bebe Mawer gathered a group of women around her kitchen table with a solid aim in mind – to create a business-focused group for women. With the assistance of Sheryl Wendt, June Phillips, June Passmore, Marilyn Manning and Marion McCormack, Women in the Workforce (WIW) was born. They didn’t know it at the time, but this was the beginning of a network that would go on to support, inspire, mentor and educate thousands of women. Inspired by the success of the Cairns Business Club, Ms Mawer had founded while living in North Queensland, they set about building up membership numbers by hosting regular luncheons at the Boolarong Hotel in Alexandra Headland. Having moved to the Sunshine Coast to take on the role of marketing manager at the Kawana Shoppingworld, Ms Mawer says she was looking for connection to other businesswomen outside of the shopping centre environment. Their first meeting attracted nine women, their second saw 15 women show up and the growth continued as the word
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got around. Professional women and women who were looking to re-enter the workforce would receive newsletters in the post, each one of them photocopied, stamped and taken to the post office for delivery. Jan Revill was elected as president in 1994 and so began an evolution that would see a succession of nine remarkable women bringing their unique talents and vision to the head of the executive team to shape the successful network of today. Karen Neuendorf’s presidency from February 2003 to 2007 saw membership grow from around 100 to more than 400. Karen’s legacy is the SCBWN bursary, which supports four women studying at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Sue Willis, who was president from 2008 to 2011, Michalle Faulkner, who served from 2012 to 2014, and Vickie Magic who led the SCBWN from 2015 to 2017, have all left their signature on the network and assisted in evolving it. President Roz White is now at the helm and introduced an accelerated MBA program in partnership with the University of the Sunshine Coast for businesswomen.
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