Julia Hoggett and Insiya Jafferjee win the 2025 Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Awards
The 2024 Bold Woman Awards shortlist from left to right: Vivien Wong, Anne Aslett, Dame Julia Hoggett, Insiya Jafferjee, Ayesha Ofori, Nina Mohanty
Dame Julia Hoggett and Insiya Jafferjee
Sharmadean Reid hosting the awards
“The braver I am, the braver I get”: Dame Julia Hoggett and Insiya Jafferjee have won top honours at the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Awards by being “bold, brave, ambitious and inclusive”.
Dame Julia Hoggett DBE, CEO of the London Stock Exchange plc and Head of Digital and Securities Markets for LSEG, has won the 2025 Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award. Meanwhile Insiya Jafferjee, co-founder and CEO of Shellworks, has been named winner of the Bold Future Award.
Held at the Royal Opera House, the Awards celebrate extraordinary women who embody the legacy of Madame Clicquot, a fearless entrepreneur who defied 19th-century norms by establishing one of the world’s leading champagne brands.
Hoggett’s win places her among a distinguished roster of trailblazers, including Professor Sarah Gilbert, recognised for leading the development of the University of Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine; Anne Pitcher, the CEO of Selfridges Group; praised for her “significant financial success”; and 2024 winner Tracy Blackwell, who grew the Pension Insurance Corporation into a £50bn FTSE 100 business.
“It is a huge honour to win such a prestigious award and be recognised amongst the ranks of these other truly inspiring, bold women,” said Hoggett. “I often use the phrase, ‘The braver I am, the braver I get’. Being bold, brave, ambitious and inclusive in our vision for the London Stock Exchange and its role in building an ecosystem in which entrepreneurs and investors can thrive is hugely important to me.”
The judging panel praised Hoggett’s leadership at the helm of Europe’s largest exchange and her vocal commitment to diversity in financial services. Her work with the UK’s Capital Markets Industry Taskforce has helped shape inclusive strategies for economic growth. “Any organisation is not about one person, but about the remarkable teams of people that make them up,” she added. “I am incredibly proud of, and grateful to, the teams that support me.”
Jafferjee received the Bold Future Award for her remarkable achievements at Shellworks, a startup developing compostable, petroleum-free packaging. The company has already replaced 40 tonnes of plastic and 1.2 million units of packaging – and is on track to generate £4.5m in revenue this year.
“I’m incredibly proud of how far Shellworks has come, growing from a small startup into a leader in sustainable packaging,” said Jafferjee. “The biggest challenge I’ve faced with Shellworks is scepticism. People often doubt that what we do is even possible... Proving them wrong at every stage has been my boldest and bravest achievement.”
Previous Bold Future winners include Francesca Brady, whose company AirRated has set global standards for indoor air quality, and Karen Scofield Seal, founder of seaweed-processing company Oceanium, both applauded for their environmental innovation.
This year’s ceremony was hosted by entrepreneur and judge Sharmadean Reid, founder of The Stack World; while the judging panel included Bridget Lea (Snap Inc.), Izzy Obeng (Foundervine), and Pip Jamieson (The Dots), who evaluated nominees for their vision, innovation, and social impact.
“Building on the legacy of Madame Clicquot, these two women are reshaping the future of business,” said Jean-Marc Gallot, president of Veuve Clicquot. “Their achievements go far beyond profit, serving as inspiration for aspiring female entrepreneurs.”
Widowed at 27, Madame Clicquot took the reins of the champagne house in 1805, at a time when women couldn’t legally open bank accounts. She went on to invent the riddling table, the first vintage champagne, and the blended rosé. Her famous words in 1831, “I want my brand to rank first from New York to Saint Petersburg,” continue to inspire the Bold programme’s global vision.
In that spirit, the Bold Open Data Base, an initiative launched by Veuve Clicquot and Dr Aurélie Jean, aims to make female entrepreneurs visible across industries and continents, offering a searchable platform for journalists, investors and researchers seeking the female leaders of tomorrow.
