Forward Ladies dial up 02 deal

O2, the UK's top-ranked mobile operator, has announced a website sponsorship deal with Forward Ladies, the North's fastest growing womens' networking and business support group.

Forward Ladies, which is supported by Yorkshire Forward as part of its commitment to encouraging greater levels of female entrepreneurship in the region, now has more than 3,000 women on its database and the group's website is proving hugely popular, receiving thousands of hits a year.

From its roots in Yorkshire, the group has successfully expanded into the North West, with plans to spread into Derby, Nottingham, up to the North East and, in the future, possibly cross over the border into Scotland.

Speaking in Leeds at O2's largest centre in the UK (which has almost 3,000 employees), Ann Pickering, head of human resources for O2 UK explained: "As a company, we firmly believe in supporting women and, from a personal perspective, living in Sheffield, it will be extremely useful for me to be able to tap into such an active regional network."

Cheryl Black, customer service director, O2 UK, who also lives in Yorkshire, agreed and added: "At O2 we want to have the very best people working for us and are committed to ensuring that our women employees reach their maximum potential.

"Also, we have many female entrepreneurial customers who we want to support. Historically, women have not always had the same opportunities to network as their male counterparts and Forward Ladies has certainly filled this niche."

Cheryl and Ann are two of the 100 businesswomen from across the region nominated by Yorkshire Forward, to become Women's Enterprise Ambassadors – a national network of businesswomen which has been set up by the government to give women the self-belief, confidence and support to start their own businesses.

The network aims to target women of all ages, across all sectors of society. In particular, young women who are considering their career choices; women over 30 who may have just had children and are taking stock of their future, balancing family commitments with work requirements; and women over 50 who have retired early or whose children may have left home.

Etta Cohen, managing director of Forward Ladies said: "We are delighted to have the backing of such a high profile and powerful brand as O2 and, through our

website, we will also be publicising the important work the company does in engaging local communities."

For further information on Forward Ladies visit www.forwardladies.com