The newly opened AllBright Club promises to be a “thunderbolt of light and colour” in Mayfair.
A private club for professional women has opened in Maddox Street in 2019. It's strapline is: “sisterhood works”.
Set over five floors, with two roof terraces, the club wants to shake up Mayfair's male-only club traditions.
It offers a programme of events, female-led film screenings, inspirational speakers, a book club, wine club and workshops.
An academy at the club gives free advice to address the skills crisis for women.
There are courses with titles like: “Smashing the glass ceiling”.
Pitch days give female entrepreneurs the chance to pitch to a room of investors.
“We feel like it's a thunderbolt of light and colour and excitement going into Mayfair that can be, at its worst, a bit stuffy,” says co-founder Anna Jones.
Anna, former CEO of magazine publishing giant Hearst, was introduced to co-founder Debbie Wosskow OBE, the tech entrepreneur, by mutual friends in 2017.
They opened the first AllBright Club in Fitzrovia in 2018. Now, they believe, the time is perfect for their new venture.
A decade ago the club would not have had the same response.
Left to right: club founders Debbie Wosskow OBE and Anna Jones.
“The consequence, not just of Me Too and Time's Up and Harvey Weinstein and The President's Club, the consequence of a changing zeitgeist around female leadership, is why this is so of the moment,” says Anna.
Debbie says that the statistics speak for themselves.
“British Business Bank released some research that shows that only one penny in the pound goes to back a business led by female co-founders,” she says.
And the name? The AllBright Club?
It turns out the inspiration is former US Secretary of State Madeleine Allbright.
She famously said: “There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.”
Find out more about the AllBright Club here.
To read the full interview with the club's founders in the Mayfair Times read here
