The Ireland Fund of Great Britain Ladies Lunch was held on Friday, October 17th 2014 at Simpson’s in the Strand.
The afternoon started with a lovely champagne reception before the guests entered the main room for lunch. Ruth McCarthy, former Chairman of the IFGB welcomed all the guests and spoke about the importance of having so many powerful women come together for such an event. Laura Canavan Hayes, the Chair of the event, gave a warm introduction of both guest speakers for the lunch, Ros Hubbard and Susan Hayes. Susan is Managing Director of international financial training company Hayes Culleton, author of “The Savvy Woman’s Guide to Financial Freedom” and co-author of the recently published “Positive Economics” a Leaving Certificate Economics textbook.
Casting Director Ros Hubbard, who is from Dublin, set up Hubbard Casting with her husband John, in 1976 and now works from their HQ in London and Dublin. In a career that has spanned over 30 years, the Hubbard’s most notable discoveries have included Orlando Bloom, Kate Winslet and casting contacts include Evita, Angela’s Ashes, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy, The Da Vinci code, Waking Ned, The Hobbit and presiding with Alan Parker over the epic Irish casting process for The Commitments
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After the guests enjoyed their lunch, Laura Canavan Hayes invited Ros and Susan to join her in the front of the room for what turned out to be an entertaining, and engaging panel discussion. Ros and Susan talked about the challenges and successes they have had to date in their careers. Although Ros and Susan, have had very different careers, their advice and observations rang relevant with many of the ladies in the room. The atmosphere was electric with the only sense of disappointment came from the announcement that we could only take one more question.
After coffee and dessert, Caitlin Duffy, Director of the Young Leaders thanked everyone in attendance and announced a special treat for one person at every table. One lucky guest at every table was treated to a €100 voucher from Emma Manley for her 2014 AW14 Collection. There were some very happy faces in the room! After the room quieted down, Caitlin continued with the raffle winner announcements which included some great prizes including a piece of art from Olga Fitzpatrick, a gift voucher from Dublin Young Leader Chloe O’Connor to her website Loveletters.ie, and a hamper of Irish homemade beauty products from ANU. Special thanks to everyone who contributed to the raffle and making the afternoon such a success, including Conde Nast who generously contributed a copy of Vogue to every gift bag and Mary Conlon Almassy for her generous support.
Finally a very special thank you to Selfridges’, not only were they our event sponsor but they put together the most wonderful gift bags as a takeaway for all of the fabulous women at the event! We hope everyone had a great afternoon while helping the IFGB raise much-needed support for terrific Irish causes.
Photos fergusburnett.com
