Jo Malone MBE, founder and creative director of Jo Loves, has been confirmed to join the already impressive line-up of speakers at the May Design Series Conference taking place from 17-19th May at ExCeL London.
Taking centre stage at 12:30pm on Tuesday 19th May, the inspirational business woman will share her story of making it from life in council housing to establishing a multi-million pound company and reveal the successes, failures, challenges – both personal and commercial – and motivation behind her achievements. Complementing the May Design Series 2015 Conference theme of ‘The Business of Design’, Jo’s session is free to attend for registered visitors.
Jo Malone is the founder of the high-end fragrance and cosmetics range that bears her name. She has also presented BBC’s High Street Dreams, helping entrepreneurial individuals develop their own products for the mass market. And starting this month, she is the Evening Standard’s new business agony aunt, solving problems for companies big and small in a column published every Monday.
Leaving school at 14 to care for her sick mother, Jo started work on a beauty counter. She began mixing scents in her kitchen and giving them away as tokens of appreciation. This eventually gave rise to a complete range of luxury fragrances, bath oils, skin care and scented candles. Today Jo Malone products can be found in upmarket department stores from Saks to Selfridges - and in homes, hotels and spas around the world. Jo grew it into global luxury brand, staying on for seven years as creative director after selling her stake to Estee Lauder.
Jo left the original brand in 2006, but soon started asking herself if she could do it again. With a head full of ideas and natural entrepreneurial flair, the result was a new range called Jo Loves. The collection includes eight fragrances and two innovative layered scented candles.
