To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Cartier Women’s Initiative, nine former fellows have been selected for the extraordinary impact that their businesses have achieved over the years.

The Impact Awards cover three categories: Improving Lives, Preserving the Planet, and Creating Opportunities, which are based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Three former fellows are recognized in each of the three categories. The first-place, second-place, and third-place awardees were announced on March 6, 2022, during the Impact Awards Ceremony in Dubai.

Meet these bold entrepreneurs who are leveraging business to protect the Earth's environment, improve livelihoods in their communities, and create opportunities for a better future.

The 2022 Impact Awards are open to all former fellows apart from those who participated in the 2021 edition. Moreover, fellows’ businesses that fit several thematic issue areas can be nominated in more than one Impact Awards category. However, they can only ever be selected in one category at a time.

To qualify for the 2022 Impact Awards:

1. The fellow must have completed our impact survey. Fellows who haven’t completed the impact survey are not eligible regardless of whether their business has demonstrated a strong impact or not in recent years.

2. The fellow must be running an impact-driven business. This can be the business she presented to the Cartier Women’s Initiative at her time of participation or it can be a new business that she started since participating in our program.

3. The fellow must occupy a leadership role at her company (for example CEO, COO, Chairwoman, or General Manager).

4. The fellow must own a significant share of her company’s founder equity.

5. The fellow must be running a for-profit company. This means that the company should be designed to generate sufficient revenue to support its operations and return some level of profit to its owners. Non-profit enterprises are not accepted.

6. The fellow must commit to (I) taking part in a virtual due diligence assessment (1 day), (II) taking part in an interview with a filming crew (1 day), (III) participating in the 2022 Cartier Women's Initiative World Reunion from March 6 to March 8, 2022 (3 days).

We used the fellows’ responses to the impact survey to conduct a preliminary screening of their businesses and selected the top ten shortlisted candidates for each Impact Awards category (30 in total).

Our due diligence partner Sagana and our jury members then used the above selection criteria to select the three awardees for each Impact Awards category (9 in total). The final grade was broken down as follows: 70% on impact and 30% on business strategy.

Each of the nine awardees received a grant for their business:

• First-place awardee: USD 100,000
• Second-place awardee: USD 60,000
• Third-place awardee: USD 30,000

We also provide all the awardees with human capital support, international exposure, and media visibility.