Alice a finalist for the Women in Business (WIB) Aspiring Business Woman of the Year Award

The owner of Fiji’s first hand blown glass company in Korotogo is one of three finalists for the Women in Business (WIB) Aspiring Business Woman of the Year Award this week.

Hot Glass Fiji was founded by Alice Hill in 2013 where her ideas became a dream then a plan and later a reality.

Mrs Hill is originally from the UK and a glassblower by profession.

She studied design for two years at Farnham Art College in Surrey before pursuing a degree in three dimensional designs specialising in glass.

After graduating from Farnham she went to the famous Brierley Hill Glass School in the West Midlands where she completed a two-year postgraduate course in the technique of glassblowing.

Following this, she worked for four years as a glassblower at the Hand Made Glass Co in London.

She moved to Fiji with her husband in 2003 where they established a successful scuba diving business for nine years.

“For a glass blower, living in Fiji is like being immersed in a sea of inspiration. Colours, shapes and textures.

The Coral Coast is stunning, rainforests riding rolling hills right down to the shimmering ever changing blues of the Pacific.”

* The Fiji Times is the official print media partner for the 2015 WIB Awards.

Women in Business Awards is scheduled for March 7 at Grand Pacific Hotel, Suva

• Theme colour for the awards is “Glitz and Glamour“
• 70 applications this year compared with 45 last year.
• WIB founded in 1998
• WIB board comprises eight professional women from diverse business and commercial backgrounds.

HERE are some of the prizes up for grabs at the 2015 Women in Business Awards:

• Westpac bank account with a balance of $2000.
• A tablet sponsored by Digicel with free data.
• A smartphone sponsored by Digicel with free credit and data.
• Return flight to an international destination sponsored by Fiji Airways.
• Training opportunity overseas.

The Award Categories

The five award categories comprise:

Business Woman of the Year

Business Woman of the Year will be chosen for her excellence in business, idea generation management, human resource and growth strategies as well as financial management prowess.

Executive Woman of the Year

Executive Woman of the Year will have demonstrated exemplary management and decision making acumen with proven results. She will have had a distinguished career as a senior manager/executive of an organization with a proven record of encouraging women to achieve their career goals.

Manager of the Year

Manager of the Year will be employed at the intermediate management level, accountable to top/senior  management for her department’s function and with responsibility for leading lower level managers.

Aspiring Entrepreneur of the Year

Aspiring Entrepreneur of the Year will be the owner of a “new” business venture. Her business can be of any size, with sound business practices and strategies to reflect all growth opportunities.

Employer of choice for women 2015

Employer of choice for women 2015 will be chosen by the WIB Board. The winner will be based upon the number of women employed by the organisation as well as their level of seniority in the organization.

The 2015 Women in Business awards will be held on March 7.

Originally published in The Fiji Times:  Unique glass, Ropate Valemei, Wednesday, February 25, 2015