Maria Sharapova Establishes Program to Help Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Five-time Grand Slam tennis champion, Maria Sharapova, has experienced some monumental moments in her career: Among them are in 2004, with the life-changing win at Wimbledon, and in 2012, with the launch of her own successful candy company, Sugarpova.
In the spirit of philanthropy and women’s empowerment, Sharapova is proud to announce that she is partnering with the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) along with her team to mentor female entrepreneurs through the Sharapova Women’s Entrepreneur Program kicking off in Spring 2018 with a nationwide call for applicants from which up to six business women will be selected. Sharapova naturally turned to NAWBO as a partner for finding and identifying potential participants, and as a resource to help develop a robust curriculum for the 12-month-long mentorship program. Sales from Sugarpova will support the Sharapova Women’s Entrepreneur Program.
Sharapova commented: “I only wish when I was starting out with my own company, Sugarpova that I had a group of mentors and the team I have now to help guide and support me. I recognize that supporting women-owned businesses by sharing expertise and valuable business resources can have a dramatic impact of growth of a business and can be a real catalyst for advancing the success of a business. Simply put, this partnership is about Women helping Women.”
Over the past six years, Sharapova has learned the many business dimensions of starting a company with all the challenges and hurdles of the real-world experience along the way. Being a young startup, Sharapova wore many hats in growing Sugarpova, her off-the-court business. With Sugarpova reaching global sales penetration with double-digit revenue growth the last several years, Sharapova decided the time is right to pay forward her well-honed business skills – joining with the hefty rolodex and strong relationships of her business team — and set aside time from her busy competitive tennis schedule to help other women entrepreneurs, via mentoring support and networking opportunities and allocating her team’s resources to help grow these women’s businesses.