NEWS RELEASE                                                                                                 3 October 2001

 BEAUTY INDUSTRY ENTREPRENEUR WINS REGIONAL AWARD NOMINATION

Founder and principal of the International Academy of Health and Skin Care, Maja Grewe, has been nominated ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ in regional finals for the national ABSA Businesswoman of the Year Award. 

Maja will now be nominated for potential top honours and the chance of taking home a sponsor’s cheque for R25 000 in the national competition with winners to be announced at a gala function being held at Caesar’s Palace, Gauteng on 26 October.

Being staged under the auspices of the South African Council for Businesswomen, the competition has drawn candidates from a wide variety of industries including the service sector and is being used to showcase the major contribution that businesswomen make to the broader South African economic picture 

Participants are being judged in four categories; grassroots; entrepreneurial; corporate and professional Businesswomen of the Year. 

The Entrepreneur category includes all those successful women who manage a business, either as a sole proprietor or with at least a 50% stake as a director  and who must have been in business at least three years. 

Fully accredited by the Department of Education, the International Academy of Health and Skin Care was founded by Maja in 1991 and now boasts almost 200 students per year who follow a choice of hands-on pre- and post matric curriculae that lead to an International Diploma. 

As the Academy’s graduates often end up later managing and even owning their own salons, various courses also include such subjects as communications and entrepreneurial skills training as well 

“I’ve always set myself up as a role model for my students,” said Maja. “I believe that this will help them to succeed in the career path they’ve chosen. Now, through the platform that this worthy national competition offers, I can offer this leadership by example to business women across South Africa.” 

This is the 16th consecutive year that this competition has been staged, although only the first under ABSA’s welcome sponsorship.