
Sophia Swire
Sophia Swire traded a successful City career to establish schools and businesses for women in war zones. Her work has been recognised with three awards, most recently at the UN. She launched the international fashion for pashmina shawls and the best-selling accessory line at Harrods for over a decade. She returned to Afghanistan in 2008 to establish a Jewellery School. Her NGO, Future Brilliance, funded by the US DOD and the Canadian Foreign Ministry, ran first Digital Literacy training project in Kabul and helped Afghan women form a jewelry co-operative and brand – Aayenda. Swire returned to Europe in 2014 to run for office at a prospective MEP in the European Elections. Since then, she has advised an impact fund in Africa and various tech start-ups in the US, Israel and UK. On 02.02.2020, she founded Gender Equity Diversity Investments Ltd (www.gedi.io), a new investment platform to accelerate successful female-led tech businesses that deliver positive impact.