Meet The Winners Of The Cartier Women’s Initiative Impact 2025 Awards Ceremony

Impact is the word that matters here. Cartier follows this perfectly. In its Cartier Women’s Initiative program, an entrepreneurial fellowship program that has been around since 2006, it exercises impact in the key business leaders it selects and awards. For this year in 2025, The Cartier Women’s Initiative is holding its Impact Awards Ceremony in May 22. To be held in Osaka, Kansai, Japan as part of the initiation of the Women’s Pavilion at World Expo 2025, the ceremony will award nine entrepreneurs – whom are former fellows of the program – across three Impact Awards Categories: Improving Lives, Preserving the Planet, and Creating Opportunities. The categories highlight all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Meet the winners of this year’s awards in more detail.

Preserving the Planet Category Winners

Tracy O’Rourke, a 2019 fellow:

Awarded for Vivid Edge, which provides medium and large corporations energy efficiency services that help achieve climate-saving goals and preserve the planet in many ways. In addition to installing energy efficiency assets such as rooftop solar panels in commercial properties, the business – according to Cartier – also “rents them out to the occupiers under a full-service model”.

 

Kresse Wesling, a 2011 fellow: 

Awarded for Elvis & Kresse, which transforms commercial and industrial waste into luxury designer goods and accessories. According to Cartier, in addition to donating 50% of its profits to charity, the company has – with its partnership with The Firefighters Charity – also “covered the cost of over 29,000 therapy sessions for firefighters”.

 

Kristin Kagetsu, a 2018 fellow:

Awarded for Saathi, which improves the lives of women in India by creating environmentally-friendly, natural and biodegradable sanitary pads made of locally-sourced banana fiber. Because Saathi uses sustainable material, the pads can also be converted into materials such as compost and biogas. According to Cartier, this could potentially “reduce even more [carbon] emissions in the future”.

 

Improving Lives Category Winners

Caitlin Dolkart, a 2019 fellow:

Awarded for Flare, a company which provides Kenyans subscription-based, life-saving and emergency-response services via the platform Rescue.co. Prior to the company’s launch in 2017, Kenyans struggled with receiving urgent access to ambulance transportation support. Now, however, Flare has helped immensely and – according to Cartier –  by the end of 2024, it “completed over 40,000 life-saving rescues and transfers”.

 

Namita Banka, a 2013 fellow:

Awarded for Banka Bioloo, a company which provides sustainable and water sanitation solutions throughout India, solutions which include biotoilets, biodigesters, and sewage treatment plants. In addition to installing 3,000 toilets for Indian Railways which –  according to Cartier – serve 10 million people who travel on these trains daily, the company also produced a biodigester technology that turns human waste into beneficial material such as compost.

 

Yvette Ishimwe, a 2023 fellow:

Awarded for IRIBA Water Group, which provides accessible, clean and affordable water for low-income communities in Africa. According to Cartier, “IRIBA has provided 517,412 people with safe drinking water and expanded across the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.” It also has a “core product” called Tap&Drink that is a smart water ATM which, when connected to sources of impure water, can purify and waive them “at a low cost”.

 

 

Creating Opportunities Category Winners

Rama Kayyali, a 2014 fellow:

Awarded for Little Thinking Minds, an edtech company that provides Arabic language-learning and reading platforms to make the language experience impactful for K-12 students across the MENA region. According to Cartier, in addition to the company’s impressive digital learning sites and personalized forms of learning, it also partners with notable Arab children’s book publishers “to offer high-quality, culturally relevant material”.

 

Mariam Torosyan, a 2023 fellow:

Awarded for Safe YOU, a mobile application and AI platform that provides emergency assistance, online resources and support for women suffering from gender-based violence. According to Cartier, Safe YOU now has 40,000 users and has addressed 18,000 alerts of violence. In addition to “enhancing existing solutions” to gender-based violence, the platform is also a “virtual safe space” for women, showing them they are not alone.

 

Jackie Stenson, a 2014 fellow: 

Awarded for Essmart, which connects and provides life-improving technologies and products to rural retail shops, FPOs, and farmer households in India. According to Cartier, Essmart “has positively impacted over 1.4 million lives” and “enabled over 125 million additional hours of productivity”.

These incredible women are paving the way for a better and brighter world, and their businesses are a beacon of hope for improved lives and a great sustainable future.

In addition to receiving a $100,000 grant, enhanced media visibility and enrollment in a year-long Impact Fellowship, the awardees will receive lifelong support from and access to the CWI community, showcasing the passion, dedication and unwavering support The Cartier Women’s Initiative has for its business leaders. The 2025 Awards Ceremony towards the end of this month is going to portray this hope, dedication and support when it honors the nine awardees, inviting more individuals to create with the honor and value of sustainability in mind.