A self-proclaimed amateur entrepreneur whose attitude is summed up in her 2003 book Anyone Can Do It, Sahar Hashemi has nevertheless been an extraordinarily successful businesswoman. Having attended City on a Corporation scholarship, she is best known for founding Coffee Republic, the UK’s first US-style coffee bar chain, which grew to a height of 110 branches with a £30m turnover.

She is currently co- chair of the Government Scale Up Taskforce and is actively involved in the roll-out of Change Please, a social enterprise that trains and hires homeless people to run coffee carts.