Rising Star of the Year nominee 2013: Pily Mirazi

Name: Pily Mirazi
High School: Zwelibanzi High School, Durban, South Africa
Tertiary Education: University of KwaZulu-Natal
Qualifications: BA degree, Marketing Diploma, postgraduate teaching diploma (UED) and NVQ Assessor
Lives In: Essex, United Kingdom
Company: Spotlight Fashion Models
Title: Founder/CEO
Duration of time within your company: 2 Years
Professional Membership held: None

Previous positions held:

• Secondary School Teacher, South Africa and UK.
• Executive Member for South African Teachers Union
• NVQ Assessor/Verifier UK.
• Owner and Marketing Director Anglia Recruitment and Training

What are your main achievements in the category you are being nominated for?

• Corporate events and fashion show organiser
• Personality of the Year, South African Achievers Awards 2013 (current)
• Committee Member for International Think Tank, UK
• Reality Television personality
• Director for Positive Runway to stop the spread of HIV and Aids
• Mentor for young, up and coming fashion designers
• Rapid growth in my company and business activities, including youth development and projects in South Africa, where I am working with government Ministers
• Successfully executed ‘Fashion for Hunger’ fashion show to raise awareness for the IF campaign.
• Through my efforts, passion and personality I have been scouted by celebrities to play major roles in their new TV programmes: currently starring in the show The Odd Couple on Fitness Channel and TLC TV with Lisa Snowdon with Britain’s Next Top Model and a regular audience member in Bit on the Side as well as helping to organise the audience of Big Brother.
• I have also been featured on The Only Way is Essex and done a documentary on Channel 4 about Essex with comedian Frankie Boyle.

What makes you most proud about your business?

To be able to make my company a well known brand within the space of one year and to have mentored and molded models from being beginners to becoming international models getting contracts globally e.g Spain, Dubia, USA and South Africa. To provide a platform for young and up and coming designers giving them exposure and guiding their marketing. Designers are now featured in major brand magazines globally, across the fashion sector from Essex Life Magazine to Fashion Affair and Vogue Magazine USofA and Fashion Television. Her model and designers have been featureed in the major UK press e.g. Daily Mirror, OK Magazine, The Guardian etc.I have also successfully produce a show for Fashion TV in London in 2013.

Community Involvement:

• Positive Runway
• IF Campaign helping to build awareness, organised fashion show to open campaign and a sponsor of ‘Pants to Poverty’ fashion show at the Hyde Park event.
• One of the organisers for Wet Nose Charity for Animals
• Director for Positive Runway to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS and member of International Nominations Panel at Positive Runway’s Global Film Fashion Music Television Theatre & Sports Awards
• Sponsored various fashion shows to raise money for Cancer Research.
• Sponsored South African Achievers Award with fashion models and hair and make up teams and organised the fashion show.
• Organised a show to raise money for the Terrence Higgins Trust.
• Voluntarily hosted the launch of South African women “Sisterhood Imbokodo” programme in London

Directorship / Leadership positions:

• Owner of Spotlight Fashion Model Agency
• Director for Positive Runway to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS.
• Past director of Anglian Recruitment and Training.
• Mentored and advised on the marketing for the the Sparrow TV Talk Show (voluntary).
• Panel judge for the Face of Essex
• Currently working with International Organisation of Migration (IOM) in organising the campaign to raise awareness against human trafficking.

Recent Awards:

• Runner-up South Africa Chamber of Commerce (UK) 2012 ‘Rising Star of the Year’
• Personality of the Year, South Africa Achievers Award 2013 (current)

Favourite Business Quote: ‘Running a business is like riding a roller coaster. Although it is fun and exciting there will be times when you’ll be scared and feel powerless. During the bad times there isn’t much you can do other than keep on pushing forward’ – Neil Patel of Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics.

Mentors:

• Justina Mutale “African woman of the Year” and Ambassador for Gender Equality and International Womans Think Tank.
• Kevan Carrick from a property consultant, colomnist to entrepreneur with a reputation for turning bad assets into successful assets.

Voting for all nominees has now closed. Each comment posted in response to the CV/bio of your chosen nominee, which is connected to a unique, legitimate e-mail address and IP address, will be counted as a vote. Comments made by the public will contribute to 30% of the total vote. Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 28 November.

Entry, voting, participation and judging of the South African Chamber of Commerce Business Awards 2013 are governed by the Rules and Regulations.