Count Me In Graduate Honored
Capital One Financial Corporation and Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence honored women veteran business owners from across the country who have successfully launched or grown their own businesses, generating new job opportunities and creating a ripple effect in economic growth in communities nationwide. Civility Management Solutions, President & CEO, was one of 24 women veteran entrepreneurs, who represented the first graduating class of the Women Veteran Entrepreneur Corps (WVEC) program, and were honored during a special graduation ceremony on April 15, 2014, in Washington, D.C.
WVEC, the result of an ongoing partnership between Capital One and Count Me In, is a training and mentorship program designed to help established women small business owners who are veterans, spouses/domestic partners, or daughters of veterans conquer daily business challenges and plan ahead for future growth and success. The program is made possible as part of Capital One’s $800,000 commitment to Count Me In to support of women veterans and small businesses.
The first WVEC graduation took place during the third WVEC Conference, which also provided new participants with an opportunity to meet and network with other women entrepreneurs and featured a business pitch competition which provided women business owners with a chance to give a two-minute business pitch and receive real-time, expert feedback to help them hone their concepts. The winners of the competition joined Count Me In’s celebrated Business Accelerator Program, a nine-month intensive business education program designed to help women grow their businesses significantly within 18 to 36 months.
The WVEC Conference and Competition featured an exciting roster of informative and inspiring speakers including keynote speaker Michele S. Jones, Command Sergeant Major (Ret.), U.S. Army. The WVEC program builds on Capital One’s three-year, $4.5 million commitment to support the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes initiative, a program that provides job fairs and workforce training initiatives across the United States for veterans and military spouses. In March 2012, Capital One, the U.S. Chamber and National Chamber Foundation announced “Hiring 500,000 Heroes,” a national campaign to engage the business community in committing to hire 500,000 veterans and military spouses by the end of 2014. Capital One’s partnership with Count Me In is aligned with its commitment to helping aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses of every size grow and thrive – whether it’s directly through their products and services, or through innovative partnerships and programs like WVEC that provide tailored business training, mentoring, and other professional support and resources.
