In November 1995 Sahar Hashemi with her brother Bobby founded Coffee Republic and within 5 years built it into one of the UK’s most recognised high street brands with 100 bars and a turnover of £30m.

Sahar was a lawyer, her brother an investment banker — they gave up their highly paid professional jobs and staked everything on a dream — and made Coffee Republic one of the main players in the ‘coffee revolution’ that transformed a nation of tea drinkers to one obsessed with ‘triple grande vanilla skinny lattes’.

Sahar left the day-to-day management of Coffee Republic in 2001 and wrote a book about her journey of entrepreneurship. She believes if she did it, anyone can do it which is the title of her book — ‘ANYONE CAN DO IT — Building Coffee Republic From Our Kitchen Table’. Since publication in January 2003 ANYONE CAN DO IT has become a bestselling book on entrepreneurship and topped no. 1 on the Amazon chart making Sahar the 2nd best selling author on entrepreneurship after Richard Branson.

Sahar believes if she did it, anyone can do it which is the title of her book — ‘ANYONE CAN DO IT — Building Coffee Republic From Our Kitchen Table’.

In 2005 Sahar founded Skinny Candy — a brand of 99 calorie guiltfree sweets for women. She is currently busy growing Skinny Candy under a joint venture with Glisten Plc. Sahar was recently recognised for her achievements by Her Majesty the Queen and named as a ‘Pioneer to the life of the nation’. She was also named one of 100 most influential women in Britain by Daily Mail and 35 top women in British business by Management Today. She was also named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.