Kate Hardcastle

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Kate Hardcastle is co-founder of the business transformation organisation Insight with Passion. 

She is also the new non-executive director for the Bradford Bulls rugby team the only woman in Superleague; the Tesco Enterprising Mum of the Year; been voted Woman of Influence for 2013 by Network She. 

Kate founded the Positive Image campaign (www.timetolookbeyondthemirror.co.uk) which she discussed with David Cameron in Downing Street, and is in demand to speak all over the world about business alongside names such as Bill Clinton and Bruce Dickinson. 

She is the founder of the charity Dreamgirls an organisation raising awareness for and of lesser known/supported charities, which encourages people to volunteer within their local communities. 

She has been a regular commentator and presenter on all mainstream channels and Sky TV, and has presented documentary programmes on business and retail. 

Insight with Passion has a strong ethical stance. They have regularly supported education partners from St John Moores to Calderdale College and hosted over 50 free workshops to help local business communities. These have been so successful that they are now run with partners Welcome to Yorkshire and Creative Lancashire. 

At Insight with Passion, Kate has helped many international companies grow and develop. She has made retailers more profitable by rebranding and reviewing products and by strategic direction and evolvement for a web-based, community business. 

As Marketing Director for Halo UK, she developed a number of innovative brand awareness campaigns on a small budget. An example was the strategic partnerships with Paramount Pictures and Pearl & Dean. 

Halo UK wanted to launch an online B2C business while protecting relationships with its wholesale customers. Kate instigated extensive market research; developed an innovative business model / product concept; assembled a multi-disciplinary team; and developed a business and marketing strategy. The on-line business 'Halo Living' was launched on time and on budget , winning interior website of the year in 2006 and 07. 

When Silentnight beds needed to develop new products to grow and remain market leaders, Kate identified an opportunity to penetrate the children's bed market with an innovative new product. She led the team which performed extensive consumer research; engaged the Operations team to understand manufacturing capabilities; assembled a product development team; and developed an entry-to-market strategy. This bed became Silentnight's most successful ever product launch. 

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