Zea Swainson Completes LEAP Programme
Butterfield’s 2024 Leadership and Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme has successfully concluded, with six young women, including Bermuda’s Zea Swainson, completing the initiative.
A spokesperson said, “Butterfield is proud to announce the successful completion of the 2024 Leadership and Entrepreurship Accelerator Programme [LEAP] by six talented young females, including Zea Swainson from Bermuda, who were sponsored to attend. The ten-day programme, which ran from July 10 – 19 in Jersey, brought together 85 students, aged 14 to 18, from 49 countries to develop essential business and leadership skills.
“The LEAP programme culminated in a Dragon’s Den style final pitch where international teams of students pitched their business ideas and competed for prize funding. The students were supported along the way by a number of professionals, including members of Butterfield’s leadership team and employees in the Channel Islands, who acted as coaches, mentors and guides.
“The six sponsored students, each from a place where Butterfield has operations, included Zea Swainson [Bermuda], Sayde Shah [Canada], Ruby Eude [Cayman], Amelie Watts [Guernsey], Charlotte Knights [Jersey] and Grace Quaye [UK] The students came together as a team called Planet Quest and pitched an environmental app where players would be given points for picking up rubbish. The team impressed the Dragons and were awarded over £1,000 for their project, which was one of the highest amounts received.”
Zea Swainson, who attends St. Andrews University and founded a face paint and body art business in Bermuda, said, “Attending LEAP was an amazing opportunity and I feel incredibly fortunate to have been selected. I was able to network with a diverse group of girls from around the world. Together, we exchanged ideas and even created business concepts that we successfully pitched to a panel of dragons. This really put our critical thinking skills to the test. It also helped me to be more comfortable presenting in front of large crowds, an invaluable skill for the future. The programme facilitated open discussions about current global issues and even included debates on various situational problems, all of which were engaging and enlightening.”
The spokesperson said, “The Planet Quest team hopes to continue building on the project idea and has plans to hold a meeting in August to discuss the continuation of their initiative, with Sayde Shah from Canada stating that they want to ‘inspire environmental stewardship across the globe’.
For more information on educational and career opportunities, please visit www.butterfieldgroup.com.
