The SB Podcast: IWD 2026 – the power of mentorships
To mark International Women’s Day SB editor-in-chief Melita Kiely chaired a panel discussion in London last month about the power of mentorships. For a full recap of the event, listen along to the recording on The Spirits Business Podcast.
“I’ve been in the beverage industry for 15 years, and definitely value the spirit of mentorship, being a mentee, then eventually becoming a mentor. One thing that is very important is as you climb the ladder, or as you open doors, you leave it open to let others come behind you – especially women or underrepresented groups,” noted Ingrid Smith, founder of Nirvana, the first coconut water‐based ready‐to‐drink cocktail brand.
Smith, who is also a former senior beverage executive with experience in both the on‐ and off‐trade, was one of four speakers who sat on a panel talk hosted by The Spirits Business last month ahead of International Women’s Day. She was accompanied by Cleo Farman, an entrepreneur and brand creator with more than 20 years’ leadership experience in hospitality, and the founder of Diablesse Rum.
Raissa de Haas also joined the panellists. De Haas co‐founded Double Dutch tonic waters and mixers with her twin sister in 2015, which is now sold in more than 40 countries, and is certified B Corp.
Completing the speaker lineup was Roberta Mariani, a hospitality professional, aperitivo expert, industry advocate, and the current global on‐trade and advocacy director for Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto and Savoia aperitivo.
The discussion was moderated by Melita Kiely, editor‐in‐chief of The Spirits Business magazine, and took place at The Nest in London, where almost 75 women gathered for the evening. The evening was sponsored by Nirvana, Diablesse Rum, Double Dutch tonics and mixers, Mezcal Reina, Cygnet Gin, Italicus, Desi Daru Vodka, and Antigal Wines.
In keeping with the International Women’s Day (IWD) 2026 theme of ‘give to gain’, the talk was titled ‘Give to gain: the power of mentorships in the drinks industry’. The evening aimed to explore how mentorships can create value for both mentees and mentors, and how these partnerships can appear in professional capacities.
“Mentorship is also super‐important in that it doesn’t need to be super‐formal,” said de Haas. “You can have mentorship in all kinds of ways. When we started Double Dutch, we were selling our first bottles and they looked horrible. We had a few customers telling us the flavour is really nice, but your bottle looks horrible; you should do this, this and this. Those bartenders absolutely weren’t our mentors, but they definitely made a big influence.
“We’ve always been kind of lucky that people helped us throughout the years. I think it’s super‐important to give back.”
This year marks the sixth edition of the Double Dutch Female Bartending Scholarship, founded in 2021 by de Haas and her sister and fellow co‐founder, Joyce de Haas, to actively address the leadership gap for women in hospitality and the drinks industry through structured training, mentorship and career development.
“We give them 20 or 25 courses on improving their bartending skills, but also on what you can do after bar life, or how to build a website, or how to open your own bar, or how to do better, tighter negotiations with suppliers,” explains de Haas. “It’s a wide programme but I think the most important thing from them is also getting the confidence of actually being able to ask for pay rises, and actually, the network around them that they see, the mentors that they see, [they see] ‘I can be that’.”
Farman shared a similar experience, referencing her less ‘formal’ moments of receiving mentorship and professional guidance. She continued to encourage women not to be deterred from asking for the support and guidance they seek.
“I’m not scared to phone people up and just go, ‘will you help me?’, which is quite out there,” Farman said. “A lot of people wouldn’t do that. And you’ll be surprised, lots and lots of people will offer their help to me, especially in the rum industry. “I’ve just accidentally gained a brilliant [mentor]. So I’m raising funding at the moment. I did a drinks pitch and this woman, she’s an ex‐Diageo CFO, and she’s ended up being a non‐exec director on my board – and she’s probably regretting it because I phone her every day – but she’s been amazing.”
It also doesn’t have to take up masses of time. This year, Mariani launched Aperitivo With Me, where industry professionals can book a 15‐minute call – the time it takes to enjoy an aperitivo – and receive some one‐to‐ one guidance. “We can talk about career, we can talk about cocktails; for me, it’s a way to give women the opportunity to just reach out to the friend they maybe don’t have in their career. They might not have a mentor, so they can just call me for 15 minutes.
“It’s not for me to tell them what to do, but say, this is my experience, I’m going to give them a different point of view, and hopefully this is going to help them to make a decision. What I’m doing is part of what we should do every day – we should just talk more.”
The importance of creating spaces to share openly with fellow spirits professionals became increasingly apparent as the panellists shared their experiences with fundraising for their businesses – statistically far harder than for male‐founded brands. According to Founders Forum Group, only 2.3% of global venture capital funding went to female‐only founding teams in 2024.
“There are some more angel investment groups that are women‐led for women,” said Farman. “It seems that women are a little bit more cautious about investing in the first place, so they’re setting out this educational programme to make women feel better about investing, and then that will help women investing in women. I’ve just raised some investment through this little angel fund, which is brilliant, but that’s a way to try and shift it because it’s blokes lending to blokes at the moment; it’s nepotism. It’s all by the same old boys’ club, and it’s got to change.”
Smith added: “We need more women to lean into that finance network, and, again, the whole system has a lot of barriers to it. But there are those women who are charging through, climbing that ladder, and we really need to collectively try to sync up and try to find mutual strategic imperatives that can kind of change that dynamic from a funding perspective. But really, we just need to have representation in the banks and in the finance industry to make it happen.”
Mariani added two pieces of advice to support women entrepreneurs and business founders. She said: “Representation is still one of the biggest issues. Again, if you don’t see it, you don’t believe it’s something that you can do. We’ve got two options. One is more poetic, and one is more practical. I’m kind of ‘small actions, they have a lot of power’. First of all, we as consumers, what’s the biggest power of a consumer? Power of purchase. So, when you go out, you buy clothing, you buy a brand, you buy a cocktail, you can choose to actually found and support businesses that are led by women. So, this is the first really practical advice.”
Mariani continued: “Second, we can all mirror for others, and we can share light. This is connectable. We can talk about more female bartenders, we can talk about the spirits brands led by women. I see a lot of women in this room, I would love to know all of you and what you’re doing, why you’re here. We have the power to share the stories.
“Tomorrow, I’m going to share the story of these ladies [on the panel] because they were inspiring, and then someone else is going to see them and is going to get inspired, and they’re going to share. “So we can be mirrors, sharing the light on other people. This is really powerful, and we can only do it as a community.”
The full recording from the International Women’s Day event is available to listen to via the Acast link below or on all major streaming platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.
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