Mavis Amankwah

My Career

Born in Canning Town, East London on 28 August 1974, Ms Mavis Amankwah is a British-Ghanaian serial entrepreneur, businesswoman, diversity trainer, and expert in marketing and public relations.

In the past two decades, Mavis has survived two recessions, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yet, she has helped 600-800 businesses, employing more than 300 people under her brands over the last two decades. She currently employs 10 staff in her Canary Wharf and Stratford premises who work with her under her various enterprises including Marvel Business Group, Women Like Me, Marvel Recruit, Rich Visions and Mavis Joy Consultancy.

Marvel Business Group Services (MBG) specialises in providing professional Business Support, Grants, and Funding assistance to businesses, entrepreneurs, and organisations of all sizes. The business also consults CICs, charities, and social enterprises that require funding to grow, and currently working with 130 clients.

How did it all start?

In 1990, Mavis left St Angela’s Ursuline Secondary School earning five GCSE’s. She then went on to complete a Diploma in Information Technology at Tottenham College. In later life Mavis went on to study a series of short courses in business, teaching adults marketing and sales. In 2018 completed a BA (Hons) in Marketing and Communication from Middlesex University. 

Prior to starting a business from 1995 to 2002, Mavis worked as an IT Technician working for a number of organisations in Canary Wharf and the City including UK Export Finance, the Child Support Agency and  City & Hackney NHS Trust. In 2002 whilst working as an ICT Manager at hair and beauty brand Sleek. she decided to leave her IT career behind and pursue entrepreneurship full-time.

In 2002, Mavis co-founded Rich Visions Diversity, a communications agency that targeted traditionally ethnic minority groups across the UK where they worked closely with corporations and government agencies such as the HMRC, Home Office, Defra, and the Metropolitan Police to assist them tailor make their  marketing and communication projects  inclusive to all audiences.  Rich Visions designed inclusive campaigns for over 50 established organisations, including ASDA, Comic Relief, HMRC, Metropolitan Police, NHSBT, HSBC and MoneyGram to name a few.

With the success of  running campaigns that appealed to diverse audiences, in 2011 Rich Visions  then went on to win a £1 million contract with Digital UK to market and promote the digital switchover campaign to over 1.5 million ethnic minority audiences in the UK  which was one of the biggest public infrastructure changes since 1967.

In 2009 Rich Visions opened another division called Rich Visions Small Business (RVSB), which offers entrepreneurs business support services that equips them to secure loans, crowdfunding, and investment opportunities.

Since the age of 15 Mavis always loved organising events and became an event organiser for several community events at the age of 18 before later on going to host and organising over 340 of her own events, conferences and exhibitions at prestigious venues around London and the Southeast.

Mavis discovered that women in business needed to be seen and heard more and founded Diva Visions in the early 2000s by facilitating events where women would meet up in the West End through cocktail events, conferences and annual days out in a limo. A few years later, she realised she needed to do more, so she started the Women Like Me (WLM) Business Club in 2016.  To date, Women Like Me is more than just a business club. It empowers women in business worldwide to build their brands through effective marketing and communication and now WLM provide influential marketing, social media services and business development programmes to hundreds of women a year.

As a serial entrepreneur over the last 10 years, Mavis has also worked with some of the country’s major banks including Lloyds Bank and HSBC.

She then went on to working exclusively with NatWest  and RBS who sponsored another of Mavis’ initiative, the BE Mogul 2016 and 2018 Awards. ‘Be Mogul’ recognises today’s most influential and inspirational black business leaders across the UK.

Did you know that Mavis also wrote a book in 2012? She became an author of ‘44 Ways to Grow Your Business or Brand’ which is a step-by-step guide to increase profits. Launched in 2011, in this book she shares her business knowledge, and gives businesses, sole traders, social enterprises and charities a comprehensive path to planning, conducting, and evaluating their marketing. 

In 1998 Mavis set up her own social enterprise with a few friends called Sankofa ACO which addressed the issue of youth crime in which for 2 years she ran a weekly youth club sessions for 14–18-year-olds in Newham.

As a polymath, Mavis excels at many things. She regularly travels to Dubai to train senior managers in the Oil and Gas industry and in 2020 she trained over 40 employees from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on digital leadership. 

Mavis continued to work with engage and reaching out to young people and got involved with the launch of the Start Up Loans company Start Up Loans campaign where she worked with ex-Dragon James Caan in 2013.  She helped over 130 young people gain access to £25,000 loan each to start their businesses.

As a result of her hard work and efforts Mavis has won over 16 awards and been featured in over 300 publications including Forbes magazine, the Guardian, Telegraph, and Mirror to name a few, among others – check out her Wikipedia page! Mavis was named one of ‘the most influential people in PR,’ for the sixth consecutive year by PR Week’s PowerBook (2009-2015).

Mother & Friend

Mavis is a mother of two adult children, a wife, and a grandmother to 2-year-old Brayden, and she enjoys spending time with family and friends, organising dinners, house parties and family social events. Mavis has travelled to more than 25 countries and is destined for Hawaii to celebrate her 50th in a few years time.

Over the years, Mavis has been involved in several charitable activities helping them to raise funds.  She has  participated in the 5K run for the National Lottery and every year supports  Breast Cancer Care and the McMillan Trusts Coffee Day.

Working with high commissions and diplomats, Mavis is also a public speaker and presenter. She has spoken on the same stage as Richard Branson, Alan Sugar, and Levi Roots and become acquainted with Oprah Winfrey’s partner Stedman Graham when he visited London in 2012.

In addition, she has spoken at business events in the UAE, USA, Tunisia, Miami, Romania, Germany, Ghana, and South Africa.

As a business consultant Mavis has organised, hosted, and managed over 500 events for entrepreneurs, from seminars to large exhibitions in Canary Wharf.