UK Cypriot Stephanie Karpetas was awarded an OBE for services to the community in east Kent.
Stephanie Karpetas

Folkestone-based Stephanie Karpetas has found her journey from British Airways hostess to social entrepreneur a liberating experience.

You don’t have to be nasty to become a wealthy entrepreneur. So says Stephanie Karpetas, who believes that making a profit should not compromise ethical standards.

The former British Airways’ self-styled “trolley dolly” has set up a social enterprise to promote renewable energy.

“My father told me that to be wealthy, you had to be nasty. I kicked against that. Profit doesn’t have to be a dirty word. It’s what you do with it that matters. Ethical business is very important.”

Stephanie – the daughter of an English mother from Folkestone and a Cypriot father – is feisty and determined, a self-declared feminist, exemplar of girl power and fierce advocate of the value that women bring to organisations.

Stephanie attended Highworth School, Ashford, and read German and Italian at the University of Reading. She went on to teach English in Greece.

Her love of travel led to a job with BA’s long-haul cabin crew. She loved the excellent training and staying in five-star hotels, but was shocked by a “drinking culture” and “parochial and narrow-minded” colleagues.

Over time, Stephanie began to tire of the high life. “I was 30, a graduate, my friends were in high-flying jobs and I was a trolley dolly.” She didn’t like the jet lag and felt quite lonely.

She transferred to BA’s fledgling environment branch to become its “green” champion, writing about the impacts of aviation and winning an award for her pioneering work.

But she started dreaming of entrepreneurship, quit BA and set up her own business. “I’ve always been a committed employee but when it’s your own vision, you have to take a leap of faith. It’s given me immense confidence.”

The mother-of twins from Folkestone has known hardship, but relied on strength of character to see her through the bad times,

She is convinced that in failure you find the courage to succeed. “All the people who’ve ever achieved anything amazing in life have believed. Are you going to believe or shrivel up?”

Her social enterprise Sustainability Connections focuses on renewable energy, a key area of her green philosophy.

She trains women to be energy consultants, determined for her business to be “a trusted delivery body” that customers like doing business with. She supports community enterprise and giving work to local people.

Stephanie works with Mongoose Energy, an enterprise that promotes community benefit from locally-generated renewable energy.

Surpluses from community-owned solar farms go to good causes and generate returns for investors.

Far from the “tree-hugging” image sometimes portrayed of greens, Stephanie loves fashion and shopping, cooking and socialising.

She is writing a book about post-menopausal women who become social entrepreneurs. It features inspirational businesswomen like Anita Roddick, late founder of The Body Shop, and Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior retail vice-president and former Burberry CEO.

Stephanie concedes that enterprise has downsides such as isolation and stress but gets a lift from talking with other like-minded go-it-alone people.

She has found entrepreneurship “super-liberating” and her ambition has “skyrocketed.”

Stephanie invites women who share her vision to join her.

This would free up time to “talk about what can be achieved, inspiring and helping others to get into this enterprise revolution.”

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