Dawn Gibbins

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(Later Dawn De Vivre) (1961 – 11 February 2022) was a British entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Career

Dawn Gibbins founded commercial and industrial flooring company Flowcrete in

Sandbach Sandbach (pronounced ) is the name of a historic market town and a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. The civil parish contains four settlements: Sandbach itself as the largest, Elworth, Ettiley Heath a ...

in 1982 alongside her late father, Peter Gibbins. She oversaw its international and domestic growth, covering 30 offices worldwide and 12 manufacturing sites in the UK, Asia, Sweden, Belgium, South Africa, US and Brazil. Flowcrete was sold to

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

in 2010. Following the sale, Gibbins launched a flooring business aimed at homes, Barefoot Living, based in

Congleton Congleton is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The town is by the River Dane, south of Manchester and north of Stoke on Trent. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 26,482. Top ...

, South Cheshire, England, along with a

social enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners. Social enterprises ca ...

Barefoot Feng Shui.

Death

Dawn Gibbins died at home on 11 February 2022.

''Secret Millionaire''

Gibbins was featured in a 2009 episode of the ''

Secret Millionaire Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...

'' Channel 4 TV series, donating £250,000 to three

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

-based charities. Gibbins states that the experience of spending 8 days living amongst those in need "changed her life". Charities that received donations at the end of the program were 'The One25 Project', a charity that seeks to enable women who are abused and trapped in a life of street sex-work, the ' Wild Goose Café' who feed and care for the homeless, sex workers and those battling addiction and the 'Teenage Parents Project' who offer support and guidance to young parents. In 2010 Gibbins returned to

to film ''The Secret Millionaire Changed My Life'', a follow up to the original broadcast. In the program, broadcast on 11 January 2011, Gibbins explained that her experience working with her supported charities had changed her life. Talking about the £125,000 donation to the Wild Goose Café, Gibbins explained that she found Assistant Manager Lisa Mannion's 'dream' compelling and she 'wanted to make this girl's dream come true'.

Awards

Her career achievements included the award of an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

in 2004, the

Veuve Clicquot Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin () is a Champagne house founded in 1772 and based in Reims. It is one of the largest Champagne houses. Madame Clicquot is credited with major breakthroughs, creating the first known vintage champagne in 1810, and i ...

Business Woman of the Year accolade in 2003 and an

in 1994. She was made a ‘Pioneer to the Life of our Nation’ by

Her Majesty The Queen The precise style of British sovereigns has varied over the years. style is officially proclaimed in two languages:UK ParliamentRoyal Titles Act 1953(1 & 2 Eliz. 2 c. 9) Proclamation of 28 May 1953 made in accordance with the Royal Titles Act 195 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbins, Dawn 1961 births 2022 deaths English businesspeople People from Congleton Members of the Order of the British Empire