Leeza Gibbons, Emmy Award Winner & Entrepreneur Keynote Speaker at 2015 Business Women's Forum

WATERBURY, Conn. - Aug. 5, 2015 - PRLog -- Leeza Gibbons, Emmy Award winning television and radio host and producer, “New York Times” bestselling author and successful business owner, will be the luncheon keynote speaker at the 2015 Business Women’s Forum (BWF) (www.2015bwf.com) October 23^rd at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville, Connecticut. Ms. Gibbons will be replacing Ivanka Trump. Nationally-recognized business expert and speaker Juliet Funt, owner and founder of WhiteSpace at Work, will deliver the morning motivational keynote address at the 2015 BWF which is anticipated to attract more than 500 attendees.

Under the event theme, “Making It All Work”, the 33^rd annual BWF is Connecticut’s longest-running, full-day conference for women and will feature networking, workshops, breakfast, lunch and a closing reception at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Celebrating 33 years of success, the nonprofitBWF is a program of the Greater Waterbury Chamber of Commerce Foundation in Waterbury, Conn. The thriving organization is led by female executives dedicated to the professional and personal growth of working women. BWF’s mission has been to raise funds for scholarships for female Post University students to pursue degrees in business.

“The BWF’s continual commitment has been to the equality of opportunity and advancement for women in business,” explained Lynn Ward, a BWF director and Waterbury Regional Chamber President and CEO. “During the past 32 years, the BWF has generated in excess of $190,000 toward those scholarships and helped business women across Connecticut enhance their small to medium-sized companies as well as their personal careers.”

An inspiring speaker, gifted social entrepreneur, and a “business superstar,” Leeza Gibbons has been seen in America’s living rooms for more than 20 years. She is well known for anchoring and reporting on “Entertainment Tonight,” the most popular entertainment-news show in television history, and anchoring her award-winning daytime talk show, “Leeza.” Currently Gibbons hosts Lifetime Television’s successful prime time magazine, “What Should I Do?” and produces her own syndicated talk show, “America Now”, and a PBS weekly news show, “My Generation”. In 2013 she won a Daytime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Talk Show Host” and was named a “New York Times” best-selling author of “Take 2,” a personal growth guide designed to help people recreate themselves and their personal and professional lives.

Gibbons is also a respected social entrepreneur who started her own innovative national nonprofit organization, the Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation launched after helping her grandmother and mother for decades in their struggles with Alzheimer’s disease. To help other families through similar struggles, Gibbons authored the book, “Take Oxygen First: Protecting Your Health and Happiness While Caring for a Loved One with Memory Loss.” In March 2015, she was crowned winner of NBC’s “The Celebrity Apprentice” Season 7, having raised more than $700,000 for one of her signature foundations, Leeza’s Care Connection, making her the second woman to win the long-standing competitive program. In addition to Leeza’s Care Connection, Gibbons opened her signature Leeza’s Place. Both programs offer free support and encouragement services for family caregivers of loved ones with Alzheimer’s.

The BWF Board of Directors is also delighted to welcome Juliet Funt, daughter of Allen Funt, the creator, producer and host of the widely popular “Candid Camera” TV show. Funt is a nationally-recognized expert in business strategy and in coping with the current age of overload in which we all live and work. She brings humor and energy to her motivational presentations and will be the opening speaker at the October 23^rd BWF.

Juliet Funt is owner and founder of WhiteSpace at Work and has worked with organizations to “flip the norms of business for the better.” She is a nationally recognized expert who provides thought-provoking content and immediately actionable tools for her audiences, along with a good deal of humor. A busy corporate speaker and consultant, Funt is also a business owner, wife and mother. She is known to be remarkably intuitive, able to blend high-impact content and a keen understanding of her client’s needs into her presentations and consulting services. She works with organizations in a variety of formats, from intimate executive workshops to keynotes for audiences as large as 7,000, and her clients span a wide array of industries. Her unique blend of charisma, humor and “tough love” give her the ability to connect with people at all levels and compel them to make real and lasting changes in their careers and lives.

2015 BWF Chairwoman Maureen Pennington remarked, “Since its beginnings, the BWF has provided thousands of attendees with access to phenomenal speakers, networking opportunities and diverse training during a full day of activities. BWF conferences have featured such prominent, high-profile keynote speakers as Barbara Corcoran, Kathy Ireland, Elizabeth Vargas, Paula Abdul, Robin Roberts, Goldie Hawn, Jamie Lee Curtis, Suze Orman, Jane Seymour, Chris Madden, Susan Saint James and Loretta Claiborne.

We anticipate that hundreds of business people from across New England will attend the 2015 BWF’s highly-informative and exciting full day of dynamic and accomplished speakers, professional business trainers as workshop leaders, networking opportunities and a very exciting closing reception that feature hors d’oeuvres, beverages, and many raffle and door prizes including a notable grand prize.”

Admission to the 2015 BWF on October 23 at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville from 8:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. is $195/person and includes keynote presentations, six workshops, day-long networking, breakfast, lunch, and a high-energy closing reception with raffle and door prizes. To register, visit www.2015bwf.com, or call the Waterbury Regional Chamber at 203-757-0701.