Jacqueline Gold, an exemplar of women in business who changed the undergarment and toy chain Ann Summers, has passed away at the age of 62. Her relatives reported that she passed away on Thursday night after undergoing seven years of breast cancer treatment.
Jacqueline Gold’s Illness
Gold received her initial breast cancer diagnosis in 2016 and, after receiving therapy, entered remission in 2017. Gold underwent three cycles of chemotherapy after cancer returned in 2019. She shared her experiences in the hope that they would be helpful to others. Her private life was not without its challenges. In her autobiography, A Woman’s Courage, Gold detailed her depression and experiences as a kid being abused by her mother’s second spouse. Later in life, she battled to become pregnant and underwent numerous IVF cycles before losing her son Alfie at the age of eight months to a rare brain disorder. Then, in 2011, Scarlett, her daughter’s nanny, admitted to attempting to intoxicate Gold and was sentenced to prison.
Jacqueline Gold As CEO Of Ann Summers
Ann Summers was transformed by Ms. Gold from a company with four backstreet stores into a multimillion dollar enterprise. She received a CBE in 2016 for her contributions to the social initiative, entrepreneurship, and women in business. The toy store was transformed into a safe place for women by Gold, who served as executive chair of Ann Summers and was a strong supporter of women in business. Even in her final hours, she continued to be busy. On Wednesday, she led her weekly Twitter chat to support female entrepreneurs.
She took the brand into women’s homes, organizing Tupperware-style selling events, bringing an toy into the sitting areas of middle England, and offering women a chance to make their own money, unimpressed by the men-only environment. Gold ended up being the CEO of Ann Summers in 1987 and moved it on to more than 100 high streets throughout the UK, converting women-friendly items.
In a statement, her family remarked that it was her “vision and creativity” that helped Ann Summers go from a little-known brand to a ubiquitous name in the UK and a mainstay of the high street. Her perseverance and dedication to developing a distinctive retail offering propelled her from an internship to chief executive officer in less than ten years, and she went on to found a multichannel retail chain that includes retail stores, direct sales ambassadors, a rapidly expanding internet business, and third-party businesses.
Gold described the years she spent at Ann Summers as “extremely colorful” and said she “certainly confronted a fair amount of obstacles” during that time. She was detained early on in the company for allegedly operating an intimate shop without a permit at a trade show, and in 1999, when Ann Summers launched its first location in Ireland, she received a bullet in the mail. In 2003, after Ann Summers was prohibited from advertising in job centers, Gold sued the government and prevailed.
Jacqueline Gold’s Father Passed Away
Jacqueline bravely fought stage 4 breast cancer for 7 years and was an incredible warrior all through her cancer journey, according to her sister Vanessa Gold, the CEO of Ann Summers. She had been a trailblazer, an innovator, and the most amazing lady in life, making this news all the more difficult to accept. Less than three months have passed since the passing of Jacqueline Gold’s father, David, who served as vice chairman of West Ham United. He passed away at age 86 after a brief sickness. He provided her work practice at Ann Summers in 1979, while she was nineteen after acquiring the four-store shop company a few years earlier.
After experiencing a loss in 2020, Ann Summers secured a reduction in rent through an insolvency process. According to the most recent data submitted to Companies House, the retailer made a profit in 2021, earning £6.4 million as sales increased by almost 11% to £93.2 million. In her early years as a store manager, Gold discussed the challenges of navigating a male-dominated business environment where she had few female role models.
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