The James Beard Foundation aims to champion equity by supporting women throughout the lifecycle of their careers. We look to address the root causes and challenges women face in their professional advancement and provide the tools, resources, and networks to ensure the success and increase of women-owned businesses and women in leadership across the industry.

The Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (WEL) flagship program is an advanced educational, training, and networking program for owners or co-owners of brick-and-mortar food or beverage businesses in the United States. Each cohort comprises 20 participants. WEL alumnae form a strong and broad community, with regular opportunities to connect with each other and the Foundation. JBF invests in this group of established women entrepreneurs to ensure the success and increase of women-owned businesses and foster a growing network of female entrepreneurs across the country. 

The 11-week virtual program gives business owners the opportunity to expand as a leader, evaluate and optimize their business model and internal systems, identify improvements, and create a long-term strategy for growth and success.

Through an extensive curriculum, participants work to refine and articulate their goals and vision for their business(es), identify solutions to improve operations and internal processes, develop sustainable strategies to scale and increase revenue, improve their leadership skills, and create a network of support with each other and the broader WEL community. The program includes sessions on leadership, negotiating, business and financial models, identifying funding sources, marketing solutions, internal communications, and more. 

JBF has contracted Cornell as its education partner for WEL. The program’s virtual sessions are led by Cornell faculty from across the university, JBF staff, industry professionals, and other subject matter experts.

Cornell University, one of the original members of the Ivy League, is recognized as one of the world’s leading academic institutions. The WEL program taps into the broad network of Cornell University faculty across its schools including the Hotel School, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell Tech, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, College of Engineering, and College of Computing and Information Science.

Visit the JBF Impact page to learn about all of the training programs, events, and resources that JBF offers to the industry. 

“WEL boosted my confidence and opened my eyes to the struggles and management strategies we were all facing! [I] felt it gave me the tools to become a better leader in my community and in my industry. It also reminded me of my value and purpose.” 

“[Because of WEL], I have a much better grasp of our financials and can discuss our numbers with confidence. I am also better at working on my business rather than in the business which kept my focus in the weeds instead of on the future.” 

“The opportunity to share time and space with 19 other women, listen to their origin stories, how they overcame obstacles, and their plans was inspiring and information in a way that no conference, trade publication or show, or the latest book could ever provide.”