Kate Hardcastle

Kate Hardcastle (born 17th September, 1976) is an entrepreneur, charity worker and founder and chair of community voluntary project - The Charity Dreamgirls.
She was born and raised in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
Business Interests
In 2000 Hardcastle joined the team at Silentnight where she led a team which performed extensive consumer research; engaged the Operations team to understand manufacturing capabilities; assembled a product development team; and developed an entry-to-market strategy, which enabled "My First Bed" to be launched onto the children's bed market.
In January 2005, Hardcastle joined Halo Furnishings Ltd - a furniture manufacturer based in Altrincham, just south of Manchester, as Marketing Manager. Here Kate researched and developed a new consumer-facing brand for Halo, launching it after 6 months. From there, the growth of the brand was supported by a number of marketing initiatives, including in 2007 a partnership with Paramount Pictures and Pearl and Dean involving official sponsorship of the blockbuster film Stardust - a first for the furniture industry. Hardcastle was promoted to Director of Marketing in 2007.
From Halo, Hardcastle went onto set up her own brand and marketing consultancy business in 2008 - Passion Marketing. In January 2009, she joined forces with Richard Gomersall’s business Insight Consultancy to form Insight with Passion - a business transformation and rejuvenation partnership. The partnership has won National Best Business Support in the 2009 Interiors Awards and Hardcastle was a finalist in the Halifax Courier's Business Awards as Young Business Person of the Year .
Charity Work
Hardcastle launched both the "Express Yourself with Halo" campaign and "The Charity Dreamgirls".
"Express Yourself with Halo" began life as a campaign where for every piece of Halo Furnishings furniture sold, a percentage is given to the campaign. A committee then decides which charities and causes this money could then help based on nominations by the public, trade and Halo employees. Donations are in the form of money, products or time. Due to the success of the campaign, "Express Yourself with Halo" is now a registered charity in its own right, continuing to help charities and causes around the world.
Hardcastle founded "The Charity Dreamgirls" in 2007 with a motown and soul concert with the soul singer Martha Reeves as the headline act. From there the charity has grown each year. A committee was formed in 2008 to help and assist with each event. This year's event saw Candi Staton perform well-known hits such as Young Hearts Run Free and You've Got the Love. Candi was joined on stage by Jaki Graham, famous for hits such as Set me Free, Ain't Nobody and Could it be I'm Falling in Love. The Charity Dreamgirls regularly feature at the Trafford Centre .
Music
Hardcastle started her singing career whilst she was at school, and as well as singing with The Charity Dreamgirls, also regularly sings with a 6 piece function group called Barefaced Cheek and a 4 piece jazz cafe style outfit called Kiss Me Kate.

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