SAMANTHA WILLS

Samantha Wills is a multidisciplinary creative; a writer, creator, speaker and educator. Having built one of Australia’s best-known accessories brands, Samantha is passionate about sharing her insights into modern and creative entrepreneurship. Her desire to nurture, educate and support emerging founders and entrepreneurs saw her create the Samantha Wills Institute in 2016, a platform designed to empower women in business. A celebrated entrepreneur, Samantha was inducted into the HER Business Hall of Fame in 2017, the same year she was a finalist for the coveted InStyle magazine Women of Style Awards in the entrepreneur category. In 2016, Samantha was nominated for Australian of the Year for her work with women in business, and has also been featured in Forbes, The Australian Business Review, Yahoo! Finance Young Investors and The New York Times. Samantha’s first book — a business memoir, of gold & dust — documents not only her professional experience as a company founder, but also the very personal and human elements that such a rise to success required, all with her signature vulnerability. When asked by a journalist what was the key to her overnight success, Wills famously answered, “It took me twelve years to become an overnight success.” She is currently based in New York City.