9th Annual Women-Owned Business Day Honors CT’s Women Entrepreneurs

HARTFORD — More than 300 registrants from 79 Connecticut cities and towns registered to celebrate Women-Owned Business Day on April 26. Women-Owned Business Day is WBDC’s signature event to honor and promote Connecticut’s robust community of women entrepreneurs and to connect them with members of the state’s leadership, 125 of whom joined the event’s Host Committee to show their support of women-owned businesses. After being held virtually in recent years due to the pandemic, Women-Owned Business Day returned to Hartford in 2023 for an engaging in-person celebration. 

This year’s Women-Owned Business Day was co-chaired by State Senate Deputy President Pro Tempore Patricia Billie Miller, and Chief Deputy Senate Republican Leader Heather Somers. JPMorgan Chase was the event’s Title Sponsor. 

“Women-Owned Business Day is always such an amazing event and it’s a great way to bring together Connecticut’s incredible community of women entrepreneurs and our state leaders,” said WBDC Founder and CEO Fran Pastore. “There has never been a more critical time for these groups to connect to share thoughts and ideas about the issues that impact Connecticut’s women-owned businesses each and every day. We are truly grateful to have support from JPMorgan Chase & Co. as our Title Sponsor. Their continued support of WBDC and women entrepreneurs has enabled us to help so many businesses across Connecticut. I opened WBDC’s first business checking account at a local Chase branch more than 25 years ago. They’ve been behind us since the beginning.”

Several state legislators and government officials were in attendance at the event, and guest speakers included Senate Deputy President Pro Tempore Patricia Billie Miller, Senate Chief Deputy Republican Leader Heather Somers, Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, Speaker of the House Matt Ritter, and House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora.

Photos of the event can be found here. 

About the Women’s Business Development Council

The Women’s Business Development Council’s (WBDC) mission is to support economic prosperity for women and strengthen communities through entrepreneurial and financial education services that create and grow sustainable jobs and businesses across Connecticut. WBDC educates, motivates and empowers women to achieve economic independence and self-sufficiency. Since 1997, WBDC has educated and trained more than 17,000 clients in all of Connecticut’s 169 towns—helping women to launch, sustain and scale over 12,750 businesses, create and maintain over 26,250 jobs in Connecticut, and access more than $63 million in capital. Visit ctwbdc.org for more information.