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Mary-Anne Waldren is by all accounts a superwoman.
The effusive, energetic, fast talking, high-achieving business woman also finds the time to chase after a couple of children.
The Canberra entrepreneur is the brains behind the agency MAW Action, which creates projects, brokers partnerships, manages events, develops business, provides public relations advice and more.
She is working with PricewaterhouseCoopers to roll out her latest scheme, the Master Entrepreneur Program, nationwide.
The program, which Ms Waldren describes as "speed-dating for entrepreneurs", is sponsored by Business in Focus month in Canberra.
Participants work and learn from successful businesspeople, share ideas and knowledge, and meet potential mentors and investors.
"There is a thirst out there for business training by people who have made it," Ms Waldren said.
"There is nothing like being mentored by someone who has grown their own enterprise."
Her pilot program, held in May, featured "master entrepreneurs" such as Hindmarsh Group chairman John Hindmarsh and Brindabella Airlines managing director Lara Corry-Boyd. The five masters read a questionnaire about each of the 31 participants and spent 30 minutes with each of them. Networking followed, then the masters offered at least one part pant a two-hour mentoring session within a fortnight of their initial meeting.
Ms Waldren was thrilled that some of the entrepreneurs selected as many as six people.
The participants, who pay $400, ranged from owners to start-up companies with no money to those form larger businesses with $11 million in turnover. After their sessions, Ms Waldren advised each on the next three steps for their business and shared her contacts.
Depending on her negotiations, Ms Waldren hopes to roll out her program in the next sic months once a national deal is signed.
She plans to convene two programs a year in each state, each featuring four local entrepreneurs and one form interstate.
Ms Waldren began her career in business at the age of 12, managing a family business after school, at weekends and on holidays. She now describes herself as a "science-communication pioneer, event management expert, sponsorship sharp-shooter, lobbyist extraordinaire [and] marketing whiz".
She has convened events for former US president George W. Bush's brother Jeb Bush, built the Australian Science Festival and worked with the ABC to stage science-themed Radio National forums. Ms Waldren, of Red Hill, is also the single mother of Isobel, 11, and Julia, 9.
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