A NORTH Yorkshire businesswoman has been appointed to a national taskforce established to promote women in enterprise.

The taskforce has been set up by the Federation of Small Businesses to champion the needs of UK’s many female small business owners.

Carolyn Frank, who owns Libby Butler Jewellers in Helmsley, will join 14 other small business leaders from across the UK to build on the recommendations of the FSB’s Women in Enterprise report released earlier this year.

She became a small business owner in 2009 after a career working in Europe for large multinationals as a business development manager.

In 2012 she also helped found the Helmsley in Business group, an independent group made up of 60 per cent women business owners, who work together to promote the town.

“In Helmsley we have a very high percentage of female business owners, so the topic of women in enterprise is particularly pertinent,” she said.

“Being a small business owner brings with it its own particular challenges, and so I hope to be able to bring the experiences I and my colleagues in the town have encountered to the taskforce to help encourage real change and provide advice to those who need it.”