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About Mandy Haberman |
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It is said necessity is the mother of invention. There is none more apt a phrase than in the case of Mandy Haberman, a successful award winning English inventor.
Mandy’s innovations began in earnest in 1980 when her third child Emily was born with a congenital condition that resulted in sucking difficulty. Frustrated by the absence of a suitable feeding bottle she began work on a developing a solution for all babies with sucking problems, which was to improve the quality of life for many thousands of infants and their parents. In 1987, Mandy set up a mail order company from her home in order to supply this essential item to hospitals and parents.
Today, the Haberman Feeder is sold by licensees Medela Inc and Athrodax International Healthcare Limited, to hospitals around the world. It has become an essential medical tool that is widely used for a variety of feeding difficulties, including cleft lip/palate, neurological dysfunction, congenital heart disease, genetic disorders and has been heralded as: “A significant advance in the feeding of infants with cleft palates." (A N Campbell and M J Tremouth, Archives of Disease in Childhood, 1987, 62, 1292-1293.)
Inspiration for the Anywayup Cup unfolded in 1990 when, after observing a toddler spill blackcurrant juice all over her friend’s carpet, Mandy set about inventing the technology that would create a totally non-drip trainer cup that sealed between sips.
In 1992, Mandy developed her first prototype Anywayup valved cup that controlled the flow of liquid and applied for a patent. With V&A Marketing Limited as sales agents, she set up Haberman Associates in 1996, to launch the product. Bringing it to market was challenging and there were many set backs along the way, but the first full trading year yielded sales of half a million units, which grew to three-quarters of a million in 1997. In 1998, Mandy licensed her technology to V&A Marketing and, in 1999, V&A Marketing was judged the fastest growing business in Wales.
Buoyed by commercial success and understanding the importance of design, Mandy employed Sebastian Conran to produce a new redesigned range of cups in translucent colours. These new look cups made a big impact on the market and set a benchmark for design in the industry.
The Anywayup Cup is a Millennium Product and has won many awards including the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards for innovation and product design, the British Plastics Federation award for innovative use of plastics and the Most Innovative Product in the Tommy Awards for two consecutive years (as voted by parents).
But success brought with it imitation and numerous costly patent infringement battles. At great personal expense and with customary tenacity and dogged determination, Mandy set about successfully defending her intellectual property.
Winning her series of hard legal fights against would-be patent infringers meant Mandy experienced first-hand an Intellectual Property Rights system that was heavily biased towards companies with deep pockets and against the lone inventor and SME. In 2002, she began in earnest her campaign for reform of the intellectual property rights system for the benefit of all inventors and SME’s.
Confident of high-level support, she launched MakeSparksFly.com – a ground breaking online intellectual property rights discussion forum designed to increase awareness and promote evolution of the current IP system across the UK and beyond, through widespread dialogue.
Today, Mandy has become an internationally recognised, widely respected, campaigner for change and a frequent public speaker on the topic of IPR reform.
In 2000, Mandy was awarded the title British Female Inventor of the Year. More recently, she was appointed to the Advisory Board of Simfonec (www.simfonec.co.uk) at Cass Business School in London.
She holds an Honorary Doctorate in Design and is an Honorary Fellow of Bournemouth University. In 2003, she was recognised by HM Queen Elizabeth II as a ‘Pioneer to the Life of the Nation’.
Mandy Haberman is a highly inspirational, successful inventor. Her trademark is process innovation and reform for the benefit of others. She also devotes much of her available time to providing direction, help and encouragement to would-be inventors.
She is currently working on a number of exciting new projects including a non-spill cup for hot or fizzy drinks, a unique brand-led product range for the children’s market and, as a joint venture with another female inventor, an automatic baby milk preparation unit. The development of these projects will reach fruition and result is three new businesses being launched.
Home is in Radlett, Hertfordshire that she shares with her husband Steve, dog and three (visiting) grown up children - twins Ben and Nadia, and Emily. Mandy's leisure time is spent enjoying the French countryside and local cuisine at her home in Provence.
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