Serving up Words of Wisdom

Shafali Shown-Keen (Jagtiani), Class of 1999, and Anisha Sharma (Jagtiani), Class of 2001, are the only two sisters globally who are McDonald’s franchisees. They have dedicated their careers to encouraging and supporting other women to run their own businesses under license too.

Anisha said: “It was a such a pleasure to return to LEH with Shafali to speak to the pupils about our journey as businesswomen and entrepreneurs. Sharing insights on being franchisees with McDonald’s, we aimed to inspire them to embrace bravery and boldness in their career and life choices and to keep going no matter where your journey takes you!

“The girls were wonderful and asked insightful questions. I do hope we had a positive impact on their outlook towards career choices and veering off a perhaps ‘expected path’.”

Shafali graduated from King’s College London and went on to build a successful career in the financial sector and was Head of Corporate Activity and Strategy at Costain before joining the multinational fast-food group. She was a recent finalist in the Asian Women of Achievement Awards where she was shortlisted for the Entrepreneur category.

Anisha graduated from UCL and also worked in the financial sector, firstly at Goldman Sachs, and then at Jordan International Bank as Head of Compliance.

The sisters earned a taste for running a business as children, when they helped their father with the snooker and pool club he ran in Chiswick.

Shafali said: “I had a corporate career which I loved, but I also wanted to do something based within the community around me. We all have a degree of imposter syndrome, so I tell other women to push it aside and just go for it, take that small step and you can be amazed by what you can achieve."

Anisha said: I feel the key to success is to be consistent, be positive and believe in yourself! McDonald’s is a name everyone is familiar with and loved by many, whether that be for its iconic burgers, McNuggets or world-famous fries. Beyond the food, the business has a real focus on staff wellbeing and career progression, local community engagement, as well as customer satisfaction.”