Dame Mary Perkins, the woman behind the Guernsey-based Specsavers empire is Britain’s first female self-made billionaire. Dame Mary, who set up the High Street opticians with husband Doug Perkins in 1984, has seen their wealth grow to £1.1 billion this year, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

Born in Bristol, the businesswoman was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2007 in recognition for her work. Now, several decades after opening her first store in the 1960s, Dame Mary heads a business which boasts more than 1,500 stores across 10 countries. The 42% increase in their wealth from last year, when the couple’s fortune stood at £810 million, makes Dame Mary Britain’s first self-made woman billionaire, the list suggests.

Dame Mary Perkins will be a speaker at the Entrepreneurs' Summit on May 25. Here's your chance to meet her.

Dame Mary Perkins will give lessons on how she created a £1bn empire based around partnerships and collaboration.

The Specsavers story is fantastic: the chain is entirely owned by the Perkins family and is debt free. Specsavers operates a franchise model, where the stores are split in a 50/50 joint venture basis between Specsavers and the individual optician.

Last year, Specsavers' UK operation showed profits of £21.7m on £390m sales; and Specsavers' total turnover (including Britain) is expected to hit £1.6bn for the year just ended, according to the Rich List.

Dame Mary Perkins has a great story to tell, she will give a keynote speech at the Entrepreneurs' Summit on May 25 in London.

The Entrepreneurs' Summit is Real Business's yearly flagship event – this year's theme is "Give your Business an Unfair Advantage".

For more information and to book your place, visit the Entrepreneurs' Summit website.

If you would like to get a group together to go across to attend the Summit I am very happy to help arrange this. Please do let me know. E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it