Christina Domecq - SpinVox

Being named as one of the 'ten women to watch across Europe' is no mean feat. But SpinVox founder and chief executive Christina Domecq has taken the Wall Street Journal's accolade in her stride. She said at the time that 'the hard work has only just begun and we're all focused on building our business in the year ahead'.

After all, Domecq has built not just one but is now on her third successful business, and knows that hard work and sheer determination count for much. It is a philosophy she carries through to every aspect of her life. Domecq is the ultimate action woman who counts paragliding, rock climbing, sailing, scuba diving and mountaineering among her passions. And she also finds time to devote to charity. She helped fund an orphanage in South Africa, which houses 150 children, in an area beset with poverty and HIV, amongst other projects.

It is SpinVox that currently dominates her business life. The company is revolutionising the mobile phone world with its voice to text technology. In a six month period last year Domecq drove the business from 200,000 subscribers to a massive six million subscribers and on to around 30 million users by the year end. She is now on track to create a billion dollar company.

Like all successful entrepreneurs Domecq, 32, brings an energy and commitment to all areas of her life – and not just the boardroom. When she finally took her first weekend off in months last year she 'relaxed' by riding her bike from London to Paris.

Ambitious out of office pastimes also include flying her own helicopter, a pursuit that reveals much about Domecq's steely inner-core.

"I enjoy anything that puts the body under stress," she explains. "Whether in business or the little spare time I get, I need to stretch myself. But I'm actually in danger of losing my helicopter license because I just haven't had the time to get the flight hours in over the last 18 months."

A love of pushing conventional boundaries has undoubtedly contributed to Domecq's business success. Domecq was fearless about establishing SpinVox in 2003, unafraid to set up a technology company at a time when it was still hard to persuade investors and customers that there could be value in such ventures. She describes having a "blonde moment" after receiving 14 voicemails in one morning and failing to get all the numbers from each voicemail written down. She thought how useful it would be if these messages were just converted into a text message.

That moment of frustration led her to found SpinVox with former Psion executive Daniel Doulton. Together they have not only built a global company employing 350 people but have also created and delivered an entirely new messaging category. Delivered using SpinVox's Voice Message Conversion System (VMCS), Voice-to-Screen messaging converts any voice message to text and delivers it to any screen, whether on a mobile phone, PDA, PC, or TV.

SpinVox has launched with global carriers such as Vodafone Spain, Vodacom South Africa, Alltel, Rogers, Cincinnati Bell, Sasktel, Telstra, Telus, Movistar Chile and has signed a deal with Skype.

In March 2008 SpinVox secured over $100m (£65m) in a new round of funding from investors that included Goldman Sachs. Domecq planned to use the investment to develop the global business and increase the number of deals with carrier networks.

Domecq focused on making the investors happy, and by the Autumn of 2008 she was finally able to reflect on progress. "It's been an intense six months," she said. "With Goldman Sachs on board we've been given a huge opportunity to grow and we've taken the subscriber base from 200,000 to six million and we've now signed up 12 mobile operators."

SpinVox is not Domecq's only business success. She cut her teeth at the age of 20 running her own computer-training start-up in New York. She employed over 120 staff and a turnover in excess of $14m before she sold the business in August 2002.

Next came a challenge to turn around a luxury yacht brokerage business in Spain. This time Domecq achieved a six-fold increase in value through a private sale.

And Domecq is not about to slow her pace, especially as she now has a billion pound enterprise in her sights. "We're moving into blogging and we're focused on global expansion," she says. "We already have 70 people in America and 60 per cent of our revenues come from the states. We have some competition but we're going to be the world's number one."

It's a bold statement – but what Domecq aims for she usually succeeds in getting.