Women Who Lead

Women Who Lead

From Condé Nast to LoveReading and brave&bold: Deborah Maclaren on Building Two Purpose-Driven Businesses, Donating £100K+ in Books to UK Schools, and Why Purpose Is Your Competitive Advantage

Deborah Maclaren is Chief Executive of LoveReading and LoveReading4Kids, and Co-Founder of brave&bold, a female-focused consultancy providing fractional expertise to organizations. But her path to building two purpose-driven businesses came after nearly three decades in media and publishing, where she started at Condé Nast, and climbed the corporate

Women Who Lead

From Laid Off and "Captive" in a Cubicle to Founding YellowBook-CPE: Leita Hart-Fanta on Teaching Yellow Book Standards with a "Three-Ring Circus," Surviving Breast Cancer, and Why Healthcare Should Never Keep You from Entrepreneurship

Leita Hart-Fanta, CPA is the founder of YellowBook-CPE.com, a government audit training company she launched in 1996 after seven years of feeling "captive" in traditional audit positions where she "went to work in the dark and left work in the dark." Today, YellowBook-CPE provides enjoyable,

Women Who Lead

From Widowed with Two Young Children to The UK's First Widow Coach: Karen Sutton on Building "Finding Hope in Widowhood," Hosting The Widow Podcast, and Why "It Wasn't Just Him I Lost, It Was the Version of Me That He Knew"

Karen Sutton is the UK's first specialized coach dedicated to supporting widows and surviving partners globally. But her path to building The Widow Coach Ltd came after the sudden death of her husband Simon in September 2016, when she was left widowed with two young daughters. From the

Women Who Lead

From Single Parent to Successful Coach: Gemma Hogan on Building Talenta, Overcoming Imposter Syndrome, and the 'Align & Act' Framework

Gemma Hogan didn't have a traditional path into HR. As a young single parent without much education or experience, she made a decision not to let circumstances dictate her life. Evening classes, part-time roles, college, and university all while supporting her son. Sixteen years of grafting in corporate

Women Who Lead

From Foundation to Freedom: How Elana Leoni Built a Mission-Driven EdTech Marketing Agency

When Elana Leoni walked away from her role leading marketing at the George Lucas Educational Foundation, where she'd grown Edutopia's social media presence to reach over 20 million education changemakers monthly, most people thought she was crazy. Eight years at a nationally recognized brand backed by

Women Who Lead

From Cybersecurity Law to Wellness Entrepreneurship: Fazila Moosa on Acquiring Stretch-eze and Building a Nervous System Support Brand

After 25 years practicing cybersecurity and privacy law, including founding PRIVATECH Consulting and serving as a recognized Privacy by Design Ambassador, Fazila (Zila) Moosa made an unexpected pivot: she acquired Stretch-eze®, the original resistance loop trusted by movement professionals since the 1980s. But this wasn't a random career

Women Who Lead

From Corporate HR to Building Bruford's: Linda Hughes on Alignment, Partnership, and Why Clarity Matters More Than Activity

Linda Hughes spent much of her career being brought into organizations when progress had stalled. As a senior HR leader at companies including Oxford City Council, Lucy Group Ltd, and Atlas Copco, she saw  the same pattern repeat. Capable people. Strong intent. High effort. Yet work felt heavier and outcomes

Women Who Lead

From Imperial College London to Award-Winning Consultancy: Leyla Okhai on Building Diverse Minds and Why Mental Health and Race Equality Are Business Imperatives

After 14 years in higher education, including serving as Head of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Centre at Imperial College London, Leyla Okhai founded Diverse Minds in 2016. What started as external demand from organizations asking her to replicate the cultural transformation work she'd led at Imperial has

Women Who Lead

From Octopus Investments to "The Human LinkedIn": Michelle Andrew on Building Meeesh Unlimited, The Strategic Attendee Framework, and Breaking Into the Built Environment

Michelle Andrew has been called "the human LinkedIn" by a VP at Goldman Sachs, and it's not hard to see why. With 16+ years of cross-industry expertise spanning fintech, proptech, and telecoms, she's built a reputation for connecting the dots between tech scale-ups and

Women Who Lead

From Retail to Royalty to Running Her Own Show: Astrid Davies on Leadership for "Accidental Leaders" and Why Groupthink Dooms Organizations

After 35 years leading high-performing teams across private, public, and voluntary sectors—navigating everything from high street retail to property (where she worked with Royalty and Hollywood A-listers)—Astrid Davies MA FIoL decided she wanted to "run her own show." In 2017, she founded Astrid Davies Consulting, an

Women Who Lead

Walking Down Fleet Street With a Roll of Whiteboard Charts: Sallee Poinsette-Nash on Building Brandable & Co. From a Borrowed Meeting Room to World-Leading Firms, and Why AI Remains a Thought Partner (Never a Decision-Maker)

Sallee Poinsette-Nash spent 20+ years holding CEO and COO positions, working with HNWIs, and building her reputation as someone who could "work with the unworkable" before she founded Brandable & Co. in 2018. But when she finally left employment to launch her award-winning people-brand strategy agency, she had

Women Who Lead

From 'Physically Sick' at Public Speaking to Hosting Award Ceremonies: Ilona Alcock on Building Elevate from Pandemic Redundancy and Why Strategic Networking Beats Spray-and-Pray

Ilona Alcock moved to Manchester in 2015 knowing exactly one person. When the pandemic hit five years later, she and co-founder Katie Robson were both made redundant—and instead of job hunting, they launched Elevate, a business development consultancy that's since become the world's first Carbon