Women Who Lead

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

Women Who Lead

AI Doesn’t Replace Creativity — It Accelerates It: Inside MConverts’ Approach to Modern Video Content

Manik Kochian founded MConverts to solve a problem most B2B brands know too well: content takes too long to produce, campaigns fall flat, and growth gets stuck. Based in Stockholm, her agency combines AI-powered video production with years of content marketing experience to help businesses create high-impact promotional videos, product

Women Who Lead

From All-In Diversity Project to Defy the Odds: Kelly Kehn on Building Industry-Wide Change and Why "Everyone Knows Everyone" Is Your Superpower

With over two decades in gaming and tech, Kelly Kehn has built a reputation as a connector, changemaker, and multi-award-winning leader who brings people together to build purpose-led businesses. In 2017, she co-founded the All-In Diversity Project, an industry-led non-profit that benchmarks diversity, equality, and inclusion across the global gaming

Women Who Lead

From Profound Loss to the BEM: Zoe Bennett on Building the MBCC Awards Through Grief, Why 'Things Happen For Us' Not To Us, and Coaching Resilience Without Burning Out

Zoe Bennett, BEM, didn't set out to become known as "The Motivational Queen." In 2011, her father Errol was brutally murdered in Jamaica, leaving her traumatized and fighting a three-and-a-half-year battle for justice. She had to identify his mutilated body. She received death threats. And in

Women Who Lead

From Puppy Mill Rescue to C-Suite Search: Vips Kirrage on Building Two Businesses Without Overthinking It

Vips Kirrage co-founded ConsultantBox in 2000 alongside her husband Simon, building a boutique executive search firm that has placed senior leaders across Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies for nearly three decades. Specializing in board-level searches for CEOs, CTOs, CISOs, and senior SAP, cybersecurity, and AI/ML leaders, ConsultantBox operates

Women Who Lead

From the Magnetic North Pole to the Boardroom: Sue Stockdale on Leading Through Uncertainty, Building Global Podcasts, and the Explorer Mindset

In 1996, Sue Stockdale became the first British woman to ski to the Magnetic North Pole, selected from 500 applicants despite being a novice Arctic explorer. Since then, she's traversed some of the world's most extreme environments—from Antarctica to Greenland, Patagonia to the Wadi Rum

Women Who Lead

From Recruiter to Marketing Maverick: Jayde Pope on Building Magenta MAD Through Fundamentals, Referrals, and Marketing That's "Anything But Ordinary"

Jayde Pope didn't follow the traditional path to founding a marketing agency. After spending a decade in the trenches of recruitment and estate agency, she launched Magenta MAD—a full-service creative agency that exclusively serves the property and recruitment industries. Known as "The MAD Hatter," Jayde

Women Who Lead

Marketing Automation Without the Noise: Marte Stenbro on Building Meaningful Customer Experiences Through Data, AI, and Strategic Silence

Marte Stenbro has spent two decades learning one critical truth about marketing automation: anyone can automate their marketing, but few can maintain meaningfulness and relevance. As Co-founder and COO of Homerun Customer Experience, Marte has led complex international projects across the Nordics, Europe, Asia, and the US, specializing in marketing