Women Who Lead
After years spent watching highly qualified professionals over 50 get quietly filtered out of hiring pipelines, Kim Anderson decided the recruiting industry needed more than talk about inclusion. As a recruiting director, she saw the coded language firsthand, candidates dismissed as "overexperienced" or having "run out of
Women Who Lead
After 17 years with one nonprofit, growing alongside it from its earliest days, Vanessa Matibag was laid off when the organization closed its doors. The obvious next move would have been to find another full-time role, but the layoff gave her something rare after two decades in HR: time
Women Who Lead
Doris Leung spent years reporting other people's stories as a broadcast journalist in Hong Kong. Then her own mother became a wheelchair user, and Doris saw firsthand what she calls a "serious and unacceptable social injustice": elders and caregivers left with no safe, legal option for
Women Who Lead
Stephanie Romiszewski is a Sleep Physiologist and the author of Think Less, Sleep More (Atlantic Books, 2026). She's also the founder of Sleepyhead Clinic, which supports both individuals and organisations, and the creator of BBC Maestro's course, Sleep Better. Drawing on her experience in sleep and
Women Who Lead
Dr. Elizabeth Newman-Earl knows the reality of military spouse life firsthand. After following her Army husband overseas and stepping away from her own career in 2015, she completed a PhD in Critical Military Studies and Sociology, an experience that became the foundation for e50K, a social enterprise entirely led
Women Who Lead
Jools Barrow-Read founded RedWizard in 2014 after years spent designing PMO topologies for large organisations, where she saw firsthand that even the best-designed structures fail without strong connections between the parts. That insight became the foundation of RedWizard, a UK-based consultancy helping businesses navigate the increasingly complex
Women Who Lead
Dr. Silja Litvin brings a rare combination to executive coaching: a background as a clinical psychologist, over a decade as CEO of PsycApps, an evidence-based mental health company, and firsthand experience navigating the pressures of building and running a business. In addition to leading her company, she also works
Women Who Lead
After 30 years leading teams across the private, public, and voluntary sectors, Astrid Davies made the leap into consultancy to do something she couldn't do as an employee: work with a wider range of clients, on her own terms. Today she runs Astrid Davies Consulting, helping leaders navigate
Women Who Lead
Vanessa Garcia knows that hiring the right leader can make or break an organization, yet too many executive search firms treat it like a transaction: fill the role, move on to the next one. She set out to do things differently, and in 2015, she and a business partner launched
Women Who Lead
For nearly 20 years, Helen Burness worked across global law firms, barristers' chambers and one of the UK's first alternative legal service providers, watching the legal sector from every angle. What she saw again and again was a visibility gap: brilliant founders and smaller legal businesses doing
Women Who Lead
After more than a decade teaching law and splitting her life between Portugal and San Francisco, Eleanor Lumsden made a choice many people only dream about: she stepped away from academia to build something entirely her own. Today, from her home base in Madeira, she is the founder and curator
Women Who Lead
After two decades leading ESG departments and shaping diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy for major organizations, Gemma Branney made the leap into entrepreneurship. In March 2025, she co-founded ENVOLV alongside Mhairi Cameron, a woman-owned sustainability consultancy that spans media, tech, recruitment, professional services, events, and the charity sector.