Bio

I am a Chartered Psychologist and Social Entrepreneur, with a business background and an INSEAD MBA. As Co-Founder & CEO of Women Returners, my mission is to make career breaks a normal part of a 40-50 year career. I founded Women Returners to tackle the 'career break penalty' - addressing the wasted talent of experienced professionals who have left the workforce for childcare, eldercare, relocation, health or other reasons and who find themselves unable to get back into suitable-level roles. Through working with individuals, organisations and the Government, we have enabled many hundreds of women and men to successfully return to the workforce using their skills and experience, even after career breaks of 15 years or more. I believe that the more returner role models we create, the more we will normalise non-linear career paths. Since 2014, Women Returners has partnered with over 130 forward-thinking organisations on a range of supported routes back to work. We have evolved returnships to maximise conversion rates, and have created the concept of Career Returners Coaching and supported hiring into permanent roles. We also run the free Women Returners Professional Network, supporting over 7,500 members to get back to fulfilling work. I was awarded an MBE for services to business and equality in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2019, in recognition of my role in changing the landscape for UK career returners. I was also awarded the Working Mums Champion Award in 2018 by workingmums.co.uk. I am a frequent speaker at events, in the media and in Government forums on returnships, returner programmes and returning to work after a long break. I am a Chartered Psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS), and an HPC-registered Occupational Psychologist. I have an INSEAD MBA with distinction (Henry Ford award for first in class), an MSc in Organisational Psychology with distinction and an AoEC Psychology of Coaching Practitioner Diploma. Before retraining as a Psychologist after a four-year parental career break, I worked in the UK, France & Australia, as a strategy consultant at LEK Consulting and in management roles in strategy and marketing at United Distillers/Diageo.