Stories To Lead

To celebrate International Women’s Day, I’m launching a series of video interviews where female leaders share their stories.

Gigi Gilliard

Gigi Gilliard, Antiracism Champion and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Practitioner

A native and resident in New York, Gigi helps business leaders have strong leadership conversations around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging.

In our interview, she talks passionately about the overwhelming need for these conversations, the assumptions we make when we meet people who are different from us and how belonging in the workplace became her calling.

For more on Gigi’s story, read her book: The Loud Brown Round Girl: Rejecting Assumptions That Do Not Define Me

Sarah Owen-Vandersluis

Dr Sarah Owen-Vandersluis, Senior Client Relationship Partner, KPMG.

Brought up in rural Canada and with a first class degree and PhD from the London School of Economics, Sarah never imagined herself becoming a Big 4 leader.

Her fascinating story is about diversity and inclusion and her own journey in the change in corporate culture that has taken place over the last 10 years. In our conversation, Sarah talks about “Putting feelings before tasks” and the empathetic leadership style that has enabled her to successfully manage teams of up to 50 people.

Virginia Huerta

Virginia is a Top 100 Women Leader in Spain, Mother of two girls and Managing Director of the agency responsible for Facebook, Instagram and Samsung’s PR campaigns.

In our conversation, she talks about her belief that “You’re always better than you think you are”, how she overcame her fears to accept the role of Managing Director at the age of 29 and what she’s learnt from leading her team through a pandemic.

Jane Bamford

This month my guest is Jane Bamford, EMEA Corporate Accounts Director at Hays. Jane’s successful career in the recruitment industry spans over 20 years and three countries. Her approach to leadership is to “be the leader you would want to follow”. Jane is a marathon runner, a mother and a breast cancer survivor.

In her interview, Jane talks openly about her approach to cross cultural leadership, how she developed resilience and what advice she would give her younger self.