PowerWomen Speak – Details, episodes & analysis

Sarah Friar, former CEO of Nextdoor, soon to be the CFO of OpenAI, led the company to nearly triple its reach to over 92M Neighbors in 335,000 neighborhoods worldwide. Previously, as CFO at Square, she oversaw its IPO and $30 billion market cap increase. Her prior experience spans Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Salesforce. Currently a Board Member of Walmart and Consensys, she's also known for her Board contributions to Slack Technologies and New Relic. A Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and on the Advisory Boards of Operation HOPE, the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford and Co-Chair of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. Sarah is committed to mentorship, founding LadiesWhoLaunch.org. Raised in Northern Ireland, she holds degrees from Oxford and Stanford, earning an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II for entrepreneurship.

Joanna Jensen is the founder of the UK's number one baby and child personal care brand, Childs Farm, having created the brand in 2010 as a result of her own daughter's sensitive and eczema prone skin. 
In March 2022, Jensen sold Childs Farm for £40m to PZ Cussons Plc
Jensen is a keen supporter of other female entrepreneurs.  She is a mentor to a number of British SMEs through Imperial College's mentoring programme and is a leading advocate of supporting female founded businesses.  She works on the advisory board of Buy Women Built (BWB) driving awareness of female founded brands to UK consumers and investors.  
Joanna is also a Sustainability advisor to The British Beauty Council. Childs Farm is the market leader in sustainability, and recently became a certified B Corp.

Tina Fordham is a geopolitical strategist and advisor working at the intersection of geopolitics, financial markets and the drivers of social change.

The first Chief Global Political Analyst on Wall Street and previously, head of global political risk at Eurasia Group, Tina has over 20 years' experience advising senior leaders—from prime ministers and 3- star generals to the C-suite, institutional investors and the United Nations—about the implications of global political, security and socio-economic developments. In 2022 Tina founded Fordham Global Foresight, an independent consultancy.

Her holistic, data-driven approach focuses on breaking down the complexity of geopolitics and providing actionable, forward-looking guidance. Current themes include populism, the return of geopolitical risk— including Russia-Ukraine and China-US/EU relations, the future of globalisation, and the "S" in ESG.

Tina is a member of the international advisory boards of the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs in New York City, her alma mater, and the Cambridge University Centre for Geopolitics.

She advises the U.K. Ministry of Defence, and is a member of the advisory committees on Diversity & Inclusion and Economic and Commercial Diplomacy with the International Business and Diplomatic Exchange. She is a member of the board of Roots for Peace, a California charity dedicated to removing land mines from conflict zones and planting grapevines in their place.

We are delighted to welcome Maureen Wheeler, who with her husband Tony, founded the universally popular Lonely Planet guidebooks. Lonely Planet has printed more than 100 million copies of it's 600 guides in 17 languages. Maureen is the driving force behind Lonely Planet's philanthropy programs and created the Planet Wheeler Foundation. She recently received the UN World Tourism Organisation lifetime achievement award, and was awarded an Order of Australia in 2014. She has a Fellowship from London Business School and an Honorary doctorate from the University of Ulster and La Trobe University in Melbourne. Maureen was born in Belfast, lives in Australia with her family and is a passionate opera fan, loves to read and enjoys long walks and of course, travelling.

Today we speak with Mandy Hickson, who has over 30 years experience within aviation. She joined the Royal Air Force in 1994 and flew the Tornado GR4 on the front line, where she operated in hostile environments, including patrolling the 'No Fly' zone over Iraq. Since leaving the RAF she retrained as a facilitator and coach in human performance factors. Drawing on her experience of calculated risk-taking, decision-making under pressure and the critical role of the human in the system, she transfers vivid lessons from the cockpit to other management and leadership contexts. Mandy is currently serving as an Aviation Ambassador for the Department for Transport.
Mandy is now a highly demanded keynote speaker across a range of business sectors, where she talks with humour and great passion to inspire those around her. She has been invited to share her insights with some of the most successful organisations across the world where she describes the strategies & behaviours that can be adopted when the stakes are at their highest. She has recently launched her bestselling book, 'An Officer, not a gentleman', her inspirational journey to become a pioneering female fighter pilot.

Today we welcome Kumsal Bayazit, Chief Executive Officer, Elsevier.
As Chief Executive Officer, Kumsal Bayazit is a strong advocate of research and innovation and leads Elsevier's 8,600 people in their mission to help researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. A lifelong champion of diversity & equality in science, Kumsal co-chairs Elsevier's Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board and serves on the Elsevier Foundation Board. Kumsal joined Elsevier as CEO in February 2019 from Elsevier's parent company, RELX. Since 2004, Kumsal has held multiple management positions, in Exhibitions, Legal and Risk divisions, including as Chief Strategy Officer of RELX. Prior to joining RELX, she spent several years at Bain & Company. Kumsal earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she received a bachelor's degree in Economics with honors.

Julia is the host of 'DiverCity Podcast' ranked one of the world's top D&I podcasts - widely recognised for her work in this field.

Julia is also a sell-out stand up comedian and a trustee of the charity Street Child.

Today we are joined by Carrie Coombs. Carrie has become really well known in the UK and abroad for her ability to help executive, senior and high potential clients, teams and boards increase their leadership confidence and resilience in the context of personal, organisational and market transition.

Carrie brings to her coaching and board assessment work experience from a career that has has spanned banking, investment banking, bank stock research and management consulting, including at Praesta Partners, KPMG, Morgan Stanley, Gemini Consulting and Lloyds Bank.

Today we welcome Aleida Rios, SVP of Engineering at bp, leading engineering across bp's 3,000 discipline engineers globally. Aleida has spent 25 years in manufacturing operations/P&L, commercial development, technical innovation and engineering.

Aleida is an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the first International Female Fellow of Latin descent.

She currently serves on the Royal Academy of Engineering Diversity Leadership Group, the Energy Institute Council and the Texas A&M Chemical Engineering Advisory Board. She is a Fellow of the Energy Institute and a Chartered Engineer.

We are joined by Christine Ourmières-Widener, CEO of TAP Air Portugal since June 2021, with a long career in aviation and one of the few female CEOs of a commercial airline. Christine previously was CEO of Flybe Group PLC, and CEO, CityJet and held executive roles at American Express and Air France-KLM. Christine is also on the IATA Board of Governors, NED at the Met Office and on the Board of ZeroAvia. Born and brought up in Avignon, she lives in Portugal with her husband, their 5 children and 2 dogs.
Christine holds a MBA from ESSEC Business school, France and a Master of Sceince, Aerospace, Aeronautical, Astronautical Engineering from ISAE-ENSMA, France.