Women for People and Planet
An interview series with inspiring women who are dedicating their lives and work to creating a better future for us all
Profiling the amazing women who are shaping the future of a people and planet-positive world.
All are united by their commitment to making a better future. To taking on challenges - whether big or small - and finding solutions. To sharing their knowledge, experience, insights and learning to help others make their own difference. Some are in high profile corporate CSO roles within financial services, food production, technology, broadcasting and beyond. Some are social innovators, entrepreneurs, or academics. Some are mobilising communities to improve housing or human rights.
Learn more about the series below, and we hope you find these interviews as inspirational as we have.
Sameera Sandhu
Consultant, Egon Zehnder
"Curiosity is important to connect dots, invite different perspectives, be open to new ideas, and work with different parties beyond those you’re expected to work with. It’s more a trait or marker of leadership potential than a skill or experience."
Darshana Myronidis
Group Sustainability Director, Virgin
"Sustainability professionals today are fighting for something beyond their own company mandates – we’re a voice for the climate, for nature and for people. I’ve learned to embrace the fact that I am a champion for a sustainable future"
Olivia Wong
General Manager Environmental & Social Responsibility, MTR Corporation Limited
“I find it interesting that people still look at sustainability only from an environmental perspective. We talk about carbon emission reductions, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and biodiversity, which is great. A lot of numbers and a lot of quantitative data, but what does it actually mean? What impact does it have on human beings and what are we supposed to do as individuals?”
Tanja Gihr
Head of Sustainable Banking Group EMEA, Barclays Investment Bank
“It's not about waiting for someone else to take the first step. We all need to challenge ourselves every day to find ways to contribute to sustainability in a positive way.”
Rachael De Renzy Channer
Global Head of Sustainability, Egon Zehnder
“Leading requires a tolerance for failure and a willingness to fail. Sometimes a senior leader’s own success can be their downfall in a new role: they’re too anchored to their past identity as someone ‘successful’ to take risks.”
Meenu Bagla
Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Cyient
“I never let any rejection bog me down or let my failures discourage me. There will always be something that could bring us down—so I always try to find the “glimmers”, instead of the triggers.”
Roshana Arasaratnam
Executive Director, UK Government Investments (UKGI)
“To me it's obvious that public finance is sustainable finance – there's a whole set of people dealing with these issues, meaning we don’t need to be reinventing the wheel and starting from scratch.”
Dr Victoria Hurth
Founding Sustainability Impact Committee Member, Una Terra Venture Capital Fund
“I think that sustainability has mistakenly been only focused on the bottom of the (Herman Daly) triangle—stopping doing harm. That means we are starting to question the ‘how’ but we still assume we have the right ‘why’.”
April Sotomayor
Head of Industry Sustainability at BAFTA albert
“Seizing the chance to develop teams and people that you're working - empowering others - is the biggest opportunity for growth, and it massively aligns with my own values.”
Louise Nkosi
Chief Executive Officer at MeWe360
“The importance of the team has been huge for me at MeWe360. It's about building the trust so we can say what's going on for ourselves— it's about empowering the team to meaningfully contribute their ideas and thoughts on what we should be doing and to keep growing and learning.”
Abby Chicken
Head of Sustainability, Openreach
“Unless you're working for someone who is really ‘purpose’ at the core – everyone else is doing the ‘business’. Trying to change it and working to get people to shift fundamentally how they are operating takes a lot of drive and force.”
Audra Walton
Managing Director & ESG Lead, Cheyne Strategic Value Credit
“In future we will see ESG risks and opportunities incorporated into the remit of every C-suite officer as it becomes clear that this is one of the biggest angles for outperformance.”
Daniella Vega
Global Senior Vice President Health & Sustainability, Ahold Delhaize
“Seeing the ‘system’ – whether that’s watching nature in the biosphere or a meeting in the boardroom – and understanding what's being said, what's not being said, what needs to change and the way it needs to change is a superpower.”
Beth Knight
Social Impact & Sustainability Director
“You don't have to make tough choices between being commercially-minded and purpose-led as a leader. You can bring these together in how you shape your professional impact through the work that you.”
Joanna Yarrow
Chief Impact Officer, Human Nature
“ESG is in some ways great. But it's also making everything about risk, compliance and de-risking business as usual - rather than innovation, collaboration, creativity and opportunity to design better ways of living, and of doing business.”
Join the conversation
If you would like to speak to Xynteo about how to get involved in our series, or learn more about the women profiled, contact us below.
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