Founding Allies

Everyone needs strong allies and we are lucky enough to have a few: passionate  and talented people who have given up their time and energy to help us create this important mission. 

A huge thank you to all of ours: 

  • Cathy is an HR Director and Management Consultant and a passionate advocate for supporting menopausal women in the workplace. She uses her own story and experience as a platform for showing how menopausal women can be affected in the workplace, and how employers and colleagues can support them. Cathy is the author of a book on managing menopause in the workplace, for which the profits are donated to a community menopause programme.

    Cathy specialises in HR Transformation and actively supports her community as a Trustee at Derby County Community Trust and the National Justice Museum.

  • Melissa has been in the advertising industry for over 25 years, and is currently the CEO of Dark Horses. She has written extensively about how businesses need to more actively respond to the challenges of menopause and has created an open source Menopause Policy for any business to adapt and use as their own.

  • Jo is an experienced media executive and mentor, with over 25 years experience from executive and board positions at the Telegraph, BBC Worldwide, Haymarket, Future PLC, and Bauer media. In 2014 she also worked with the founders of The Pool to launch an award-winning digital news platform by women, for women.

    Since 2002 she has pioneered flexible working and supportive policies for women in the workplace at all life stages, believing in supporting and developing the best talent for the benefit of the business and the individual alike.

    Managing her career alongside extensive caring responsibilities, and her own health is an ongoing challenge, and Jo is a big fan of yoga, meditation, and optimising nutrition to manage symptoms and maintain balance.

  • Vanessa Sawyerr is the founder of Get Stuff Done, the digital talent agency representing UK talent of African, Caribbean and South Asian heritage. The talent represented at GSD gives brands access to the £4bn disposable income of the Black and ethnic minorities in the UK through influencer marketing campaigns and beyond.

    Working with over 170 brands, Vanessa's approach to a successful collaboration is building relationships over a long term.

    In 2020, Vanessa was given minutes to live after contracting the C-19 virus. She received life-saving treatment, came out of a 4-week coma, regaining the ability to walk. Vanessa has appeared on BBC News and Channel 5, she has been a guest on the Blogosphere Magazine’s podcast Serious Influence, and she is a regular speaker on all things influencer business.

  • Jennifer is a writer & editor producing content on issues from menopause to greenwashing, from workplace culture to the longevity of creativity, from the best places to work to levelling up, in titles from Good Housekeeping to Campaign to Management Today. She co-authored the Business Superbrands book series and collaborated with brands including British Airways, O2, and Boden on customer magazines, digital campaigns, and websites. As a freelancer since becoming a mother in 2005 (when flexible working and affordable childcare did not exist) she has experienced a wide variety of different workplaces, including WFH.

  • Sarah is a recognised and highly experienced global HR professional with a particularly deep-rooted specialism in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and workplace wellbeing having advised Boards, both UK and Global, within the professional services industry and in the private, public and third sectors. Though UK based, she has had responsibilities spanning the EMEA region and globally. She is known for creating and leading strategic change initiatives to ensure alignment of organisational culture with business strategy. Her approach is data-driven and collaborative, connecting across networks and stakeholders to bring insights and recommend solutions that are easily implemented and measurable. She has a proven track record of innovation and thought leadership, is an articulate commentator and writer and always leads with tenacity, energy, empathy and courage. Sarah’s achievements were recognized in HRH Queen Elizabeth’s New Year’s Honours List 2018 for services to gender equality in business.

  • Varun Chandra is the Global Managing Partner of Hakluyt, which advises leaders of the world’s largest companies and investment firms on the opportunities and risks facing their businesses.

    Prior to joining Hakluyt, Varun worked in investment and merchant banking, advising on M&A, private equity investments, and business development. Initially trained at Lehman Brothers, he went on to help build a regulated advisory firm for former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

    He sits on various charitable and commercial boards, including Sesame Workshop, the world’s leading early learning media platform, IP Group, Inc (an early-stage technology investment firm based in the US), the British Asian Trust, the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, and the Marylebone Cricket Club Foundation.

  • Jessica Hepburn is an award-winning author, arts producer and adventure activist who has become one of the UK’s leading voices on fertility and family, as well as endurance sport (even though she is the most unlikely athlete and doesn’t have children!) She has become a pioneer in inspiring people to live big and bravely when life doesn’t go to plan, and championing the benefits of going on adventures to improve your physical and mental health.

    In 2022, Jessica became the first woman in the world to achieve ‘The Sea, Street, Summit Challenge’ – swim the English Channel, run a road marathon (London) and summit Mount Everest. She has been nominated as one of Amnesty International’s ‘Women of Suffragette Spirit’; ‘Woman of The Week’ in Stylist magazine; and won the Fertility Foundation’s inaugural ‘Fertility Hero’ Award.

    Formerly Executive Director of the Lyric Hammersmith – one of London’s leading theatres – Jessica led from inception to completion the theatre’s £20m capital redevelopment and was nominated as ‘Theatre Manager of the Year’. Whilst doing this, she was also trying to become a mother and went through eleven rounds of IVF at a range of UK fertility clinics which resulted in multiple miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy that almost took her life. It was during this time she first started writing, and she is now the author of three acclaimed books.creative companies as well as consumer brands ranging from digital products and services to FMCG brands.

    Prior to launching Persuasion, Jane was a senior journalist and editor on several advertising (Campaign and shots), media and design titles. She has also written for Creative Review, Adage, Creativity and Design Week.

  • Writer and health journalist Alice Smellie is co-author of Cracking the Menopause with Mariella Frostrup. She has written and spoken about menopause on a large number of platforms, including major newspaper titles and podcasts, as well as working with key campaigners to highlight the cause.