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.

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.

Jane Known for being a double jointed junior ice-skating champ and keen on fads.
She is the CEO & Founder of Persuasion Communications: An independent communications agency founded on journalistic expertise and experience. This means that not only do we know what works and what appeals to the media in all its multi-channelled glory, but we also know the people who inhabit that world. We work with some of the world's leading 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.

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