Discover current female leaders.
Karren Brady
Businesswoman Karren Brady has risen to the heights of success as a sporting director for top British clubs. From Birmingham City FC to West Ham United, Karren has made her mark as the first female to hold a management position in topflight football. Karren is best known for the time she spent as the Managing Director of Birmingham City Football Club. Her appointment at the club sparked great attention, becoming the first female to be appointed such a role in a male-dominated sector. Since then, Karren is also well known for being the Vice Chairman of West Ham United Football Club and featuring on The Apprentice. Throughout her career, Karren has served as an inspiration to many and claimed countless awards. She has been awarded Cosmopolitan’s Women of the Year 2006 and Revitalise Businesswoman of the Year 2007. She has also claimed the NatWest Spirit of Everywoman Award in 2008 and recognised as the 2012 CEO of the Year at the Football Business Awards. Publications such as The Sunday Telegraph and Woman’s Hour have recognised Karren as one of the Most Powerful Women in Britain and the United Kingdom, and she has also been recognised in Debrett’s Top 500 Most Influential and Inspirational People in Britain.
Bonita Norris is a world-renowned adventurer, who became the former youngest woman to summit Mount Everest back in 2010. Over the course of her time as an adventurer, she has completed six expeditions across the greater ranges, scaling the heights of K2, Ama Dablam and Lhotse as well as Mount Everest. She has since become a popular choice as a motivational speaker internationally, sharing anecdotes of her experiences as an adventurer, and an event host at a variety of awards ceremonies. Having since had her record broken by 19-year-old Leanna Shuttleworth, when she was 22 Bonita set the record as the youngest British woman to summit Mount Everest in 2010. A passionate adventurer, this is not the only major achievement made by Bonita, having become the first British woman to summit Mount Lhotse, the world’s fourth-highest mountain. Bonita has completed several other expeditions, including climbing Mount Manaslu, a skiing expedition to the geographic North Pole, climbing Mount Ama Dablam and Mount Imja Tse.
Allyson Felix is one of the most decorated track and field athletes in history with nine Olympic medals — a record she shares with Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey. Six of Felix's Olympic medals are gold, the most of any female track and field star. Even more incredibly, she won gold at the World Championships after becoming a mother in late 2018. But after Felix gave birth, she said her previous sponsor, Nike, offered her a 70 per cent pay cut, and in an op-ed for the New York Times, she exposed the poor maternity treatment she said she received from Nike. "Protection during maternity isn't just limited to Olympians; working women all over the US deserve protection when they have children. We shouldn't have to rely on companies to do the right thing. Our families depend on it," she wrote. After the outcry, Nike agreed to update future contracts with female athletes.
Nadiah Wan holds two CEO titles at her company. She’s group CEO and executive director of TMC Life Sciences, a role she took in 2019. She is also CEO of its flagship Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara, a position that she’s held since 2017. Wan introduced a Covid-19 task force at the hospital and launched a mobile app, providing remote end-to-end patient care from appointments, screening and assessments to rehab services and medication delivery. In maintaining staff morale, Wan explains in a video call that daily communication and empathy is key. “It is important for people to understand what the goal is,” she says. “In a race we tend to look at the person running beside us. Instead we must look forward to where we are going.”