Leading Lights Podcast
Unfiltered conversations with female charity CEOs as they share their leadership stories
If you’ve ever wondered what the path to leadership of a charity is really like for the women who’ve made it there, Leading Lights is for you.
Leading Lights is hosted by our Managing Director, Abi Mellor.
Each episode features a female chief executive from the charity sector sharing her journey to leadership. Together, Abi and her guests discuss the challenges along the path, and how, with such a busy role, they manage life. Its aim is to help other women walking similar paths learn how to put themselves in the frame for leadership roles while also striking that life balance.
Recent episodes of Leading Lights
In Episode 6, Abi’s guest is Angela McConville, the Chief Executive of the NCT, the parents national charity for pregnancy, birth and early parenthood. Angela shows how, after only a few weeks in the role, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic forced Angela and her team to make changes to the fundamental operating strategy of the organisation overnight.
She also describes how her mother inspired her understanding of how communities can come together and how she plans to tackle the challenges that face the NCT in 2025.
Abi’s guest is Michelle Thew, long-standing CEO of Cruelty Free International, one of the world’s most respected animal protection organisations.
Michelle discusses her journey to leadership, why the job isn't at all as she expected, and how she spots a talent for leadership in others.
She also shares how she maintains her staying power and her secret sauce for managing stress in such an important, high profile role.
Our guest in episode 4 is Jayne Taylor, CEO of The Elephant Group, a headteacher-led charity dedicated to improving fair access to top universities.
Jayne shares how the impact of her older brother having a serious illness defined her childhood, and sparked a keen desire to help young people derailed by difficult circumstances to achieve their academic potential.
She also shares her thoughts on what she's learned about leadership from playing Roller Derby and obsessively reading about mountaineering.
Dr Sarah Hughes, the inspirational CEO of Mind, the mental health charity, brought so much to this conversation.
Sarah has worked in mental health and social justice for 35 years. She has held a number of CEO roles in the voluntary sector. She holds a professional doctorate on the topic of women and leadership and an honorary doctorate from Hull University.
Sarah shared what it’s like to challenge the perceptions of how a CEO ‘should’ look, speak and carry themselves. And, her coping strategies of finding levity at difficult moments, her 'CEO squad', and time with family.
Rachel Clift was just taking the helm as CEO of Ben, the charity dedicated to supporting the people of the automotive industry, when she joined Abi for this conversation.
Her background as an international hockey player and a career in the health and wellbeing industry were pivotal in the development of her leadership style. She aims to provide the freedom for people to do their best work, "while knowing you are there if they need you".
Episode 1 features April Baker, the wonderful CEO of Together Co, the loneliness charity based in our hometown, Brighton.
April shares how her earliest memories of going out on her bicycle as a young child to make friends with her neighbours may have been the spark for the inspiring work that she does now. And, how she’s committed to bringing ‘social health’ up the agenda in the UK, how her ‘why’ is what keeps her going, and how she protects her reading time and her resilience.