In this Episode our host Sophy Norris and guest Annalise Coady, President Europe GCI Health, dive deep into the heart of agency life, exploring the nuances of female leadership and tackling one of the hottest topics of our time, the rise of artificial intelligence. Annalise brings over 20 years of experience in global marketing communications, where her expertise in data, AI, and technology helps clients navigate the complex healthcare environment we face today.

But this isn’t just about the stats and strategies. We’re here to celebrate Annalise's passion for making scientific data accessible and engaging for everyone. With a career spanning the UK, USA, UAE, Canada, and beyond, she’s not only been a trailblazer in major organisations like Microsoft and Fleishman-Hillard, but she’s also built strong teams, showcasing her superpower of leadership.

Annalise’s blend of strategic vision and financial savvy has driven exceptional growth for many of the organisations she has worked for. Her human, authentic approach and her impeccable timing in capturing the zeitgeist make her a powerful voice in an ever-evolving industry.

So, whether you’re looking to become a more effective leader, interested in the future of healthcare and technology, or want to be inspired by a woman who’s making waves in her field, this episode is one you won't want to miss.

Get ready for a jam-packed conversation filled with insights, laughter, and some powerful takeaways that can help you stay a step ahead in your own journey, including:

• Why we should refuse to settle for the status quo
• The power of pragmatic disruption
• Why agencies are the best training ground
• Role-modelling (emulating and being) will help forge careers
• Consciously creating teams and working hard to integrate blended teams
• What drives the most value for clients, and why being ahead of the curve underpins this
• Being strategy-focused and achievement-oriented
• If you move at pace, remember to bring people with you (because we also need people obsessed with detail)
• Understanding the power of AI in enabling, but also the premium value of 'human only'
• Knowing fear but mitigating risk
• Being ready to navigate "the room"
• Critical nature of financial literacy in senior leadership "forecasts are my suckyblanket"
• Forging relationships, because you will win more business over a drink than you will responding to an RFP
• "Always assume best intent"

This series of The Dangerous Women Podcast is sponsored by ESET, providing Next-Gen Digital Security for Home and Business. We thank you so much for making our show possible,

Links:

Annalise Coady | Sophy Norris

GCI Health

The Alligator Pi Agency

Sponsor:

ESET

Items mentioned in this Episode:

Cognitive Diversity in Asset Management (a report)

The Rest Is Entertainment Podcast

The Authority Gap, Mary-Anne Seighart

This week's conversation is with Lindsey Bass, Fundraising and Head of Marketing at ImpactA Global.

ImpactA is a new kind of female-led investment business. A pioneering woman-led infrastructure debt strategy for Global Emerging Markets, mainly in the Southern Hemisphere, was created to catalyse investment in sustainable infrastructure. The team, founded by four women, helps to solve funding gaps in transformational projects and unlocks critical investment to drive climate transition and address inequality.

Lindsey has a 20-year track record as an investment industry professional, but the start of her career could not be further from this. She followed in the footsteps of her creative parents (her mother was in PR and her father was a television producer) into television, which was followed by a stint in the fashion industry. The move into the world of finance was driven by a need to challenge herself and the opportunity to make more money. And she has stayed there ever since.

Lindsey has always been interested in inclusion, and ImpactA’s team make-up and focus on emerging markets is an interesting and rewarding fit. She was formerly co-Chair of the Legal & General Inclusion Teams. She is currently an Ambassador of the Diversity Project (DP) and Co-Lead of the Mental Health Workstream for the DP. Separately, she is a director of Rebel Consulting, on the Advisory Board for E2W, Advisory Council for AIMSE, and is a Trustee for the Poppy Academy Trust, and is a Mental Health First Aider.

In this podcast, Sophy Norris and Lindsey discuss zig-zag careers, working in finance, the power of investing in projects that benefit women, focusing on what we love (with pragmatism), DEI and more.

The conversation includes:

• Faking it till you make it, being curious and being a sponge at the start of our careers.
• The importance of investment management making a difference, especially as investment businesses are the stewards of $trillions. And how channelling DEI thinking into investments can change the flow of money and outcomes.
• Why climate change disproportionally affects women, and how targeted infrastructure investments can change lives (eye-opening, mind-changing stuff).
• Why supporting women's lives positively impacts local economies and communities.
• DEI echo chambers and the current push back.
• The power of cognitive diversity in teams, but the need for inclusive and focused leadership to harness that power.
• Gender-lense investments. And why diversity does not equal "job done".
• The absolute business case for a strong DEI agenda.
• Why being familiar with discomfort is key to resilience.
• Understanding your skill set, what brings you value, what drives and drains energy.
• Being more like Apple Trees, and focus on growing the fruit.

This series of The Dangerous Women Collective Podcast is sponsored by the fantastic ESET, providing Next-Gen Digital Security for Home and Business. We thank you so much for making our show possible.

Links:

Lindsey Bass | Sophy Norris

ImpactA Global

Sponsor:

ESET

Items mentioned in this Episode:

Dangerous Women: 50 reflections on women, power and identity

The 30% Club

The Diversity Project...

This series of The Dangerous Women Collective podcast is sponsored by the fantastic ESET, providing Next-Gen Digital Security for Home and Business. We thank you so much for making our show possible.

In Episode 5, Series 3, Sophy Norris talks to Liz Gregory, the head of an all-girls fee-paying school, The Maynard School. The Maynard has recently been named as a top 100 school by The Times and Sunday Times, as well as being named the best school in the South West. It is one of several all-girls schools on the list (not all fee-paying), making us wonder if all-girls is a fast track to dangerousness.

In this episode, we look at how we educate Dangerous girls. What sets girls up for a life of success (whatever that success looks like), how we bake that in from the get-go and is an all-female, from a pupil point of view, environment the best start for Dangerousness?

But first, a little more about Liz.

Following a state education, Liz studied economics at Reading, fully intending to enter the world of finance. Quickly realising this was not where her passions lay, Liz returned to university for her PGCE, where she realised how much she loved teaching. She started her teaching career in mainstream, inclusive state schools in Warwickshire and Derbyshire, before heading south to accept a position in an all-girls boarding house at King’s College Taunton. She is also President-Elect of the Chartered College of Teaching.

The Maynard is her first all-girls school and her first headship. So, who better to talk to about educating dangerous girls than Liz? Our conversation is, as ever, expansive. Amongst much more, we cover:

• Private versus mainstream education, and the varying (and similar) needs of children.
• Creating an atmosphere of happiness, inclusiveness, excellence and accountability in young girls and women.
• Instilling proud ambition.
• How an all-girls environment should, and does, empower girls to become the best versions of themselves, and to help other girls do the same.
• How "dangerous" is a positive word!
• Teaching courage, bravery and resilience as well as flexibility and compassion so that girls are as ready as they can be for an emerging world.
• Why privilege also means paying it forward (and the importance of mentorship and role modelling).
• Preparing children for a tough geopolitical landscape by encouraging curiosity and hope for a fresh future (a future which today's girls will help shape).
• Why we must learn to say "Yes" when we can.
• "We only get this day once, so let's make the most of it."

Links:

Liz Gregory | Sophy Norris

The Maynard School

Sponsor:

ESET

Items mentioned in this Episode:

The Authority Gap, Mary Ann Sieghart

Vicky Ward