Leading major international companies is one of the most challenging jobs that anyone can take on. CEOs are ultimately responsible for the careers of thousands of people, the quality of service and products delivered to thousands of customers and the profits benefitting thousands of shareholders. They are also often the custodian of a corporate reputation and brand built by previous generations and which their employees feel proud to represent. It is a world of continuous economic warfare against powerful competitors, with no possibility ever of a truce.

Traditionally the role of CEO has been dominated by men and, even today, only eleven of the FTSE 250 companies are led by women. In the USA, just 10.4% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs. Such has been the resistance to promoting able women for generations, that those who make it to the top have to be very good indeed. Harriet Green is such a woman. Educated at King’s College London, she was CEO of Premier Farnell from 2006 to 2012; CEO of Thomas Cook from 2012 to 2014; and Chairman & CEO of IBM Asia Pacific (including India, Korea, Australia and New Zealand) from 2018 to 2020. She also ran IBM’s Cognitive AI & IoT businesses from 2015. Harriet describes herself as a passionate diversity and inclusion activist and founder in the charity and social enterprise sector.

In her talk, Harriet will discuss what it takes to become a female CEO in a world in which senior positions are still dominated by men. She will address in particular the degree to which women can bring a different perspective to the analysis of problems, the development of solutions and leadership. She will also describe some of the most difficult challenges she faced at various times in her career and how she overcame them. Finally, she will set out her views on the future of business and employment opportunities in a world increasingly dominated by technology and artificial intelligence.