Woman's Hour Power List 2014 – Game Changers
The Woman’s Hour Power List is back for 2014, identifying the top ten 'game changers' operating in the UK today.
Building on the success of last year’s inaugural Woman’s Hour Power List, which named the 100 most powerful women in the country, this year’s list shines a spotlight on the women who are changing the way power operates in society.
Read about our top ten games changers, 2014.
Our panel:
Emma Barnett is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and Women’s Editor of The Telegraph – where she launched Telegraph’s digital section, Wonder Women. She hosts the weekly Sunday drive-time show on LBC 97.3 and currently guest presents for Woman’s Hour and The Media Show on BBC Radio 4. Before becoming The Telegraph’s Women’s Editor, she was the newspaper’s Digital Media Editor – during which time she was named Digital Journalist of the Year by the Association of Online Publishers and Digital Writer of the Year gong at the Online Media Awards in 2011. She was named best new radio presenter at the Arqiva commercial radio awards and twice named in the Radio Academy’s 30 under 30 list. She is a regular documentary maker for Radio 4 and commentator on women’s issues, media, social affairs, technology, politics and culture for BBC News, ITV, Sky News and CNN.
Best, game-changing career advice she has been given: "Do something every week that makes you feel uncomfortable and pushes you far out of your comfort zone."
Twitter: @emmabarnett
Heather Rabbatts trained as a barrister but made her name as the youngest local authority chief executive and went on to run the London boroughs of Lambeth, Merton and Hammersmith and Fulham. She was Executive Deputy Chair of Millwall F.C. for four years from 2006, and in 2012 became the first female board member of the Football Association in 150 years. She is a trustee of the Royal Opera House, and sits on the board of Crossrail. She has held a number of senior positions including governor of the LSE and the BBC, and trustee of the British Council. She has recently set up a new media production company, Smuggler Entertainment, which is developing broadcast drama and film.
Last year, Heather was included in the Woman's Hour Power List as one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK.
Best, game-changing career advice she has been given: "My mum taught me, never let other people define yourself!"
Reni Eddo-Lodge is a writer and a contributing editor at Feminist Times. She specialises in structural racism and black feminism. In 2010, Reni received a high commendation from Channel 4′s Best Young Blogger competition. She was listed in The Telegraph’s ‘Women to Follow on Twitter’ (December 2013) described as “Thoughtful commentary on UK feminism, shedding light on voices that are often not heard in the debate.” In January, the Voice Newspaper named her in their list of Ones to Watch in 2014. Reni has appeared on Woman’s Hour as well as Radio 3’s ‘Nightwaves’ on feminism. Her work can be found at The Guardian, The Independent, openDemocracy, The New Humanist, Dazed and Confused magazine, and feminist website The F Word.
Best, game-changing career advice she has been given: "Don’t ask permission to be an individual. There’s this received wisdom, once you’ve reached a certain level then you can do and say what you want and you can be you. But my friend said, 'don’t wait for permission to be you, just do what you want and if people like you, they like you. And people who don’t, they don’t.' So don’t ask permission to be an individual.
My mum also said, 'Reni, you’ll always to be a token because, by definition, there’s just not many of us around in powerful positions. So your duty is to be the most radical token you can be.'"
Twitter: @renireni
Rachel Johnson: Educated at New College, Oxford, Rachel is an author, editor, journalist and presenter. She joined the Financial Times as their first female graduate trainee. After five years - which included a year's secondment to the Foreign Office's policy planning staff - she moved to the BBC where she was a senior broadcast journalist on Radio 4's The World Tonight. She moved to Washington DC in 1997 and has reported and written columns from both the US and Brussels. Rachel has written weekly columns for the Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Telegraph, the Evening Standard and the News Review section of the Sunday Times as well as other publications. Between 2009 and 2011 she was editor of The Lady, the weekly magazine established in 1885. Rachel has written three novels and two volumes of diaries for Penguin. She was a judge for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2013. She now writes a weekly column for the Mail on Sunday and a regular column for the Big Issue.
Best, game-changing career advice she has been given: "My mother said, 'Always take criticism as a compliment. It’s a form of tribute.' If someone’s bothered to criticise you it means they’ve taken time to think about what you’ve done, suggest improvements and give you a chance to do it better. And that applies equally in the palaces of Westminster as it does in your own kitchen. Everybody should be able to take it.”
Twitter: @rachelsjohnson
Liz Bingham began her career straight from school with BDO Stoy Hayward in 1981, joining EY in 1986. Her successes leading a restructuring team led to promotion first as Director, and in 2011 to a leadership position as Managing Partner Talent. She was also recently appointed president of R3 – the industry body for corporate restructuring professionals. And in November 2013 Liz was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration by BPP University in recognition of her contribution to professional services.
Liz is a campaigner for diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace, for non-graduates, for women, for parents, for flexible workers and for gay people. She received the 2012 award for achievement from Women in Banking & Finance, and was ranked No.31 in the World Pride Power List of influential LGBT people worldwide in the same year. In 2013 Liz was listed by Accountancy Age as No 27 in the Financial Power List, included on the BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour 100 Power List and also Cranfield's 100 Women to Watch list. Liz was recently named as No 18 in the FT Top 50 OUTstanding in Business List.
Best, game-changing career advice she has been given: "To be authentic and true to myself in dealing with teams and clients."
Twitter: @lizbinghamey
