Kate’s background is in financial services and management consulting. She has worked in both London and New York over the last 21 years, and has held senior positions at JPMorgan, McKinsey & Co. and Morgan Stanley. Kate’s career and functional expertise is in strategy, talent management, broad-based financial services, professional services and diversity and inclusion. Kate has an MBA with honours from the Tuck School at Dartmouth, a BA with honours from Wellesley College and has studied at the London School of Economics. She is a trustee of two medical charities: the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of the UK and the International Prader-Willi Syndrome Association, of which she is the treasurer.
Kate was a winner in the 2009 TIAW World Of Difference 100 Awards.

Alison brings a legal background to Sapphire. After graduating with a Law Degree from Oxford University (where she was a tennis Blue), she trained and practised for two years as a solicitor with Freshfields, specialising in the company commercial area. She later worked (flexibly) with two other London Law firms. Her work varied from large corporate transactions to smaller private company work, including commercial contracts and advice, employment, intellectual property and general corporate advice as well as drafting in-house employment arrangements, manuals and codes of practice. She has also spent time serving on committees for two charities, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and Action Medical Research, and as Chairman of the Parents’ Guild for St Paul’s Girls’ School in London.

A positive embrace of change has been instrumental in shaping Andrea’s career. Her professional career spanned 12 years within investment banking and chartered a path from tri-lingual managerial roles in trading and sales at Merrill Lynch in Frankfurt and London. During a career break while bringing up two children, Andrea took the opportunity to re-engineer her profession through further education. In addition to gaining an MSc in Occupational/Organizational Psychology and qualifying as a personal and professional development coach, Andrea worked as a senior business development manager at London Business School.  Her Anglo-African origins and experiences of living and working abroad underpin her expertise in supporting others to fulfill their aspirations for change. Andrea speaks German and French, is a member of the British Psychology Society and holds accredited certificates in occupational testing.

Jody has worked in financial services and legislative research both in the US and UK over the past 16 years. She held senior positions at JPMorgan in the Asset Management and Private Client Services businesses. Prior to joining JPMorgan, she served as a Director of International Research at a boutique asset management firm and was previously a partner and equity research analyst in an investment management partnership. Jody's expertise is in asset management (research, operations, trading, risk management), private banking, finance, strategy, talent management, training and organisational development. Jody has an MBA from the University of Chicago, a Masters in International Political Economy from Georgetown University and a BA from Pace University. She studied in the Netherlands and Germany and speaks Dutch and German. She previously taught non-profit strategy and development at a business school in the US.

Clare spent 12 years at the London office of McKinsey & Co., the last 4 as consultant staff administrator, while also being heavily involved in the alumni programme. Recently she has worked as a freelance administrator/PA in various barristers’ chambers, arranging legal conferences and dinners. Her introduction into head hunting was at Spencer Stuart in 2005. In a previous life Clare has done a variety of jobs: driving tennis players during Wimbledon fortnight, being a rep for a ski season in Switzerland and spending 3 years in PR for Burson-Marsteller after working in the property sector. Clare is that rare breed - a native Londoner.

Therese attended the Vienna International School in Austria and is now studying Business Management at King’s College London. She previously worked as an intern at the international real-estate corporation Strabag Pfs in Frankfurt. There she gained experience in Human Resource Management, as well as in Employment Law, and Communications. Therese has also worked at the Spanish Embassy in Vienna, where she dealt with Marketing and Tourism. Her mother tongue is German, but she also speaks fluent English and has basic knowledge in Spanish. Parallel to studying and working, Therese is a member of NACEU and has played on professional basketball teams for over six years.