Kate is the founder of Sapphire Partners. Her background is in financial services and management consulting. She has worked in both London and New York over the last 25 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. She is a regular commentator on women’s careers and advancement in executive and non executive roles.  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 the medical charity: the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of the UK and was previously the treasurer of The International Prader-Willi Syndrome Association.
Kate was one of the 3 UK women to be named in the 2009 TIAW World Of Difference 100 Awards. Her work with corporates promoting female talent was cited.  In addition, Kate was chosen as the inaugural Mentor of the Year by Red Magazine in December 2009 and has been shortlisted for the CBI’s First Women 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.

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.