Businesswomen From The United Kingdom

"Engineering is harder to get into as a girl. Schools will generally funnel girls towards law or medicine"

"It sounds so cliche to say, but it has to be must-see television. That’s what we look for all the time. We need big, high-quality shows with great talent. But being public-service, we also have the luxury to try new and innovative formats with new talent."

". It’s been like this for quite a long time now, but the Nordics are quite far ahead with how the audience behaves. It’s a very picky audience, there’s a lot of content, and there’s also a high willingness to pay for content. So, we need to try to understand which need we fill for them as public-service"

"We’ve had great successes in what we call Brit crime (British crime)—Happy Valley, Sherwood, Shetland, Vera, all of those shows. Even though the target audience is a little bit older, the great thing about those shows is that they work both on linear and on SVT Play. I call Brit crime our “bread and butter.” We’re always on the lookout for the next big, long-running Brit crime series."

"Exclusivity is key to us. We need to justify every single penny of the taxpayers’ money. I’m not opposed to second windows, but when we do choose second windows, we do so with great care. There has to be a strategic purpose for us to choose them."

"environment you're trying to play into, you can standardize your own products, make your own business better… get into that real win-win for both organizations” she adds. “Nobody's successful without great partnerships. That is a real focus for me in engineering.”"

"They touch almost everything at the bank” she says on production deployments, citing “anomaly detection on our asset servicing platforms, trade settlements; on our Client Services team, we have a multi-agentic solution; these are delivering real value in dollar terms and productivity terms. I would say that scale [of deployment] is pretty unique…”"

"I think the partnership bonus was the most critical [lesson]. [I learned early on that] you work better in a partnership than you do in a traditional supplier relationship, because you understand what your client is trying to do better, and you'll go the extra mile to help them do that."

"Legacy”? Just a bit, then! Whilst much of it is proud “legacy”, the bank, like every well-established financial services firm, had no shortage of ageing infrastructure and applications to clean up. Mercifully, a major overhaul had already born fruit when Russell joined in 2024, she cheerfully admits."

"I had to stamp cheques every day; thousands of them. I’d get to 1,500 stamps, and then I'd forget the number, and I have to start it all again. It just wasn't my dream of how I would spend my life"

"“My path to entrepreneurialism was more a default necessity out of the fact that I wasn’t very good at being someone else’s employee combined with this constant thirst to ‘disrupt’ and ultimately, and most importantly… luck.”"

"“If you’re fortunate enough to have a product or service that you can trade for another, then ‘in kind’ deals can help a lot with cash flow in the early days.”"

"“The occasional error of judgment or wrong move can often move your business faster than the right ones… About-turns are not weak, they’re strong and demonstrate good leadership, but they need to happen quickly and be communicated decisively.”"

"“Trust your gut instinct as much if not more than the numbers, and surround yourself with people who you respect and enjoy working with.”"

"“Sometimes it’s the right decision to end a particular course of action or working relationship, but I now make a more concerted effort to salvage or reverse a situation.”"

"“Learn from others’ experiences and be inspired by them, but also make your own rules and navigate your own path.”"

"“Stop benchmarking yourself against other successful entrepreneurs or business people—it wastes valuable energy! Your personality and circumstances are unique and there is no right or wrong way to grow an innovative business.”"

"Invest in memories. It’s ultimately what life is about—people, places, moments and experiences."

"The strongest lessons you get in life are normally the negative ones."

"When it’s behind you, it’s behind you” and the mindset is crucial to looking forward and winning the next time."

"We need people like you with a passion for making things work, who embrace failure as a chance to learn and who are not afraid to tackle challenges head on. You are already great role models for aspiring engineers at school in the area and beyond."

"Through your degree, you have honed your curiosity and problem solving skills. From here, you will have many opportunities to push the boundaries of what engineers think is possible today and solve the problems of tomorrow. Stay curious."

"I’m sure you have learnt already that things are more enjoyable and absorbing if you are interested. Curiosity can power you to learn new things, develop new skills and make new connections. When making career choices, pick things that really interest you and will keep you curious, and you will be more successful."

"Plumbing is lazy."

"The thing about plumbing is that it’s all about having control."

"I feel I am an ordinary person and if ordinary people can get recognised for the work they do, it is fantastic."

"Working for yourself is flexible, you work your own hours, it's a great career and it is a very good earner."

"There’s a persistent belief that women shouldn’t get paid a decent wage for their work and expertise, especially when their client group is other women. We dispute this. We do not believe that women are “charity cases.” We all deserve to invest in our own futures and to receive a decent income."

"I wonder why I do this, it isn’t easy; women in the skilled trades in construction represent less than one percent of all trades workers and there is massive opposition (and inertia) within the industry itself. There is no funding support and yet there is a popular belief that we must be a charity in receipt of funding (and therefore, a wage) if we’re providing this service."

"Fixing things, being a hero, and my passion for water all took me towards plumbing."

"I left teaching because the changes in the education system meant I was putting more energy into admin than into teaching children."

"We are women, but a lot of work still needs to be done to raise awareness that women plumbers exist, and to end the isolation female plumbers feel in their locations often not knowing how many of us there actually are."

"I became disillusioned with teaching and wanted to leave, I looked back at my dream subjects and combined them with my great respect, love and affinity with water (my star sign Scorpio is a water sign) so it had to be plumbing."

"It’s an awkward balance to follow your gut instincts and also bring others in. If the vision is big you can’t do it alone, but if it’s a unique vision, other people try to push their own expectations and desires onto it. It’s good to have the right advisers and advocates."

"Have patience, because it may take a long time. Have determination because you will encounter lots of obstacles. Have compassion for yourself when things go wrong and when they do, find the advantages of a change in direction."

"Being able to help other women make their dreams come true is simply amazing and the best inspiration. One of our loyal plumbers says she doesn’t know what would have happened to her if she hadn’t joined us. She says she could have been ‘in the gutter’ but instead she has a thriving business, healthy children and has just got married. She is happy and content for the first time in her life."

"At the same time I continue to work towards this huge vision of a network of women plumbers changing the world. I’m making mistakes, getting things right and continuing to move towards the big goals"

"But being who I am, I set about finding out and taking action. That set me off on a road to build a national network of women plumbers and through that make an impact on water sustainability. If I’d realised the enormity of that vision, I may never have started out on the journey!"

"They say timing is everything and the revolution in accessible technology helped massively with building the Stopcocks network. I simply couldn’t have accomplished what I’ve done without the revolution in technology making it happen. Each new thing I want to do has to wait till the tech catches up and allows us to do it."

"No, I didn’t do that; I spent money I knew we had. Maybe we shouldn’t go into the discussion about whether I’ve always spent it wisely."

"I’ve been criticised for spending money we didn’t have."

"I know the passion, I know how much football means but so much of what you see and hear is illogical. The team is having a bad run; it happens to more or less everybody. I just think it’s unpleasant and feel for those in the firing line because if only life was that simple. You can deal with it for so long then it begins to wear you down."

"To pour more financial hardship on specific clubs, given what we are all going through both now and for the foreseeable future, is both outrageous and shameful. We should be standing together to help clubs to survive and to save jobs."

"If something is wrong, it is wrong and we should all be doing our utmost to correct that wrong."

"we want to make the club as successful as possible in Europe. That’s a game changer for Hearts and if we consolidate our position in the top three or four clubs in Scotland, that has to be our target."

"To be honest, being CEO and having that level of involvement in everything going on in the club – being in the thick of things – was what I loved, but the moment was right to step back from that."

"As time went on, I definitely bought into the whole concept and became more involved."

"What they were looking for was input and advice from me with my business background to strengthen where they were with their plans. It was absolutely clear to me that their hearts were in the right place. What was required was more of a business perspective."

"I've sat on the SPFL board and I've approved a loan for another club. I know that loans can be approved."

"I think there's been so much negativity and it has reached such a height that without an independent review it's not ever going to to go away."