Supported By
IWD: Breaking The Blueprint
International Women's Day Premium Brunch Experience
CPD-Accredited | Follows Chatham House Rules
5th March 2026 | House of Lords, London
Arrival & Networking Breakfast
Welcome & Setting the Intention
A short opening to mark International Women’s Day and set the tone for the morning. This session frames the theme of Breaking the Blueprint.
Julie Tague
Director of Savings and Improvement, House of Commons
Panel: Breaking the Blueprint
This panel explores how senior women are navigating leadership in complex systems. Panellists will share experience, inflection points and practical judgement rather than polished success stories.
Benedicta Asamoah-Russell
Creative Practice Director & Founder, Golden Sankofa
Julie Tague
Director of Savings and Improvement, House of Commons
Laura Eshelby
Head of Economic Crime, Clue Software
Molly Ellis
Founder, Project Accountability
Sandra Pinnington
CEO, Executive Insights Ltd
Group Table Discussion: From Insight to Intention
This facilitated table discussion invites you to move from observation to ownership - reflecting on what today has already surfaced and beginning to shape what you will carry forward. Guided by two questions, your table will explore the gap between how you currently lead and how you want to lead, and leave with one meaningful commitment for the year ahead.
Coffee Break & Networking
Panel: Technology - Accelerator or Obstacle to Women’s Leadership?
This session is focused on:
• How women leaders experience, navigate and shape technology inside real organisations.
• How technology is changing leadership opportunities for women
• Where digital systems are enabling progress
• Navigating AI, automation and “always-on” culture as a senior leader
• Building inclusive digital workplaces that support performance and progression
Heather Cover-Kus
Associate Director, Central Government and Education at techUK
Laura Eshelby
Head of Economic Crime, Clue Software
Narmada Guruswamy
Director, Forensic Data Analytics
Sumitra Varma
Deputy Director - Justice Data, Ministry of Justice
Panel: Breaking Broken Systems
This session is focused on:
• Challenging legacy systems, processes or policies
• Leading responsible, human-centred change
• Balancing innovation, accountability and risk
Jess Harman
Simulation & Clinical Skills Operations Manager, NHS
Julie Tague
Director of Savings and Improvement, House of Commons
Molly Ellis
Founder, Project Accountability
Networking Lunch
Panel: Leadership in Action – Stories, Decisions, Impact
This session is focused on:
• Real leadership journeys, real decisions, real impact all drawing on lived experience and insights from conversations with senior women leaders across sectors.
• A live, moderated leadership conversation
• A featured leadership case discussion
• The defining moments that shaped real leadership decisions
• Practical takeaways today’s women leaders can apply immediately
Jess Harman
Simulation & Clinical Skills Operations Manager, NHS
Laura Eshelby
Head of Economic Crime, Clue Software
Sandra Pinnington
CEO, Executive Insights Ltd
Closing Reflections: Taking It Forward
Final Networking & Close
Julie Tague is Director of Savings and Improvement at the UK House of Commons, where she leads programmes focused on financial sustainability, organisational performance, and delivery in one of the UK’s most high-profile institutions.
Julie has over 20 years’ experience working across the public sector, including senior leadership roles in the Cabinet Office, Ministry of Defence, DCMS and the DSIT. Her career has centred on leading large-scale people and change programmes in complex, high-pressure environments.
Across these roles, Julie has supported organisations and leaders to navigate ambiguity, reshape ways of working, and deliver change while maintaining trust and credibility. She is known for her practical, human approach to leadership and for helping teams adapt and perform when the stakes are high and the path isn’t straightforward.
Laura is the Head of Economic Crime at Clue Software, bringing over 20 years of expertise in counter fraud and economic crime to support organisations in strengthening their fraud risk assessments and implementing best practices.
With extensive tactical and strategic experience, Laura plays a critical role in shaping Clue’s future development, particularly in economic crime. Prior to joining Clue, Laura spent a decade at the Cabinet Office, where she served as Deputy Director at the Public Sector Fraud Authority, helping to shape UK government policies on fraud prevention, professionalisation and insider threats, and prior to this led fraud and financial investigations within the Ministry of Justice.
Molly Ellis is a passionate advocate for change, shaped by her own journey of rebuilding after adversity. Through discipline, mentorship, and resilience, she transformed her life—and now helps others do the same.
Molly partners with prisons, police, and local authorities to break cycles of violence, poverty, and reoffending. Her work includes structured sports programs, employment pathways, trauma-informed mentorship, and financial literacy workshops—empowering people from disadvantaged backgrounds to reclaim their futures.
Sandra Pinnington is a globally trained Executive and Systemic Team Coach with over 30 years’ experience helping leaders build accountability, unlock potential and deliver meaningful commercial results. She works with leaders and teams to create clarity, ownership, and momentum, particularly in complex, high-pressure environments. She has over 12 years experience supporting female leadership through the Women Leaders Association.
Her approach combines real-world business experience, leadership psychology, and practical coaching frameworks, positioning coaching as a commercial lever rather than a “soft” intervention. Clients value her ability to create insight quickly, challenge constructively and drive measurable change.
Benedicta is a Creative Practice Director and founder of Golden Sankofa, a social enterprise dedicated to transforming places and spaces that nurture community wellbeing, belonging and ownership.
After a decade in local government, leading transformative projects from Camden's Neighbourhood Spaces programme to post-Grenfell community assets portfolio, she experienced burnout and anxiety that became a turning point. She left local government in 2022 and in 2024, she followed her dream of becoming a social entrepreneur, channeling her expertise in co-design and place-based transformation into work centered on authentic human connection. Her practice weaves strategic thinking with soul-nourishing experiences; community dinners, retreats, and participatory workshops that honor diverse ways of being and knowing.
Jess Harman is an Executive Coach Practitioner and the founder of Authentic Self Coaching & Consultancy, where she specialises in Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) for women in leadership.
With over two decades of senior leadership, education and coaching experience within the healthcare sector, Jess brings a powerful combination of professional credibility and psychological expert-by-experience insight. Her work focuses on the often unspoken cost of leadership, identity loss, burnout, toxic cultures and the cumulative impact of everyday trauma.
Jess supports women to move beyond survival, reconnect with their authentic selves and redefine leadership on their own terms. Her approach is compassionate, trauma-informed and transformational, helping women grow through adversity rather than being defined by it.
Her message is clear and deeply human: resilience keeps us going... but Post-Traumatic Growth is what allows us to move forward, aligned, whole and unapologetically ourselves.
Heather Cover-Kus works to represent the supplier community of tech products and services to Central Government, encouraging effective market engagement between suppliers and buyers, and supporting the transformational power of tech in public service delivery. She is a big advocate for appropriate and meaningful social value in public procurement.
Prior to joining techUK in April 2022 as Head of Central Government Programme, Heather worked in the Economic Policy and Small States Section at the Commonwealth Secretariat. She led the organisation’s FinTech programme and worked to create an enabling environment for developing countries to take advantage of the socio-economic benefits of FinTech.
Before moving to the UK, Heather worked at the Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas and the Central Bank of The Bahamas. Heather holds a Graduate Diploma in Law from BPP, a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from LSE, and a BA in Economics and Sociology from Macalester College.
Sumitra is a Deputy Director at the Ministry of Justice within Justice Data, where she oversees the Data Science and AI profession alongside her role. She previously held roles at the Home Office and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. As a technologist with over 20 years of experience in digital, technology and data across private and public sector, Sumitra has led talented teams of technical professionals. She is a keen advocate for innovation, inclusion and responsible adoption of AI. Sumitra is particularly passionate about increasing representation of women in technology and believes the AI era presents a generational opportunity to broaden participation and reshape the future of the profession.