Co-Founder Michelle Minnikin (in green) collecting the award with the AND-E Team. We're thrilled to share some big news: Elevate, the leadership programme we co-designed and co-delivered with AND-E (Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Europe), has won the Training and Development Award at the 2026 British Insurance Awards. The win was announced at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 8th July, in front of around 1,400 leaders from across the UK insurance industry - the sector's most pre

Phone rings - “I’ve got bad news.” “Wait you’re not ringing me to gloat your team in the office sweepstakes is through to the next round, are you?” “I normally would. But I’m serious now.” “Don’t leave me hanging then!” “It’s Sarah…she just handed me her resignation!” “Oh sh1t!” “I know. I’m floored.” “I…just…would never have expected that. She’s a rising star! We had so many plans for her to reach the top. Any way to talk her round into staying?” “I tried. She’s done. Alrea

Co-Founders James Eves and Michelle Minnikin We’ve been working ON our business over the last year. I admit it’s easy to fall into that trap of client work, being busy and life getting in the way. I’d even started a part time PhD in October, which compounded this problem. This was when a door of opportunity opened. Always happens when you’re looking for them. We gained some funded support through Durham Business Growth (DBG) and RTC North after talking through our current sit

(And what to do about it before it costs you any more talent, revenue, and momentum.) You've invested in recruitment. You've built a pipeline of talented women. You've ticked the diversity boxes and launched the mentoring programme. And yet. Your best women are burning out, leaving, or going quiet in meetings. Your middle managers are firefighting constantly - not because they lack skill, but because they can't say no. Your senior women are exhausted from over-delivering and

I say it in every room I walk into. “The greatest untapped resource we have on this planet is the unrealised potential of women.” I said it again this week, sitting across from two senior men in an organisation, with James beside me. I said it the way I always say it - not as a provocation, not as a pitch, but as the thing I know to be true in my bones. And they agreed with me. I don’t take that for granted. I really don’t. Not right now. Here’s what I get to witness. I get t

Every year, organisations invest significantly in women's leadership development. Mentoring programmes. Skills workshops. Confidence coaching. Networking events. And yet the pipeline remains stubbornly narrow. The attrition continues. The senior leadership tables stay largely unchanged. The numbers tell a stark story. In Ireland, just 19.2% of chief executives are women, a figure that has barely changed in two years. In the UK, women occupy 42% of board seats in large compani

There comes a point where something that once felt exactly right…just doesn’t anymore. That’s where we found ourselves with Work Pirates. At the time, it made perfect sense. Pirates. Rebellion. Disrupting broken systems in organisations. A bit of edge. A bit of swearing. A bit of “let’s shake things up.” And to be fair, it did exactly that. It got attention. It resonated with some people deeply. It opened doors we wouldn’t otherwise have walked through. But over time, somethi