Verena Hefti MBE (CEO & Founder Leaders Plus) is a multi award winning social entrepreneur and thought leader.
After a senior leadership career in the charity sector, she set up the social enterprise Leaders Plus to support working parents to get to senior leadership against the odds, addressing a root cause of the gender pay gap in partnership with organisations such as HSBC, Royal College of Emergency Medicine and the Salvation Army.
Verena leads Leaders Plus’s research area, most recently launching the Big Parent Career Progression report in the UK House of Commons.
Verena is a sought after speaker and expert on topics such as equitable career progression, working parents and the gender pay gap and the host of the top charting Big Careers, Small Children podcast.
In 2021 she was awarded an MBE by the late queen for services to equality.
Verena loves singing and watching her three children play in the mud.