Peninah Thomson, Chief Executive, The Mentoring Foundation

Peninah Thomson, OBE, is the chief executive of The Mentoring Foundation, and directs the FTSE 100 Cross-Company Mentoring Program. In this successful program, FTSE chairmen and chief executives mentor senior women from just below the board to become credible board candidates. Her early career was in the UK Foreign Office, then in NATO. Subsequently a director in PricewaterhouseCoopers, Thomson worked at board level in FTSE100 companies and in 17 countries. An international speaker and broadcaster, she is co-author of The Changing Culture of Leadership: Women Leaders' Voices; A Woman's Place is in the Boardroom; A Woman's Place is in the Boardroom: The Roadmap; and Women and the New Business Leadership. She has served on the Strategy Group of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, and as a member of the UK Commissioner for Public Appointments' Advisory Board, and was awarded an OBE for Services to Women and Equality in the Queen's Jubilee Honors in 2012.