A group of women listening to a talk

Brilliant Women Network

Our history



When Emma Robertson, Transform’s CEO, noticed a lack of female leaders in meetings she attended, conferences she was invited to and projects she was part of, she did what she always does. Something.

She created Brilliant Women.

Originally known as Women in Digital, due to a noticeable lack of female leaders in digital and technology roles, the network was founded over a decade ago. There were some women’s only networks already in operation but not one focused in the digital space. And we certainly hadn’t come across a network that was aimed at senior women who didn’t really like traditional networking groups. So that’s what we created. A friendly, safe environment to share ideas and successful approaches or to discuss concerns and problems with a small group of likeminded women - not a large room of unknown faces. As the industry evolved, so did the network, and we rebranded as Brilliant Women.

Although a community for women, it’s never been a forum dominated by women's issues. The emphasis is instead on shared experiences and business challenges; to discuss ideas and learn new things relating to our roles, whilst building a friendly network by stealth.

We’ve been asked why our network is still only for women. With the imbalance that continues to exist in our industries we stand by our commitment to Brilliant Women and remain unembarrassed to host events that are for a female only audience.

Our members



With representation from retail, media, travel, public sector, telecoms, utilities and financial services, there's always been a great opportunity to pick up cross-sector experience.

There are also insights to be gleaned from interacting with different functions. You might find a CDO talking to a Head of Comms to better understand the challenges and the demands that might be made on the technology team. Or a CMO asking questions of a Data Director to gain insights into what’s possible based on tech stacks.

So, if you’re a female leader and this sounds like the sort of community you’d like to be part of, we’d love to hear from you. We’re not hung up on job titles (although typically our members are C-suite, Directors or Heads of), what’s more important is that you have leadership responsibilities and/or delivery accountability in a digital, data, technology, marketing, strategy or development role. The success of our interactions comes from shared experiences and insights centred around common areas of overlap.

We also host up and coming leaders as part of our meet-up get togethers, if you’re not quite at leadership level yet.

The way we work



We want to encourage women working in all different types and levels of digital, data, technology, marketing, strategy and development roles to join this community. We then ask that you come along to events with an open mind and happy to share your story. We operate a Chatham House rules approach to all our round table discussions so you can speak freely with the knowledge that there’s an authenticity to conversations.

We’re not rule heavy. It’s not that sort of club. But we do ask one thing of all our members. We want to spread the word and to do that we need your help. Tell people. Invite people. Get involved. That's our only rule.

What our Brilliant Women say

"This network is packed full of intelligent, funny and, most importantly, kind women. You’re guaranteed both practical and emotional support as part of this network – and let’s face it, we all need both some of the time. Discussions are lively and thought provoking and I’ve never left one yet feeling anything other than uplifted and ready to take on whatever life throws at me next!"


Tina Boyle, Head of Brand & Marketing Communications, Santander

"What sets Brilliant Women apart is how we listen and learn from each other. Our conversations, whether virtual or over breakfast, always bring intelligence, humour, and a refreshing lack of ego. I consistently come away with new ideas, book recommendations, or fresh perspectives."


Katy Gotch, Strategy Director, Immediate Media

"Always something to learn, something to share, support in abundance and a fabulous dose of laughter and humility. I can’t say that about many rooms I walk in to. I’m so grateful for this group and am excited to help it grow and share our ethos with the next generation of leaders."


Linzi Parry, Founder, Leaf Partnerships

"Brilliant Women is not just a networking group. It is THE networking group for those of us who don't do networking to showboat or name drop whilst sipping fine cocktails in some of the most prestigious locations (OK, well maybe sometimes!). Sorry (not sorry) to say it fellas, but this is what a group for women, by women feels like. And it rocks."


Cath Rowe, Marketing & Digital Director

Our events



We have a couple of streams in the network. The main stream is for female leaders who’ll be invited to our executive breakfasts and leadership meet-ups.

The second stream is for up-and-coming female leaders. If you’re preparing for a leadership role, we host a handful of broader network meet-ups each year that are open to the whole community.

We cover a variety of topics which have included Cultivating a Growth Mindset; Hybrid Leadership, Sustainability in Tech; Implementing Effective DE&I Programmes; and How to Move from Equality to Equity. Occasionally we also look at health in the workplace and have been joined in the past by Kate Muir to talk about hormones and their impact on your career and Michael Matania who ran a workshop on resilience.

This year we’re continuing to host a broad range of events including senior leader meet ups to discuss and debate the key topics impacting leadership roles (taking place in London and Manchester); and our next ones are detailed below.

Calendar of events


Leadership Roundtable

Brilliant Women: Sustainability x AI


Because we know you can't always make it to our in person events, we're also hosting our 'Sustainability and AI' meet-up online. We'll make the session as interactive as we can. Trust us, we've done this before.


Discussion theme

With generative AI models leading to increased cloud carbon emissions, many organisations are facing the question - how can I invest in AI and meet my Net Zero targets?


Our Director of Sustainable Business Consulting, Claire Robinson, will chair a discussion on how organisations can best approach this with a ‘Net Positive’ mindset - measuring the social, environmental and economic benefits of AI use cases.


Topic: Sustainability x AI

When: Tuesday 19th November

Where: Online, live via Zoom

Time: 4:00 - 5:00 pm

Target audience: Heads of/Director level – leading teams in digital, technology, data, marketing and transformation with an interested in the sustainability side of technology


If you'd like to join, email brilliantwomen@transformUK.com to reserve a virtual place.


Leadership Breakfast


Topic: TBC

When: Wednesday 11th December

Where: Central London

Time: 9:00 - 10:30

Target audience: C-suite/Director level in Technology, Data and Digital


These events are limited to 12 people and typically by invitation only but if you’re interested in joining drop us a line.

Side note: Brilliant Women Book Club

We recently launched our Brilliant Women book club which we’ll host remotely four times a year, to make it as easy as possible to participate.

Each quarter we’ll read (or listen) to a non-fiction book linked to leadership, culture or innovation and then you’ll be invited to join us for a discussion online – prepare yourself a drink of your choice before signing in, ready for an engaging conversation.

Our first book is Brené Brown’s, Dare to Lead and we’ll be discussing it on Tuesday 22nd October between 4:30 and 5:30pm.

Email brilliantwomen@transformUK.com for more details or to register.


Let’s keep the conversation going. Let’s keep sharing insights. Let’s keep learning. After all, that’s the premise behind Brilliant Women: Connecting Leaders. Driving Change.

Photo of Brene Brown next to the cover of her book "Dare to lead"

A group of women listening to a talk

A group of women sat at a table making their terrariums