SHINE - Issue 4

Interview

1. How would your best friends describe you?

I would like to think loyal, fun, generous and caring.

2. If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would that be?

Don’t worry so much, do the things that scare you. Take all the risks, have all the fun.

3. Most vivid memory of your school days?

This was tough! I was torn between House Arts, our CCF camp and school plays. House Arts won as it was one of the best experiences I ever had at St Helen’s. There was such a sense of camaraderie and fun, I enjoyed every minute of it.

4. How do you stay in touch with your friends from school?

My closest friends and I try to see each other when we can, but life gets in the way!  I have recently reconnected with a few girls through social media, and funnily enough my kids go to school with Old Girls’ kids!

5. What was your first job and what are you doing now?

My first job was as an assistant to a swimming teacher, I taught the younger children to swim. At the same time, I babysat and worked on weekends in a beauty salon in Stanmore – I still remember the smell of wax pots! Now I own The Woolf Partnership, an executive search firm based in London focused on technology, transformation and change.

6. What one dish can you make from scratch without a recipe?

Spaghetti bolognaise, although I firmly believe the best recipes are the easiest ones.

7. A book you would recommend reading and why?

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. It is a brilliant story of a mother’s courage to take her son to safety.

8. Who or what inspires you?

Role models play such a huge part in our lives. I used to think women like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Audrey Hepburn filled that space for me. I know now that its friends and family who inspire me, my mum and sisters who have shown me how to love and be loved, my dad who was the first entrepreneur I ever learnt from for his guidance, my husband for both his patience and knowing when to take risks. And finally, my children who show me how little I know and how much I need to learn.

9. What moment in your past do you wish you could experience again for the first time?

Becoming a mother.

10. Which animal best matches your character?

Definitely a dolphin. Water is my happy place and dolphins are (I think?) fun, protective, and sociable.  

11. Where do you feel most yourself?

At the beach near water. 

12. Who would you trust to help you bury a body and why?

I have put a team together for this task! My two sisters and my husband. My sisters would not ask any questions and just get to work. My husband would have a strategy in place, he would project manage the whole plan and cover our tracks.