Women on Boards
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supporting more women into the boardroom

Women on Boards Bursary Programme

The only barrier to the boardroom should be talent. Our Bursary offers our signature support to women with high board potential.

Women on Boards exists to help women overcome the hurdles to contribute their skills and perspective as non-executive directors.

Our Bursary Programme offers women, who would not otherwise be able to afford it, places on our signature Boardroom Journey worth over £2000 to help them begin or progress their board careers.

We have launched our Bursary Programme for applications on International Women’s Day for the past six years. We hope to do so again next year. Keep in touch via our newsletter or social media to hear about it.

6th
annual bursary programme
200+
applications annually
27
participants to date

Meet our 2024 cohort

Congratulations to our awardees for 2024!

Raheela Rehman

Raheela Rehman

As an industrial R&D engineer within the energy sector, Raheela transitioned into Higher Education, focused on inter-disciplinarity within energy, as well as the Global South. Her aim garners expertise for the transition to a zero-carbon future.

Raheela is a strong advocate for diverse perspectives in leadership. She hopes to gain a deeper understanding of the skills required to be board-ready, to address the global challenges in the energy sector. She sits on several voluntary committees.

 

Rona Farley

Rona Farley

Rona is a third-year Psychology student passionate about understanding diverse perspectives and promoting inclusivity. Through her professional experience, she conducted market research on youth opinions and perceptions on topics such as arts, culture, and politics. 

Due to a disability, Rona had to forego part-time work to focus on her education. She sees the Bursary as an excellent opportunity to kickstart her career by taking advantage of the courses and networking opportunities offered through the programme.

Sue Adkins

Sue Adkins

Sue is the founder and CEO of an organisation that provides strategic advice to businesses and charities on corporate responsibility, sustainability and ESG. With over 25 years of experience, Sue has taken on a number of board, advisory board, and trustee roles.

Sue had to take a career break to care for her father while also becoming self-employed. With our support, Sue hopes to learn how to leverage her extensive experience to refine and deliver her pitch, network with like-minded professionals and ultimately secure NED positions, helping others along the way if she can.

Our 2024 Bursary Programme attracted over 200 applications, and it wasn’t easy to pick the final three. Due to the impressive talent, passion, and resilience demonstrated by the applicants, we decided to add two additional awards of one year’s Full Membership.

Eoife Huo

Eoife Huo

Eoife is a seasoned brand positioning and content marketing professional with 10+ years of experience. She currently serves as the Brand and Investor Relations Lead at a venture capital-backed climate DeepTech spinout from the University of Oxford and leads the Tech London Advocates’ RetailTech working group, championing innovation in UK retail technology. 

Last year, she left her 9-5 job to develop a portfolio career that aligns with her passion for nature, arts, and technology. She seeks to contribute her skills and experience to boards committed to meaningful, value-driven change in global business and organisations.

Heidi Malaure

Heidi Malaure

Heidi Malaure is a former COO with almost 30 years of experience in business, politics, and charity. She previously worked as an executive in marketing/management consultancy, recruitment consultancy, and publishing. She has board experience at the local level and is a primary school governor and Chair of the Resources Committee.

Heidi recently retrained and is now working part-time as a teacher and is keen on building her non-executive career, expanding her networks and eventually transitioning into paid NED roles.

Our Bursary Programme

What's involved?

The final participants receive a package of support to help them start or shape their board careers. Specifically, this includes:

We normally open applications for our Bursary Programme on International Women’s Day, 8th March. Do follow us on social media to hear about our next Bursary programme.

Thank you to the speakers from our ‘Becoming an Effective Chair Programme’ for waiving their speaker fees (October & December ’23, March & June ’24 cohorts) to contribute to our Bursary Programme in 2024:

Sally Bridgeland, Dee Lehane, Rachel Beagles, Vanda Murray, Gaenor Bagley, Bernard Donoghue, Clifton Melvin and Margaret Rice-Jones.

 

More about our previous Bursary programmes:

The Women on Boards bursary has been life-changing for me. More than anything it demonstrated and validated how a portfolio career could work as an option for me, as a voluntary sector professional. And I am now well on my way to creating one.

Linda Owen

2020 Bursary participant

I can't recommend this Bursary programme enough. The help and guidance you get are invaluable. Go for it!

Afshan Moeed

2021 Bursary participant

The Women on Boards Bursary was instrumental in helping me move into a Board role after stepping down from full-time work due to disability. The content of the bursary - adapted by the team to reflect my circumstances - took me through crafting a board-level CV and applications, focusing on my strategic value-add, and prepping for the interviews involved, as well as expanding my network enormously.
An absolute highlight was the Board CV masterclass, which I credit for transforming how I thought about and presented my skill set. Becoming disabled can turn your world upside down personally, workwise, and financially, so I have been phenomenally grateful for the support and expertise the bursary has enabled me to access.

Nicky Passmore

2023 Bursary participant

The Bursary has benefited me in many ways, from building my network and improving my skills, to boosting my confidence when applying for roles. I recommend it to anyone who’s thinking of applying.

Ruth Ashaye

2023 Bursary participant
We began our Bursary Programme in 2019, to open our impactful support offer to women with high board potential who could not other wise afford it.

We have been overwhelmed with the number and quality of applications each year, and selecting a small group of participants has always been tough.

Our Bursary Programme winners have been from a variety of different career stages and backgrounds – and have gone on to a variety of roles.

In 2023 we invited four past participants to share their experiences during and after the Bursary programme on our popular podcast – it was so good we had to split the episode into two parts!

Listen here to our Bursary Programme participants’ stories

 

Read more about previous participants here:

More about 2023 Bursary Programme
More about 2022 Bursary Programme
More about 2021 Bursary Programme
More about 2020 Bursary Programme
More about 2019 Bursary Programme