by Robin Russel, CEO SATVA TRUST, Co-founder of Further & Further, for allaboutshipping.co.uk
There was an urgency to Zoe Upson’s voice as she opened this first Vanguard Collective Forum on the first day of International Energy Week on the 9th February, officially bringing the WomenTogether group she founded 8 years ago into the corporate world. As the founder of a recruitment agency and a woman animated by a drive to help improve the shipping, commodities and trading industries in which she operates, Zoe sees negative experiences of women at work from both sides of the table – through her individual clients faced with structural headwinds, lack of awareness, mismatched provision and cultural bias – also through companies missing out on talent, breadth of perspectives, staff productivity and retention.
Credit: Mia Davies
The Vanguard Collective is a vehicle for corporate members to collaborate by sharing and discussing what they’ve tried, what has and hasn’t worked, to cut through the fluff and noise. A supportive community is a potent source of strength, and this group of senior executives and service providers from the shipping, commodities and trading industries, operating under Chatham House rules, have formed a safe space for what can be very impactful conversations. That impact was immediately obvious to me during this launch event, with several topics that had me internally reframing parts of my more than 20 years of HR and leadership.
Credit: Mia Davies
Zoe is consciously breaking the ‘work event’ corporate mould on a few levels at once, choosing to hold the event in St Ethelburga’s Centre, housed in a lovely 13th century church in the heart of the City of London, bouncing the group past the normal gentle start straight into a first session to learn about menopause and perimenopause in the workplace. Torild Boe Stokes, Founder of Pause Effect, shared that 1 in 3 women in the workforce suffer debilitating symptoms, potentially for 7-10 years before the menopause itself. If ignored it can have a direct, chronic impact on an individual’s ability to contribute at work as they would like, showing up as promotions rejected, increased turnover and lost productivity. The extent of this issue was certainly news to me and her points and guidance on turning this estimated $1trn global miss around were well made. As a substantial business opportunity as well as a human benefit, efforts to better understand the effects and potential mitigations seem a worthwhile focus.
Credit: Robin Russel
Next, Kate Gathard of Elysian Services celebrated some positive progress on gender equality, with women holding 42% of FTSE 350 board positions in 2025 and 46% of entrepreneurs being female (up from 20% in 2022), while affirming that more still needs to be done. Developments in legislation in the UK are also positive, although limited to companies above 250 employees. Kate discussed strategies companies might employ to develop their own approaches to women’s needs and legislation, pointing out that many of the tactics that might flow from them are simple, easy wins – like talking to female staff about the topics. She highlighted how critical it is to have visible senior management involvement and support for managers (of whatever gender) on how best to approach this area. Structures providing confidants and mentors are particularly powerful in supporting women at work, which I found an interesting extension to a type of relationship I’ve found to be very impactful on outcomes over the years.
Credit: Mia Davies
Greg Hertault shared a range of his personal experiences from 20 years in physical trading. He noted the difference between middle office teams, which tend to be roughly gender balanced, and front office teams that in many parts of the world continue to be significantly male dominated. In discussing approaches to shifting this balance, Greg noted the power of marketing a company’s culture through graduate programmes, where thoughtful approaches to how opportunities are presented can boost the number of women in the application pool by over 1,000%. While women make up a very small proportion of job applications for front office roles, they tend to have done much more research and to show a much higher level of targeted enthusiasm, meaning that they tend to be significantly better candidates. Greg also encouraged the audience to publicise their successes in this area as corporates, helping to shift market norms.
Credit: Mia Davies
During a lovely light lunch, we had the opportunity to network and discuss the topics raised so far. One interesting common experience of discussions at work about women’s rights and female-related initiatives was the shift in tone from when it is framed as relating to colleagues, sisters and wives, to when it is framed as relating to daughters. Immediately the level of engagement and buy-in increases, with support for implementation significantly increasing – potentially a useful strategy to use consciously.
Credit: Mia Davies
After lunch Ha Eun Ruppelt, maritime transformation advisor and senior commercial leader, Emily Watts, most recently BP’s Regional Business Leader for Europe & Africa, and Stef Kenyon, Director of External Affairs at the UK Chamber of Shipping, discussed the geopolitics of trading and shipping, as well as fielding questions from delegates. The panel was moderated by Nick Chubb, Founder and Strategy Director of Thetius. The panel’s diverse perspectives in risk, communication and operations proved fertile ground for a fascinating discussion covering a tumultuous 2025. it seems that the “geopolitical ghost” is nowadays in every room, all the time. With a declining ability to manage the impact of geopolitics while the amount of information and data has massively increased, it is ever more important to have internal structures in place that allow for fast-paced decision making. Looking at various markets over 2025 it’s clear that headline sensitivity to geopolitical disruption reduced during the year, although 2026 so far has been trying hard to change dynamic! In fact, the risk premium has just shifted through to second order effects: delivery and operational costs, as well as increased an impact of reputational risk. It was also noted that shocks are normal in shipping, which has always thrived on change, but more recently counterparty risk has become much more important. As the context has become increasingly complex, more decisions are driven by values rather than ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, so the focus needs to be on how to manage decision making and communication in this increasing grey space.
Credit: Robin Russel
In all this, competitive advantages matter – which brought the group neatly back to topics relating to women in the shipping, commodities and trading industries. Anecdotes were shared show-casing the competitive advantage that diversity brings; after all – it’s golden nuggets leading to the development of new opportunities that create value above and beyond optimising day to day operations, and nuggets tend to arrive from beyond the paths we follow every day, from trying other handles than the ones we crank every day, from engaging in the different perspectives that those around us bring…
Credit: Mia Davies
This proved a good segue into a spirited round-table discussion that gave everyone in the room the opportunity to discuss the topics of the day, bringing in perspectives from life as a woman on board ships through to female graduates currently looking to join the industry. The atmosphere was optimistic as the event ended, with an overarching sense that things are improving: over time those that take action in these areas continue to grow, and those that don’t continue to have to work harder to keep up. The Vanguard Collective – off to a flying start!
