Susie Rodgers MBE

Using her personal story and lived experience as a woman with a disability and as a successful professional multi-medal winning athlete, Susie will share insights into what sport taught her as a leader – the good and the bad – and how she has incorporated these skills into her own leadership and professional journey since retiring from sport.

Susie shares her journey in sport and the eight years of many missed chances and setbacks it took her to reach the very top of the podium, winning Gold for her country in swimming. Susie takes you through her late entry into sport and shares the inspirational idea of “it is never too late to follow your passion and succeed”, calling herself an “accidental athlete” whose life course diverted through a series of chance decisions through accident rather than by design.

Susie shares her own professional experiences working on GEDSI as an expert to ensure that employment opportunities are designed to reach the most marginalised groups in any society. Sharing her own experiences and discrimination faced throughout her career as a woman with a disability, Susie will equip you with an understanding of what you should be considering to ensure your organisation is inclusive and broadly moving organisations away from a “groupthink” mentality.

With over a decade of experience working with organisations including the UK Government, to upskill staff and ensure any UK overseas development spend and investments are disability inclusive, Susie can share a background into the broader disability rights movement within the United Nations system and globally, sharing examples of best practice in reaching marginalised population groups, ensuring reasonable accommodation and building capability and understanding of disability and the wider global disability movement in its history and current status. She can draw on experiences of meeting many people with disabilities from every continent to broaden her knowledge beyond her own lived experiences living in the UK.

Susie has over a decade of experience on many boards as a NED and trustee. She can share her own experiences in governance and leadership, navigating complex and volatile environments and working across multiple cultures and countries throughout her career.

With a passion for ocean conservation and experience as an Ocean Ambassador for the Marine Conservation Society in the UK, Susie puts her money where her mouth is when it comes to supporting our oceans. She has raised thousands for the charity through creating a collection of art pieces and has been involved in climate change efforts linked to ensuring the voices of those most impacted, including people with disabilities, are involved in global conversations on adaptation and mitigation efforts. Susie can share this new skill she has developed and the learning she has acquired on the role people with disabilities can play in global climate change and sustainability efforts.