In this, our penultimate Episode of Series 4, our host Sophy Norris speaks to the, quite simply, inspirational Ama Frimpong: self-confessed tinkerer, creator, engineer, fixer, representor and mother (plus so much we have missed out).

Ama is Head of Product Development at 52 North Health, where she leads development across the company’s portfolio of healthcare solutions, including Neutrocheck® developed to help cancer patients avoid sepsis. She is also a multi-award-winning biomedical engineer, named the 2022 Young Woman Engineer of the Year by The Institution of Engineering and Technology, and one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering (Inventors and Innovators). With expertise spanning medical device development and global health innovation, Ama has contributed to the design, safety, and commercialisation of technologies addressing critical gaps in healthcare.

She is also an active advocate for diversity in STEM, herself growing up between the UK and Ghana (where her parents were born), working with organisations such as the IET, Women’s Engineering Society, and Bridges for Enterprise to support and equip the next generation of innovators. And she has achieved all this by the age of 35, and as the mother of two young girls.

Always passionate about creating and building things, and in the medical profession (her mother was a nurse), Ama has brilliantly combined these loves, and works tirelessly to spread this word to other women (and men) of colour – letting them know engineering is a dynamic and viable pathway.

Sophy and Ama cover so much in this Episode including being the child of immigrants, raising her own children, a relentless persuit of career goals, representation, and leaning in (and out) of the village she has created around her family. Highlights include:

1. The power and problems of growing up in two very different countries
2. Why conciously and relentlessly following the opportunties, following serendipity but with thoughtfullness and care can be career defining
3. Manifesting what you crave to make it happen, being tenaciously open to the journey
4. Why you must not let the environment control you, but you must control yourself
5. The impact of representation and advocacy, especially for women in engineering and even more so for women of colour in engineering
6. Why is it so crucial to see "other people like me"
7. And conversley how corrosive and undermining token representation is
8. Why simply being "the best" when you are a person of colour is not enough, and how important it is to stand on the shoulders of the representors before you
9. Taking setbacks is an important part of your journey and your future
10. Curating your own village, leaning in on them when needed. And understanding when you are at commitment overload so you can dial up and down on key priorities
11. And curating a network of mentors to unlock the widest range of opportunities and growth paths, and knowing when to respectfully step back from mentorships that no longer serve their purpose.

• Patricia Obo-Nai -

Our first podcast of 2026 is a candid conversation about being a woman in a highly corporate environment and the importance of sharing our life experiences so that we can all learn from them.

In this Episode our host Sophy Norris speaks to former lawyer and GC, and now first-time author, Natalie Abou-Alwan.

Natalie is a London-based lawyer with over 25 years of experience across leading City and Wall Street firms, multi-national giants such as JPMorgan, Chase Bank and BP p.l.c., as well as smaller businesses. She is recognised in the Legal500 GC Powerlist as a Rising Star. She is a respected voice in the international energy sector, and beyond her legal work, Natalie has served as a charity trustee and adviser, and actively mentors professionals across a diverse range of backgrounds.

Natalie also has a passion for arts and creativity in all their forms, a passion which has recently been realised in the publication of her first book – How to Navigate Your Career Like a Legend. More than a book, it is a companion to anyone seeking to make their mark in the corporate world, peppered with practical advice, stories from Natalie’s own career and her own illustrations.

This fascinating conversation covers:

• Being fuelled by negative feedback and experience, and why learning from challenging times is so impactful
• Recognising there is only so much we can control, so stop worrying about the rest of it!
• Why drive and success includes working hard, and why our biggest competitor is ourselves
• Putting oversleves in other people's shoes is a woman's superpower
• The importance of finding balance in our working lives, fuelling our passions and finding windows of joy
• How we dress and look can boost confidence and resilience
• Managing tricky advances in the workplace, and understanding who has your back
• And having the clarity to see that difficult situations are often not about you, but about the other person/people involved
• The importance of self-compassion, of having time to manage outside forces at work, but put them on the clock, and move forward
• Why networking can feel like a loaded word, but it is not cheating; it is helping you grow
• And how networking needs to be supported in the workplace, at all levels and across all diversities
• Managing toxic workplaces, taking power back and not giving it away

• Home - lollipop mentoring
• Look Good Feel Better
• Smart Works
• The Dangerous Women Collective | LinkedIn
• LinkedIn - Sophy Norris
• LinkedIn - Natalie Abou-Alwan
• How to Navigate Your Career Like A Legend on Amazon

In this week's episode, our host Sophy Norris speaks to a woman on the frontline of AI; someone who has deliberately crafted her own career whilst raising a family and battling a few of her own "demons". Claire Roberts is an inclusive AI campaigner and Co-Founder of Full Fathom Five, an AI consulting and training firm dedicated to helping organisations design ethical, people-centred AI strategies and develop confident, inclusive AI leaders.

A founding member of the UKAI Women in AI, Claire is a passionate advocate for women & diversity in technology and AI, most recently speaking at the UKAI parliamentary roundtable on Tackling Misogyny in AI. With over 25 years’ experience leading transformation across FTSE 100 companies, Claire brings a unique perspective on how to embed AI responsibly within complex organisations. Her work focuses on shaping cultures that empower women and underrepresented groups to lead technological change, ensuring that the future of AI is both ethical and equitable.

Alongside a deep dive into ethical AI, gender bias and personal responsibility, we also discuss Claire's own career trajectory, which happened despite not having a degree (her words, not ours), an educational shoulder chip which drove her to "hack" her way upwards, being a working mum and the importance of cognitively balanced teams in fostering innovation.

Specifics include:

• How a lack of something and a chip on a shoulder can become a transformational driving force: the ultimate motivation
• Why being dangerous means never being satisfied
• The power of insatiable curiosity and constant questioning
• The incredible power of realising that you don't need to play by anyone else's rules, and that the game is yours to win
• Why we need to realise that not every day is the day that we will change the world
• How a "disaster zone" career path can reveal new routes, even some back doors, to a successful career
• Leaning into opportunities, even when they seem terrifying
• If you want to innovate, you have to be allowed to break things
• Diverse teams, strong leadership and channelling dangerous thoughts can generate brilliance
• When we are the only, or one of few, women in the room, we need to think about how we introduce more diversity of thought
• We need to talk about AI in a way that works for women
• Using AI responsibly is our next big learning curve; we need to learn to be responsible, hold AI accountable and use it ethically
• Why women must become more interested in AI: for every one woman taking an AI course, there are two to three men, and people with strong AI skills (currently men) are more likely to pull ahead
• Currently, the jobs that AI might replace over-index as female
• AI is ingesting toxic data (24% of data in ChatGPT3 is from Reddit), which naturally skews male
• Our future will require analytical, empathetic thinkers, which is very female-focused, but only if we are prepared
• We need to ask harder questions about AI in the workplace, and question our prompts and outputs (see links for a shared prompt database)
• The AI chain of accountability is highly fragmented and complex; every part needs to be regulated

• Ethical and Responsible AI Use - Prompt Library
• Sarah Porter - LinkedIn
• Cindy Gallop - MakeLoveNotPorn | LinkedIn
• Laura Bates
• Professor Sue Black OBE - LinkedIn
• The Alligator Pi Agency |...