WOMEN’S NETWORK HOSTS BARONESS DIDO HARDING FOR EXCLUSIVE Q&A SESSION

Baroness Dido Harding, the Senior Steward of the Jockey Club, visited Spotlight Sports Group this week to join the organisation’s Women’s Network in an exclusive question and answer session covering leadership, career progression and resilience.

Harding, whose career encompasses leadership positions in business, public service and sport, is the first Senior Steward of the Jockey Club, which runs many of Britain’s biggest racecourses, in its 275-year history.

Before starting her current role at the Jockey Club, Harding was CEO at TalkTalk, led NHS Test and Trace during the pandemic and held senior roles at Tesco and Sainsbury’s. She sits as a life peer in the House of Lords and is a passionate advocate for women in leadership.

She is also a long-standing supporter of British horseracing, winning the Gold Cup in 1998 as the owner of Cool Dawn, who went from minor hunter chases to Cheltenham Festival glory over a remarkable career.

Harding spoke with an audience of over 20 members of the network, sharing insights from her remarkable journey and answering questions from the group. Among the many takeaways from the inspiring session was encouragement from Harding – a former amateur jockey – for women to point themselves at even the tallest of obstacles and to test themselves.

Mia Gillam, the co-chair of the Women’s Network, said: “We were thrilled to welcome Dido Harding to our first Women’s Network event – her honesty, insight, and inspiring career journey left us all energised and empowered to aim high and continue to make a difference for the women at SSG via the network and beyond.”

The Women’s Network at Spotlight Sports Group is one of three employee networks that have been set up in the last year, with other groups representing neurodiverse staff and parents and carers.