Name
Kate Grussing CBE
Job Title
Managing Director
Company
Sapphire Partners
Speaker Bio
Kate is one of the leading headhunters and thought leaders championing greater diversity in the UK. For 18 years, Kate has been prompting her corporate clients as well as the executive search sector to be stronger advocates for more diverse and better-balanced recruitment. As the founder of Sapphire Partners, she spotted the opportunity - far ahead of her peers - for a fresh approach to engaging with high potential diverse talent and creating more awareness among companies of how to recruit candidates who were not just “the usual suspects”. The search firm she founded, Sapphire Partners, is award winning and has been retained by some of the UK’s most demanding corporates.
Kate’s early career was in corporate finance at Morgan Stanley in New York and London. After getting her MBA, Kate worked as a strategy consultant at McKinsey in London and New York. Subsequently Kate had a range of senior strategic roles at JPMorgan in London. Kate is often interviewed by journalists on and off the record on issues relating to career transitions, non-executives, financial services and diversity in the City and in business more broadly.
Kate has been said to have one of the best networks of any woman with women in the UK, certainly within financial services. She was named as one of Red Magazine’s Red Hot Women for her work mentoring and championing corporate flexibility and was shortlisted for the CBI First Women’s award. She was also named in the list of 100 Women Making a Difference by The International Alliance of Women. Kate is on the board of the Chartered Management Institute where she chairs the Remuneration Committee.
Kate is on the Advisory Board for Rare Recruitment, the Business Leadership Committee of Wellesley College and the European Advisory Board of the Tuck School at Dartmouth College. For 17 years, she was a Trustee on the medical charity, the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association (UK) and was previously the International Treasurer. She recently retired as a Trustee of the new London Institute of Imagination. She is also an active formal and informal mentor to a wide range of high potential talent with a focus on black and ethnic diversity.
Kate’s early career was in corporate finance at Morgan Stanley in New York and London. After getting her MBA, Kate worked as a strategy consultant at McKinsey in London and New York. Subsequently Kate had a range of senior strategic roles at JPMorgan in London. Kate is often interviewed by journalists on and off the record on issues relating to career transitions, non-executives, financial services and diversity in the City and in business more broadly.
Kate has been said to have one of the best networks of any woman with women in the UK, certainly within financial services. She was named as one of Red Magazine’s Red Hot Women for her work mentoring and championing corporate flexibility and was shortlisted for the CBI First Women’s award. She was also named in the list of 100 Women Making a Difference by The International Alliance of Women. Kate is on the board of the Chartered Management Institute where she chairs the Remuneration Committee.
Kate is on the Advisory Board for Rare Recruitment, the Business Leadership Committee of Wellesley College and the European Advisory Board of the Tuck School at Dartmouth College. For 17 years, she was a Trustee on the medical charity, the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association (UK) and was previously the International Treasurer. She recently retired as a Trustee of the new London Institute of Imagination. She is also an active formal and informal mentor to a wide range of high potential talent with a focus on black and ethnic diversity.