There's been considerable interest in the notion of purposeful organisations in recent years, driven by growing levels of distrust and disillusionment with what is often regarded as the short-termist, financial imperatives driving contemporary firms. Typically, the attributes of purposeful organisations – societal responsibility, values and ethics – are simply translated into the qualities that characterise their ideal leaders. But what type of leaders do purposeful organisations really need? 

In the context of our societies, economies and organisations today, after a year of navigating a global pandemic, hybrid workforces, accelerated war for talent, uncertainty about our futures, high levels of disengagement and fear how can we turn our organisations and leadership to purpose to ignite the human spark in our people and drive positive change for everyone?  A purpose-driven organisation stands for and takes action on something bigger than its products and services. Purpose can be an organisational strategy and a roadmap to remain competitive, ethical and attractive in a fast-changing economy as well as ensuring we’re contributing to developing sustainable futures.

Join us to explore together what purpose-driven organisations look like, how we can nurture the type of leadership we need in our organisations today and in the future and learn from other organisations how they are shifting their culture and supporting their people.

Sarah Rozenthuler is a chartered psychologist, leadership consultant and dialogue coach. Sarah is the author of Powered by Purpose: Energise Your People To Do Great Work (with a foreword by Paul Polman, former CEO Unilever) and How to Have Meaningful Conversations: Seven Strategies for Talking About What Matters Most (Watkins, 2019). Sarah’s work has been widely featured in the media including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Psychologies Magazine and BBC Business online.

Sarah is the CEO of Bridgework, a consulting company she founded in 2007 to inspire leaders and strengthen organisations to become a force for good in the world. She has over 15 years of international experience consulting to many organisations including bp, Discovery, Book Trust and Standard Chartered Bank. Sarah coaches CEOs and their teams to lead more purposefully and communicate more effectively.  

Patrick Hull - VP HR Future of Work at Unilever  

As of January 2021, Patrick has assumed the role of VP Future of Work, responsible for bringing Unilever’s social commitments on the Future of Work to life. His job description is therefore to help people stay fit for work – now and in the future. To do this, he is leading a programme to deliver on three commitments: equipping our people for the future of work, pioneering new flexible employment options, and partnering with others to create jobs and skills for young people outside of Unilever. And he's doing this in a fun, creative way 😉  Patrick's purpose is to: ‘Bring the essence of Pollyanna into the room 😊’ This means he wants to bring joy, creativity and innovation into everything he does.  His Unilever career started in South Africa in 1996 taking on different roles across Finance and Sales before leaving Unilever for 5 years to run his leadership development training business. He returned to Unilever in 2008 in HR specialising in Change Management. He has taken several roles since focusing on Leadership development internationally and in 2016 he returned to the UK to became the Global Learning Director for Leadership and Business Skills, and in 2018 took on the role of Global HR Strategy Director.