Catherine Mayer started her journalism career at The Economics, before holding deputy editorships at International Management and Business Traveller magazines. She has contributed to The Bookseller, The Guardian, and the German edition of Forbes. She spent over a decade working as a London-based correspondent for the German publication FOCUS. Catherine spent over a decade working at TIME, first as a Senior Editor, then London Bureau Chief, Europe Editor, and finally Editor at Large.

Upon leaving TIME, Catherine became Executive Director of Datum Future, a think tank exploring the opportunities and challenges of the new ‘world of data’.

Alongside her journalism work, Catherine has written and performed one-woman shows, worked alongside Grayson Perry, appeared at the Globe Theatre; stood in the 2019 European elections, served as President of the Foreign Press Association, co-curated the Festival of Death, sat on the founding committee of the Women of the World Festival, and judged for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

AUTHOR

Catherine is the bestselling author of a number of non-fiction books, as well as a novel, including:

Amortality: The Pleasures and Perils of Living Agelessly (2011): Catherine looks at the forces that created amortality – the terms he coined to describe the phenomenon of living agelessly.

Charles: The Heart of a King (2015; 2022): based on interviews with the King’s friends, courtiers, and palace insiders, this biography explores, amongst other things, his philanthropy, faith, and family.

Attack of the Fifty Foot Women: How Gender Equality Can Save the World! (2017): this book blends Catherine’s insights from her years as a journalist with her personal account of forming the Women’s Equality Party, as well as research into the global reality of gender inequality.

Good Grief: Embracing Life at a Time of Death (2020): Catherine and her mother were both widowed within 41 days of each other on the eve of the pandemic, and together they found ways to navigate their loss.

Time/Life (2025): a fictional love letter to science fiction.

She also contributed to Dear NHS (2020), and Poems That Make Grown Women Cry (2016).

CO-FOUNDER

In 2015, Catherine co-founded the Women’s Equality Party with Sandi Toksvig, and became its president. The party had seven core objectives: equal representation, equality in and through the media, equal pay, equal health, equal education, shared opportunities in parenting and caregiving, and an end to violence against women.

In 2019, she co-founded the Primadonna Festival, full of ideas, writing, music, and comedy at Laffitt’s Hall in Suffolk, aimed at giving prominence to women and new voices.

AWARDS

Catherine’s vast array of experience has lead her to be nominated and winning a number of awards and accolades, including:

– Named in GQ’s 50 Most Influential People in Britain 2020

– NatWest Spirit of Everywoman Award 2018

– Named in Gender Equality Top 100: Most Influential People in Global Policy 2018

– Oxford University Suffrage Champion 2018

– Progress 1,000 Evening Standard, Equality Champion 2016

– 50 Women in Excellence 2013

– Total Politics Top 100 Policital Journalists 2011

– Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2011

– Winner of the FPA Story of the Year 2010

CORPORATE

Catherine has made many appearances at public events, including the London Book Fair, the Alternative London Book Fair in partnership with charity Book Banks, and at the How the Light Gets In Festival,  as well as giving talks and Q&As at national bookshops.

CATHERINE MAYER | SPEAKING

Catherine is a highly sought-after public speaker, with a natural, rousing style and easy, personable nature. Whether presenting in person or virtually, she speaks with passion, insight, and experience on topics including diversity, leadership, and making change happen.

CATHERINE MAYER | SPEAKING TOPICS

The Future of Media in the Digital Age: During her 30+ year career, Catherine has seen first-hand how digital technologies initially enabled news organisations to flourish before destroying the economic models supporting them. In this talk, she discusses and assesses the repercussions, not just within the industry, but for democracy and our forecasting of new media developments.

How to Have Conversations in a Polarised World: We are more divided than ever before, and not just on subjects that directly affect us. How can we hope to reach a consensus in the workplace if we’re polarised on Meghan and Harry, or whether cancel culture even exists? Catherine looks at the drivers of this polarisation, unpicks their audiences, and looks at what works to defuse potential hostilities and bring people together.

Difference Works: Why True Diversity and Inclusion Is About More Than Ticking Boxes: Organisations know they need to improve the diversity of their workforces, but they don’t always know why. Catherine unravels the confusion surrounding diversity and diversity programmes, highlighting the dangers of creating echo chambers or cultures that suppress dissident opinions, and demonstrates the value of inclusive cultures.

Wonder Women: How Unlocking Female Potential Benefits Us All: This addresses some of the key points made in the ‘Difference Works’ keynote above, but looking more in detail at female participation in the workplace and economy. Why is it that some organisations struggle to retain women, and how can they improve that.

Good Grief: Navigating Personal and Public Loss in the Workplace: There is something much more damaging than saying the wrong thing to the newly bereaved, and that’s saying nothing at all. Luckily, such mistakes are easy to avoid. Catherine Mayer talks about what she’s learned from dealing with the bereaved, and from her own widowhood and other losses.

Inside the Royal Family: Catherine Mayer spent two years researching for her biography of King Charles III, and many more years in journalism covering the Royals, and is now working on the representation of royal women. In this keynote, she gives insights and tells anecdotes from the strange world she dubs ‘planet windsor’ and also highlights the susprising influence of the Royals on public life.

Call +44 1753 439 289 or email Great British Speakers now to book Women’s Equality Party co-founder Catherine Mayer for your next live event.

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