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Cornelia is a former CEO, leadership adviser and speaker. She spent more than twenty years in the international steel industry, where she led a business with over US$250 million in annual revenue, and has spent 13 years running her own business. Through Craftport Consulting, she works one-to-one with leaders in the situations that don't come with a playbook.

Cornelia is a former CEO, leadership adviser and speaker. She spent more than twenty years in the male-dominated international steel industry, rising to lead a business with over US$250 million in annual revenue, and has spent 13 years running her own business. She has been through promotion, salary negotiation, boardroom leadership and redundancy.

Today, as founder of Craftport Consulting, she works one-to-one with capable leaders facing situations that don't come with a playbook. She has spoken for the NHS, the Fraud Women's Network (as a returning speaker), US summits and others, and appeared on Radio Bath. She is known for honest, grounded talks about what leadership actually feels like.

Cornelia is a former CEO, leadership adviser and speaker whose work centres on one idea: you don't have to become someone else to lead.

She built her career over more than twenty years in the international steel industry, often as the only woman in the room. She rose to become CEO of an international business responsible for over US$250 million in annual revenue. Along the way she experienced promotion, salary negotiation, boardroom leadership and redundancy, and learned how quickly capable people can feel uncertain when the rules change around them. She has also spent 13 years running her own business.

Cornelia founded Craftport Consulting to give capable leaders someone in their corner for the situations that don't come with a playbook: a restructure, an inherited team, a conversation that keeps being put off. She listens closely, says what she sees, and helps leaders decide the move and prepare for it, so they leave better able to use their own judgement.

As a speaker she brings honesty and lived experience to conferences, corporate leadership teams and women's networks. She has spoken for the NHS and the Fraud Women's Network, which has invited her back, at the Lead with Impact and Have It All summits in the United States, and for many others, as well as appearing as a guest on Radio Bath. Her talks, including "Imposter Syndrome: Tame Your Inner Critic" and "The Science of Connection", are practical and reassuring, and they rest on her conviction that asking better questions almost always leads to better decisions.

The only woman in the room

Cornelia spent more than twenty years in the international steel industry, and for a time was one of only two female steel traders in the world. More than once, visitors to the boardroom asked her, the CEO, to make the coffee. She talks candidly about staying visible, being heard, and what has and hasn't changed for women in senior roles.

You always have a choice

Early in her career, a trader shouted and swore at her in the middle of an open-plan office. The realisation that followed, that she could decide what her story would be, shaped everything since. A conversation about agency, resilience and making an industry work for you without becoming someone else.

Imposter syndrome and the inner critic

Nearly everyone has a voice that says they'll be found out, including very senior leaders. Drawing on her talk "Imposter Syndrome: Tame Your Inner Critic", Cornelia explores where that voice comes from, how small comments add up over time, and practical ways to quieten it.

The science of connection

In her steel industry days Cornelia was more direct; her natural style is more collaborative. She talks about behavioural styles, why understanding your own and other people's makes work easier, and how small shifts in approach lead to better conversations.

Better questions, better decisions

As a CEO she learned that making a decision is often better than making none, that saying "I don't know" is a strength, and that the best answers come from people who will respectfully disagree with you. Good ground for conversations about decision-making, leadership under pressure and building teams that aren't all alike.

Leadership beyond work

Cornelia has managed ice hockey teams through her son's playing years, taken England junior teams to international tournaments, and served three years on the board of the national governing body for ice hockey in England and Wales. A route into volunteering, grassroots sport and leadership outside the office.

From Russian at 13 to a closed Siberian city

Learning Russian as a teenager took Cornelia somewhere she never expected: a year living in a closed city in Siberia as the Soviet Union opened up. The full story is for her forthcoming memoir, but it is a lively starting point for conversations about curiosity, culture and saying yes to the unexpected.