In recognition of International Women’s Day, Hanson Search is running an interview series throughout March showcasing female talent across the industries we work in.
In this interview, Amy Hayer, Managing Partner at Hanson Search, spoke with Sarah Matthew, Founder of The Vibrant Company and Co-Founder of Virgo Health, about her journey from client side to agency leadership, her pursuit of understanding the “Human Operating System” in a high-tech world and the structural changes needed to support women in senior roles.
As a woman in healthcare communications, what challenges and opportunities have shaped your journey to leadership?
The shift to agency life felt like a bit of an accident. While heading up a marketing team at GSK, one of our consultancies approached me to see if I would join them. I had never really considered the consulting side before because I was focused on my corporate career and climbing that ladder. However, I had always harboured an interest in entrepreneurship, and I realised that the more senior I became in the corporate world, the further I drifted from pursuing something of my own. Moving into healthcare communications ultimately gave me the opportunity to explore leadership from a female perspective and stay true to who I am.
What are the core leadership principles that you feel never change?
I define self-awareness as the core. I have experienced a lot of fantastic, expensive formal leadership education, but those programmes do not always teach you about human beings. Technology has progressed exponentially but our human capacity to deal with stuff has not.
Today’s leaders have a much harder job because they operate in an environment that is more transparent than ever before and constantly scrutinised. In this new reality, decisions travel faster and the consequences of any misjudgement are amplified almost instantly. Despite the rise of AI and technology, organisations still run on human beings. The best leaders are those who create environments where people can think and work with clarity , contribute meaningfully and feel truly respected. To achieve that, you need a certain level of self-awareness and knowledge of yourself and what makes you tick; only then can you be genuinely curious about your people and what makes them tick
Where do you think businesses should be investing most heavily right now?
It is less about spending money and more about time and attention. I call it understanding the “Human operating system.” I see a massive asymmetry in the world where tech and AI follow mathematical laws and are accelerating rapidly, but human brains are not.
When I started as a trainee, answering eight physical letters in a morning was considered a productive day. Now we wake up and are bombarded with messages before our first cup of coffee. We are in constant emotional and sensory overload, even when we don’t realise it, and I think many leadership tools are becoming redundant because they work on false assumptions. We need to use neuroscience and psychological understanding to help humans at the cause level – not just the symptom level. That is where businesses need to invest – in helping humans to expand their cognitive and emotional capacity. That’s what it will take for us to be truly able to thrive.
If you could make one change to help advance more women into senior leadership, what would it be?
We need a more realistic and humane understanding of working life. We often lose incredibly capable people at precisely the point when their experience and judgement are becoming most valuable, often during milestones like raising families or navigating menopause.
It is a useful thought experiment to ask what the world of work would look like if it had been designed by women for women. At Virgo, we did our absolute level best to do this, and it paid us back in spades. One of our most popular values was “We, not I” and people still quote it to me today. I also sit on the board of a non-profit called Savvitas, which aims to put women in business at the heart of important policy decisions. What we see clearly is that teams with greater diversity simply perform better. Supporting women is in no way about lowering expectations; it is about designing environments where talented people can sustain long and meaningful careers and ensure both business and society is more successful overall.
What advice would you give to the next generation of future female leaders?
Be clear about where you want to go and believe there is a path to get there even if it is not the one right in front of you, or the one others have defined. I am so impressed by the talent, determination and resilience of women in the industry today.
There is a lot of noise and interference out there but hold onto your vision and believe it is possible. If you get downhearted, look for the people who will give to gain, those who will cheerlead you and help you with that next step forward. Follow the positive energy and be relentless in finding that path to achieving your goals.
Whether you’re hiring top Healthcare Communications talent or considering your next career move, our team would be delighted to support you.
Amy Hayer is Managing Partner and Global Head of Healthcare & Communications. She has a proven track record in advising and counselling professionals on critical career choices across both the UK and the MENA region.
Hanson Search is a globally recognised, award-winning talent advisory and headhunting consultancy. Our expertise lies in building successful ventures worldwide through our recruitment, interim and executive search. Our specialisms include communications, sustainability, healthcare communications, digital marketing and sales.
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