Student Voices: Rewriting The Rules At The 2026 EQUALL Gender Equity Conference

When the EQUALL Organising Committee began planning Europe’s largest student-led conference on gender equity, one idea kept returning: the rules of leadership are changing. Across industries, traditional paths to influence are evolving. Careers are becoming less linear, institutions are adapting to new realities, and leadership increasingly demands the ability to navigate uncertainty rather than avoid it.

This year’s theme – “Rewriting the Rules: Women Shaping Power in a Changing World” – invited us to reflect on how women are not only responding to these shifts but actively shaping what leadership might look like next. Over three days in March, students, founders, investors, and senior leaders came together at London Business School to reflect on that question through conversations, workshops and moments of connection that extended far beyond the stage.

STARTING WITH A LEAP

The conference opened with an evening reception at London Business School’s Sussex Place campus, Regent’s Park, bringing the community together in an informal setting before the main conference day began. As guests arrived, a Power Wall invited attendees to write down a rule they are rewriting in their own careers or lives – a prompt that quietly framed many of the conversations that unfolded over the following days.

The evening’s keynote speaker, Mariska Bogaard-Rethans, Chief Marketing Officer at Corpay, reflected on the defining moments of her own career journey. Her message resonated strongly with the audience: Don’t wait until you feel completely ready. Too often, she noted, women feel pressure to perfect every step before taking it, yet many defining opportunities arrive before we feel fully prepared. Progress often requires stepping forward first – and learning along the way.

LEADERSHIP IN A WORLD OF COMPLEXITY

The conference day began the following morning with a keynote from Afua Kyei, Chief Financial Officer of the Bank of England, who spoke about navigating leadership during periods of uncertainty. Drawing on her experience inside one of the world’s most influential financial institutions, she reflected on how resilient organisations are built. Technical expertise matters, Kyei admits, but what ultimately strengthens decision-making is cognitive diversity – bringing together people who challenge assumptions and broaden perspectives.

Later in the afternoon, Anna Bateson, Chief Executive of Guardian Media Group, spoke about leadership through the lens of risk, responsibility, and trust. Careers, she reminded the audience, rarely follow linear paths; they unfold through experimentation, mistakes and moments of uncertainty. But leadership ultimately requires ownership – a message she summarised simply: “It’s on us.”

CONVERSATIONS ON POWER & INFLUENCE

Across the conference day, panels explored different dimensions of leadership and influence. In Designing Power: Founders, Operators & Leadership Identity, speakers reflected on how leadership evolves as companies grow, from founder instinct to operational discipline and organisational culture. Other discussions examined how professionals balance ambition with purpose, navigate environments where they may still be the only woman in the room, and ensure their contributions are visible rather than quietly overlooked.

One conversation focused on a broader reality: meaningful progress cannot happen in isolation. The panel on allyship explored the role that supportive leaders play in accelerating change, recognising that lasting cultural shifts require allies who actively challenge norms and create space for diverse perspectives.

The day concluded with InvestHER, a discussion on access to capital and the growing ecosystem of women investing in women. Speakers included Elza Shayakhmetova, Rebecca Oliver-Mooney, Angela Cretu and Bex Smith, who reflected on how funding decisions shape opportunity and why increasing women’s participation in investment remains one of the most powerful levers for long-term change.

IDEAS IN ACTION

Alongside the panel discussions, attendees participated in interactive workshops designed to translate ideas into practical tools. Participants chose sessions that resonated with their own journeys, which ranged from navigating rejection and making bold career pivots to sustaining personal energy in demanding roles or building long-term financial security.

But some of the most memorable moments happened between the formal sessions. The Power Wall, first introduced at the opening reception, continued to grow throughout the conference as participants added reflections on the rules they are rewriting in their own lives and careers. Small design touches across the conference helped spark conversation: networking prompts encouraged attendees to introduce themselves beyond their job titles, while “Chat to me about…” stickers highlighted passions and acted as natural conversation starters.

And waiting in each attendee’s goodie bag was a small but thoughtful reminder of the conference’s spirit: affirmation postcards, designed to encourage confidence, ambition, and perhaps a little rule-breaking of their own.

ENDING WITH COMMUNITY

The conference concluded with the EQUALL Ball, a black-tie evening attended by more than 250 members of the London Business School community. Beyond celebrating the conversations and connections built over the previous days, the evening also supported the Women in Business advocacy programme. This included raising funds to help cover application costs for aspiring female candidates from underserved backgrounds applying to London Business School.

Across the three days, what stood out most was not a single panel or keynote, but the sense of shared momentum in the room. We are living through one of those rare moments when the ground beneath our institutions begins to shift, and the certainties of one generation begin to give way to the possibilities of the next. Leadership is being reshaped in real time – through new industries, new expectations, and new voices entering the conversation.

And moments like these rarely wait for permission. They ask us to step forward, question the assumptions we inherited, and begin, quietly but deliberately, rewriting the rules ourselves. We look forward to continuing the conversation at EQUALL next year, and to welcoming others into a community that is growing, questioning, and shaping what comes next.

---

Nishtha Gera is a second-year Executive MBA candidate at London Business School and Co-Chair of the 2026 EQUALL Conference. A Senior Manager at KPMG UK, she has led large-scale audits of FTSE-listed companies across the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors, overseeing global delivery teams. She now focuses on driving the integration of technology and data-led insights into audit delivery. Originally from India, she is a qualified Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Delhi.

For more from the 2026 EQUALL Conference, go to the next page.

© Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.