IWD 2026 - Interview with : Megan Kennedy

As part of International Women’s Day, the CORE International Women’s Day Interview Series highlights women whose leadership is rooted in empowerment and generosity.

This is the interview of Megan Kennedy, COO - The Conduit

Could you share a brief overview of yourself, your career journey and how it has brought you to your current role?

I’m a global operator and purpose-driven leader with experience building, scaling, and stabilising complex hospitality and community-led businesses across Europe, North America, and Latin America. I began my career on the ground — managing individual businesses— and progressively took on regional and global leadership roles with full P&L responsibility across multi-country portfolios.

That journey led me to The Conduit, a global collaborative impact community that exists to convene diverse voices, curate meaningful dialogue, and channel capital towards solutions for the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. As Global Chief Operating Officer, my role is to ensure that our clubs, teams, and operations are commercially robust while remaining deeply aligned with our mission — so that purpose and performance reinforce, rather than compete with, one another.

How important is it for you to actively sponsor other women, and what does that support look like in practice?

At The Conduit, where our mission is to bring together social entrepreneurs, investors, creatives, business leaders, and policymakers, sponsorship means opening doors to networks, visibility, and opportunity — not just offering advice. In practice, that looks like advocating for women in leadership discussions, placing them at the centre of high-impact projects, and ensuring they have access to the same platforms and capital conversations as their peers.  

Specifically, this manifests at The Conduit via: 

1 - Key female voices highlighted through our speaking program. In 2025 we hosted luminaries such as:

• Lauren Sorkin, Executive Director, Resilient Cities Network
• Christiana Figueres, Founding Partner of Global Optimism and Former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
• Kathryn Oldham OBE, Chief Resilience Officer, Greater Manchester
• Jacinda Ardern, Politician, Activist, Author and Former Prime Minister of New Zealand
• Elif Shafak, Novelist and Activist

2 - We're particularly proud to create positive impact through our supply chain by championing underrepresented, ethical and innovative suppliers making a difference in their communities.  All of our Rucola Restaurant suppliers meet our Responsible Supply Chain Standards and, wherever possible, we prioritise working with female-founded and led businesses, alongside other mission-driven partners such as: Social enterprises or non-profits, Certified B Corps or Conduit Connect-supported mission-aligned businesses, Certified organic or Fairtrade suppliers.

Some of the female-led suppliers we proudly partner with include:

58 and CO : 58 and Co is the first female-founded alcohol brand in the UK to be awarded B Corp status.  

Ujamaa Spice: Ujamaa Spice empowers smallholder farmers in Zanzibar by connecting them directly to Western markets, fostering equity and fairness across the global spice supply chain. 

You + I Kombucha: You + I, is a B Corp-certified, organic-certified Kombucha company that is female co-founded and led. 

The Glasshouse : The Glasshouse is a social enterprise offering second chances through horticultural training to women based in UK prisons. In 2024, the women continued to take care of our plants in Rucola and across our club, and our partnership resulted in 359 hours of paid employment and training to women with lived prison experience.  

3 - Additionally, our sister company, the female-led Conduit Connect has supported over 160 startups. Of their 30 portfolio companies, 42% have a female founder.

Finally, and most critically, supporting women in business means ensuring that female colleagues at all levels and in all roles are supported and their development is prioritized. This happens through clear goal setting, building a culture of safe and open dialogue, and advocating for growth in a meaningful way.

Can you share a specific instance where you gave your time, resources, or influence to help other women advance, and what you gained from that experience?

In my regional and global roles, I’ve focused on building leadership pipelines that reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. In the hotel industry, this meant training and  supporting women in operational roles across Latin America to step into local and regional leadership, often where female leaders were underrepresented. The result was clear: teams led with empathy, cultural intelligence, and the business performed better — reinforcing my belief that I brought to The Conduit that inclusive leadership is both the right thing to do and a strategic advantage.