A Leadership Journey Defined by Growth, Perspective and Quiet Confidence

For Debbie Walker, leadership has never been about being the loudest person in the room. Instead, her career has been shaped by steady progression, self-awareness and a willingness to continue learning at every stage.

Starting her career in financial services, Debbie spent more than 20 years at RBS before moving into Tesco, where she stepped into a Senior Director of Compliance role. Joining the Executive Women in Leadership (EWIL) programme in 2018 came at an important point in her career. Having recently moved into this new role, Debbie was beginning to think more seriously about her future development and what she wanted the next stage of her leadership journey to look like.

Like many leaders stepping into more senior positions, Debbie describes experiencing moments of self-doubt and questioning how she benchmarked against others at the same level. Having spent such a significant period within one organisation, she also recognised how difficult it can be to assess your own experience and transferable skills without broader external perspective.

“I’d just come out of RBS, 20-odd years, so I was quite institutionalised,” Debbie reflects. “It’s hard to really understand where you benchmark in your career, because you’re only benchmarking within RBS.”

For Debbie, one of the most significant aspects of EWIL was the confidence that came from hearing openly from others at a similar level and recognising the value of her own experience.

She explains that the experience helped her better understand how her skills and experience compared with others at a similar level.

“What the programme helped me understand was a bit more about myself: how I was benchmarking against others at the same level, and what skills, knowledge and transferable skills I had and how I could use them.”

The openness and honesty of the discussions left a lasting impression. Rather than polished success stories, participants and speakers shared honest reflections on setbacks, challenges and resilience, creating an environment that encouraged authentic conversation and genuine support between participants.

Looking back, Debbie sees much of the programme’s value in those shared experiences.

“The actual group of women that were on the course were incredible,” she says. “Every one of them was quite remarkable in some way.”

The programme also exposed Debbie to women who had built portfolio careers and non-executive paths beyond traditional executive leadership roles.

“One of the biggest things that opened my eyes was these career stories of women on boards and NED opportunities,” she says. “It gave me a really good sense of that as a potential future career path for me.”

Those conversations prompted Debbie to think differently about the kind of leadership roles she found most fulfilling.

“It cemented a lot of my thinking; I like a role that has a breadth of responsibilities I can dip into; I don’t really want to be in a role where I’m purely a specialist.”

Since completing the programme, Debbie has continued to broaden her experience through governance and non-executive roles, including joining the Heriot-Watt University Audit and Risk Committee and becoming a trustee of a children’s charity in Edinburgh, where she has recently taken on the role of Chair.

For Debbie, these roles are closely connected to her own values and background.

“I come from a working-class background,” she explains, reflecting on why supporting children’s charities in deprived areas of Edinburgh feels particularly meaningful.

The experience reinforced the importance of pursuing opportunities that aligned not only with career progression, but with personal purpose and broader impact.

As Debbie reflects on her career so far, she continues to value opportunities that allow her to keep learning, broaden her perspective and contribute in different ways.

Debbie’s journey is a reminder that leadership growth often comes not from dramatic career moves, but from taking the time to reflect, broaden perspective and remain open to new possibilities.

Executive Women in Leadership Alumni Spotlight Series

This article forms part of our Executive Women in Leadership Alumni Spotlight Series, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the EWLP programme in September 2026, and has been developed collaboratively with the support of Judy Wagner, Director of FWB Ltd and Prof Susan Murphy of The University of Edinburgh Business School, (who co-founded the EWLP), the EWIL Advisory Board, programme contributors, and interview participants.

The EWLP has since evolved into the Executive Leadership Programme (ELP), delivered in partnership with the University of Edinburgh Business School and open to leaders of all genders across the private, public and third sectors.

For more information about joining the 2026 cohort, please contact elp@fwbltd.com.