Sarah Barry: Finding your Voice

For Sarah Barry, her career journey has been anything but conventional…or linear!

It has taken her from commercial and sales roles in IT, through running her own businesses, into financial services and transformation, with each move driven by a desire to learn something new.

Rather than seeing that variety as a disadvantage, Sarah believes it has given her a breadth of experience that continues to shape how she approaches leadership today. Particularly in Transformation where you have to be comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity.

“I embrace that opportunity to be curious and learn new things.”

That curiosity has become a common thread throughout her career, with Sarah consistently seeking out environments that challenge her and allow her to keep learning.

A Career Shaped by Curiosity

After beginning her career in commercial and sales roles within IT, Sarah spent around a decade running her own businesses. This gave Sarah experience across every aspect of building and growing a company, from setting up and scaling businesses to ultimately selling them.

Eventually, Sarah returned to the corporate environment, moving into client side financial services and joining Sainsbury’s Bank, where she worked across technology and change.

“I get very bored with something that starts to feel like the same every day.”

That appetite for change ultimately led her towards transformation, a field she feels naturally reflects the way she likes to work.

“Every day is different, every day brings new challenges.”

Sarah’s varied career had given her the confidence to move between industries and roles without feeling that she needed to follow a single, linear path. Ultimately building transferable skills opens so many more doors for new opportunities.

A Shift in Perspective

Sarah joined the Executive Women in Leadership (EWIL) programme in 2018 without a defined plan to reach an executive position. The programme challenged her to think differently about her ambitions and, importantly, how openly she communicated them.

“The program in itself just opened my mind.”

One of the most significant lessons Sarah took from the programme was the importance of being open about what she wanted next.

Sarah had previously assumed that if she worked hard and performed well, others would recognise her potential and put her forward when the right opportunity arose. EWIL challenged that assumption.

“If you don’t tell people what you’re looking for, how do they know that that’s what your aspiration is and to think of you in a certain scenario.”

For Sarah, this was a fundamental shift in how she approached her career. Rather than waiting for others to identify the next opportunity for her, she began to take greater ownership of communicating her ambitions and thinking more deliberately about where she wanted her career to go.

“If there’s one single thing that the programme changed for me, it was that.”

The impact of that shift became particularly clear when Sarah’s was seeking her next challenge after Sainsbury’s Bank. Having met someone from Aegon through EWIL, a conversation led to an introduction to the person who would subsequently become her boss and this time, she clearly articulated her ambition for C-suite progression on the way in.

“I don’t think I’d have done that without the programme.”

For Sarah, the experience demonstrated the practical value of being willing to articulate your ambitions, rather than assuming others will simply recognise them.

Finding Your Voice

That confidence to speak openly about her ambitions also shaped Sarah’s wider approach to leadership. She believes women can sometimes feel they need to be completely confident before speaking up, when in reality their perspective has value simply because they have earned their place at the table.

“You’ve got a right to sit at the table and your opinion is as equally valid as anyone else’s. . You’ve earned the right and your voice deserves to be heard.”

For Sarah, this is not about adopting a particular leadership style or changing who you are to be heard. Instead, it is about having the confidence to contribute in a way that feels authentic.

The programme also reinforced for Sarah the importance of recognising the value of her own perspective, rather than assuming that others’ views or experiences were more valid. This has continued to shape how she approaches leadership, giving her greater confidence to contribute her own ideas and be heard without taking it personally when others don’t agree. Often it’s the different perspectives that result in a stronger outcome.

“Be authentic.”

The Difference Between Mentoring and Sponsorship

That experience also shaped Sarah’s thinking about the difference between mentoring and sponsorship.

For the next generation of women entering leadership, she believes having a clear development plan is important, but so is ensuring that senior people within an organisation understand and actively support that ambition.

Sarah’s advice is straightforward:

“Build a personal development plan. You have to own your own development.”

But she believes that plan needs to be shared with the right people.

“Make sure that your line manager understands that personal development plan and find the most senior sponsor in the organisation to support you also.”

For Sarah, sponsorship is distinct from mentoring. It means having someone senior enough to actively support your development and advocate for your progression within the organisation. It usually helps if there is someone other than your line manager championing your progression.

“And I use that word very carefully and very differently from mentoring.”

It is a distinction she believes can make a significant difference to how women progress within organisations.

Looking Ahead

Looking back at the career she has built, Sarah’s experience demonstrates the value of remaining open to change while taking greater ownership of where that change can lead.

Her journey has never followed a conventional route. Instead, it has been shaped by curiosity, a willingness to step outside her comfort zone and the confidence to make her ambitions known.

For Sarah, the lessons from EWIL have extended well beyond the programme itself. They have influenced how she approaches her own development and, importantly, how she encourages others to think about theirs.

Ultimately, Sarah’s advice to the next generation is simple: recognise your own value, be clear about where you want to go, make sure the right people know it too, and don’t be afraid to use your voice when you get there.

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.