The Disruptors 50 Over 50

On Friday, 8th May 2026, at the Disruptors Festival at the London Stock Exchange Group, we revealed the inaugural Disruptors 50 Over 50.

Fifty women. Over fifty. Selected because their authority, influence, and leadership are not winding down. They are defining what comes next.

We created this list because we kept seeing the same thing: women reaching the stage of their careers where their experience and clarity are at their strongest, and being treated as though their defining years were behind them. The Disruptors 50 Over 50 is our answer to that. Not a lifetime achievement award. Not a retrospective. A recognition of women whose greatest work is happening right now.

Who is on the list

The fifty honourees span industries, disciplines, and stages of public life. What connects them is not a single sector or title. It is the fact that each one is still building, still leading, and still shaping the world around her.

Among them:

Golda Rosheuvel, whose portrayal of Queen Charlotte in Bridgerton redefined period drama and brought a global audience to a conversation about race, power, and representation that the industry had been avoiding for decades. She did it in her fifties. That matters.

Dame Kelly Holmes, who joined the British Army at seventeen, served nearly a decade, then became the first British woman to win two gold medals at a single Olympics in Athens in 2004. Since retiring from athletics, she has devoted her energy to empowering thousands of young people through the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, connecting them with elite athlete mentors. Her life after the track has been as significant as anything she achieved on it.

Pam Maynard, who led 60,000 people as CEO of Avanade and is now Chief AI Transformation Officer at Microsoft. Recognised among the Powerlist Top 10 and British Vogue's 25 Most Influential Women in the UK. She is not stepping back. She is stepping into the most consequential technology shift of our time.

Sinitta, whose career has moved from international pop icon to entrepreneur and founder of Sins Angels, a lifestyle and wellness platform redefining what vitality and reinvention look like at every stage. Decades in the public eye, and she is building the most purposeful chapter yet.

Eleanor Mills, former Editorial Director of The Sunday Times, Times bestselling author, and founder of Noon, the UK's leading platform for women in midlife. She walked away from a 25-year career in mainstream media because the industry refused to take midlife women seriously. So she built her own.

Jo Elvin, one of the UK's most respected magazine editors, whose editorial instincts shaped how a generation of women consumed culture, fashion, and identity. Her influence on women's media is still felt across every title she touched.

Brenda Emmanus OBE, BBC Arts and Culture Correspondent, who has spent decades shaping how we understand creativity, culture, and identity through broadcasting. A Non-Executive Director at Faber Publishers and an ambassador on the Mayor of London's Cultural Leadership Board, Brenda's career is a study in how influence compounds with time.

Rosie Nixon, former Editor-in-Chief of HELLO! magazine, author of four novels, and creator of Reinvention Retreats for midlife women. After coming close to burnout, she rebuilt her career entirely. She didn't step back. She stepped into something that fit who she was becoming.

And forty-two more. Each one profiled individually in The Disruptors Festival Magazine.

Watch the Disruptors 50 over 50

The Women Before the Women

After the 50 Over 50 was revealed, we closed the reveal with something different.

The Women Before the Women.

The women who will never make a list. The grandmothers. The mothers. The women whose legacy was not built on stages or in boardrooms but in the quiet, relentless work of raising families, building businesses, building communities, and building something that the next generation could stand on.

Among them: Violet, the grandmother of Violet Simon founder & CEO, Sophia Ufy Ukor, whose name sits at the heart of the company alongside Sophia's father, Simon. And Emma Wills' mother, Hilary.

As Sophia said on the day, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. And we carry a responsibility for those who come after us, and even to ourselves.

Legacy doesn't have to be huge. Disruption doesn't have to be loud. Some of the most powerful women we know are the ones who have been quietly creating and building across generations, without ever calling it that.

The Women Before the Women was our way of saying: we see you too.

The Disruptors Festival Magazine

Every 50 Over 50 honouree is profiled individually in The Disruptors Festival Magazine. The magazine also features the complete speaker lineup, Disruptors Talk previews, the festival agenda, and more.