Anna Allerton

Why organisations work with Anna Allerton

• She built her authority inside a 17-year operational career at Sky, including founding and producing Sky’s Sportswomen programme, so she speaks about high-pressure performance from inside it rather than outside it.
• Her Management Today 35 Women Under 35 listing and editorial track record give buyers a credible name on the panel for senior internal audiences who are sceptical of the wellness market.
• She is qualified through the Academy of Executive Coaching, the triple-accredited UK training body, and runs a 1:1 executive coaching practice alongside the speaking work, which means workshop content lands as coaching, not awareness.
• Her client list, including Workday, IMG, the Premier League, Sky, The Forward Trust and NBCU New York, shows she has tested the same content across financial, sports, media and broadcast environments at senior level.
• She writes on the topic for serious audiences, including a co-authored chapter in Myths of Menopause (Sequoia Books, edited by Dr Nicky Keay), giving organisations published material they can circulate internally after the session.

Biography highlights

• Founder and Director of Allerton Coaching & Consulting
• 17-year career at Sky, including roles at Sky Sports News from Sub-Editor through to Global Head of Internal Communications
• Founder and producer of Sky’s Sportswomen, launched in 2012 as the first dedicated women’s sport TV programme of its kind
• Named in Management Today‘s 35 Women Under 35
• Trained and qualified executive coach with the Academy of Executive Coaching
• Co-author of a chapter in Myths of Menopause (Sequoia Books, edited by Dr Nicky Keay)
• Clients include Workday, IMG, Sky, the Premier League, The Forward Trust, Whisper, NBCU New York and Age UK
• Featured in Grazia, Stylist, Times Radio and We Are The City

Biography

Sportswomen launched on Sky Sports in 2012 as the first British TV programme dedicated entirely to women’s sport. Anna Allerton founded and produced it, and it ran inside one of the most demanding live broadcast environments in UK sport. That credit, alongside seventeen years of editorial and production roles at Sky Sports News, is the reason her work on women in the workplace lands differently from most.

She came back from her second maternity leave at 38 with debilitating symptoms that took a year to be correctly diagnosed as perimenopause. The experience pushed her to retrain through the Academy of Executive Coaching, the UK’s triple-accredited training body, and to build a practice specifically around keeping experienced women in senior roles through their forties and fifties.

The work now runs on two tracks. A 1:1 executive coaching practice for senior women, and a consulting and speaking offer for organisations on what a menopause-inclusive workplace actually looks like in operating terms. Clients to date include Workday, IMG, the Premier League, Sky, The Forward Trust, Whisper, NBCU New York and Age UK. She co-authored a chapter in Myths of Menopause, edited by Dr Nicky Keay and published by Sequoia Books, and has written and spoken in Grazia, Stylist and Times Radio.

What makes her useful in a boardroom rather than a wellness slot is the angle. She frames menopause as a talent-retention question first and a wellbeing question second. She was named in Management Today‘s 35 Women Under 35 for her work in sports journalism, not for her current specialism, and that older credential is part of why senior internal audiences take the newer one seriously.

Key speaking topics

• Perimenopause and menopause in the workplace
• Talent retention of women in their 40s and 50s
• Women’s leadership and career navigation through midlife
• Women in sport and women’s sports journalism
• Returning to senior roles after maternity leave
• Menopause-inclusive workplace policy and practice
• Mental health and wellbeing for senior women

Ideal for

• CHROs, heads of DEI and talent leaders designing retention strategy for women in senior roles
• Executive teams and ERGs in financial, professional services, media and sport launching menopause workplace programmes
• Senior women’s networks and leadership development cohorts in the 35 to 55 age range
• Boards and ExCos commissioning a credible non-clinical voice on menopause as a business issue

Audience outcomes

• A clear reframing of perimenopause and menopause as a talent-retention and performance issue, with management implications
• Practical language for line managers and senior women to use when the conversation comes up at work
• An honest account, drawn from a high-pressure broadcast career, of what symptoms actually do to focus, confidence and decision-making
• Specific organisational examples from work with Workday, IMG, the Premier League, Sky and others
• Reference material from Myths of Menopause and Allerton’s published writing for internal follow-up