Member Interview with Elizabeth Sen

We are delighted to bring you a Member Interview with Elizabeth Sen, Founder, MoneyWorks for Women.

What’s your golden rule?

If you want to go far, bring people with you. Nothing I'm proud of was built alone. It came from a collective of clients, colleagues and the community around me. Speed is impressive for a quarter. Momentum that lasts comes from people who feel they own the idea as much as you do.

Who has been your biggest influence?

I have been following the work of two people from very different worlds. In the gender space, Naila Kabeer, the Bangladeshi-British economist. Her work showed me that empowerment isn’t about handing women resources. It’s about agency. That idea sits at the heart of how we think about money and women. And Ed Morrison, who created Strategic Doing. I came to his methodology recently, and as a practitioner I’ve learnt that big change doesn’t come from big plans. It comes from people collaborating in small, practical steps, learning as they go. It’s how I build anything now.

What is your most hated business expression?

'Show me the data.' Our instinct is always to reach for numbers, as if a spreadsheet is the only proof that counts. But sometimes lived experience is stronger than data. There is a quiet anxiety that sits with so many women about money. I don’t need a survey to sense it.

What’s the smartest business idea you’ve ever had?

Never start from scratch. Whatever you're building, someone has walked part of that road before you, and most people are surprisingly generous with what they've learned. Ask. Build on the knowledge and experience of mentors, and you begin ten steps ahead instead of at zero. It sounds obvious, but most of us still try to figure it all out alone.

Which leader do you admire most and why?

Indra Nooyi, without question. She had the business acumen to drive extraordinary growth at PepsiCo, first as its strategy lead and then as CEO, but she never treated performance and purpose as a trade-off. 'Performance with Purpose' put sustainability and healthier products at the centre of the strategy long before ESG was fashionable. And she led with real human connection. Strategy, conscience and care, all in one leader. That's rare. And as a woman who also grew up in India, in Bhopal, watching her rise from Chennai to lead one of the world's biggest companies without ever shedding who she was made what's possible feel personal.

What is on your mind the most right now as a marketing leader?

The problems we're being asked to solve are getting more complex, and no single brand, function or genius can crack them alone. AI is making a lot of things easier and faster, and I welcome that. But the real value now comes from what AI can't do: people collaborating across boundaries and making agile decisions together. So many of the world's biggest issues need this new kind of thinking, and marketers, who spend their lives understanding people, should be leading it.

Why is being part of The Marketing Society important for your career?

The open sharing and the access. It's rare to find a room where senior marketers share what's working, and what isn't, so generously. As a founder building something new, that access to people and ideas is invaluable. It's exactly the 'never start from scratch' principle in action, and it reminds me that marketing is a leadership discipline.

Why does marketing matter to you?

Marketing is the engine that drives growth. It's the discipline that joins up what's happening inside a company with what's happening outside it, in people's lives, in culture, in the market. And at its heart, we marketers are in the business of changing minds. Changed minds change behaviour, and changed behaviour changes lives. I can't think of more important work.

Tell us something that’s not on your CV

I'm deeply interested in how faith and dialogue can build better stewardship of the earth's resources. When communities with different beliefs sit down together, they often find they share the same instinct to care for the land. So outside work, you'll find me exploring soil regeneration, Miyawaki forests and intercultural intelligence, and occasionally talking a little too enthusiastically about compost.