We are excited to have Rebecca DeNiro as our guest for Heads Up to celebrate International Women’s Month and International Women’s Day 2025! #AccelerateAction
Rebecca DeNiro is currently Chair and Board Director of several leading consumer and leisure brands, including Regatta Ltd, Ribble Cycles Ltd, Norcros Plc and Riverford Organic Farmers. Rebecca has previously served as CEO and main Board Director of Pure Electric and Managing Director, GB and Ireland of Dyson Limited.
What does good leadership mean to you?
I really believe in authenticity, creating and being in environments that welcome challenges, different approaches, respect for individuality and teamwork. For me, those are the components of success and progression. The world is changing, and the great leaders of the future will be those who can set a compelling vision, build great relationships and teams and inspire those around them.
What is the most important thing you have learnt in your career so far?
I find inspiration from the African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together”. I have always been people-led and business-driven but often found corporate environments to have a high culture of self-promotion and internal competition, which never sat well with my own personal values. I found openly talking about my leadership approach of surrounding myself with people I deemed technically better than myself and asking them to be part of something bigger than their functional responsibility enabled me to accelerate business and team performance.
How did you get to where you are today? Did you take a strategic, planned approach to your career or has it been more opportunistic?
In the early stages of my career, I was eager to get on and was offered many great opportunities, which I saw as a way to learn and help me identify where I found the most joy and could add the most value. As my career progressed, I became much more planned about identifying which roles offered experiences I hadn’t had and sometimes didn’t naturally gravitate to build breadth and depth. The last 15 years have been strategically led, which has continued into my portfolio career as I’ve searched out businesses of different sizes and complexities and different ownership structures.
Is there anything you wish you’d known when you started your career? And anything you would tell yourself at an earlier stage in your career?
Have greater belief in what you are capable of and trust your instincts. It’s really normal to have feelings of insecurity, and it’s a sign that you care greatly and want to do your utter best. Pace yourself. Life is a marathon, not a sprint, and we all have our own journey, so don’t compare yourself to others.
What type of people do you like to work with and what makes them good leaders?
I value trust, integrity, resilience and emotional intelligence at the core of leaders. I’m driven by relentless curiosity to find a different or better way, so I enjoy working with people motivated by challenge and discussion to pursue the best outcomes. Trust is at the heart of building great relationships and psychological safety often gives people the environment to operate in their way to be the best version of themselves. There will often be tough choices to be made, and not always in an individual’s own interest, but doing things the right way rather than the quickest or easiest way is critical for leaders.
What fascinates you about your job?
I have always thrived in a fast-paced environment, which is true of a full-time executive role. What I love about the shift to non-executive roles is the added dimension of constant context switching and the opportunity to identify learnings across sectors and operating models that aren’t obvious at the outset. It also fosters continuous learning, allowing you to add value to the businesses you work with.
What is the best way to switch off in your free time?
I find I must be super deliberate about switching off. I’ve spent much of my career being “always on.” I have reflected that I’m at my best when I’ve had time to reset, and I’ve built this into my daily routine through gym sessions, which require 100% focus. Weekends spent in big outdoor spaces give me just that. Finding what’s right for me was key.