International Women’s Day 2022: Laura Spencer

In support of International Women’s Day 2022, we caught up with Laura and asked her a few questions.

Laura Spencer is Director of Communications and Events for MLC Group. Having gained her B.A. (Hons) degree in Communications, she joined a world-leading commercial retailer for over 10 years, where she managed multi-million pound projects and delivered communications and events to over 32,000 people a week. Laura joined MLC in 2018 in the aforementioned roles and has a shareholder.

What activities do you enjoy away from work?

I still love singing and performing whenever I can, but my focus is my on family, spending time with my husband and little boy. I enjoy visiting places, and eating good food with family and friends. Enjoying good company is how I prefer to spend my time.

What does International Women’s Day mean to you?

I find this question tricky. As much as I know there are still challenges for women in work in many roles. Part of me thinks true equality would mean there is not a need for an International Women’s day and the achievements of women are celebrated and recognised each and every day with no fanfare. Until we are there though this day for me is about reflecting on those that have gone unmentioned in the past and whose efforts have shaped the world today for women.

How do you use your experience and knowledge to drive forward the vision of MLC?

I think one of my strengths is breaking down barriers and driving action. This is potentially as a result of working within a big company where it was difficult to get things done quickly. I regularly find myself striving for solutions and organising and empowering people.

What professional/personal challenges have you overcome?

I was relatively young one when I bought my first business at 30. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be taken seriously. Though I encountered some challenges at the beginning, I was pleased that I rarely experienced this. I learnt a long time ago when overseeing a largre team of people, that you can’t do it all alone. Building a happy, energetic team will enable you to achieve so much more and overcome any challenges you may face. I actually get a huge buzz from setting other people up for success.

How can we as a society encourage more women to pursue entrepreneurship or senior leadership roles in their career?

Visibility. So often we hear the term, CEO, we often assume that there is a man at the helm. There are so many incredible women in leadership roles and I was lucky enough in my previous company to be surrounded by many incredible female senior leaders. We just need to normalise it and give young female entrepreneurs the confidence and freedom to shoot and score.

What is the most important message you want to send out to young women thinking about their careers?

Don’t give up. Learn from your mistakes and focus on action and not failure. The phrase ‘what do I need to do’ has served me well and enabled me to push forward to achieve what ever I wanted to!

If you could have dinner with three inspirational women, dead or alive, who would they be and why?

Audrey Hepburn – she was not only an incredible actress but had a very interesting start to her life which led to her humanitarian efforts later in life. I think she would be very interesting. Billie Holliday – I listened to jazz as a young child and throughout my formative years and was mesmerised by Billies voice which I later found out told a thousand tragic tales. Such a strong woman. Michelle Obama – I just love her! Could I have Beyoncé too?? Lol