Kathy Morrissey on Stansted Airport, STEM and her love of problem solving

We are delighted to introduce Kathy Morrisey, planning and insights director at Stansted Airport. 

Kathy’s inspiration in life is her father who didn’t think there was a barrier to what girls could do. He believed in the power of learning and Kathy said he knew  his daughters could conquer the world.  

She said that her father gave her the gift of blind expectation, that you could do anything that boys could do. As it happens Kathy absolutely loved maths and went on to be an engineer. She offers some great advice to always be curious. 

We spoke to Kathy a lot about STEM and her roles in historically male dominated work forces. She recalls times when she took a male team member to a meeting and if she asked a question the response would be offered to her male colleague, while she was ignored.  

She says it can still happen now and to combat this she is a lead in raising awareness of microaggressions. Kathy makes a very valid point that it is the job of both male and females to champion women in the workplace. All the evidence shows that having a diverse team leads to better decision making and better outcomes. 

Kathy has climbed Kilimanjaro, worked on oil rigs and has some interesting insight into women’s workwear. She says her dream dinner guest would be the Pankhurts as well as Billie Jean King. We all reflect on how women’s achievements in the past have not been recognised, citing Marie Curie as an example.  

We hope you enjoyed this episode as much as we did. You can follow Kathy on LIinkedIn  https://uk.linkedin.com/in/kathy-morrissey-meng-mba-4718307.

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Thanks so much for listening and supporting the podcast and we hope you leave this episode loving the weather that little bit more.