We’re delighted to feature Emma Mitchell, Talent Director at EY and long-standing advocate for inclusiveness, equity and disability inclusion, as a social imperative and a strategic priority.
Across a 30-year international career in financial and professional services, Emma has led people and change projects at scale – shaping inclusive cultures, developing and empowering talent and enabling organisations move from ideas to impact. Her leadership is grounded in authenticity, resilience, and humanity – qualities honed both in boardrooms and at home as an adoptive parent to two neurodivergent daughters.
Emma’s lived and professional experiences have given her a rare dual perspective: one that connects the personal realities of bias and systemic inequity with the business imperatives of inclusion and performance.
Key takeaways from this ImpactExpert QT
- Lived experience drives leadership: Parenting adopted, neurodivergent daughters reshaped Emma’s understanding of bias, belonging, and advocacy.
- Openness creates impact: Sharing her story of chronic illness publicly challenged stigma and offered a platform to others who often feel invisible or ignored.
- System change needs evidence and empathy: Her research with UEA identified five proven enablers for employers to support employees with disabling long-term health conditions.
- Assume competence: A strengths-first mindset unlocks potential and drives performance for individuals, organisations, and the economy.
- Inclusion is universal: As Emma reminds us, disability is not about “them” – it’s about all of us.
What is one of the best roles you’ve ever had and why?
I’ve been really lucky. I’ve had lots of fantastic roles in my 30-year career. I’ve led multiple people and change projects, across different HR functions and mostly internationally. But the best role, and the one that’s taught me the most, has been being mum to my two daughters.
We’ve been an adoptive family for 14 years now. They are dual heritage, mixed race, neurodivergent – autistic, ADHD, dyslexic – and both have a history of trauma from their early years in care.
I’m a white, university-educated woman who’s spent her career in financial and professional services, and as they have grown, so have I. Their experiences have illuminated the bias that exists in social, educational and healthcare systems, and I’ve discovered how inequitable outcomes evolve as a result. It’s taught me to be a fighter – relentlessly – on their behalf.
What’s one decision that helped align your work with your values?
Choosing to be open about living with a disabling long-term health condition.
Ten years ago, I caught a virus from which I never fully recovered. I was later diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome – an energy-limiting condition similar to long COVID.
At my worst, I was bedbound for a year, and my energy levels are now around 40% of what they were. It was a hard decision to speak openly about it because my identity has always been very tied to being energetic and action-orientated, and because of the stigma and lack of understanding that still exists around disability.
There’s risk in being open, especially in professional services where stigma around disability persists. But authenticity and integrity are fundamental to who I am. Once I started sharing my experience publicly, I realised how much it mattered to others – particularly those who felt unseen in their own workplaces.
What’s the biggest thing you’ve done to create or improve social impact?
I’m proudest of supporting research with the University of East Anglia, led by Dr. Helen Musgrove, into what enables employees with long-term health conditions to sustain work.
It built on conversations I was having with people who desperately wanted to contribute but couldn’t, because of unsupportive workplaces. The study identified five key enablers of sustainable employment:
- An inclusive culture
- Active employee networks
- Educated, empowered line managers
- Autonomy to work flexibly
- Individualised, tailored adjustments
Those findings have resonated widely and, for me, it was powerful because it confirmed what so many of us knew intuitively: inclusion works when it’s personal, practical, and embedded in everyday culture.
Can you share with us a bit more about how you realised that disability inclusion would be a focus area for you?
It took me about three years to identify with and realise I was disabled. Up until that point, I’d been focusing on getting back to health and pushing through at work.
I worried I’d be seen as fraudulent if I described myself as disabled – that I might somehow take something away from others. We tend to picture disability as visible, fixed, lifelong. But my symptoms are fluctuating, invisible, and unpredictable.
Then I became severely ill. I was bedbound for a year, and I honestly didn’t know if I’d ever recover. During that time, I found hope in others’ stories – and I realised my experience wasn’t unique.
80% of disabled people acquire their disability during working life, and 80% of disabilities are invisible.
That’s when I decided to use my professional background and network to build a better working world for disabled people – to play a part in making change.
Can you share some key milestones or proudest moments in your career?
One standout moment was supporting EY’s partnership with ActionAble and ImpactMatch, helping launch the ActionAble Impact Report.
Launching the report at the House of Lords with Sara Weller and Leigh Smyth – surrounded by more than 150 leaders and role models in disability inclusion – was unforgettable. You could feel the energy, the potential, and the power for change in that room.
It was also deeply personal. Just five years earlier, I’d been bedbound and uncertain if I’d ever recover. Standing there that day felt like a full-circle moment – both a milestone and a privilege.
What’s one project or piece of work that taught you a big lesson about impact?
Leading Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for EY’s European Financial Services business taught me that lasting impact depends on four things:
- Ambition: a clear, bold vision of change
- Discipline and execution: consistent delivery, not slogans
- Stories: to win hearts
- Data: to win minds
If you bring those together with a compelling vision, you can shift a culture – often one conversation at a time.
What’s a piece of strategic advice you find yourself giving more than once?
It might not sound strategic on the surface, but it absolutely is: assume competence in everyone and take a strengths-first mindset.
As Kate Nash OBE describes it, we must challenge “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” When we assume competence, we empower people to lean into their strengths, experiences, and skills – and that’s when they thrive.
When individuals thrive, businesses thrive. And when businesses thrive, the economy grows. It’s a win at every level.
What’s one learning or piece of advice you would like to pass on to others who might be facing similar health challenges to you?
Be kind to yourself. You are not a failure, and you are not less than.
You have one life, one body, and one mind – value it as the finite resource it is. If you’re learning to live with a diagnosis, disability, or long-term condition, know that this doesn’t define you.
You will learn to manage it. And you will rise stronger.
Who or what inspires your approach to impact?
My daughters inspire me every day. They face multiple obstacles yet show up with courage and humour.
I’m also inspired by colleagues in EY’s Ability and Neurodiversity Network – people from every background and grade who share their stories and advocate for change.
And there are others whose leadership I deeply admire – Caroline Casey, Kate Nash, Sara Weller, Gina Davis, and Robbie Crowe, whose storytelling continually reshapes understanding of disability and inclusion. They all model what it means to drive systemic change with empathy and purpose. I follow in their footsteps and learn from them daily.
What brings you the most work joy?
Work joy for me comes from three things:
- Driving change – especially when others say it’s impossible.
- Coaching people – and seeing them grow in their potential.
- Collaborating with great teams – I’ve been privileged to work with so many extraordinary people across my 20 years at EY, and I’m grateful to every one of them.
What is your favourite quote that you’d like us to include?
Benjamin Franklin said: “There are two certainties in life: death and taxes.”
I’d like to add a third – sickness and disability.
We are all human. We all get sick at some point, and we are all likely to experience disability in our lives – it’s just a question of timing and severity. This isn’t about “them”; it’s about all of us.
If we all do more, we all win – and with an ageing population, we win economically too.
