Speakers

Claire Williams is the modernising former leader of the Williams Formula One racing team. She is the youngest ever DTP in motorsports, one of the most prominent and successful women in Formula 1 history, and was awarded an OBE for services to F1 in 2017. A strategic visionary, inspirational leader and motivational expert, her development of a high-performance team culture galvanised an underperforming race team that had been struggling on and off the grid to its best finishing positions in years. Under her leadership, Williams F1 was transformed from an outdated, male-dominated culture into one renowned as a pioneer for innovative technology, sustainability, diversity and inclusion. Having grown up around her father’s racing team, Claire’s career began in the Silverstone press office, before she joined Williams F1 in a comms position. Her capacity for driving modernising change became clear in early commercial roles, during which she revitalised the Williams F1 brand and evolved the marketing strategy. She led from the front to negotiate lucrative, high-profile brand partnerships, notably a £65M deal with Unilever and £50M in sponsorship from Martini. She also played a critical Head of Investor Relations role, leading the motorsports industry’s only successful IPO preparation as Williams exceeded its valuation. When the racing team went through a difficult period, Claire was appointed to take over from her father as de facto leader, with direct control of the F1 racing team and overseeing R&D offshoot, WAE Technologies. As the major shareholder of the PLC, she was effectively chairman of the board, tasked with turning around a demotivated, underperforming group of over 1,000 employees. Over the next few years, she transformed an outdated manufacturing environment, recruiting senior industry leaders in key positions who formed the core of her management team for the next eight years. This restructuring, particularly of the racing and engineering departments, underpinned new standards of professionalism in technical research, organisational culture and marketing strategy. It also transformed levels of motivation and engagement, driving major gains in performance. The results spoke for themselves. Claire led the team to a renaissance between 2014 and 2017, when it finished third twice and then fifth twice; highlights included Williams cars locking out the front row of the grid after qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix, as well as a double podium finish in Abu Dhabi. While delivering competitive and financial success, much of her impact was cultural, as a force for positive social impact; during her tenure, she accelerated the growth of WAE Technologies from a small internal sustainability unit into an industry-renowned R&D firm later sold for $220M. She launched initiatives guiding students into engineering careers, was appointed patron of F1 in Schools and became VP of the Williams F1 official charity, the Spinal Injuries Association. Most of all, she became a ground-breaking pioneer for women in a profoundly male-dominated sector; she appointed female drivers Susie Wolff and Jamie Chadwick to development roles, sent female Williams ambassadors into schools and increased the proportion of women at Williams to 17.6%, the highest in the F1 paddock. Having secured the future of the team by negotiating its sale in 2020, Claire is now a keynote event speaker, brand ambassador for WAE Technologies, Vice President of the Spinal Injuries Association and consultant to corporate clients, particularly those entering F1.