What if the difference between stalled and soaring careers isn’t more credentials but better connections? In Connections to Careers: How Social Capital Accelerates Progress, Professor Dame Heather McGregor unpacks how purpose‑built interventions can combine social capital (trusted networks, mentors, sponsorship, and visibility) with human capital (skills, practice, and feedback) to unlock opportunity and speed up progression.
Drawing on two proven designs she has overseen—the Taylor Bennett Foundation programme that opens doors for minority ethnic graduates into UK corporate communications, and Heriot‑Watt University’s Global Leadership Programme for its emerging leaders —Heather distills practical design principles you can adopt in universities, employers, and professional bodies: building bridging and brokerage ties; structured exposure to decision‑makers; mentor‑matching and cohort learning; and simple ways to track outcomes and ensure equity.
About the presenter:
Professor Dame Heather J. McGregor DBE FRSE is Provost and Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt University Dubai and a senior academic leader with a distinguished career spanning finance, entrepreneurship, and higher education. A former investment banker, she spent 17 years as an entrepreneur leading an executive search firm before moving into academia, where she previously served as Executive Dean of Edinburgh Business School.
Professor McGregor holds a PhD in Structured Finance from the University of Hong Kong, an MBA from London Business School, and is a Chartered Global Management Accountant. An experienced writer and broadcaster, she wrote a long-running column for the Financial Times and has been a leading advocate for diversity, founding the Taylor Bennett Foundation and serving as a founding steering committee member of the 30% Club. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was appointed CBE in 2015 and Dame in 2023 for her services to education, business, and heritage in Scotland.
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About Our Webinar Series
This event is part of our regular webinar sessions for social capital researchers including PhD/master students. These sessions include invited presentations from prominent scholars as well as presentations by PhD students and experts in professional practice.
For social capital researchers, these sessions are an opportunity to hear about the latest social capital research and insights from scholars working on the concept. They can be a great way to connect with people, to get advice, discuss ideas or issues, get suggestions for literature to read, or you can just listen.
Are you researching social capital and want to present your research? Click here for more information and to submit a proposal.
Generally, presentations can be 20 to 30 mins. The content of your presentation will depend on your research stage.
