I’m Sharon. I’m an experienced web professional, specialising in digital workplace and digital strategy. I’m a communicator, a writer, a speaker, a researcher, a geek, and much else besides. I wear a lot of hats, literally and metaphorically.

My love affair with the web began on a school trip to a cybercafe when I was 13. I haven’t been offline since, so I’ve been tinkering with websites and interacting with strangers online for a quarter of a century. And as the web became a transformational force in almost every industry, what started as a teenage hobby turned into a successful career.

Career

I started out in publishing (including stints at the Guardian and for a newspaper in Bolivia) before moving into communications. Over time my two passions – communications and digital experience – converged as I became a champion for digital and social media in the workplace.

I worked for a number of UK public sector organisations, including the UK’s Houses of Parliament, where I developed one of the first mobile intranets, winning an Intranet Innovation Award in the process.

In 2010 I was appointed an advisor to the fledgling Iraqi parliament, dodging roadside bombs in my quest for better web services.

In 2012 I moved in to financial services, joining global bank Standard Chartered, and worked my way up from Senior Manager to Head of Digital Communications. There I was responsible for social media and content strategy, website development and management, and for the delivery of a new social intranet and collaboration platform. I led a multi-disciplinary team based in the UK and Singapore to manage the Bank’s global digital channels and projects.

I became an independent consultant in 2016. I advise complex organisations, particularly in regulated industry, on digital communication and experience through my consultancy firm Lithos Partners and our digital employee experience tool, DWXS.

This has seen me bring my experience to a range of projects and sectors to help them find the right mix of technology, process and capability to communicate and collaborate. Read more about the consultancy work I do here, and if you’d like to work with me do get in touch.

Interests

I’m passionate about the power of the social web to drive positive change – of services, organisations, and of communities. I bring a broad base of digital skills – from user research to content strategy, and from analytics to proposition development – together with a sharp business focus and ability to explain complex and technical ideas to stakeholders at all levels in order to gain their buy-in for digital transformation.

With a focus on a digital workplace and the use of digital in the enterprise, I inevitably have my eye on the near future of work. I write and speak regularly on this topic. In 2019 I took the Institute For The Future course on Futures Forecasting at Stanford University, to learn new techniques for planning for the future of work.

I’m host of Fujitsu Global’s podcast on the future of work and write regularly for a host of other blogs and publications, as well as over on LinkedIn. I’m a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of their Good Work Guild, a global community of practitioners working together to shape policies, practices and markets to ensure that everyone can pursue good work in an age of technological change. 

In 2023, for the second year running, I was named one of the top influencers and event speakers on the future of work by Onalytica.

I was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in the UK in 2016 and 2018. I’ve also been a contributor to two dead-tree books about the internet –  The Independent Guide to Facebook: Social Networking Made Easy (Dennis, 2007), and Share This Too: More Social Media Solutions for PR Practitioners (Wiley, 2013) – and one e-book, SharePoint Intranets-in-a-Box (Clearbox, 2016).

A digital-first communicator, I am a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations – and on their panel researching the role of Artificial Intelligence in communications. I’m also an advisor to the Cabinet Office.

I believe tech is better when the people working in it and representing the industry reflect the make-up of our species. That’s why in 2013 – irked by the lack of women speakers at digital events – I co-founded 300 Seconds, an event series that gives women and other underrepresented groups the opportunity to develop their public speaking skills and their public profile. So far we’ve delivered 16 events across the UK and Ireland, working with the likes of the BBC, Guardian, Facebook, Mozilla and the Open Data Institute. We’ve also run a series of events in Ireland.

I believe in supporting and developing the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. I’ve delivered guest lectures at universities in Europe and Asia, and mentored students and early career professionals.

I’m highly international, having lived and worked in three continents and led global projects and teams. I’m completely mobile and a prolific collector of airline loyalty points.

I currently live in Amsterdam with my husband and two Sony Aibo robot dogs.