Everton and WACL united to celebrate women in sport and leadership with landmark International Women’s Day event at Goodison Park
Everton and WACL united to celebrate women in sport and leadership with landmark International Women’s Day event at Goodison Park
Everton and WACL united to celebrate women in sport and leadership with landmark International Women’s Day event at Goodison Park
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Today is International Women’s Day and to mark the occasion, this week Goodison Park hosted a special event to celebrate women in sport and leadership.
The first purpose-built football ground in England, Goodison Park has staged the most top flight matches in English football, became the first Football League ground to host an FA Cup final, was the first ground to be visited by a reigning monarch and was the only English club ground to host a World Cup semi-final as part of the five fixtures it staged in the 1966 tournament. This correspondent’s book Spirit of the Blues: Everton’s Most Memorable Matches & Goodison Park’s Greatest Games documents all these events along with a pioneering moment in women’s sport.
On Boxing Day 1920, 53,000 fans crammed into Goodison – with an estimated 10,000-to-14,000 more locked outside to watch Dick, Kerr Ladies from Preston defeat St Helens 4-0 in what was a world record crowd for a women’s club game that stood for over 98 years. Fast forward to the 2025/26 season and with Everton having played their final game at Goodison Park last May and moved to Hill Dickinson Stadium, their former ground is now the home of the Blues’ women’s team.
The cherished venue, affectionately known by Evertonians as ‘The Grand Old Lady,’ has been given a new lease of life, so it was apt on Thursday that WACL (Women in Advertising and Communications Leadership), a group founded over a century ago, just three years after that historic women’s fixture at Goodison, who are campaigning for 50% of CEOs to be female by 2045, brought together trailblazing women from sport, marketing and leadership for a powerful day of conversation, connection and inspiration.
Designed to inspire the next generation of female leaders, the day explored leadership journeys, career-defining moments and the realities of building influence in traditionally male-dominated spaces.
Lead speaker was founder of the Mowgli restaurant chain and television personality, Nisha Katona. Interviewed by Dawn Paine, co-founder and CEO of Aurora/WACL executive committee member, who in turn told the audience about how she had grown up down the road in Bootle and that Everton’s tag of being ‘The People’s Club’ – coined by current manager David Moyes when he was first appointed in his initial stint in charge in 2002 – was “not just a marketing line,” Katona explained how after growing up in Skelmersdale as the daughter of two Indian doctors, she served as a child protection barrister for 20 years and “loved every minute of it,” before making a major career pivot to move into the catering business.
She said: “I would teach Indian cooking in my house. I had a family recipe based around potato peelings and I felt there was a gap in the market because curry houses with their made up dishes, did not represent true Indian cooking.
“I’m now proud to say that I pay more tax as a restaurateur and I’m also employing other people, which I didn’t do in my previous profession. Mowgli tries to enrich lives and also leave people nourished and fulfilled.
“We offer a pathway where you can go from KP (kitchen porter) to head chef in two years and if the chefs are happy then the food is amazing. The three traits to work at Mowgli are grace, emotional intelligence and graft, we’ve got 26 restaurants now and every Mowgli has got its own house charity.”
Nisha Katona, founder of the Mowgli restaurant chain and television personality, on stage with Dawn Paine at Everton and WACL’s International Women’s Day event at Goodison Park
Nisha Katona, founder of the Mowgli restaurant chain and television personality, on stage with Dawn Paine at Everton and WACL’s International Women’s Day event at Goodison Park
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There was also a panel discussion headed by Sam Gregory, co-CEO at Tangerine Communications that featured Sue Gregory, CEO of Everton in the Community; Chloe Davies, growth partner at The Unmistakables; Imogen Tazzyman, executive creative director at McCann and Rachel Brown-Finnis, football pundit and former Everton and England goalkeeper whose story will feature in a follow-up article. Gregory, who has served Everton in the Community for 14 years said: “I love the ethos of Everton and there is purpose to what we do.
“When I started, there were six of us and now we have over 130 people, working on 60 projects. “I’m proud that I helped to grow that, and I learned from another leader, who was a woman. I didn’t even think of taking on the CEO role, but over time I progressed through the ranks and our work got recognised.”
In the afternoon session, Lucy Barnes, joint general manager at Havas Media Network interviewed Angelene Woodland Singleton, the chief marketing officer of Together, who stated: “There’s no cookie cutter guide to leadership and quoted a mantra that you should only ever look down on another woman to bring her up.”
Dawn Paine addresses the audience at Everton and WACL’s International Women’s Day event at Goodison Park
Dawn Paine addresses the audience at Everton and WACL’s International Women’s Day event at Goodison Park
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Dawn Paine said: “WACL has over a century of history supporting and championing senior women in advertising and communications. Our mission is to accelerate gender equality, and bringing that mission into the world of sport on IWD feels incredibly powerful.
“By extending our cultural relationship into the world of sport through the Everton women’s team, we will also be shining a spotlight on the power of belonging to nurture high-performing teams and women in leadership across both sport and business. Everton Women are true trailblazers in nurturing talent in women’s football, allowing us to celebrate female talent, ambition and impact in a space where visibility really matters.”
Stephanie Hughes, director of marketing at Everton said: “Goodison Park has always been about more than football. It’s about people, progress and community.
“As the home of Everton Women, we’re proud to welcome WACL and support an event that celebrates women who are driving change across sport, business and leadership. Marking International Women’s Day in this way reinforces our belief that visibility, representation and collaboration are essential to the continued growth of the women’s game.”
Organisers of the event hope it was an inspiring gathering that united women from across the North West to accelerate talent, inspire future leaders and explore how they can drive social mobility, irrespective of accent or postcode. Together, they discussed belonging, high-performance cultures and how kindness and winning can thrive side by side.