Phoebe Waters

Phoebe Waters is Co-Founder and Partner of Optimising Potential ('OP'), a strategic business consultancy - specialising in high impact leadership - with an emphasis on supporting women. OP works in-depth with individuals and teams as impactful improvement partners, particularly through periods of transformational change. Phoebe is a two-time winner of Management Today's 35 Women Under 35 Awards (at ages 29 and 32, in 2021 and 2023 respectively). 

She has been a Judge for the Awards scheme since 2024, and was Chair of Judges in 2025. Phoebe is also a Judge for the Women and Diversity in Law Awards, and a Judge for the UK StartUp Awards. Phoebe, a former corporate investigator specilalising in complex asset recovery and intelligence gathering, and previous Chair of the UK's Female Fraud Forum. 

She is a faculty member at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Sustainability Leadership, tutoring on two internationally renowned courses. These courses are 'Women Leading Change: Shaping Our Future' and 'High Impact Leadership' at CISL. OP was UN Women UK's leadership partner for the Commission on the Status of Women in 2024 (CSW is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to gender), and again for 2025 - presenting to hundreds of UN Women UK delegates (of all genders) in a range of sectors and industries, on how to break down systemic inequalities at the micro, meso and macro levels. Phoebe is now the sole Leadership Consultant for the whole UN Women UK community, and works with UN Women UK specifically on their recently launched FutureGen participants, for 18-30 year olds. 

Phoebe is a visiting lecturer on the foundations of gender equality at other UK universities. Phoebe is also the Co-Founder of Project UpLift, Co-Founder of the Female City Supper Club, and is a member of the Aspen Rising Leaders Fellowship. She has worked for organisations including Goldman Sachs, Burford Capital and Schillings.