Livi Warnes' Spotlight Story | Leadership Summit

Meet Livi Warnes, our Leadership Summit 2023 alumna. Livi has built an impressive 17-year career in insurance, with 13 of those years at Aon. She’s held multiple roles within the company, and in 2025, she was appointed Head of Office in Reading. Livi credits her growth to her problem-solving mindset, continuous learning, and the confidence and insights she gained from Leadership Summit. In this spotlight, she shares her journey, the impact of The Pipeline on her leadership, and advice for anyone looking to advance their career.

Livi's career journey

I started in insurance 17 years ago. I went to a job agency looking for a 9-to-5 office job and ended up at a small insurance company doing admin. I discovered that I actually quite enjoyed what I was doing. Seventeen years later, I’m still in insurance, and over that time I’ve had a positive growth trajectory in terms of roles and responsibilities. I’ve been at Aon for 13 of those years and have held five different roles within the company. My most recent role began in May, when I was appointed Head of Office in Reading.

Livi's new role as Head of Reading Office

Problem solving and driving strategy forward 

I’m running a successful business with around 25 people directly in the Reading office. My day-to-day focus is aligning Aon’s strategy with the office strategy to get the most out of our people, helping them deliver their best to clients. This impacts growth, relationships, and retention. My work involves problem-solving, tackling challenges, and supporting the training and development of colleagues.

Thriving on variety and challenges

I’m running a successful business with around 25 people directly in the Reading office. My day-to-day focus is aligning Aon’s strategy with the office strategy to get the most out of our people, helping them deliver their best to clients. This impacts growth, relationships, and retention. My work involves problem-solving, tackling challenges, and supporting the training and development of colleagues.

Livi's experience on Leadership Summit

Why Leadership Summit stands out

I wasn't ready for how valuable I would find Leadership Summit, and I certainly was not prepared for the emotional exploration that you go through during the course itself. I arrived thinking it would be just another course with a few useful insights and the rest mostly forgettable. But The Pipeline was completely different. Leadership Summit is the best training course I have ever been on. I have genuinely integrated it into my working life, work processes, my team and even my home life.

Real impact on me and my team

I've never come out of a training course with as many hints, tips and actionable insights that I desperately wanted to implement, across both my career, people who report to me, and my mentees. It's been valuable to all of them as well.

What Livi took out of Leadership Summit

Now a glass-half-full person

One of my favourite things I took from The Pipeline is the TA-DA list. We often work on ‘to do’ lists - a big old that list of things that you haven't achieved - and that rolls over into the next week. The TA-DA list encourages you to pause and celebrate what you’ve achieved. For me, it has helped me become more of a glass-half-full person. While there are always outstanding tasks, I now recognise and celebrate accomplishments too.

Key insights on women at work

The course also made me far more aware of how women in business and in the working community have trials, challenges and tribulations. For me, that awareness is key because this has always been a subject where women are often seen as catching up to men. The rhetoric tends to be that things are much better now than before, that we should be grateful for the progress made, and that we should consider the challenges people faced in the past. Actually sitting with The Pipeline, I realised that yes, we have come a long way, but actually there is  still a long way to go. Having someone guide me through that realisation was incredibly impactful.

Confidence for public speaking

Leadership Summit also gave me confidence. I’m typically a naturally shy person who has a job that requires them to not be shy. The Pipeline taught me the skills and gave me the confidence levels to speak publicly. I even shared my story at our Women in Business conference to 50 attendees – something I would never have done before. That experience definitely went on my TA-DA list.

A pivotal moment in Livi's career

Leadership Summit: a career-defining moment

Attending the course was pivotal because it gave me the confidence to pursue higher-level roles within Aon and negotiate for what I deserved. That ultimately led to my Executive Director role and then, soon after, my current Head of Office position. The Pipeline came at the perfect time. I felt a bit stagnant in my previous role and knew I had more to offer. The course helped me create and seize opportunities that I was waiting for. Ultimately, I don’t think I’d be in this position without Leadership Summit. I only wish I’d had this development earlier as it would have made my career journey easier.

Gaining deeper insight into people and leadership

The Pipeline also helped me understand how women and men, and even individuals, think differently: from the way our hormones and brains function to how our output may compare to that of a man. Having The Pipeline to explain why we may think, act, and approach things differently, while also giving me the confidence to see that we can achieve the same results with just a few tweaks, was incredibly valuable. It would have been amazing to have The Pipeline at the start of my leadership journey.

What draws Livi to Aon

Rewarding and challenging role

Culturally, Aon has a positive attitude toward diversity, growth, and DEI, and I see the benefits every day. I enjoy working with clients who need my expertise from lawyers, CFOs, and executives running multibillion-pound businesses. They need guidance in areas like insurance where they have blind spots. It’s rewarding and challenges me to step up my standards and communication.

A culture that values diversity 

Diversity within the business also enhances our ability to connect with clients from all walks of life. We’re now setting up a Pipeline Alumni network at Aon, inspired by my cohort. It allows alumni to share ideas in a safe and honest space, and support ongoing change in themselves and the organisation.

Livi's advice to her younger self 

Seek out a sponsor who fights your corner and opens doors

You need to find yourself a sponsor – a person who coaches, guides, and advocates for you. Someone who pushes you, shows you what’s possible, and introduces you to opportunities outside your traditional network. Networking isn’t just about clients, but it is actually about your growth and trajectory. That growth only happens when you are building those relationships and really truly understanding what you're capable of. It often takes the third party to push you in those directions.

is actually about your growth and trajectory. That growth only happens when you are building those relationships and really truly understanding what you're capable of. It often takes the third party to push you in those directions.

I had a sponsor, though I did not realise it at the time. Looking back and seeing the impact she had on my own career blew me away, I didn’t know what I had until it was gone, it was only once my sponsor retired that I understood her true value. Everyone needs someone like that: someone who fights your corner and opens doors you might not reach on your own. Sponsorship is different from mentoring or coaching; a sponsor actively propels your career forward.