Ambition & Life

Karis Dorrigan
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Real stories. Brave leadership. Bold change. We have an opportunity not just to optimise work but to redesign it. Hosted by Karis Dorrigan, a product and innovation leader turned systems-change advocate and coach. Ambition & Life is where ambition meets humanity. Each episode explores how we can build systems that reflect real lives. Where success isn’t measured by hours or titles, but by impact, connection, and integrity. Through honest conversations with founders, leaders, and solo parents reshaping the future of work, you’ll hear stories of courage, practical tools for balance, and ideas that challenge the old rules of leadership and create new ones. We all deserve the opportunity to thrive at work and in life.

  1. Oct 12

    The Future of Childcare and Work Doesn't Have to Fit in a Box: Building Work That Keeps Parents Close. With Lauren Perrett

    What if returning to work didn't have to mean being separated from your baby at all? This week Karis sits down with Lauren Perrett, founder and CEO of BubbaDesk, Australia's leading co-working space with on-site childcare, and co-founder of Wombee, an app that connects mothers' groups at every stage. Lauren is on a mission to build a new category of childcare where parents can perform at work and stay close to their children. Pregnant and bullish about her return to a tech sales career, Lauren found everything shifted the moment her baby was in her arms. The environment waiting for her was not built for a returning mother in her late thirties, and the premise of separating from her baby to pursue a career felt innately wrong. So she trusted the niggling feeling that there had to be a better way, added several workstations to cart and hit purchase. From one site on the Central Coast, BubbaDesk now operates across nine locations, has raised capital and counts Canva among its corporate partners. Wombee has 10,000 users across Australia and New Zealand, with more than 1,200 groups formed. Together, Karis and Lauren cover a lot of ground, from selling a whole new category of childcare to planning your return as a six to twelve month roadmap, perinatal mental health, the power of community at the right stage, and the advice Lauren would give a room full of CEOs. In this episode: 00:00 Meet Lauren Perrett and her why 01:18 The return that didn't fit 03:05 Blissful naivety and buying the first desks 05:30 Flexibility as a founder, and a culture of mothers 08:38 Selling a new category of childcare 11:38 Corporate partnerships and the Canva story 15:31 The future of childcare in Australia 18:32 Perinatal mental health and plan A, B, C returns 21:58 The six to twelve month return roadmap 24:54 Community, isolation and Wombee 27:22 Advice for CEOs: listen, trust, outcomes 32:13 Where to find Lauren Key takeaways: Your return is not a day, it is a six to twelve month roadmap, with plan A, B and C conversations driven by your employer before day one. Flexibility is now written into legislation, so do your homework on what you are entitled to and bring evidence of what you have already achieved working flexibly. And for the CEOs in the room, Lauren's shift is simple: listen to what parents actually need, stop putting them all in one box, and measure outcomes, not arrival times. Connect with Lauren Perrett bubbadesk.com wombee.com linkedin.com/in/laurentopazphillips/ Connect with Karis Dorrigan ambitionandlife.com linkedin.com/in/kdorrigan/ Karis Dorrigan is Head of Product in InsurTech, coach, podcast host and solo parent. She has led product across billion-dollar enterprises and scaled companies to their first million in revenue. Today she coaches mid-career women in product and tech to step into senior leadership roles, on their terms. If this episode speaks to you as a solo parent, caregiver or leader, follow Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan, share it with a colleague, and join the movement to build systems where ambition and care can thrive side by side. Track: Brother Brother | Artist: BENSON | Licensed by Soundstripe, Inc. | License #22026995 | License ID: ZCQVE0RUQJPWL06T | Worldwide, in perpetuity, across web, podcast and social platforms. © BENSON / Soundstripe, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission under a perpetual licence. © Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan. All rights reserved. Intentionality · Courage · Balance · Advocacy

  2. Sep 27

    Your Value Is Your Difference: How to Make Uniqueness Your Career Strategy. With Nicki Doble

    What if the thing that makes you different from every other leader in the room is the actual offer? This week Karis sits down with Nicki Doble, CIO, CTO, and now an interim and fractional executive working with boards on AI safety. Her career spans the Australian Public Service, banking, property and insurance, and she has spent it walking into broken things on purpose. Nicki never planned the C-suite. The idea arrived at a women's networking dinner, when someone at the table said, you'll be a CIO next. She had never seen herself in that light before. What changed her career after that was not becoming more polished. It was realising the opposite: her value is her difference. Together, Karis and Nicki cover a lot of ground, from why meritocracy has stopped working, to how to build a career in AI without waving the flag for it, to why the coffee matters more than the email you send at 11pm. In this episode: 00:00 Meet Nicki Doble 00:27 Why she runs at broken things 01:39 The dinner comment that made a CIO 02:34 Ambition didn't shift, the sacrifice did 04:08 Resilience, tenacity and sharp elbows 06:34 Don't let them win 07:20 Meritocracy doesn't work, set the quota 08:38 How tech became a broad church 09:27 The tech bro problem with AI 10:23 Cost cutting is not a transformation 12:45 Finding your own niche in AI 14:30 Bias was random, now it is targeted 15:03 Human on the loop, and who takes the blame 16:53 What boards actually understand 19:09 Your value is your difference 20:22 It's none of their business why you want four days 23:58 The 11pm email nobody read 26:24 Make your boss look good 28:33 What leaders should change tomorrow 30:35 One piece of advice for the next seat Key takeaways: Nicki's advice is frank and practical. Stop apologising for the way you want to work and put it into your branding instead, because it is none of their business why you want four days a week. Meritocracy has not delivered, so set the quota, hard or soft, or the same people keep deciding what good looks like. You do not have to wave the flag for AI to build a career in it: work out what you do not like about it, and that is where your work is. Never let a bot carry the blame, because the best governance is human. And your network is the job, not the thing you do after the job. The coffee is more important than the email you send at 11pm. Connect with Nicki Doble linkedin.com/in/nickidoble/ Connect with Karis Dorrigan ambitionandlife.com linkedin.com/in/kdorrigan/ Karis Dorrigan is Head of Product in InsurTech, coach, podcast host and solo parent. She has led product across billion-dollar enterprises and scaled companies to their first million in revenue. Today she coaches mid-career women in product and tech to step into senior leadership roles, on their terms. If this episode speaks to you as a solo parent, caregiver or leader, follow Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan, share it with a colleague, and join the movement to build systems where ambition and care can thrive side by side. Track: Brother Brother | Artist: BENSON | Licensed by Soundstripe, Inc. | License #22026995 | License ID: ZCQVE0RUQJPWL06T | Worldwide, in perpetuity, across web, podcast and social platforms. © BENSON / Soundstripe, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission under a perpetual licence. © Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan. All rights reserved. Intentionality · Courage · Balance · Advocacy

  3. Sep 13

    Not a Morning Tea With Cupcakes: Building Workplaces Where Senior Women Thrive. With Lisa Walker

    Why are so many women in their forties and fifties walking away from careers they spent decades building? This week Karis sits down with Lisa Walker, co-founder of Eir Women and a wellbeing and happiness scientist. Her work is about what actually helps people flourish, at home and at work. Eir Women started on COVID lockdown walks. Lisa and her co-founder Kate had both lost their sleep, their brain function and their sense of themselves, and nobody was talking about it. Kate grew up with a GP for a dad, Lisa with a naturopath for a mum, so they went looking for answers themselves. What little narrative existed was fearful, so they built the opposite: empowering, colourful, joyful. Thirty years in marketing and media meant Lisa knew how to build a brand. What she did not plan was building it full time, as a solo parent to two teenage boys, while finishing a masters. Together, Karis and Lisa cover a lot of ground, from the question to ask before you accept the bigger role, to the systems iceberg that explains why senior women leave and why nobody sees it coming. In this episode: 00:53 Meet Lisa Walker 02:14 Why Eir Women started on a lockdown walk 05:13 Ambition shifted in her forties, not at the baby 07:37 The question to ask before you take the bigger role 09:52 Boys first, health second, company third 12:01 Wellbeing is not a gym membership 14:49 What is actually happening to women at work 16:26 The senior talent walking out the door 17:41 The systems iceberg 20:02 Never write the policy without the women in the room 23:06 How long perimenopause really lasts 28:02 Corporate versus founding, and decision fatigue 31:26 Quick fire: what leaders should change first 33:40 One thing for the women listening 35:30 It whispers before it shouts Key takeaways: Perimenopause is not an event, it is a stretch of life that can run up to ten years, from the mid to late thirties into the early fifties. Lisa's numbers matter here: twenty percent of women have debilitating symptoms, twenty percent have none, and the sixty percent in between have a mix, so there is no average woman to design for. Her systems iceberg puts exhaustion and resignations above the waterline, patterns of lost confidence and lost representation just below, then structures like workplace design, policy and manager education, and at the bottom the mental models about women, ageing and what professionalism is allowed to look like. Her instruction for leaders is specific and unglamorous: start with literacy, and never write the policy without the women it affects in the room. Connect with Lisa Walker eirwomen.com linkedin.com/in/lisawalker-eirwomen/ Connect with Karis Dorrigan ambitionandlife.com linkedin.com/in/kdorrigan/ Karis Dorrigan is Head of Product in InsurTech, coach, podcast host and solo parent. She has led product across billion-dollar enterprises and scaled companies to their first million in revenue. Today she coaches mid-career women in product and tech to step into senior leadership roles, on their terms. If this episode speaks to you as a solo parent, caregiver or leader, follow Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan, share it with a colleague, and join the movement to build systems where ambition and care can thrive side by side. Track: Brother Brother | Artist: BENSON | Licensed by Soundstripe, Inc. | License #22026995 | License ID: ZCQVE0RUQJPWL06T | Worldwide, in perpetuity, across web, podcast and social platforms. © BENSON / Soundstripe, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission under a perpetual licence. © Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan. All rights reserved. Intentionality · Courage · Balance · Advocacy

  4. Aug 30

    We Send Flowers And Expect You Back By Monday: Redesigning Work For Grief. With Ashleigh Conwell

    Work treats grief as an event that closes. It is a process that keeps going, and almost no workplace is designed for that. This week Karis sits down with Ashleigh Conwell, founder and executive director of Yellow Falcon, the practical side of grief support: the admin, the logistics and the daily realities of showing up after a loss. Ashleigh grew up with what she calls a fairy tale life. Ballet, a career she loved, a marriage she adored. Then, at 29 and 17 weeks pregnant with triplets, she lost her husband. There was plenty of emotional support and plenty of professionals, but no one for the practical side. So she built the spreadsheet she needed to survive it, racing to reach 24 weeks. A friend told her to share it. Yellow Falcon grew from there. This is a conversation about grief. It is also a conversation about ambition, and what actually happens to it after a life event. In this episode: 00:00 Welcome and why Yellow Falcon exists 00:48 Ashleigh's story: a fairy tale, then the unthinkable 03:27 Courage, or the fear of not doing it 07:24 How ambition sharpened, not shrank 10:17 Glass balls, rubber balls, and every yes being a no 13:45 The leadership shift: head and heart 15:46 Self-leadership, values and the full circle audit 17:32 Carer's leave, guilt and what mothers are expected to be 20:44 Grief and work: what workplaces get wrong 24:30 What real support actually looks like 28:14 Rethinking bereavement policy 31:33 The hidden cost, and the human case 34:06 Rapid fire: grief ready, not scrambling 36:03 Where to find Ashleigh Key takeaways: Ashleigh's ambition sharpened rather than shrank. She could not go back to the career she had mapped out, and what she got instead was clarity about what ambition was for. She learned to hold work as a piece of the puzzle rather than her whole identity, and rebuilt her leadership around head and heart together. Self-leadership, in her definition, is not knowing your values. It is auditing whether your behaviour matches them. On grief at work, she cites research that one in four people are actively grieving at work at any given time, and that a bereaved employee loses around 30 days of productivity, roughly $21,000 on a median salary. Serious mental health injury claims in Australia are up 161% in a decade, and grief is part of mental health. Grief is not an event, it is a process. Bereavement leave covers the funeral, but anniversaries, birthdays and ordinary days that turn hard keep coming for years. So stop sending flowers, ask before you assume, build flexibility into policy, and train leaders before they need it. Be grief ready, not scrambling. Connect with Ashleigh Conwell yellowfalcon.com.au instagram.com/ashleigh.conwell/ Connect with Karis Dorrigan ambitionandlife.com linkedin.com/in/kdorrigan/ Karis Dorrigan is Head of Product in InsurTech, coach, podcast host and solo parent. She has led product across billion-dollar enterprises and scaled companies to their first million in revenue. Today she coaches mid-career women in product and tech to step into senior leadership roles, on their terms. If this episode speaks to you as a solo parent, caregiver or leader, follow Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan, share it with a colleague, and join the movement to build systems where ambition and care can thrive side by side. Track: Brother Brother | Artist: BENSON | Licensed by Soundstripe, Inc. | License #22026995 | License ID: ZCQVE0RUQJPWL06T | Worldwide, in perpetuity, across web, podcast and social platforms. © BENSON / Soundstripe, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission under a perpetual licence. © Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan. All rights reserved. Intentionality · Courage · Balance · Advocacy

  5. Aug 17

    Stop Waiting Until You Feel Ready: How to Reinvent Your Career on Your Own Terms. With Lynnette Edmonds

    What if the thing standing between you and your next move is not readiness at all, but permission? This week Karis sits down with Lynnette Edmonds, certified executive coach and founder of People Are Everything. Lynnette has held GM and VP roles across recruitment and people and culture, and led a global PR agency's people function. Lynnette left a job of eight and a half years because she wanted to be brave and bold. The next role was not right, and she left that one with no plan. Rather than prove herself all over again at an age where she could already feel ageism waiting, she backed herself and built her own business. She has been a solo parent twice, first when her children were five and two, with no family support and none of the leave provisions that exist now, and again when her twins were fifteen and their father died. The life experience she worried would count against her is the exact thing she took to market. In her words, her superpower. Karis and Lynnette cover why waiting to feel ready is the wrong test, how to redesign a role around outcomes, and the exact way to build the case and show them why. In this episode: 00:00 Welcome and Lynnette's why01:39 Leaving with no plan02:56 Your own worst enemy03:16 The courage to back yourself04:53 The ageism women feel coming05:11 Life experience as the superpower06:58 Solo parenting, twice10:03 Outcomes over hours on the clock16:12 Why part-time leadership is a unicorn17:21 The four-day trap19:46 Redesigning the role and job share22:02 Take a solution, not a problem24:18 Networking, mentors and cross-selecting30:47 Visibility, the skit and the rap song34:25 Courageous leadership and the Cs42:10 Show them why, and keep a dossier Key takeaways: Readiness is not the test. Lynnette did not feel ready and went anyway, and the line she gave herself is the one to borrow: it's time, back yourself, you've got everything you need. When you make the ask, take a creative solution to the table rather than a problem, and bring the data. On flexibility, her sharpest point is the maths. A four-day week almost always becomes a full-time job paid for four, because no one is hired to cover the fifth day, so the work does not shrink, only your pay does. Real part-time has to be three days, because three forces a genuine redesign around outcomes and KPIs. Karis notes only around one percent of technology roles in her own search were advertised part-time. And keep a running dossier of your wins, so when you go for the next thing you can show them why. Connect with Lynnette Edmonds peopleareeverything.com.au linkedin.com/in/lynnetteedmonds/ Connect with Karis Dorrigan ambitionandlife.com linkedin.com/in/kdorrigan/ Karis Dorrigan is Head of Product in InsurTech, coach, podcast host and solo parent. She has led product across billion-dollar enterprises and scaled companies to their first million in revenue. Today she coaches mid-career women in product and tech to step into senior leadership roles, on their terms. If this episode speaks to you as a solo parent, caregiver or leader, follow Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan, share it with a colleague, and join the movement to build systems where ambition and care can thrive side by side. Track: Brother Brother | Artist: BENSON | Licensed by Soundstripe, Inc. | License #22026995 | License ID: ZCQVE0RUQJPWL06T | Worldwide, in perpetuity, across web, podcast and social platforms. © BENSON / Soundstripe, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission under a perpetual licence. © Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan. All rights reserved. Intentionality · Courage · Balance · Advocacy

  6. Aug 2

    Stop Trading Your Salary for Flexibility: Why You Deserve Both, with CEO Gemma Lloyd WORK180

    What if flexibility never cost you a cent of your salary, and fairness at work was the smartest business decision a leader could make? This week Karis sits down with Gemma Lloyd, co-founder and CEO of WORK180, the platform helping women find workplaces with fair pay, real flex and genuine support as standard, not the exception. Gemma spent about a decade in the tech sector before she started WORK180, and the incidents stacked up early. In her first corporate role leader sat her in his personal assistant's seat and sent her for his coffee and his mail instead of the induction she was promised. Years later, a client looked at her and said does her company just hires pretty young blondes. When she raised it, her manager told her to do nothing, because it might ruin the relationship. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. In 2015, in her mid-twenties, she rang her best friend Valeria and built WORK180 on an audacious idea: employers could not just pay to advertise, they had to prove they were a good place to work. Ten years on, the platform has driven more than 4,000 improvements to company benefits. Together, Karis and Gemma cover a lot of ground, from why so many inclusion initiatives fall flat when they are handed to one under-funded person, to how to actually read a careers page, why part-time still barely exists at senior levels, how to negotiate flex as a low-risk trial, and why you should never trade your salary for it as women’s economic empowerment is more important than ever. They finish on the change Gemma is most fired up about now: protecting young people and women from being the first cut in the AI era. Gemma is a trailblazer and this conversation is a must listen. In this episode: 00:00 Introduction to Gemma Lloyd and WORK18000:51 The Client Comment That Sparked It All02:11 Co-Founding WORK18009:51 How to Read a Careers Page11:22 Why Part-Time Isn't Normal at Senior Levels17:06 Negotiating Flex as a Trial19:08 Don't Trade Your Salary for Flexibility25:27 Green and Red Flags When Job Hunting27:03 AI and the Entry-Level Cliff34:38 Rapid Fire: Every Role Flexible by Default37:47 Where to Find Gemma and WORK180 Key takeaways: Senior part-time roles stay rare because of legacy and the stigma that part-timers are less committed, even though WORK180's research finds many work well beyond their paid hours. For job seekers, flex offered case by case usually means no, while flex available to everyone signals culture. To negotiate it, propose a six-week trial. The line in the sand: flexibility is not a reason to be paid less, because a woman's economic independence is a matter of safety, not ego. On AI, Gemma cites World Economic Forum estimates that around 40% of entry-level roles could be displaced, and argues for every role flexible by default. Connect with Gemma Lloyd work180.com linkedin.com/in/gemllo/ Early Careers Pledge: onemillionpathways.com Connect with Karis Dorrigan ambitionandlife.com linkedin.com/in/kdorrigan/ Karis Dorrigan is Head of Product in InsurTech, coach, podcast host and solo parent. She has led product across billion-dollar enterprises and scaled companies to their first million in revenue. Today she coaches mid-career women in product and tech to step into senior leadership roles, on their terms. If this episode speaks to you as a solo parent, caregiver or leader, follow Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan, share it with a colleague, and join the movement to build systems where ambition and care can thrive side by side. Track: Brother Brother | Artist: BENSON | Licensed by Soundstripe, Inc. | License #22026995 | License ID: ZCQVE0RUQJPWL06T | Worldwide, in perpetuity, across web, podcast and social platforms. © BENSON / Soundstripe, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission under a perpetual licence. © Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan. All rights reserved. Intentionality · Courage · Balance · Advocacy

  7. Jul 19

    We Keep Fixing The Women . The Job Is Designed Wrong

    This week Karis sits down with Emma McLean, founder of Works for Everyone and creator of the New Zealand Part-Time Power List. Emma spent more than two decades in corporate strategy, marketing, advertising and customer experience, including eight years in London on the fast track. She came home to Aotearoa New Zealand to start a family, and slowly began to notice that mums and dads experience the labour market very differently. Seven years ago she pivoted, retrained as an executive coach, and built Works for Everyone, a care wrap around parents at the hardest points of their careers. She is candid that it was not an overnight success. She has done the work for about six years and only made good, sustaining money for around three. Together, Karis and Emma get into why the middle years of a career, the sleep-deprived, identity-shifting, quietly overwhelmed years of holding a career and a small child at once, are exactly when the support disappears and people take their foot off the pedal. They talk about why good work should make good money, and why so many women build businesses that quietly ask not to be paid. They dig into the invisible mental load, why equity at home is so tightly linked to equity at work, and what genuinely changes when dads get their own sole-charge lived experience. And they take on the design problem head on: why senior part-time and job-share roles barely exist, and what it would take to change that. In this episode: 00:00 Introduction to Emma McLean and Her Mission03:32 The Journey to Becoming a Care Wrap for Parents06:11 The Catalyst for Change: Personal Experiences and COVID08:57 The Importance of Talking About Money and Value11:39 Transitioning from Corporate to Entrepreneurship14:28 Creating Supportive Environments for Returning Parents17:06 The Role of Managers in Supporting Parents20:02 Navigating the Challenges of Solo Parenting28:30 Finding Time for Yourself30:46 The Importance of Part-Time Roles31:35 Innovating Job Design for Senior Roles33:53 Closing the Pay Gap through Part-Time Opportunities36:35 Changing the Narrative Around Work Flexibility37:47 Advice for Businesses to Embrace Part-Time Roles45:01 Empowering Working Parents48:26 Conversations that Matter Key Takeaways Her diagnosis of why senior part-time roles do not exist is direct: laziness, and no innovation in job design. "It is 2026 and we are still writing JDs for nine to fives." She wants roles proactively designed, accurately scoped and externally advertised, not quietly negotiated by whoever is grateful enough to ask. Her one instruction to a CEO tomorrow: provide paid parental leave for all dads and make it compulsory to take, up to sixteen weeks, because that sole-charge time is where the lived experience, and the real shift, happens. Her message to any parent who has been told they are not suitable for a part-time role: "It's not you, it's the system." Focus on what you can control, what you say, what you do and what you think, build your brand, and raise flexibility at the end of an interview, once they already want you. Connect with Emma McLean worksforeveryone.co.nz linkedin.com/in/emma-mclean-9176217/ Connect with Karis Dorrigan ambitionandlife.com linkedin.com/in/kdorrigan/ Karis Dorrigan is Head of Product, coach, podcast host and solo parent. She has led product across billion-dollar enterprises and scaled companies to their first million in revenue. Today she coaches women in product and tech to step into senior leadership roles, on their terms.. Track: Brother Brother | Artist: BENSON | Licensed by Soundstripe, Inc. | License #22026995 | License ID: ZCQVE0RUQJPWL06T | Worldwide, in perpetuity, across web, podcast and social platforms. © BENSON / Soundstripe, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission under a perpetual licence. Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan.

  8. May 10

    Shout It From the Rooftops: How Women Win at Visibility, Equity and Career Growth with Karen Katz

    What does it really take to build workplaces where women don't just enter — they stay, grow and lead? This week Karis sits down with Karen Katz, Director at KK Consulting and co-founder and co-managing director of Her Tech Circle. A community on a mission to create an equitable, inclusive and diverse tech industry across Australia. Karen's journey is one of the most honest on the podcast yet. She grew up navigating real adversity, and built a career defined by the values that shaped her: trust, care and integrity. After resigning from a role that eroded her confidence with nowhere to go a friend whiteboarded a business plan on the spot. Eight years later, KK Consulting is thriving. That's the power of community. Together, Karis and Karen cover a lot of ground, from the systemic reasons women leave tech by their mid-thirties, to the small experiments any organisation can run today to start shifting the dial. In this episode: 00:00 Introduction to Karen Katz and her mission 02:04 Karen's personal story and core values 03:21 Barriers faced in her career journey 04:25 Lessons from workplace challenges 07:22 Advice to her younger self 09:20 State of DEI in Australia and tech 11:07 Creating supportive and inclusive workplaces 16:22 Building equitable business systems 18:55 Owning mistakes and transparency 19:39 Small experiments for change 21:39 Career advancement tips for women 24:29 Shifts needed for career growth 25:51 Future-proofing careers with AI 28:09 Actionable strategies for equity and inclusion 31:19 Connecting with Karen and upcoming events Key takeaways: Only 26% of Australia's tech workforce is female and we lose half of them between their third and fourth year. Karen explains why inclusion is a harder problem than hiring, why DEI programs are being scaled back at exactly the wrong moment, and what bold leaders do instead. Plus: why the next career move isn't about working harder i t's about being seen operating at the next level. Connect with Karen Katz hertechcircle.org kkconsulting.co linkedin.com/in/katzkaren/ Connect with Karis Dorrigan  ambitionandlife.com linkedin.com/in/kdorrigan/ Karis Dorrigan is Head of Product in InsurTech, coach, podcast host and solo parent. She has led product across billion-dollar enterprises and scaled companies to their first million in revenue. Today she coaches mid-career women in product and tech to step into senior leadership roles — on their terms. If this episode speaks to you as a solo parent, caregiver or leader, follow Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan, share it with a colleague, and join the movement to build systems where ambition and care can thrive side by side. Track: Brother Brother | Artist: BENSON | Licensed by Soundstripe, Inc. | License #22026995 | License ID: ZCQVE0RUQJPWL06T | Worldwide, in perpetuity, across web, podcast and social platforms. © BENSON / Soundstripe, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission under a perpetual licence. © Ambition & Life with Karis Dorrigan. All rights reserved. Intentionality · Courage · Balance · Advocacy

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About

Real stories. Brave leadership. Bold change. We have an opportunity not just to optimise work but to redesign it. Hosted by Karis Dorrigan, a product and innovation leader turned systems-change advocate and coach. Ambition & Life is where ambition meets humanity. Each episode explores how we can build systems that reflect real lives. Where success isn’t measured by hours or titles, but by impact, connection, and integrity. Through honest conversations with founders, leaders, and solo parents reshaping the future of work, you’ll hear stories of courage, practical tools for balance, and ideas that challenge the old rules of leadership and create new ones. We all deserve the opportunity to thrive at work and in life.

Information

  • Creator
    Karis Dorrigan
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Karis Dorrigan
  • Show Website
    Ambition & Life