Prior to this she completed a 20-year corporate career with IBM and PepsiCo, serving in a variety of international HR executive positions outside of the UK, most recently as group HRD for a Lion Capital-owned portfolio company.
Woods made an early decision to pursue a career in HR after working at Marks & Spencer while still at school. After taking a degree in theology at Hull University she spent three years as a graduate trainee in HR at computing giant IBM, working with expats.
She has extensive experience working internationally, with stints in Hungary, Thailand and South Africa. After moving to PepsiCo she took a role as vice president for Asia Pacific before coming back to the UK to run the then 85-strong HR team in December 2007.
Woods moved to Findus as chief HR officer in 2010 where she led a turnaround HR vision and strategy to deliver business transformation and cost reduction plans. She had an overall change leadership and strategic business partnering role for the board and owners.
In 2011 Woods moved to private equity firm Lion Capital, a consumer-focused investment firm that seeks to make controlled investments in mid- and large-sized,consumer-oriented businesses in Europe and North America.
Woods is an advisor to BBC Children in Need and on the Women in Business Committee of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation. She has an MBA in business administration from Portsmouth University and attended the IMD Business School PepsiCo executive leadership programme.
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