The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is Accelerate Action—a rallying cry for meaningful change in how women experience work, leadership, and opportunity. While progress has been made, the reality remains: women still carry the heavier load at home, navigate systemic barriers in the workplace, and are expected to perform a constant balancing act.
Perhaps this is why many women are redefining success—not by climbing the corporate ladder at any cost, but by finding roles that align with their values, ambitions, and lives. Women are making intentional career choices, seeking fulfilment, and refusing to settle for environments that don’t serve them. We don’t just want a seat at the table; we want a table worth sitting at.
But how do you pivot toward purpose? And how do you build a career that truly matters—without sacrificing financial security, ambition, or the life you want?
Anne Reaney’s story is a testament to this shift. From pursuing a part-time sustainability degree in secret, to negotiating the high-pressure world of financial services, she followed the less travelled road, forging a successful career in sustainability and impact —one shaped by intuition, courage, and a quest for alignment. In this piece, Anne shares her journey exclusively with WealthDFM, on why the path to meaningful work is not only possible, but necessary.
The Road to Alignment: Choosing a Career that Matters
In 2018 I met an Israeli bibliotherapist on a boat crossing from Argentina to Chile. I had been hoping for quiet contemplation, but she insisted on conversation. At the time, I was midway through a work sabbatical, avoiding a big career decision: stay in my current job or seek something new? Sensing my dilemma, she prescribed a poem—Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken.
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
And it really has. When I landed in Chile, I quit my job. I had no plan, no next step—just a deep certainty that staying put was no longer an option. It was one of the best decisions of my life.
The Corporate Climb and the Quiet Doubt
I began my career at Markit Group in 2006, a financial data company specialising in credit default swaps. It was a high-energy, fast-growing environment of about 200 people that by 2018 had become IHS Markit, a 13,000-person global giant. Over 12 years, I built a successful career in software solution sales, thriving in complex deal-making and relationship-driven consultative sales.
But despite the promotions, the network, and the financial security, something felt off. The work was interesting, but did it matter?
Success hadn’t come easily. As a young woman in sales, I initially struggled in a culture that was loud, “peacocky,” male dominated. My first true sales manager deployed a heavily FUD-based sales style (Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt as tactics) and never bothered to introduce me in client meetings. Nothing about it resonated with me. But with the right champions, I found my niche in consultative, strategic sales— where success depended on emotional intelligence and problem-solving rather than hardball, transactional selling. I thrived for a while, but, the sense of misalignment persisted.
Stepping Off the Beaten Path
I grew up in the North of England, where financial stability and a strong work ethic were considered paramount. Leaving a well-paid job without a plan was not considered responsible. But stepping away allowed me to reflect: What did I truly care about? What did I really want to ‘do’? Could I combine the two?
I had been aware of the environmental cost of unchecked economic growth from first-hand experience travelling on a round-the-world ticket aged 18 in the early 2000s. I’d studied climate change at university and read The Tragedy of the Commons: I understood the urgency. Yet, in my professional world, sustainability was seen as idealistic, naïve, soft. All the things you’re desperately trying not to be when your aim is to be taken seriously as a woman in business. I enrolled in a part-time sustainability master’s where I focused on the role of Responsible Investment but essentially kept it quiet at work – unsure what it might mean for my career.
Within a few months of stepping off that boat in Chile, I discovered a Silicon Valley company using AI to assess corporate ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance and something clicked. They had little European presence, but I understood data businesses, their target market, and – thanks to my master’s work – the problems faced by the responsible investment industry. I pitched myself, was invited to San Francisco, and returned a week later with a European sales leadership role. Suddenly, I was working from home building a sustainability network from scratch. It was scrappy, exhilarating, fascinating: exactly what I had been searching for.
The ESG Pivot and a New Era of Work
I immersed myself in responsible investment, speaking at events and joining industry panels. Then, COVID-19 changed everything. My company was acquired, I was pregnant, and life took another turn. A former advisor introduced me to a climate tech startup, Persefoni, an ambitious remote-first company based in the US.
The pandemic, for all its devastation, reshaped work for parents. The flexibility of remote work made high-impact roles more accessible to mothers. Had there been an expectation of office presence from 8 to 6, I couldn’t have taken on a global sales leadership role while raising a child. The shift to remote work was a game changer, proving that talent and impact aren’t dependent on physical presence.
Finding Alignment in Natural Capital
Last month, I joined Rebalance Earth, a natural capital fund focused on making nature an investible asset, to restore it at scale. My role is to make the business case for nature restoration which enhances resilience for companies, communities and investors —tackling physical climate risks like flooding, drought & water quality. I found my groove and couldn’t feel more energised about the work I’m doing.
Leaving your kids to go to work is hard. Balancing home life with a demanding job is a challenge. But when your work aligns with your values, everything shifts. I can kiss my daughters goodbye knowing I’m modelling something important: that pursuing professional, meaningful work is possible, relevant and worth it.
A Message to Fellow Hustlers
To those striving to balance it all: listen to your inner voice. If you feel misaligned, do the work. Reflect on what truly matters to you. Assess your skills, your experience, your values and intention. And remember a phrase I borrow regularly from my sister: Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. Don’t be afraid to take risks, and embrace the unknown, taking comfort from the wise words of Paulo Coelho:
“Making a decision was only the beginning of things. When someone makes a decision, (she) is really diving into a strong current that will carry (her) to places (she) had never dreamed of when (she) first made the decision.” (The Alchemist)
Decisions set us on paths we can’t fully predict, but momentum builds when we trust ourselves. The road less travelled isn’t always easy, but it can make all the difference.
Anne Reaney, Head of Commercial Strategy at Rebalance Earth
As Head of Commercial Strategy at Rebalance Earth, Anne Reaney drives business growth through nature-based solutions. She refines the company’s value proposition, develops scalable revenue models like Nature-as-a-Service (NaaS), and forges high-impact partnerships to address climate risks.
