On 25th September, we celebrated 25 years of Women Ahead at Malmaison Dundee. Our chair, Delia Smith-Bucur, gave the following speech highlighting our history and the contribution of different women to the network.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for being here — it means a lot to me.

For anyone who hasn’t met me — though I doubt that’s many of you — I’m Delia, and I’m honoured to be your Chair.

Look around this room. The people here tonight — the ones who stayed, who came back, who kept believing — this is what twenty-five years of Women Ahead really looks like.

Let me be honest with you because you, of all people, have earned it: we very nearly didn’t reach this milestone.

Women Ahead began in 2001. At our height, we were almost two hundred women strong. But the numbers started to slip long before the pandemic — as far back as 2015 and 2016. And the pandemic didn’t cause our decline. It deepened one that was already there. By May 2022, there were barely ten of us active beyond the board, and we were seriously discussing whether to close, or merge, and quietly let it end.

Let me take you back to that spring. When I stepped in, in 2022, this organisation was twenty-one years old and facing what could have been its concluding chapter. I wasn’t on the board then. I was a member. And I’ll never forget that online AGM in May. I looked at those faces on the screen, and I could see the doubt — the sense that this was over, that it was time to let go. But I felt something else entirely. I felt excited. Because I could still see everything this could become.

So, when the proposal came to merge, or to fold, I said: with all due respect, ladies, I disagree. Dundee and Angus deserve this organisation. And I wasn’t willing to give up on it.

I wasn’t willing to do so because I knew from my own life how much this support matters. When I came to Scotland almost twenty years ago, I had none of it — not in business, not anywhere. For a long time, I felt that some didn’t understand me. Nobody quite got me. I know what it’s like to stand on the outside, looking in. And that’s why my ‘why’ runs so deep: no woman should ever have to feel that alone.

But I didn’t build what came next on my own. And before I say another word, I want to honour the people who made Women Ahead possible.

To the founders who started it all in 2001 — among them John Scott, who was then with Dundee City Council, and Amanda Boyle, whose path was tied to Scottish Enterprise Tayside. The people who built this came from the very institutions that went on to support it. They began something with real conviction, and we are still growing it today.

I also want to remember two women who carried this through its hardest years. Philly Alexander — the Phoenix, as she called herself — who led this organisation before Alison, and who we sadly lost during the pandemic, after a brave fight. Philly gave this community her whole heart, and she is with us tonight, and always.

And Alison — our past president, who has travelled all the way from Cambridge to be here this evening. Alison, you took on an almost impossible job: holding everything together through a pandemic, carrying the worry and the weight of it, and keeping the flame alive when it would have been so much easier to let it go out. Because you did, there was still a flame for the rest of us to gather around. Thank you.

And I couldn’t do what I do without the women who run Women Ahead today. Let me introduce them. Krista, our Executive Assistant and the youngest member in our whole history — a first we are proud of. Victoria, our Digital Marketing Director. Sara, our social media and Marketing Director. Alison, who you already know. And me. A small board, but a mighty one.

Now, I’ll be honest about how I’ve led — because it hasn’t always been comfortable, and yes, I’ve challenged the way things were done. I try to understand every point of view in the room without ever losing sight of where we’re going. I believe leadership needs sound business judgement; assumptions alone can make an organisation drift. And my own background — a life lived across diverse cultures — has taught me to hold different perspectives at once and see the whole picture.

But more than anything, I was clear about our purpose. I wanted to build a place where the only things that count are the person in front of you and the professionalism they bring. Not their background. Not their job title. Not their turnover. That is the Women Ahead I believe in.

And it worked. We didn’t just survive — we rebuilt. We strengthened our governance and became a social enterprise, which means that everything we earn goes straight back into supporting women: their confidence, their growth, their success. Since then, more than two hundred women have come through our programmes. When women do well, businesses grow, families do better, and the whole region is stronger for it.

So, what will you take home tonight? Two things. The first is our new brochure — your first look at the evolution of our brand. I began researching this rebrand over a year ago and planned its arrival for our twenty-fifth anniversary. From next week, we will share the full story through our press release and across our own channels.

The second is a book telling the story of the Dundee Women’s Trail, which exists thanks to a remarkable woman, Mary Henderson, who sadly passed away last year. Back in 1997, Mary set out to make sure the extraordinary women of this city would never be forgotten. She found so many that she had to choose. And she settled on twenty-five.

Twenty-five women. Twenty-five years. I don’t think that is a coincidence. I think it is a thread. From the mill girls who once powered this city, to the women on Mary’s Trail, to every woman in this room — Dundee has always run on the strength of its women. And Women Ahead exists to carry that forward.

Before I raise a glass, allow me one honest, personal moment. These past four years have asked everything of me. There were times I doubted and times when it would have been easier to walk away. Tonight, I want to acknowledge the resilience and strength it took to hold the line and not let go — not out of pride, but because I know I am not the only woman in this room who has had to be stronger than anyone realised. To every one of you who has carried more than you ever let show — I see you. And I am so proud of us.

So where do we go from here? This year, we turn twenty-five. Our next chapter is to become a centre of excellence for leadership — here in Dundee and right across Scotland. Because leadership is not defined by the size of the place you come from, but by the scale of the possibility you are willing to embrace.

So please, raise your glasses with me.

To the founders who lit this flame in 2001. To Mary Henderson, and the twenty-five women of the Trail. To Philly, whom we miss. To Alison, who kept the flame burning. And to every woman in this room — you are the reason Women Ahead is still here, still growing, still mattering.

Twenty-five years ago, people came together around the belief that no woman should rise alone. Tonight, you are the proof they were right.

To Women Ahead — and to the next twenty-five years.

Thank you.