Eileen Donnelly

Eileen Donnelly – Strategic Wellbeing Leader | Founder, Ripple & Co

Eileen Donnelly is a Strategic Wellbeing Leader with over 20 years’ senior corporate experience, known for helping organisations bridge the gap between good intentions and measurable impact in workplace wellbeing. A former Director in a global FTSE 250, she now leads Ripple & Co, an award-winning consultancy and training provider that works with companies like NatWest, Cadent Gas, Virgin, GXO, and Mott MacDonald to build mentally healthier, more productive cultures.

Eileen’s approach is rooted in evidence, not empty wellbeing rhetoric. Her work focuses on creating integrated, data-led wellbeing strategies that deliver tangible return on investment - financially, culturally and reputationally. At a time when many organisations are scrambling to define their ESG credentials, Eileen brings clarity and credibility: a pragmatic voice on what works, what doesn’t, and what’s coming next in mental health governance and psychological safety at work.

Her credibility is hard-earned. Eileen has led sustainability, wellbeing and culture programmes across sectors, from not-for-profits to blue chips, and was voted Best Speaker at the edie Sustainability Conference and Female Speaker of the year at the Professional Speakers Academy. She has guest lectured at Harvard Business School, developed sector-specific mental health courses for the UK’s leading first aid training provider, and won the Health & Wellbeing Businesswoman of the Year at the Business Awards UK.

But what sets her apart is her ability to cut through the fluff. Eileen speaks candidly about the commercial realities of leading with care: the pressures on leaders, the pitfalls of performative wellbeing, and the value of designing systems that support not just individual resilience, but systemic change. Her keynotes and masterclasses are engaging, practical and provocative, designed for senior audiences who want to understand wellbeing not just as a moral imperative, but as a business-critical lever.

Popular keynote topics include:

1. From Perks to Purpose: Driving Culture Change in Workplace Wellbeing
2. Data, Duty and the Bottom Line: Why Mental Health Needs a Seat at the Boardroom Table
3. The Future of Mental Health Strategy: Risk, Regulation and Return
4. The Wellbeing Wake-Up: Why Culture Change Needs More Than Good Intentions
5. Lead Well: The Leadership Behaviours That Make or Break Workplace Wellbeing
6. From Burnout to Buy-in: Creating Safe, High-Performance Cultures

Eileen regularly consults on wellbeing integration across HR, risk and Health & Safety teams, and has a strong track record in regulated and high-risk sectors. Her team at Ripple & Co deliver award-winning mental health programmes, including accredited Mental Health First Aid training, suicide awareness, and Talkworks: Ripple’s immersive, actor-led conversational skills programme for managers.

As a speaker, Eileen brings the rare combination of warmth, passion, authority and sharp commercial insight. She’s equally comfortable on a main stage, a C-suite offsite or a sector roundtable - always focused on creating what she calls ripple effects: those simple, evidence-informed actions that, when scaled, can transform not just lives but entire organisations.

Whether your event is focused on leadership, ESG, workplace culture or future of work, Eileen delivers grounded, thought-provoking and actionable content that leaves audiences inspired and ready to lead with both head and heart.