Kate Thompson joins the World Wellbeing Movement with a distinguished track record of driving meaningful change, bringing invaluable experience from her work with pioneering organisations including Action for Happiness and The King’s Trust.

Kate’s focus on wellbeing is both personal and professional. From an early age, she saw how deeply mental wellbeing shapes lives. That knowledge led her to study behavioural science, and later lend her expertise to charitable organisations who prioritise wellbeing through both evidence-based approaches and practical impact. An exited entrepreneur and C-Suite leader, Kate co-founded BusinessFourZero, a purpose-driven change consultancy, and scaled it internationally to its acquisition by Heidrick & Struggles. We are honoured that she is bringing her expertise in wellbeing, gender equity and responsible business to our charity.

The World Wellbeing Movement aligns perfectly with Kate’s aim to take the wellbeing agenda further upstream – into the systems, institutions and decisions that shape everyday life for millions of people. Kate joins us because she believes that “the World Wellbeing Movement sits exactly where this matters most: translating rigorous evidence into decisions in both business and government.”

The World Wellbeing Movement sits exactly where this matters most: translating rigorous evidence into decisions in both business and government

Looking forward five years, Kate reflected on the changes she would like to see in both business and government priorities. In business, Kate would like workplace wellbeing to become a “standard, reportable measure of business health tracked with the same seriousness as other core performance indicators, and scrutinised by boards, investors and employees alike. What gets measured properly gets prioritised properly”.

I’d love to see more leaders in business and politics judged not only by income, profit or GDP, but also by whether people genuinely feel their lives are getting better.

On the policy side, she hopes we see “wellbeing treated far more seriously as a measure of real progress – not in opposition to growth, but as part of how we create it”, with “more leaders in business and politics judged not only by income, profit or GDP, but also by whether people genuinely feel their lives are getting better – which may sound vague, but can in fact be measured with real scientific rigour.”