Amelia Greene didn’t set out to build a career in the chemical industry or become a voice for inclusive leadership. Early on, she imagined becoming an orthodontist until she fainted three times while shadowing a dentist. Then a short-lived attempt at lab research confirmed something else. She preferred going out to lunch with her friends over keeping an eye on a Bunsen burner that wasn’t supposed to be left unattended.
A chance interview at a chemical distribution company in her senior year changed everything. She met a young woman on the commercial team whose confidence and career path immediately resonated. Amelia chose the industry, discovered she loved the strategic and relational side of the work, and never looked back. Now, ten years and an MBA from NYU Stern later, she has held a number of commercial leadership roles in the chemical industry and is the Co-Founder and Chairwoman of Women in Chemicals, a nonprofit supporting more than 8,000 women worldwide.
Stepping Into the Conversation
Amelia joined Forté’s Global Women on Boards Conference as both a panelist and an attendee. She wanted to understand how leaders across sectors are navigating the same pressures she sees in the chemical industry: regulatory change, shifting power structures, talent shortages, and the EU’s gender diversity mandate, which is reshaping expectations for boards and the pipelines that supply them.
The theme, Beyond the Chaos, resonated immediately. “Business conditions are changing rapidly, and many organizations aren’t evolving as fast as their environments,” she said. “The companies that will thrive are the ones willing to reimagine leadership and lean into change rather than resist it.”
The companies that will thrive are the ones willing to reimagine leadership and lean into change rather than resist it."
Where Practice Meets Possibility
For Amelia, the keynote from Bain partner Bianca Bax set the tone for the day. Bax closed with a question that landed as both a reflection and a challenge. As Amelia remembers it, Bax reminded the audience that we are the sum of our unique chromosomes and every lived experience we’ve ever had, and then asked: What are you going to do with that leadership potential?
The conversations that followed brought that question into clearer focus. Sessions explored the impact of AI on equity, the implications of new governance standards, and the cultural shifts needed to prepare organizations for an unpredictable future. The message was consistent. Modern leadership requires curiosity, flexibility, and a willingness to rethink inherited assumptions.
Amelia’s session, the panel How Organizations Put Values Into Action, illustrated what that looks like in practice. Leaders from multiple industries discussed how they’re closing representation gaps, strengthening talent pathways, and turning equity goals into everyday decisions.
One example stayed with her. When a panelist realized her company had no women ready for senior roles, she built a business case for an internal women’s leadership program rather than relying on external hires. The organization adopted it, and it’s now developing its own bench of future leaders.
For Amelia, the takeaway was straightforward. Progress doesn’t always come from sweeping directives or complex frameworks. It often begins with someone identifying a barrier, sharing what they’ve tried, and building a model others can adapt. “Progress happens faster when organizations learn from each other,” she said. “These challenges may feel enormous, but solutions often start with sharing what works.”
[Progress] often begins with someone identifying a barrier, sharing what they’ve tried, and building a model others can adapt."
What Leaders Can Take Forward
The conference also highlighted how quickly leadership expectations are shifting. Industries across Europe are navigating talent shortages, regulatory pressure, technological disruption, and cultural change all at once. The organizations that adapt early will have a real advantage. For Amelia, the event underscored how important it is for leaders to look ahead, question long-entrenched habits, and design talent strategies that match the complexity of today’s environment.
What struck her even more was the affirmation that spaces like this remain essential. After relocating from the United States to Europe, she’d wondered whether women-focused professional gatherings would feel as necessary, as urgent, as they often do in the US. Some colleagues had suggested they might not. But the energy in Brussels told a different story. Representation may appear stronger in some regions, but the work of equity is far from complete. As she put it earlier, progress is real, but the status quo is still not enough.
It’s why she believes senior leaders across industries would benefit from this conference. The headwinds may differ in detail, but the underlying challenges are shared. Hearing how others are approaching talent pipelines, technological shifts, cultural transformation, and new governance expectations offers insights that can be applied immediately.
Hearing how others are approaching talent pipelines, technological shifts, cultural transformation, and new governance expectations offers insights that can be applied immediately."
Amelia left Brussels with new collaborators, new ideas, and several new speakers lined up for future Women in Chemicals programs. The experience left her energized about what’s possible when those who care about women in leadership come together to compare notes, share what works, and imagine better systems. As expectations shift and organizations adapt, no one has to navigate that evolution alone. When women step into conversations like these, the path forward becomes not only clearer, but stronger.
