The Road Less Travelled: Curiosity, Boardrooms and Going Far Together | Shefaly Yogendra

Non-linear careers, midlife career change and what it takes to walk into a boardroom. Shefaly Yogendra - engineer, Cambridge PhD, portfolio board director and author of Uncharted Spaces: Reset the Agenda. Reimagine the Boardroom - joins Patsy on her book’s launch day.Curiosity and patience are the golden threads running through Shefaly's life, and in this episode they take us from beehives in rural Kenya to onion warehouses in India, by way of a black cab in London.If you’re at a career crossroads, feeling returning ambition, or quietly reimagining what a second act looks like, listen as together they unpack metacognitive reflections that will help you carry your capabilities into the next chapter.Thank you to our sponsor AJ BELL MONEY MATTERSThank you to AJ Bell Money Matters for supporting this episode. The AJ Bell Money Matters podcast is created for women by women featuring news, information and inspiring interviews to help build your knowledge and confidence around finances. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.Please click here to show support of our podcast and to find out more about AJ Bell:https://www.ajbell.co.uk/investment/women-and-investing?utm_source=moneymatters&utm_medium=partnership&utm_campaign=wobblymiddleListener Exercise — Channel Shefaly’s CuriosityOver the next week or two, take something you’re chewing over — a challenge, a direction, a problem, a decision. Make a list of questions about it. Then drill down: what further questions do you need to ask to find the answers to those questions? In the next episode, we’ll think about what to do with them.About Shefaly YogendraShefaly studied engineering, earned an MBA from one of India’s most prestigious business schools, completed a PhD in decision making (and a Masters in Technology Policy) at Cambridge. Over the last decade she has served on the boards of several of the UK’s leading listed investment trusts, co-founded a luxury-tech startup, and been COO of an AI company. Her book Uncharted Spaces: Reset the Agenda. Reimagine the Boardroom publishes on 14 April 2026.Key TopicsThe non-linear career — why Shefaly’s path through engineering, MBA, Cambridge PhD, MIT, a luxury-tech startup, an AI COO role and a portfolio of board seats was never going to be a straight lineReturning ambition in midlife — the women who step away in their 30s and 40s and still carry their curiosity with themCuriosity and patience — two qualities that don’t seem to sit together until they doThe board director career path — what non-execs actually do, how it differs from the executive suite, and why it isn’t a retirement gig or a “jolly”How Shefaly broke in — spotting the Board Apprentice Programme in a Sunday newspaper in 2015, being coached by headhunter Carol Rosati, and the interview where her small talk about Uber became big talkMetacognitive reflection — how to describe the higher-level capabilities that actually travel with youThe psychological shift — detaching your identity from a job title and a company nameMargaret Wanjiku’s Smart Hive — a young Kenyan engineer using IoT, solar panels and mobile phones to save collapsing beehives, and the ecosystem around themKalyani Shinde’s onion warehouses — IoT sensing to catch rot before anyone can smell it, in Asia’s largest onion trading hubBelief as the biggest limiter — Sam Smith of Super Scalers on what holds women back from scaling, and why seeing other women do it mattersThe road not taken — Robert Frost only offered two roads. Shefaly thinks there are many — and many more uncharted ones📺 Also on YouTubeWant to see as well as hear? An extended version of this conversation will be available on The Wobbly Middle YouTube channel — including extra material that didn't make the podcast edit. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/vvifAdOQ2os?si=XnVjDhJhWDndrkYYHelp Us GrowIf this episode resonated with you, there are two simple ways you can make a real difference:Leave a review here — it only takes a moment, and it's one of the best ways to help new l