Shirine Khoury-Haq was the first female Group CEO of Co-Op Group and is widely recognised for reducing the group's net debt from £920 million to £55 million. She also played a key role in increasing underlying operating profit by 30%, growing membership from 4.2 million to 7.3 million, and leading the response to a large-scale cyberattack in 2025. As a speaker, she now shares compelling insights on business transformation, crisis leadership, AI, digital technology, and turnaround strategy. Ideal for business events, leadership summits, and industry conferences, Shirine's practical strategies and key takeaways teach audiences how to optimise performance, lead under pressure, maximise technology, and turn strategy into measurable action.
Shirine graduated from The Australian National University in 1989 with a BComm in Accounting and Economics. She then completed an MBA at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business and later a Postgraduate Diploma in Management and Leadership from the University of the West of England. In her career, she progressed through a series of senior leadership roles, beginning as Finance and Operations Manager at McDonald’s, before becoming an Associate Partner at IBM and later taking on the roles of Group Head of Operations and UK Chief Operating Officer at Catlin. In 2014, she became the Chief Operating Officer at Lloyd’s, where she spearheaded a major modernisation and digital transformation programme across the London insurance market, spanning 200 countries and hundreds of organisations.
In 2019, Shirine became the first female Group CEO of The Co-Op Group. While in this role, she led the group's response to one of the UK's most notorious retail cyberattacks, coordinating crisis management, technology recovery and corporate communication. Alongside this, she also worked as a non-executive director at the Post Office and as Audit Chair of Persimmon. In 2023, she co-chaired the UK's Net Zero Council and reprised her role in 2025 alongside Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband. For her incredible achievements in business, Shirine was ranked number one in both PR Week’s UK Business Communicators of the Year list and INvolve’s 2025 Heroes Top 100 Women Executives list.
A pioneering business leader, Shirine Khoury-Haq has led several organisations through transformation. Drawing on her experience leading the Co-Op Group and modernising the London insurance market, her talks explore how organisations can improve performance, adapt to disruption and create long-term impact. Combining commercial discipline with a focus on people, culture and purpose, Shirine's keynotes are particularly relevant for organisations navigating business transformation, financial challenges and technological disruption. Secure Shirine Khoury-Haq for your next event with Champions Speakers today!
Shirine Khoury-Haq's official speaking topics are listed below:
Turning it around: how to change the trajectory of a business—and make the change stick
Most turnarounds do not fail for lack of ideas. They fail because leaders misdiagnose the problem, there is lack of understanding for the need for change, try to change everything at once or lose the people needed to deliver. Drawing on transformations from McDonald’s restaurants to the £11bn Co-op Group, where focus on right sizing, improving cash and profitability enabled the business to withstand a major cyberattack. Shirine explains how to establish the facts, restore financial and operational discipline, choose the few things that matter most, build a change-ready environment, and create momentum without sacrificing long-term growth. This is a practical guide to moving from complexity and constraint to performance, confidence and lasting value.
Key takeaways: a way to diagnose performance, prioritise interventions, align governance and turn a strategy into measurable action.
Lead when it hits: what a crisis demands of a leader when there is no easy decision
A major cyberattack can turn a business upside down in hours. In 2025, Shirine led Co-op through precisely that experience, balancing containment, business continuity, public scrutiny and the needs of colleagues and communities. Her open letter to business leaders on the attack was published in the National Cyber Security Centre’s 2025 Annual Review. She explores the choices only senior leaders can make: what to protect first, how to organise decision-making, when to trust specialists and how to communicate when the facts are still emerging. Moving beyond cyber to disruption of all kinds, this talk shows why resilience is built before a crisis —and tested in the decisions made during it. Importantly, she discusses the calm after the storm and why it is as important to manage as the storm itself.
Key takeaways: practical principles for readiness, judgement, accountability and humane leadership under pressure.
Making technology pay: turning AI and digital ambition into customer value and commercial results
Technology is rarely a strategy, it is a tool to achieve strategy. Too many organisations invest in systems or AI without first being clear about the customer problem, the operating model and the economic benefit – or the recognition that people and the organisation are usually the critical success factors, not the technology itself. With experience modernising the London insurance market and using digital tools to reshape businesses across different industries and countries, Shirine sets out a business and people -first approach. A pragmatic alternative to both AI hype and technology paralysis.
Key takeaway: technology and AI are key determinants of organisational success - how to choose what to do and how to ensure that the investment delivers results.
- 2025 - Ranked number one in INvolve’s 2025 Heroes Top 100 Women Executives list
- 2025 - Ranked number one in PR Week’s UK Business Communicators of the Year
- 2025 - Reprised her role as co-chair of the relaunched council alongside Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband
- 2023 - Co-chaired the UK's Net Zero Council under the Conservative government
- 2022 - Group CEO of Co-Op Group
- 2021 - Non-Executive Director of Persimmon Homes
- 2019 - Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Servicer at Co-Op Group
- 2014 - Non-Executive Director of Post Office Ltd
- 2014 - Chief Operating Officer for Lloyd's
- 2007 - Group Head of Operations and UK Chief Operating Officer at Catlin
- 2001 - Completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Management and Leadership from the University of the West of England
- 1998 - Associate Partner at IMB
- 1996 - Finance and Operations Manager at McDonald's
- 1996 - Completed an MBA from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business
- 1989 - Graduated from The Australian National University with a BComm in Accounting and Economics
How to hire Shirine Khoury-Haq
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Shirine Khoury-Haq for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
** We do NOT accept requests for autographs, signed merchandise, fan mail, birthday messages or any other non-commercial contact with the speakers or acts. Each speaker on the website may not have necessarily worked with Champions in the past but are known to perform such engagements within the industry.
