Rebuild Identity First: Failing Well with Rachel Higham
What do you rebuild first when everything goes offline? Rachel Higham led Marks & Spencer’s recovery from the 2025 cyber attack, and she’s coming to King’s to talk about failing well.
When a cyber attack took Marks & Spencer offline in 2025, the first thing that had to be rebuilt was identity: knowing who is who. Drawing on Amy Edmondson’s Right Kind of Wrong, Rachel looks at failure and resilience from three distances (a company, a career and a person) and asks what you need to build before you face a crisis or setback of your own.
Stick around for the Q&A. Our favourite questions win a copy of Right Kind of Wrong, Rachel’s pick for anyone founding a venture, running a lab or building a career.
Speaker Bio:
Rachel Higham has had a 30-year career in technology and is a former Chief Digital & Technology Officer of Marks & Spencer, BT and WPP. At M&S, she led the recovery from the 2025 cyber attack.
She now holds a portfolio of board and advisory roles. She is a NED of Macmillan Cancer Support, where she chairs a £33m impact investment fund, and of GlobalData. She sits on the advisory boards of PwC, Aldermore Bank and two high-tech start-ups, and advises investors, founders and boards on resilience, digital transformation, and managing AI and sovereignty risk. She also leads on Digital and AI Skills for the government’s Women’s Business Council.
WHEN: Thursday, 3rd December 2026
5.30 PM – 6.30 PM: Fireside discussion in Keynes Lecture Theatre
6.30 PM – 7.00 PM: Drinks reception and networking in King’s Bar
WHERE: King’s College, Cambridge
TICKETS: Register here
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