Dr Natalie Kenny came to Liverpool in 2015 with no belongings, car, documentation or job.
The 40-year-old scientist, from Southport, arrived in the city with her 16-month-old son, Oscar, after a “traumatic experience in her personal life”. The single mum-of-one left the South of England to move up North - having previously worked predominately between Cambridge, Oxford and London - after leaving her marriage.
The story so far might depict Natalie, who now lives in Birkdale, as the stereotypical damsel in distress, she is anything but.
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Through years of hard work, perseverance, challenging gender stereotypes and overcoming sexism - she was once refused a job for being pregnant - the mum is now a successful CEO and is sharing her story to inspire others this International Women’s Day.
When Natalie first came back to Merseyside, she never aspired to own a business, having always worked for other people. However, as she struggled to find the same opportunities for research in the North, she became passionate about creating her own opportunities.
She told the ECHO: “My marriage looked ideal from the outside but it wasn’t. I went from having a really good career, a nice house, multiple cars and holidays, the whole lot to having nothing effectively overnight. I was homeless in the North West with a 16-month-old baby and it was the most humbling experience ever in the world. When I managed to borrow some money to pay for a few months' rent, we lived in a tiny place with no furniture - I didn’t have a bed for two years.”
Natalie had no other choice but to “become extremely ballsy” and with this new mindset, she walked into Liverpool Science Park and convinced them to give her a lease on a lab for a year.
What grew from there was Bio Grad - a passion project created to keep Natalie active in the life sciences sector. Natalie still wasn’t short of struggles when she initially started her business - her son, who is now nine, had no passport so was unable to attend nursery, meaning Natalie had to set up a play area in the corner of her office.
Natalie, who wanted to become a scientist after watching Sean Connery’s Medicine Man, said: “I had to do all my work when I put my son down for a nap and was having to have picnics with him in between going in and out of the lab. I remember the days when things were really, really hard and I remember saying to myself I don't want any woman to go through this and If I ever have staff, I want to do something slightly different.”
What Natalie’s company is now - with five locations over the region, including Wavertree and Warrington and employing over 300 staff members - is something she never pictured as possible for a long-time because she was taught the industry was reserved for males.
With this in mind, every decision made by Natalie has been done so consciously with the impact of females kept in mind. Through BioGrad, Natalie is opening the “second largest Biobank in the UK”, giving all parents the chance to preserve their stem cells within the North West and the provision of non-invasive, prenatal testing and pregnancy testing - something which she said can be a real catalyst for female well-being for decades to come.
Natalie claims the last 12 months have been “groundbreaking” for the company, not only in terms of new ventures and company growth but also in no small part due to the work the company has done to be an employer and company of choice for females.
Natalie shared her story in light of International Women’s Day 2023. The day, which is celebrated globally on March 8, sees a number of missions to help forge a gender-equal world. This year’s theme is #EmbraceEquity and despite the theme changing annually, the core message remains the same - celebrate women’s achievements, increase visibility and call out inequality.
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Although Natalie appreciates the idea of the day, she believes the roll-out of it has lost its meaning.
She added: “It's supposed to be about acknowledging that women generally pick up a greater burden, a greater amount of social care whether that be children or parents and that women often have barriers to business, innovation or progression.
“But as we acknowledge that by celebrating International Women's Day, I am being asked to do more unpaid work by giving free talks - it feels hypocritical. If people really want to celebrate it, pay women more, make paternity pay leave longer and offer free childcare.”
For now, Natalie is looking forward to officially opening a new hub for the local community and a space for city region-based, female-led science enterprises later this year.
Natalie said none of her success would have been possible “without going through the tough times in the 2010s”.
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