Liz Sauer Williamson Of Löwenzahn Organics On How We Can Increase Women’s Engagement in Leadership and Management
An Interview With Vanessa Ogle
Equal pay. The income inequality that arises in our careers means that women generally will take on more of the care work when or if they start a family. And to underline this, care work is real work; it’s just not recognised and certainly not valued as a society, which is an outrage.
Despite strides towards equality, women remain underrepresented in leadership and management roles across various sectors. In this series, we would like to discuss the barriers to female advancement in these areas and explore actionable strategies for change. We are talking with accomplished women leaders, executives, and pioneers who have navigated these challenges successfully, to hear their experiences, tactics, and advice to inspire and guide the next generation of women toward achieving their full potential in leadership and management roles. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Liz Sauer Williamson.
Liz Sauer Williamson has had a distinguished career in advertising, working with major agencies like M&C Saatchi, JWT, and Sapient in Australia and the UK. Her expertise in connecting consumer insights to products has driven market share and growth for leading FMCG corporations. After relocating to Berlin and collaborating with Delivery Hero on their brand framework, Liz founded Löwenzahn Organics, focusing on organic nutrition and gut health for mothers and babies. Today, Löwenzahn Organics is a rapidly growing baby food company in the DACH region, with over 5000 retail listings and expanding international operations, all while Liz balances her business commitments with raising her two children.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
As a first-time mum, post-birth going through the customer journey of deciding on infant formula was a lightning rod for me to want to change this category in a positive, more modern, and research-led way.
What I saw was the disconnect between products on the market and how I wanted to feed my baby, first when breastfeeding failed and then when baby-led weaning did not work out.
With my background in advertising, working on accounts for Kellogg’s and Mars, I could see this problem not only through the lens of being a new mom but from my professional expertise: infant nutrition in Germany had not been revisited since the 90s. What also struck me was the massive disconnect between idealised motherhood represented by those brands vs. motherhood in reality.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
We were told by a potential investment consortium that we should let our husbands do the work and that we should stay home and look after our kids.
Why should I stress myself out and start a company?
The reality is that in our home, my husband is our kids’ primary carer. Which for us as a family works, and it’s the only way I get to do Löwenzahn Organics with his support in our home. I recognize that this is incredibly privileged.
It’s not everyone’s story, but it’s ours, and as a society, we need to be more open-minded by not sticking to the rigidity of one size or structure fits all.
Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that significantly influenced your path to leadership?
Giving birth to my children has been the inspiration for finding better solutions. When I had my firstborn, Leonid, breastfeeding really just did not work, and I could not find a formula that I was satisfied with. Either I could choose organic OR functional nutrition, but I felt like I was being asked to compromise again.
It’s very much mission-led; there was this sense of “If I’m not doing it, no one will.” Trying to solve the huge problems we face in infant and childhood nutrition has led me on this path to building and leading Löwenzahn Organics. Babies and children can’t change the status quo for themselves; therefore, it’s our moral duty to do it for them.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My co-founder, Alice, is my “ride or die”. The co-founder relationship is such a critical one for me, and it’s important to have complete trust — someone who is there through all the ups and downs. I value that she shares the same brutal honesty and that we can call each other out and then still talk to each other afterwards. We met each other in the early days of global food delivery giant Delivery Hero in Berlin. As a fellow Australian with a feisty attitude, I just knew that we would work together again, and I was right! The way women support women, we should all use that power!
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
It’s a thorough investigation of how fungi transform our world. It is another example of something we completely take for granted and fail to understand, yet its interconnectivity in nature helps global conservation. For me, it is a reminder that nature has amazing examples of innovations that can truly save our environment, if only we would pay more attention to the on-earth environment. It gives me hope and determination.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” It’s better to have tried and failed then not tried at all if you want something to change.
As women, we are strong; we just need to be reminded that the path to change is not straightforward; and multiple attempts are usually required. It’s not because women are less competent at entrepreneurship; it’s just the journey.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I think wanting to make the world a better place, or, in our case, make future generations healthier by supporting those pivotal first 1,000 days of mom’s and baby’s nutrition, actually came first, before successes kicked in. It’s the reason we design and innovate replenishing postnatal nutrition, nutrient-dense infant formulas, and less-processed, no-sugar-first foods.
Something I am particularly proud of is how we are changing the narrative on motherhood, showing the reality of this incredible journey, and talking openly about taboos. Our campaigns against mom shaming, such as #coolmomsdontjudge, have seen such a huge outpouring from our community sharing their personal stories of how they have been negatively judged as mothers (no matter how they parent).
We are also passionate about being the change we want to see in the world when it comes to work culture. We have created a workplace where caring responsibilities are celebrated, not hidden, and flexible working hours are the norm. Another thing we’ve done is set up a “Mama Room,” a breastfeeding or resting room for our pregnant, visiting, or returning moms after parental leave. They need extra support during this time, and we want to make their transition as comfortable as possible. I think it’s another way to show the team that it’s okay to be a mother AND be able to progress at work. In our 8 years at Löwenzahn Organics, we’ve found that being flexible and accepting of caregiving responsibilities improves productivity and longevity of staff within the company.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this report, only about 31.7% of top executive positions across industries are held by women. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from leadership and management?
In Germany, the percentage of senior executives is even lower, at 28.9%. It’s definitely not because of education, but because women are not returning to full-time work after having children (the Federal Statistical Office Germany states that 71% of women with a child under six work part-time). Access to affordable childcare and parental leave is generally available here, but culturally, employers are not flexible to accommodate caring responsibilities for both men and women.
This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become leaders and managers?
I think we can all see the state of the world; it’s time for a change in leadership and re-thinking how we approach business and sustainability. We are all guilty of cognitive biases, which is why we need more diversity at decision-making tables in order to bring equitable solutions to our collective world.
Can you please share “5 Things We Need To Increase Women’s Engagement in Leadership and Management?”
1 . Create different templates for “what a business leader looks like.”. Plenty of women see the toxic behaviour and unsustainable working hours of the traditional management and leadership roles and, rightly so, choose to opt out of that pathway.
2 . Not just mentoring, but programs to give broader opportunities to develop sponsorship or advocacy relationships for women.
3 . Create real professional opportunities and pathways for people who also choose part-time work.
4 . Equal pay. The income inequality that arises in our careers means that women generally will take on more of the care work when or if they start a family. And to underline this, care work is real work; it’s just not recognised and certainly not valued as a society, which is an outrage.
5 . Redesigning the office space for returning parents. Part of the biggest hurdle to returning post birth, is the workplace. The environment you totally knew and owned before birth becomes a foreign space if you are still breastfeeding, pumping, etc. How does that all work? If the office space is not accommodating, it can become a physical example that you are no longer welcome.
In your opinion, what systemic changes are needed to facilitate more equitable access for women to leadership roles?
If we want to throw educated, capable mothers or women who wish to become mothers into the mix, we need:
- Equally shared 50/50 parental leave
- Universal access to affordable, quality childcare.
- Affordable housing for families.
- Maternity protection for everyone, including the self-employed.
What strategies have you found most effective in mentoring and supporting other women to pursue leadership positions?
Advocacy and sponsorship. The women I have worked with have been highly educated and incredibly intelligent; they are more than capable of meeting the demands of leadership. From my experience, it has been the encouragement and actively creating leadership opportunities at all seniority levels of the business that have made the difference.
How would you advise a woman leader about how to navigate the challenges of being a woman in a leadership role within a male-dominated industry?
Have thick skin, stick to your values, and don’t underestimate yourself.
How do you balance the demand for authoritative leadership with the stereotypical expectations of female behavior in professional settings?
The luxury of being a founder is that you set the culture and the terms by which leadership is implemented.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I’d like to activate awareness of how nutrition and the environment are connected. The terrible health outcomes we are seeing in our children due to the accessibility of heavily processed foods and the disconnect with the health of the land we use to grow our food are two sides of the same coin.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Website: https://loewenzahnorganics.com/en
LinkedIn: Liz Sauer Williamson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-sauer-williamson/
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
About The Interviewer: Vanessa Ogle is a mom, entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and singer/songwriter. Vanessa’s talent in building world-class leadership teams focused on diversity, a culture of service, and innovation through inclusion allowed her to be one of the most acclaimed Latina CEO’s in the last 30 years. She collaborated with the world’s leading technology and content companies such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Broadcom to bring innovative solutions to travelers and hotels around the world. Vanessa is the lead inventor on 120+ U.S. Patents. Accolades include: FAST 100, Entrepreneur 360 Best Companies, Inc. 500 and then another six times on the Inc. 5000. Vanessa was personally honored with Inc. 100 Female Founder’s Award, Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Enterprising Women of the Year among others. Vanessa now spends her time sharing stories to inspire and give hope through articles, speaking engagements and music. In her spare time she writes and plays music in the Amazon best selling new band HigherHill, teaches surfing clinics, trains dogs, and cheers on her children.
Please connect with Vanessa here on linkedin and subscribe to her newsletter Unplugged as well as follow her on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and X and of course on her website VanessaOgle.
Liz Sauer Williamson Of Löwenzahn Organics On How We Can Increase Women’s Engagement in Leadership… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.