Our Story

Hi, I’m Sophie and my journey to setting up MATRI has been years in the making and developing. 

It’s not a mission I set out planning to do, but something I have felt compelled to try and make a difference in, as my experience grew. 

When I took parental leave to have my first son, the company I worked at was a small but rapidly growing communications agency. Back then, whilst the culture was supportive, there was little expectation of my return to work at all, no specific post- leave support, and very little understanding of being a ‘working parent’. 

It was just something you quietly got on with. 

I returned to work exhausted, wracked with guilt about not being at work, or at home enough, trying to work exactly as I had done before, largely pretending I didn’t have a baby I wanted to see daily, and trying to creep out the door at 5:30 hoping no one would notice. 

Some days I literally hid my coat and bag outside the office so I could just pretend I was nipping off somewhere briefly, and not be seen leaving with my stuff.  

Madness. 

After my second parental leave, I came back into a welcome promotion and within a couple of years I had been promoted again to my first CEO role. 

At that point I became, rather abruptly, a single working mother, to 3 & 5 year old boys, working 4 days a week at an executive level, and commuting in and out of London daily. That was hard. 

As the company grew rapidly, more and more colleagues took parental leave and came back into the company, and struggled, they were pointed in my direction as ‘the senior woman who seemed to make it all work’ for advice. 

I had so many colleagues asking to meet me for a chat or coffee, and more often than not, bursting into tears seconds later, asking for advice on how I ‘made it look so easy’, when they were struggling. 

I was extremely quick to dispel those myths and make it very clear that every day was usually a balancing act of ever changing logistics, clock watching, managing my mother’s guilt, making choices about what to miss either at home or at work, generally feeling pretty exhausted and feeling I was never quite doing anything well enough. 

Over the years, I sought advice from those a few years ahead of me, and I became a mentor to many a few years behind me. I picked up many methods, tips, tactics and sage ways of thinking about being a working mum which helped me, and so I duly passed those on to others. 

My support group, and their ways of managing, sense of humour and ways of thinking, became utterly invaluable to me as my career progressed, and I ended up with an absolute fascination on the subject; giving talks, hosting panel debates and writing articles on the subject ‘in support of the working parent’. 

During lockdown, I retrained as an Executive Coach, so I could support people more deeply than mentorship alone allowed.

Following this, I developed and delivered a parental coaching programme within the business I was part of, and saw first-hand the powerful impact it had. Colleagues left feeling more confident about their return, maintained that confidence during leave, and came back able to navigate their new responsibilities in a way that worked for both them and the business.

It became increasingly clear to me that this kind of support shouldn’t be the exception — it should be the standard.

So I made the decision to step away from my corporate career and focus fully on building MATRI.

Since founding MATRI, I’ve had the privilege of working with organisations and individuals navigating this transition, speaking on the topic of parental leave and return to work, and contributing to the growing conversation around retaining and supporting working parents.

The reality is, the data is clear — a significant proportion of highly capable, experienced professionals leave their roles during this period of change. The cost to businesses is substantial, and the long-term impact on leadership pipelines is even greater.

MATRI was created to change that.

Often described as ‘NCT for the working parent’, MATRI provides structured coaching and community support before, during, and after parental leave, helping individuals stay connected to their careers and return with confidence, clarity, and purpose.

I am passionate about ensuring that talented, ambitious professionals, both women and men, feel able to continue building their careers through this phase of life, without compromise — and that businesses are able to retain and support the people they invest so much in.

Welcome to MATRI.