About Amber
The professional bio
Organisational psychologist and writer Amber Parkin is an expert in how women can show up, lead better, and be more creative.
Born and raised in New Zealand before moving to London in her early twenties, Amber spent 15 years as a copywriter and digital strategist at global companies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Telefonica, and Barclays. She was in the leadership team of Pirate.com, a venture-funded company in the music technology space — an industry where only 5% of employees are women.
After completing an MA in Digital Management, Amber sought to deepen her knowledge of human transformation with an MSc in Business and Organisational Psychology, focusing on leadership and trust. Her current role as Director of Learning and People Science at talent agency PepTalk sees her collaborating with the best minds in the world to develop cutting-edge business education content.
She has written hundreds of articles for brands worldwide and now writes a weekly Substack newsletter, Plein-Air, about working better. She is a sought-after speaker on team development, including events such as the Support Driven Leadership Summit and Customer Stories.
Amber now splits her time between London and Monaco.
The long story
Born and raised in Aotearoa, New Zealand, before moving to London in my early twenties, I’ve spent the last decade by day as a digital and content expert at global companies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, Telefonica, Barclays and Pirate.com.
I started my career as a writer and researcher at Designworks, one of the biggest design and branding agencies in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2012, I catapulted 12,000 miles across the world, softly landing at Outside Line, an East London digital agency.
In 2014, I joined public relations agency Storm Communications, where I spent three years leading their digital arm. Freelance contracts at various other agencies, social enterprises, and corporations followed this. From March 2018, I spent two years contracting as a Content Lead at Barclays, working on transformative HR technologies.
In 2019, I graduated with an MA in Digital Management from Hyper Island, with my final thesis focused on diversifying the voices of Podcasting.
Returning to full-time employment at Pirate.com in January 2020 was the start of a three-year adventure, COVID-19 notwithstanding. From UX Copywriter to Head of Customer Experience and Senior Product Manager, there wasn’t a single part of the business I wasn’t exposed to.
As it turns out, digital transformation is only about 10% technology and 90% human. The next stop was an MSc in Organisational and Business Psychology (Coventry, 2022). My psychology thesis, “Human After All: A Systematic Review of Trust Interventions in Global Virtual Teams,” has been the basis of several talks.
From my small roots in Aotearoa, it’s been a wild ride. In 2011, I moved to London and swiftly fell in love with the pubs, tube rides, grey skies, and the creativity that flourished in all the cracks there.
After nearly 12 years, it was time for a change, and in 2023, I moved to the Côte d’Azur with mon mari and started learning French. I adore travel and trying new things, hanging out with my weird naked cat, learning about social equity and justice (actually learning full stop), cooking, and listening to hip-hop.
You can find me on Instagram, LinkedIn and Goodreads.
