In this episode of A Wee Dram, Steve O’Donnell and I sat down with Sarah Greasley to talk about something more people are quietly thinking about: what happens after the big corporate career?
Sarah spent over 40 years in tech, from IBM’s mainframe era to group CTO at Direct Line to technology director at AWS. And then she made a choice. Not to retire, but to redesign.
She walked away from the spreadsheets, the budgets, the corporate machinery, and built a portfolio career around the things that actually matter to her: sustainability, equality, and staying close to the technology she’s always loved.
What struck me most was her honesty about the transition. The fear. The silence after years of people clamouring for your attention. The loss of your support squad overnight. And the temptation to say yes to everything just to fill the space.
Her advice? Build your network early. Find mentors who’ve already made the leap. Invest in learning that stretches you beyond your technical identity. And give yourself permission to figure out what you actually want, because you won’t know that on day one.
Fractional life isn’t a step back. It’s a redesign. And Sarah’s doing it with real purpose.
🎧 Listen to the full conversation.
