After three decades in policing, most people would be looking forward to a well-earned retirement. For Samantha Rennison, however, stepping away from a career that had seen her rise to Chief Superintendent and lead some of the country’s most specialist operational policing teams quickly revealed something unexpected – she wasn’t finished helping people to succeed.
Today, Samantha is the founder of The Experience Effect, a consultancy that helps organisations improve how they attract, recruit and retain female talent by removing hidden barriers throughout the recruitment journey. It’s a business built on lived experience, practical insight and a desire to create lasting cultural change.
Breaking barriers throughout her policing career
Joining the police at just 20 years old, Samantha spent almost her entire career working in specialist firearms policing, becoming one of only two women in her force’s firearms department at the time.
Over the next three decades, she progressed as a Superintendent, leading tactical and specialist operations across firearms, roads policing, dogs, horses and marine units, while becoming a Tactical Firearms Commander and Strategic Firearms Commander, before finally progressing to Chief Superintendent working in both North Tyneside and Northumberland.
Working in environments where women were consistently under-represented gave Samantha first-hand experience of the challenges many women face throughout their careers. But it also showed her what organisations can achieve when they genuinely commit to change. She says,
“Policing often gets a hard time but during my career I saw real progress in female representation, and I was fortunate enough to help drive some of that change. I’ve been the woman in the room full of men. I understood the dynamics, I understood why things needed to change, and I saw the benefits when they did.”
After leaving policing on 1st January 2026, Samantha planned to take time out, travel and enjoy retirement. However, it wasn’t long before she realised something was missing.
“What I missed most was helping organisations improve through their people. That’s always been the part of the job I loved.”
As she explored what came next, she noticed a gap in the market. As she explains,
“There are plenty of conversations about women in leadership, but very few people are talking about the pipeline beneath it. You can’t fix leadership representation if the pipeline is leaking – and pipelines will always leak if nobody is looking after them.”
That thinking became the foundation for The Experience Effect. Rather than focusing solely on senior leadership, Samantha works with organisations to understand every stage of the employee journey – from recruitment advertising and interview processes to onboarding, workplace culture and long-term retention. Samantha explains,
“If 50 people apply for a role and only five are women, that’s telling you something,” she says. “The aim should always be to recruit the best candidate, not simply the best male candidate.”
More than the right thing to do after retirement
While creating more balanced workplaces is often discussed as an equality issue, Samantha believes it’s equally a business issue. Organisations with stronger gender balance typically benefit from healthier workplace behaviours, better decision-making, improved productivity and greater trust from employees, customers and the public.
Increasingly, those same organisations are also expected to demonstrate meaningful action on representation when competing for contracts and tenders.
“This isn’t just about doing the right thing,” Samantha explains. “It’s about helping organisations become stronger, more resilient and more competitive.”
Although Samantha had led large teams and managed significant operational budgets throughout her policing career, starting a business was unfamiliar territory. She approached TEDCO for guidance, where business advisor, Colin Lynch, helped her transform years of experience into a structured business plan.
Support for Sam was delivered through South Tyneside Council’s Start Up South Tyneside Programme funded by North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority.
Colin helped Sam to develop her business plan, validate the market opportunity and prepare for launch.
Samantha says,
“The biggest thing TEDCO gave me was someone to think alongside. Colin became a genuine sounding board. I could test ideas, challenge my own thinking and work through every stage of building the business with someone who understood the start-up journey.”
Together they refined the business model, explored the market opportunity, developed financial plans and prepared for launch. The support gave Samantha the confidence to move from a career in public service to becoming a business owner.
Ironically, Samantha’s biggest concern wasn’t whether she could run a business; instead it was the fear of being disappointed. She explains,
“I worried that organisations simply wouldn’t see gender balance as important.”
As the parent of both a son and a daughter, Samantha says she has always been conscious that their experiences entering the workplace are unlikely to be the same. That concern became one of the biggest motivations for launching the consultancy.
Her fears, however, have been quickly put to rest. Before The Experience Effect had even been officially named, Samantha secured her first client – a powerful reminder that organisations were actively looking for practical support to improve recruitment and workplace culture. She says,
“It validated everything. It told me this work mattered and that organisations genuinely wanted help to get it right.”
Looking ahead
Although proudly based in the North East, Samantha sees The Experience Effect supporting organisations far beyond the region. Her first client already operates nationally and internationally, reinforcing her belief that the challenges around representation are shared across every sector.
She has also been invited to speak at the European Construction Equipment Conference later this year, where she’ll discuss her experiences in policing, challenges and opportunities.
For Samantha, though, success isn’t measured by speaking engagements or business growth. It’s about creating workplaces where talented women no longer feel they have to question whether they belong:
“Representation doesn’t improve by accident. It improves when organisations understand the system, fix the leaks, and build cultures where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.”
Are you ready to explore your own business ideas? Leave us an enquiry now and we’ll get in touch to help you along the way. See the TEDCO Programmes page to find out more about the programmes available in your area.
Start Up South Tyneside is a business Start up programme delivered by the TEDCO Business Support on behalf of South Tyneside Council which aims to support local residents with their aspirations to start up a business. This project is funded by North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority.
