Henrietta is Head of Education Portfolio (Blended Learning and Educator Workforce) for NHS England, where she set up the NHS England blended learning programme which set foundations to drive innovation for health professional education in England, and which has helped widen access to diverse groups of people and locations.
She is also involved in several voluntary educational board roles, including as an External Advisory Board member of Digital Media Lab, Imperial College London, and a trustee of the Methodist Independent Schools Trust. Henrietta mentors several people, including young girls and women from black ethnic backgrounds.
EMBA showed Henrietta the power of storytelling to effective delivery
Asked the biggest lesson she gained during her EMBA, Henrietta told the publication:
“The biggest lesson I gained was the power of storytelling. I inherited a team that had a critical role in the implementation of a strategy that has impact on education and training of current and future health workforce in England. It became apparent to me very quickly that while the team were competent and had started implementation of the strategy, their inability to tell their personal and programme brand story was impacting on delivery confidence.”
She said she chose to pursue an EMBA to sharpen her commercial skills in preparation to set up her own business in the future, and more immediately to “develop knowledge and skills to be an effective senior leader or an executive when promoted. I am a strong networker and thrive on creating new networks to support the communities I am part.”
Helped by scholarships and a well-designed programme
Henrietta, who has 3 teenage daughters, said the design of the Cambridge EMBA programme helped her preserve a proper work-life balance, which was very important. She said she funded her EMBA through a combination of 2 scholarships from Cambridge Judge (the Directors Scholarship and the Executive MBA scholarship), a contribution from her employer and other sources including research and consultancy activities.
She advised prospective EMBA students to simply go for it:
Please don’t wait for everything to be right in your life or work to pursue it. In fact, the Executive MBA can offer you solutions to the things that you may be worried about. You just have to back yourself and take the bold first step and other steps will follow. It does all come together and there’s never a perfect time for everything.
Related content
“2025 Best & Brightest Executive MBA: Henrietta Mbeah-Bankas, Cambridge Judge Business School.” Poets & Quants, 5 August 2025
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