Over the coming weeks we will announce our new MemberWise Ambassadors who will champion their particular area of expertise. Introducing MemberWise Ambassador (Member Engagement), Sophie Tothill, Senior Engagement Lead, Chartered Institute of Professional Development).

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is the professional body for HR, Learning & Development, and people development. As an independent, not-for-profit organisation, it champions better work and working lives through professional standards, research, and thought leadership. The CIPD represents a global community of over 165,000 members.

Sophie is the Senior Engagement Lead, within the Membership and Product Portfolio Directorate at the CIPD, leading the Engagement and Volunteering teams, with 10 direct reports. Her role focuses on strengthening member engagement and supporting the delivery of a high-quality member experience across the UK Nations and Regions.

Her key responsibilities include leading the CIPD’s national network strategy, overseeing the national volunteer strategy for their network of local branches and 750+ volunteers, and shaping their online events strategy. This includes the development and delivery of their recently launched career stage event streams, designed to support members at different points in their professional journey.

Through these areas of responsibility, Sophie’s team helps create opportunities for members to connect, learn, volunteer, and develop professionally, ensuring the CIPD delivers meaningful value and engagement throughout the membership lifecycle.

She has over 10 years’ experience working within membership organisations and professional bodies, leading membership growth, engagement, volunteer management, events, governance and stakeholder engagement strategies.

As Senior Engagement Lead at the CIPD, Sophie leads engagement strategies and oversee the national branch volunteer network, and have led the introduction of a new online events strategy, including the launch of career-stage event streams designed to enhance the member experience.

Previous achievements include increasing membership retention from 34% to 70% within six months as Head of Membership at the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, and achieving a significant increase in engagement among senior CIPD members through the launch of a regional virtual community supporting over 400 professionals. She also previously led engagement strategies for regional member communities of up to 28,000 CIPD members and 13,000 ICAEW members, while successfully managing large volunteer networks and governance change programmes.

In addition, her experience as a former CIPD Branch Vice Chair and Membership Officer supporting a membership community of over 5,500 members has given her valuable insight into how volunteer-led networks can strengthen engagement, professional development and member advocacy.

Sophie fell into membership by accident. After leaving the police to retrain in HR in her early 30s, she got involved with her local CIPD branch to build her network and gain experience while studying. Six years later, an opportunity came up to work for the CIPD, and she has been working in membership ever since.

We caught up with Sophie to find out how she got involved with MemberWise:

“I first got involved with the network around six years ago when I created a subgroup for professionals working in regional engagement roles. Through that, I connected with MemberWise Network Chair, Rich Gott and volunteered at conferences, and most recently chaired a stream at Digital Excellence 2026. I regularly use the network’s online community, research and insights to inform her strategic planning.”

“My current focus is on creating meaningful member engagement at scale while demonstrating impact. Key priorities include strengthening volunteer-led communities, increasing participation across different career stages, and ensuring our events, networks and engagement activities deliver clear value that supports member retention, development and advocacy.”

“I’m passionate about helping membership organisations create meaningful engagement and thriving volunteer communities. As a MemberWise Ambassador, I’ll share practical insights, support peers, speak at events, and contribute actively through MemberWise Connect (MemberWise’s free online professional community).”

We asked Sophie if she could recommend only one thing a fellow membership/association professional starting out in a role similar to hers, what would it be?

“Build relationships before you need them. Membership is all about people. Take time to listen to members, volunteers and stakeholders, understand what matters to them, and let those insights shape your decisions. Strong relationships are the foundation of meaningful engagement and long-term success.

We asked Sophie to tell us about something unusual/unique about herself:

“I spent seven years as a Police Officer at the beginning of my career, where I founded and chaired a network representing 4,500 female police officers – which sparked my passion for engagement, communities and driving positive change.”

We welcome Sophie on board as MemberWise Ambassador (Member Engagement) and we look forward to championing the critical task of optimising member engagement.