Homeward Bound

The global leadership initiative for women in STEMM was born right here at Dattner Group.

In today’s ever-challenging times, what does true leadership mean?

In December 2014, Fabian Dattner – Homeward Bound’s Visionary Founder – woke from a dream where she and a global faculty of women in science, undertook an expedition around the world to Antarctica, for a cutting-edge women’s leadership program.

Two years later, Fabian, 76 women and a faculty of eight, spent 20 days at sea, exploring and building the attributes of leadership that would together help the women involved be more courageous in their action on behalf of a sustainable world and more able to collaborate on initiatives of importance. This first expedition was a significant learning experience for everyone involved and has since evolved significantly.

The fuel for Homeward Bound’s vision was always Fabian’s deep care for women, her expertise in leadership, her love of science her concern for the state of the planet.

Women's Leadership Program Since the advent of Homeward Bound, Fabian’s vision of creating a global network of women in STEMM equipped with a new model of leadership; has evolved into a larger commitment to seeing more women leading through Dattner Group’s visionary leadership program – Compass, and the work Dattner Group does to create transformational outcomes in leadership, culture, strategy, and organisational change.

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Read about how Dattner Group gave birth to a global initiative for women in STEMM

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Homeward Bound’s legacy includes some extraordinary milestones. Here are a few.

411 women from 35 countries, 46 nationalities, and 36 sciences ranging from 21 to 70 years of age have participated
Primatologist Jane Goodall, ex-UN climate chief Christiana Figueres (Patron), and marine explorer Sylvia Earle are part of an extraordinary, filmed faculty
3 documentaries – The Leadership, National Geographic’s Protecting Paradise, and HB3 participant Anna Cabré’s Spanish documentary Tornaracomençar
3 books – Antarctica Becomes Her , Deep Blue and our Chinese cohort’s book The Self We Choose
2 video series – 100 Women in Antarctica Climate Story and ACCIONA’s 8-part documentary series
At least 7 major collaborations, including AnarcticaNOW (involving 60 alumnae), the Gender Fact Sheet, and the children’s education project Antarctica for the Brave
3 derivative leadership programs: WE Africa, Leadership for Women in STEMM Iceland and Earthship Sisters
8+ TED Talks
7 awards, including the 2021 IV Malaspina Award

The first voyage to Antarctica in 2016 was accompanied by a documentary film crew, led by director Ili Bare from Bunya Productions.

The resulting documentary reveals the complexities, challenges, and unrelenting lessons of leadership, that continue to reverberate today at Dattner Group and throughout the Homeward Bound faculty.

As ever, what got us to here today, is not what will get us to where we are heading. This is the mantra that propels us at every intersection of the journey.