Nicki Sprinz is the Managing Director of B-corp digital product studio ustwo. In the six years that she has been with the company, she has eradicated the company's gender pay gap .

In her past, she's been a journalist for the Sunday Times and The Guardian, before going on to work in the NHS. She also co-founded Ada's List in 2013, a supportive global community of more than 3,000 women working in tech.

That is an extraordinary list of achievements. What makes her story even more compelling is what she has overcome in her personal life long before her professional life began.

As a teenager she overcome viral encephalitis- a life threatening illnesses that forced her to literally learn how to walk and talk again. And then she overcame Graves disease.

As a leader, she has brought gender pay equity to her business. A challenge at which most businesses are absurdly still failing. And she brings relentlessly positive and upbeat energy with her.

As Anne Richards once famously said, "Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels."

She left out, with a smile.

In an era in which we are faced with enormous challenges, challenges that some days seem insurmountable, Nicki's story serves to me to as a reminder of what human beings are capable of.

And what women leaders are capable of.