As ELEVATE, a brand-new event for women in business, prepares to launch, we spent time with co-founder and Towers and Gornall Director, Liz Cliffe.
In this honest and reflective interview, Liz shares the experiences that shaped her journey, from growing up on a dairy farm to helping lead one of the region’s respected accountancy firms and why creating space for women to share their stories feels so important.
Inspired by real conversations, shared experiences and learning from one another, ELEVATE has been designed as a welcoming space where women in business can connect openly and honestly through lived experience.
For Liz, the foundations of her career were shaped long before she stepped into accountancy. She grew up on a dairy farm, where hard work was simply part of everyday life. Farms do not stop. The work is there seven days a week, whatever the weather, whatever else is happening around you. As Liz says with a smile, on a farm things do not wait. If something needs doing, you deal with it there and then.
It was there that she developed the work ethic and grounded approach that still defines her today. And alongside the practical realities of farming life, she also became aware of people, relationships and dynamics. The dynamics of family businesses. The dynamics of working across generations. The unspoken pressures and responsibilities that often sit behind running a business together.
It was these skills and observations that would later become invaluable throughout her professional career. After leaving college, Liz built her career from the ground up, training on the job and progressing through different areas of accountancy, from bookkeeping through to private practice. In her most recent role at Towers & Gornall, progressing to Director and becoming part of the team leading and growing the business.
One area she particularly helped grow was the firm’s agricultural client base, something that felt, in many ways, like her two worlds colliding. Agriculture was not simply a sector to Liz. It was her upbringing, her lived experience, and something she found naturally easy to relate to. In turn, clients found her easy to relate to as well. There is an immediate understanding and authenticity there that comes from lived experience. But Liz is keen to point out that her experience is not only about agriculture.
“There is an immediate understanding and authenticity that comes from lived experience.”
Whether working with farming families, SMEs or wider corporate businesses, she believes many of the same dynamics exist across all organisations. Relationships, pressures, succession, personalities and trust all play a part. It is something she understands instinctively, and something that has helped shape her approach to both clients and leadership.
Alongside her client work, one of the things Liz enjoys most is mentoring and developing people within the business, helping others grow in confidence and capability as they build their own careers and experience. It was through an agricultural event organised by Liz that she first met Lisa Lodge, a Director at Vincents Solicitors and co-founder of ELEVATE. The event brought together women connected to the agricultural community and business world, creating a space for conversation, connection and shared experiences.
The two stayed in touch afterwards, continuing conversations around leadership, business and the value of learning from one another. For Liz, those smaller conversations sparked something bigger. She reflected that she had not really experienced many events built around sharing in this way before. In some professional spaces, she had often noticed that people could feel pressure to prove themselves or hold everything together. What appealed to her about ELEVATE was the opportunity to create something more open, more collaborative and centred around sharing and learning from one another.
“What appealed to me about ELEVATE was the opportunity to create something more open, more collaborative and centred around sharing and learning from one another.”
A place where women could share experiences honestly, hear how others had navigated challenges, and feel less isolated in their own journeys.
“There’s comfort in hearing that other people have faced similar challenges, moments of growth or experiences along the way,” Liz reflects. “And hearing how they worked through them.”
She hopes ELEVATE becomes a place where women help each other, learn from each other, gain confidence and feel more comfortable sharing their own experiences. True to her nature, Liz speaks about all of this with humility. Stepping forward to share her own story does not come naturally to her at all. Yet perhaps that is exactly what makes it meaningful. Stepping outside of her comfort zone in the hope it may encourage others to do the same. And for Liz, success is actually very simple.
If someone leaves the events feeling less alone, more encouraged, or more confident to share their own journey, then ELEVATE will already have achieved something important.
ELEVATE launches on 25th June 2026, a curated, ticketed gathering of women in business centred around real stories and connection. It will be held at The Wild Fox in Preston.
