Cynthia at the British Diversity Awards.
“I invested my retirement fund in me,” says Cynthia Fortlage, matter-of-fact, without a hint of regret. “Because I am my best investment.” At 59, Cynthia is not retiring. She’s not slowing down. She’s speaking, mentoring, building, creating — and perhaps most importantly, redefining what success looks like when you stop living by someone else’s script.
Her story — full of resilience, fierce self-awareness, and hope — invites us to question the outdated systems we’ve inherited. If we’re living longer, she asks, shouldn’t work evolve too? “I used to define success by salary and job title. Now, it’s about whether I can show up fully and be seen.”
"Ageing helped me realise what was always there. I’ve stopped performing. Now, I just belong. That’s the shift."
A Life Measured by Metrics — Until It Wasn’t
Before her transition, Cynthia played the corporate game flawlessly. A six-figure salary. A house, holidays, and all the signs of external success. “I didn’t know how to be the person people thought I was, so I became very good at copying others,” she reflects. “I didn’t reinvent — I imitated.”
It worked — until it didn’t. At 50, still living as male, Cynthia had everything she was told to want. “But I wasn’t whole,” she says. “I had to lose everything to find myself.” That loss wasn’t gentle. After coming out as a trans woman, she faced open discrimination — even after nearly 30 years of success in executive leadership. “I was told, ‘If you’re not sure of your gender, how can we trust your judgment on anything else?’” She fought back. Eventually, she was paid to leave. “The challenge now isn’t whether I’m qualified. It’s whether I’m even seen.”
"I had to lose everything to find myself."
Ageing as an Act of Courage
Transitioning in midlife brings unique challenges — but also gifts. “Ageing helped me realise what was always there. I’ve stopped performing. Now, I just belong. That’s the shift.” She speaks openly about menopause, post-surgical recovery, and the pressure to look young in order to be taken seriously. But she also speaks of deepening joy. “Ageing isn’t decline. It’s evolution.”
Photography by Brett Jordan.
A New Definition of Work
For Cynthia, work has become a vehicle for purpose, not performance. She focuses on inclusion — not as checkbox policy, but as what she calls “inclusive intelligence.” It’s about creating environments where everyone can show up whole. “If we can’t bring our full selves to work, we never get to see what’s truly possible.”
She challenges leaders to understand that authenticity isn’t a luxury. It’s a requirement for innovation. And she encourages curiosity over certainty. “Practice acceptance without needing full understanding,” she says. “You don’t need someone’s life story to show them respect.”
"We need roles that change with us, that let us mentor, teach, and support. That’s how we stay human."
We Don’t Age Out — We Grow In
In many organisations, older employees are still viewed through a lens of decline. Cynthia flips that. “A junior employee has information. An older employee has context. That’s knowledge.” She believes the future of work depends on intergenerational collaboration. On slow down, not giving up. On systems that value experience — not just execution. “We need roles that change with us, that let us mentor, teach, and support. That’s how we stay human.”
Photography by Alex Shute.
The Wisdom of Later Life Reinvention
At nearly 60, Cynthia is considered an elder in the LGBTQ+ community. “Even though I’ve only been out 10 years, the AIDS epidemic erased a generation. So I carry a unique responsibility. I am a wisdom keeper.” For Cynthia, wisdom isn’t just about age — it’s about the courage to keep evolving. “Transformation is lifelong,” she says. “There is no ‘too late.’ When wisdom meets intelligence, passion, and purpose — you have something extraordinary.”
What’s striking when you listen to Cynthia speak isn’t just what she’s been through — it’s the clarity with which she’s learned from it. She’s not chasing promotions. She’s building meaning. Living her truth. And showing us that the real future of work might be something more radical than new tools or titles: a workplace that welcomes people fully, across every chapter of life. “I want to give back until my last breath. When that day comes, I’ll know I did what I was meant to do in this body, in this time.”
Could this be the future of work? One where we don’t age out, but grow in. Where performance is no longer a mask, and authenticity is welcome at every age? Not younger, faster, shinier — but braver. More human. And deeply curious about who we could become, if we stopped pretending—and simply showed up whole.
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