Champions
We are proud to announce the top 10 shortlisted individuals for the Rising Star Champions category, sponsored by Oliver Wyman
The individuals contained within the shortlist are now able to receive public votes of support. If you wish to show your support, please cast your vote below.
We look forward to welcoming all shortlisted nominees to our celebration drinks reception sponsored by Bloomberg on 8 June.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our judges for their time and to wish all nominees the very best of luck in the next round of judging.
Rising Star Champion’s Shortlist
Amali de Alwis | Code First: Girls
Amali de Alwis is CEO of Code First: Girls, a multi-award winning social enterprise that works with companies and women directly to increase the proportions of women in tech and entrepreneurship. They do this by running free and paid coding courses for men and women, by advising companies on tech talent, and by running a community of 5500+ women who are interested in tech. Over the past 3 years they’ve provided £2.5 million+ worth of free tech education, and taught 4000+ women how to code. They are the largest provider of free in person coding courses for women in the UK. Amali previously worked as a consultant at PwC, which included a secondment to the World Economic Forum. Prior to this she was a senior research and strategy consultant at TNS Global. Outside of the day job, she is a member of the steering committee at the Tech Talent Charter,…
Brigid North | Reed Smith
Brigid trained and qualified at Richards Butler before the merger with Reed Smith, and has spent her whole career to date at the firm. She is a real estate lawyer with a broad practice including acting for developers of mixed-use and residential development projects; transacting for investment clients, particularly in the office and logistics spaces; and acting for occupiers of real estate space, notably in the leisure and luxury retail sectors. Brigid was listed as a Rising Star in the 2015 edition of the Super Lawyers Magazine published by The Telegraph and was promoted to partner in January 2015. Brigid is the current vice-chair of Reed Smith’s women’s initiative network’s London committee and serves on the London office’s graduate recruitment panel, in both of which roles she takes an active role in championing gender equality. Brigid has also spoken on a number of panels both within the firm and externally…
Chuck Stephens | Google
Chuck is a recognized leader in Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). Leveraging more than a fifteen years’ of experience building, deploying, and managing D&I practices, Chuck delivers measurable, business-focused solutions that meet the demands of complex organizations. He has guided some of the world’s largest companies in addressing their D&I challenges while increasing their eminence as diversity leaders. He has deep experience establishing and governing broad-based D&I practices that are tailored to the needs of individual business units while leveraging knowledge across the organization. He is a long standing champion of equity and equality for all. Creating pathways for organisations, leaders, and individuals to move from tactical to transformational is a hallmark of his career. This is achieved via building awareness, changing attitudes, and promoting behaviours to create new outcomes. Established relationships with Fortune Magazine, Human Rights Campaign, Stonewall, Race for Opportunity, UN Women, Working Mother, OpportunityNow, OutStanding, The Guardian newspaper, and…
Dana Denis-Smith | Obelisk Support
In 2014 I founded the First 100 Year project (www.first100years.org.uk) and Obelisk Support, my business, funded initially and has helped coordinated since 2014. It all began with an image from 1982 – that of one woman surrounded by a group of 50 or so male partners marking the 100th anniversary of one of the City of London’s best known law firms. I was fascinated to understand how it felt to be the only woman and what her journey in the legal profession had been. I was anxious to ask her how it felt to be a lonely star? And I am delighted Dorothy Livingston, the woman in the middle, has embraced the project and shared her story with us all. The aim of the First 100 Years project was ambitious and clearly defined from the outset: a 5 year project (2014-2019) to create the world’s first digital museum (www.first100years.org.uk) dedicated…
Liz Dimmock | Women Ahead & Moving Ahead Group
Mohammed Zafran BEM | All 4 Youth & Community
Mohammed Zafran known as Zaf in the Uk is a Community Liaison Officer at South and City College and the Founder of a Non Profit Organisation All 4 Youth & Community. As highlighted on a national scale, the inspiration for Zaf to do the brilliant work in the community was two tragedies which occured in his life. Seven years ago, Zaf lost his blind sister to cancer at the age of 30. After that he started helping charities and doing voluntary work to help people. A year later, Zaf lost his 24 year old brother in law who was brutally murdered in a local park stabbed in the head with a screwdriver. Instead of grieving, Zaf went out in the streets in the middle of the night and started to engage with youths who were in gangs in parks and alleys and involved in crime and drugs. Zaf risked his…
Ruth Grant | Hogan Lovells
Ruth Grant is a Board member and lead diversity Partner at Hogan Lovells. Over the last ten years, her global diversity agenda has created a cultural shift within the firm and transformed its reputation as a diversity pioneer. Ruth is the founder and chair of the firm’s Global Diversity and Inclusion and London Diversity Committees. She was the London Managing Partner from 2005-2009 and sole woman on the firm’s International Executive Committee. She was previously a member of the firm’s International Operations and New Partner Committees and was People Development Partner from 2009 to 2015. As lead diversity Partner, Ruth has created and grown a comprehensive programme of activity to promote diversity globally, and many of her efforts have specifically focused around recruiting and developing women and other minority groups. Ruth is also a role model for gender equality externally and actively promotes diversity and inclusion throughout the legal profession….
Ruth Oshikanlu | Goal Mind Limited
Ruth Oshikanlu – Award-winning Queen’s Nurse, midwife and health visitor and parenting expert. She is the founding director of Goal Mind Limited, and has over 22 years track record in delivering secondary and primary health care services in the independent, statutory and voluntary sectors. She is an inspirational professional who is passionate about women and children having supported a vast amount of women from conception, birth and beyond. Ruth is a published author of Tune In To Your Baby: Because Babies Don’t Come with An Instruction Manual; a holistic self-help parenting book that promotes maternal and infant mental health. She runs a private practice in London’s Harley Street supporting women who have had assisted conception or previous miscarriage to enjoy their pregnancy without fear. Ruth is a champion for nurses, midwives and health visitors, enabling her colleagues to be better practitioners and deliver excellent standards of care to the women…
Sally Clark | Barclays
