Arka is a Consultant at IBM. She specialises in designing and delivering inclusive products/services via Agile and human-centred design methodologies, and leads teams to deliver this digital transformation.

Passionate about Tech for Good, outside of her day job she is a Design & Delivery Lead for the IBM Call For Code Racial Justice Challenge, leading a global team to design a solution starter that addresses systemic racism for diverse representation, to be deployed externally. She is also a core team member of IBM’s BAME employee network, delivering various initiatives for increased diversity, equity and inclusion at IBM, its clients and wider society. In particular, she has facilitated client roundtables to discuss DE&I strategy, organised a social media campaign to show Black STEM role models for Black History month, and has organised a mentoring scheme to match BAME early professionals with senior mentors.

Outside of work, Arka likes to participate in hackathons to design solutions for social good. She was a Design Lead for the Code First Girls ‘Hack from Home’ challenge last year where she and her team designed and built a fake news checking website. This year, she participated in the joint Code First Girls and Financial Conduct Authority Economic Empowerment Techsprint to design a solution to tackle financial abuse which disproportionately affects women. Arka has volunteered as a web development instructor for Code First: Girls to upskill 25 female university students and increase gender parity in the technology industry. She also writes articles and blogs at LMFNetwork, a non-profit that upskills 35,000+ womxn and underrepresented groups into tech, business and entrepreneurship. She is a design mentor at ADPList.org, where she mentors 20 junior professionals/career changers who have been affected by the pandemic to further their design careers. In particular, she reviews portfolios and CVs, advises on best practice design principles and advocates for building inclusive and culturally-sensitive products/services.