Samantha Jones | Smart Works
As the manager of the new Smart Works centre in West London, it is my job, and my privilege, to bring our amazing Smart Works service to more women who need our help to succeed at interview and get their lives back on track. Over the last year, I am proud to say that I have increased the number of appointments we’ve delivered by 41%, from 545 to 770, recruited and managed over 30 volunteers to deliver our service, who have together clocked up over 2000 hours of service. Most importantly, over one in two, 59%, of the women who came to see us in West London went on to succeed at their job interview.
A visit to Smart Works takes just two hours, and during that time each woman receives a high-quality outfit, theirs to keep, and one to one coaching tailored to that upcoming interview. Many of the women that walk through our doors have been unemployed for years. We see single mothers with no support, women with physical and mental disabilities and ex-prisoners. They frequently arrive nervous and feel daunted by the prospect of interview however they always leave confident, charged and lifted by the support they receive. At Smart Works we believe every woman has many wonderful talents they can offer the world, what they lack is confidence. My role is to assist them in unlocking their confidence so that they can showcase their skills and shine in their interview.
I have made it my mission to reach out to as many women as possible and welcome them through the Smart Works doors. This meant rapidly building relationships with people who could refer, the Job Centres, Work Programme providers and other charities working to support women back into employment. It has also meant building a skilled and reliable network of volunteers who could deliver an impeccable service to the women we see. It also meant building a support network in the local community and spreading the word.
It has been a fantastic year for me and for Smart Works in West London and I am looking forward to building on this in the year ahead.
Naa Amanshia Mettle-Nunoo | JP Morgan
Naa Mettle-Nunoo is a Senior Associate and Strategic Projects Manager at JPMorgan. She leads the training and communication work stream for the Economic model project, a multi-year project to enhance client experience, increase transparency and comply with local regulations.
Naa graduated cum laude with an economics degree from Mount Holyoke College in 2008 and joined JPMorgan in New York. In 2010, she moved to London and immediately joined the leadership team of BOLD, the network for employees of African and Caribbean heritage. She currently serves as Marketing Chair managing a team across London, Bournemouth and Glasgow.
During her long tenure on the leadership team, membership has grown from 100 to 725 with 60% of members now from non-African/Caribbean/Black heritage. They also received the Network Impact Award at the 2015 Black British Business Awards. Naa is most proud of her work with Business in the Community, where she mentored 14 young, unemployed BAME individuals over a three week period in Brixton.
Naa lives with her husband and two sons in Kent.
Robert Thesiger | The FISER Group
Robert is a graduate of Exeter University and Cranfield School of Management with over 24 years’ experience of Human Capital Management within Financial Services. Robert’s career has been framed within recruitment where he was the Chief Executive of a publically listed global financial services recruitment business which he was instrumental in building to over 500 staff across 15 international locations. In 2010 he co-founded The FISER Group, of which the senior leadership team is almost entirely female and four are part-time return to work mothers. He has been recognised by the Recruiter Awards for Excellence, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and Best Companies for championing diversity and work in Financial Services.
Robert has been instrumental in a number of gender diversity initiatives in human capital, including the creation of the Women in Financial Institutions Index (WiFI Index), which tracks the recruitment and engagement of women in financial services, and a Financial Services Diversity Forum which provides an opportunity for senior decision makers in the industry to discuss strategies and approaches to diversity in the sector.
Robert was also the principal driver behind the establishment of the City Talent Initiative (CTI), a programme dedicated to supporting high-achieving young people from low-income backgrounds (of which over 60% are female) gain entry to leading City firms. Today the CTI has gained cross party support from the Hon David Lammy MP, Mark Field MP and Baroness Kramer and sponsoring firms include Ernst & Young, JP Morgan, Strutt & Parker, Bank of America, Resource Solutions and RBS. In the last year over 30 students from low-income backgrounds who are unable to get practical improvements in social mobility them from their schools or families have gained experience through the CTI.
Liz Dimmock | Women Ahead
A coaching and mentoring expert who is dedicated to using this knowledge to bring about tangible change for women in sport and business. Ex-global Head of Coaching at HSBC and Managing Partner at GP Strategies. First woman to cycle the entire route of the Tour de France (2012). 30% Club steering committee member and co-chair of the Club’s sport and business working group.
Liz’s cycling achievement highlighted long-standing inequality in the sport she loves - and ignited her desire to use her corporate experience to bring about a level playing field for women in sport and business. In May 2014 Liz founded Women Ahead. She also sits on the Steering Committee of the 30% Club and is co-chair of their Sport and Business working group.
Women Ahead, moves organisations beyond the debate and focuses on practical action to improve the parity of women in sport and business. Over the last two years Liz has been fundamental in creating innovative partnerships between and within the worlds of sport and business. Liz has led the three initiatives of particular note: the delivery of the 30% Club’s cross-company mentoring scheme (supporting 640 mentors and mentees from 49 organisations in 2016); Women Ahead’ flagship cross-company mentoring scheme; and a pioneering Speakers Academy for female athletes.
Women Ahead has worked with 102 organisations and supported more than 2,300 mentors and mentees, working in partnership to create positive change and build the pipeline of female talent. Liz has managed to effectively bring together sport and business in a unique way, at scale, with sustainable models for the future. Liz is currently leading a research programme into the myths and realties of women’s networks.
Simone White | Blackrock
Administrative Assistant | BlackRock | Asset Management
I am the Founder and Chair of the ACE Network (Assistant Community EMEA) at BlackRock, the world’s leading Asset Management Firm. Having worked in administration for over 20 years, I have a wealth of experience in supporting executives at every level as well as managing teams and offices. As Chair of ACE, I work with managers, HR and assistants to ‘raise the bar’ and elevate the role of the admin professional. The ACE Network provides specific training for assistants and managers as well as assistant on-boarding, business knowledge sessions and networking. Under the ACE Connects banner, ACE host network sessions encouraging internal & external assistants that speak every day to meet face to face and make those important connections and support their businesses and themselves. I actively connect with assistants via 1-1 mentoring or networking across industries and time zones to encourage them to take the lead and make change.
Alongside this, my day job is Executive Support to the Heads of iShares EMEA Product, Global Sustainability, and EMEA Range Management. I am also the Assistant Co-ordinator for iShares London.
I am a Fellow of EPPA and a member of EUMA and the London PA Network.
Eleni Antoniadou | European Health Parliament
Researcher in Regenerative Medicine, President of the European Health Parliament | | Health
Eleni Antoniadou is a multidisciplinary researcher in the fields of Biomedical Informatics, Space & Regenerative Medicine. Eleni serves as the President of the European Health Parliament for 2016 and the Chair of Prevention and Self-Care Committee where she actively advocates for innovative technologies and promotes the establishment of the self-care agenda through as an integral part of the European Health framework in recommendation policy papers at the European Parliament.
She has gained professional experience in the public sector through her work in hospitals in UK and the US and in governmental agencies at NASA and ESA and has co-founded the startup “Transplants Without Donors”. Eleni has received numerous recognitions for her research and her philanthropic and political initiatives such as being named as the 2016 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, 30under30 by Forbes, Cartier Laureate, 100 Most Powerful Women by the BBC among others.
Rising Star Champion 2016 Shortlist
Peter Duff | BP
Director, Diversity and Inclusion – Europe, Middle East and Africa | BP | Energy
BP’s Diversity and Inclusion Ambition to attract, motivate, develop and retain the world’s diversity of top talent in our industry. As the Director of D&I for the EMEA region, Peter is creating an inclusive working environment for all of BP’s workforce.
Prior to this role, Peter was Chief of Staff of the Chief Scientist’s office and Secretary to BP’s external Technology Advisory Council (TAC). He also led BP’s Distributed Research Laboratory and BP’s Emerging Technology scanning activities.
Peter has worked for BP for 30 years. He qualified as a Mechanical Engineer and has had a varied career, including roles in petroleum and reservoir engineering, technology management and people development. He has also worked extensively with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, in project management and leadership and led BP’s relationship with Imperial College, London for a number of years.
Rising Star Champion 2016 Shortlist
Elisha St Hilaire | Aon
Executive Assistant | Aon | Diversity
I am a highly experienced Executive Assistant and have worked in a variety of different industries before joining the insurance sector.
I also Chair Aon’s Women’s International Network “WIN” which is a Business Resource Group for colleagues. Since forming the WIN Committee, we have seen the group grow organically from 60 members to 350 across the UK. It has been a very exciting journey and look forward to what the future holds in this space both internally and across the market. Last year I was able to further empower our female colleagues at Aon to realise their true potential by implementing a signature event in celebration of International Women’s Day. An idea that was born in the small confines of the WIN Committee and in which I played an integral part. The WIN – Empower your Career conference welcomed 90 colleagues from all over the UK to Old Trafford, where our CEO and business leaders shared their career journeys and answered guests’ questions on the day. The conference was a great success and has helped our Talent & Development team implement specific training to help develop our female talent pipeline at Aon. This was WIN’s biggest event to date.
Rukasana Bhaijee | EY
Diversity Coordinator | EY | Consultancy
Rukasana has been working on the Diversity and Inclusion (“D&I”) agenda since March 2013 and is very passionate about making a change in this area. In this time she has become a subject matter expert for all D&I characteristics and has delivered organisational change programmes to effect positive long term change.
Her previous role was within the Diversity team at Queen Mary University London, focusing on Gender Diversity to increase the number of women progressing in academia, specifically in STEM subjects. Rukasana successfully supported the Barts and the London, School of Medicine at the University to achieve Silver Status in the Athena SWAN gender equality charter.
She joined the D&I Team at EY in March 2015, and currently has a specialist focus on the Disability and Social Mobility Strategy in the organisation. Rukasana is working to progress the Disability agenda at the organisation to build a disability confident organisation through socialising conversations around disability in order to remove any remaining stigmas associated.
Rukasana coordinated a working group for EY success to achieve ‘Social Mobility Business Champion’ status with the BIS led government initiative. She has also completed a 5 year review of D&I Activity at EY, in order to review progress and identify future strategy.
Linked to her work on Social Mobility and the EY value to ‘Build a Better Working World’ Rukasana has worked with the YesFutures charity this year to coach four girls aged 13 to improve confidence, focus on self-development and aspire to a better future. She is also a mentor at EY and is currently mentoring an individual in the EY Smart Futures work placement programme.
Her career in Diversity has seen a return to the city after an extended career break, her background up to 2002 was in Client Services in Finance.
Hayley Barnden | Ministry of Defence
Safety Engineer | Ministry of Defence | Defense
My name is Hayley Barnden, I’m 28 years old and I currently work as a Submarine Safety Engineer for the Ministry of Defence.
I got this role through an Advanced Apprenticeship in Engineering Management which I started in September 2010. During the course of my apprenticeship I won two awards, the first – the Elvy and Coast Charity Award – for my dedication to self-improvement and development over the year; the second the Sir David Cardwell Memorial Prize awarded to a final year apprentice that has successfully completed their scheme and overcome great difficulty during the course of their apprenticeship.
In the my apprenticeship I became a STEM Ambassador, a role that I thoroughly enjoy and still continue to regularly attend events four years later. After completing my apprenticeship I took up a role as a Submarine Safety engineer, achieving promotion after 16 months.
In addition to my day job I am passionate about diversity and inclusion, and am co-chair of both my employers LGBT network and InterEngineering South West a grass-roots initiative to help attract, support and retain LGBT engineers, along with their straight allies.
I am currently studying part-time towards my Electronics degree at the University of West England.
Rising Star Champion 2016 Shortlist