Layla Mullins | HSBC
Using my skills in organisation and Global Event Management gained from a 14 year career as a PA, I was promoted to a business analyst role in January 2014. In my current role, I have identified and networked together 1,200 people globally to standardise tools and methods used within their roles - and launched a solid community to promote working together as a team, career development and mobility across business areas. I keep in touch with the 1,200 employees with regular comms and monthly global networking events in APAC, NY, Dubai and the UK where ideas are shared and taken back to the central team with the aim to make improvements to the way we work at HSBC.
Alongside my ‘day job’, I volunteered as an Events Organiser for the HSBC Gender Diversity employee resource group called Balance at the mid-2013. In November 2014 I was elected as the UK Chair. I am passionate about gender diversity and have driven a committee of volunteers to increase UK membership by over 500 to 2,500. I have spent a lot of time networking with senior leaders to get Balance more recognised as a key part of the HR process, improving transparency of initiatives to benefit gender diversity. I am not afraid to challenge when I believe the business is not considering the impact of decisions and have driven events for the members which genuinely engage across the business, linking senior leaders to women with aspirations. During my tenure, Balance has launched a global committee to add some governance around the 25 (and growing) branches that we have worldwide. Specifically in the UK, I have appointed committees to run Balance North (incorporating 8 branches) and Balance Scotland (3 branches) to bring he organization closer together and open opportunities for all. Together, we deliver country-wide events and work towards impacting change on the organization.
Joanna Williams | Reed Smith LLP
I was recently promoted to Of Counsel in the financial markets and regulatory group at Reed Smith, specialising in wholesale financial and commodities regulation. I am a recognised expert on European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and the Regulation on Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT) implementation issues, for example, through my work for the European Federation of Energy Traders.
I started life as a qualified lawyer at Slaughter and May 14 years ago as a corporate finance associate. Just over 5 years on, I was seconded to Shell Treasury and joined Shell full time at the end of 2006. From there I moved to Shell Trading. During my 6 years at Shell, my practice covered derivatives, corporate finance, energy commodities trading and regulation. My love of financial markets regulation brought me to Reed Smith at the beginning of 2014.
Since then, I’ve spent my time helping a huge variety of clients to negotiate and respond to the unprecedented scale, pace and complexity of the regulatory changes that are affecting financial and commodities markets. I enjoy the constant challenge of applying my hands-on experience of in-house practice to identify what’s important to clients in a sea of regulatory reform and help them respond and plan accordingly. At a high level, this involves spotting trends and themes in regulation and the differing approaches of various regulators. At the same time, it involves being able to communicate complicated, dense and highly technical regulatory requirements in a way that’s easy to digest, practical and commercial.
I also really enjoy the opportunities being back in private practice has given me to work with and help to develop junior lawyers, as a trainee and intern supervisor, a mentor and through my work on the trainee and vacation scheme assessment panel.
Dalya Bernstein | Select Concierge
Dalya is an award winning EA with a wealth of experience within the PA/EA industry. She has been Executive Assistant to a high profile/high net worth Entrepreneur for the past 5 years and has a wide range of skills including extensive diary management, corporate travel management, event planning, social media management & property management.
Dalya holds a Certificate in First Line Management and a Diploma in Personal Assistance. In 2013, Dalya won 1st runner up in the Executive PA Magazine PA of the Year Awards and in 2014 won the Pitman Training Super Achievers PA of the Year Award. This has allowed Dalya to be invited as a guest speaker for many networking events throughout the UK within the PA industry.
In her spare time, Dalya is a professional singer and performs each weekend. She also enjoys keeping fit and in 2014, completed 2 half marathons for charity and also successfully reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro with a close colleague, raising £9500 their chosen charities.
Dalya is passionate about the role of a PA/EA and hopes to inspire others and continue being as successful as possible.
Thuy Truong ǀ Ernst & Young LLP
Born in Sydney, Australia, Thuy Truong is a Senior Manager with EY and a qualified actuary with over 10 years of insurance consulting experience spanning life insurance, asset valuation and investment management. She has led a range of complex and demanding projects for clients across the UK and Europe, working with senior management of large global insurers to prepare for the new challenges resulting from the introduction of the new regulatory requirements under Solvency II.
She is passionate about promoting women’s leadership and equality in the workplace and continues to implement initiatives within her team to continue to help her colleagues achieve their full potential. Thuy has utilised her senior position by setting up a range of training and networking opportunities to help other women in insurance to meet their challenges and achieve success.
Thuy is recognised as an outstanding mentor across EY in UK and Europe, reflecting her commitment to mentoring, coaching and implementing initiatives to help her colleagues achieve their career aspirations, while also fulfilling her demanding client commitments.
Thuy is an avid traveller and reader. She loves to experience new cultures and local food and is a member of two book clubs.
Donna Evans | Barclays
Donna has been an assistant with Barclays for 21 years, joining the Structured Finance Team in 1994 where she worked for the departmental head. Following a nine-year period with the Structured Trade and Export Finance team, Donna was approached to work for the Head of Global Loans. During this time, she also worked closely with the team’s COO and managed a team of seven other assistants. For the past six years, Donna has been working in Leveraged Loans - a move she made with her manager when he was promoted to Head of Leveraged Finance EMEA.
Donna has been actively involved with the Barclays Women’s Network (WiN) for the past four years and was approached this year by a senior sponsor of the network to form an Assistants Forum in London. Donna is now Co-chair of the Barclays WIN Assistants Forum and successfully launched the network in March 2015. The launch was followed by a “Power of Profile” networking event in June and there are many such inspirational events and initiatives planned for the rest of the year.
Prior to joining Barclays, Donna worked at two other Banks; Heritable and General Investment Bank and ANZ, and also spent time working in a summer camp in America. Donna has a passion for art and during her spare time she volunteers as a Guide at the Tate Modern and Tate Britain. She is currently half way through her OU History of Art Degree. In addition, Donna sits on the committee for the Assistants Support Group in Banking, through which she helps organise a number of fundraising initiatives and philanthropy days. Donna is active in the voluntary sector, having spent two years volunteering on a Learning Partner scheme – helping children improve their numeracy and literacy skills with George Green School on the Isle of Dogs.
Ashley Smith | British Gas Venture Capital
Ashley has spent more than a decade in technology, most recently co-founding and running British Gas Venture Capital (BGVC).
At BGVC, Ashley focuses on investing in start-ups active in areas of future growth for British Gas, particularly along the technology themes of internet-of-things, data analytics, and energy efficiency. She sets BGVC's strategy, and oversees all aspects of the investment process, from origination and transaction execution to portfolio management and exit. She has had numerous board roles with her investments and most recently exited leading internet-of-things provider AlertMe.com for $100m earlier this year.
Prior to co-founding BGVC, Ashley invested in technology companies ranging from gas turbine efficiency to solar to power electronics at CT Investment Partners. Earlier in her career, Ashley worked for Franklin Templeton Investments and the Environmental Protection Agency. She has an MBA from Wharton Business School, and a BSc from McGill University.
Ashley informally mentors investing and technology professionals in career development, informally advises new start-ups, and is regularly invited to speak at events. Outside of work, Ashley spends as much time as possible outdoors, and loves cycling and hiking.
Erin Bargate | Hiscox
I started my career five years ago in London Market Actuarial Pricing at Hiscox, where I supported a variety of underwriters writing large and unusual risks in Lloyd's. Prior to that, I moved from my hometown of Durban, South Africa to do a Masters in Financial Economics at the University of Oxford. I qualified as an Actuary last year and moved to Capital Modelling at the beginning of this year. I have recently been appointed as the leader of the team that is responsible for the Group Capital Model, which produces a range of information to assess risk and monitor capital requirements. At the end of 2012, I spent three months on secondment with the actuarial team in the Hiscox New York office.
Outside of work, I am involved in the Actuarial Profession as a volunteer member of a working party conducting research. I'm also an active participant in the Lloyd's Reading Partners scheme, where I help a child with reading skills during one lunch-time a week at a school in Bethnal Green.
I am an avid amateur sportswoman. I competed at the 2013 World Triathlon Championships in London as a member of the South African Age-Group Team. I completed the London Marathon earlier this year and the Ride London 100 mile bike ride in 2013 and 2014. In 2008, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with my family.
Lucy Brooker | RBS
Lucy has specialised in change management over her 13 year career at RBS, leading industry wide strategic programmes. With a passion for talent management, Lucy has recently turned her attention to driving Cultural Change, and is developing creative and inspiring training solutions for the Investment Banking business (Corporate and Institutional Banking) and generating an environment for continual professional development across all global regions (UK, US, EMEA and APAC).
Lucy is a passionate champion of Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace, and holds the voluntary role of Global Personal Development Manager for the RBS Focused Women’s Network (c.8k members globally), responsible for the attraction, development and retention of the female talent pipeline. She has been invited to speak as an expert on Employee Led Networks at Parliament, assisting in the creation of their gender network and has also supported other organisations including Santander, Equiniti and Societe General.
Lucy established the partnership with everywoman to launch the everywomanNetwork to the UK Focused Women member to provide online flexible development, and also designed and delivered a Personal Brand- Image and Impact lecture to Senior Investment Bankers.
Lucy was nominated for the 30 Brummell Ones to Watch 2015
In her spare time she continues her passion to develop others, through being mentor within work, through the Princes Trust and also teaching Maths GCSE in her spare time.
Fiona Russell ǀ Accenture
I am a Strategy Consultant in Accenture’s global Digital practice based in London. In this role, I help leading organisations apply digital technologies to disrupt traditional thinking and enable new business models, products and ecosystems.
Currently I am guiding one of the world’s largest consumer electronics companies with their first steps into a new digital world. I am leading a workstream to enable them to sell direct to customers across EMEA through digital channels for the first time.
My previous clients include leading organisations in the Financial Services and Communications, Media & Technology sectors. Within Financial Services I have run a number of projects, covering large scale network infrastructure programmes to deploying cutting edge security solutions to ensure compliance standards are met.
I am keen to make a difference, not only for my clients, but also for the community. I lead Accenture’s relationship people engagement with The Prince’s Trust, providing support for disadvantaged young people across the UK with employment, education and training opportunities. I am also an active member of the Young Tiffany Circle which is part of the British Red Cross – running fundraising events for the Red Cross, and as a group we have raised over £20k for the Red Cross in the last year.
In 2011 I graduated from Durham University with a BA in Anthropology and History. On graduation I worked for a social enterprise helping start-ups and early stage businesses. During my time there, I worked with the UK government, DFID, and European development organisations to run training programmes to help and support entrepreneurs and small business owners in the UK, Nigeria and Romania.
Outside of work I enjoy travelling, having spent a gap year in Malawi volunteering as primary school teacher and travelling extensively around East Africa.