Jessica Harwood | Financial Services Strategy & Consulting Manager | Accenture
Jessica is a Technology Consultant in Accenture’s Strategy and Consulting practice.
Jessica sits within the Financial Services division, aligned to the Banking Industry. She has 9 years of consulting experience and has worked with UK tier one banks to solve complex business challenges and implement new technology systems.
For the past 5 years, Jessica has worked specifically within the Cloud technology space and has helped clients with a variety of Cloud initiatives, from shaping strategy to executing Cloud activities to help clients deliver value and meet business outcomes.
Outside of her client role, Jessica leads the Northwest Diversity and Inclusion team in the region and is passionate about creating an inclusive and diverse community across teams. Regional business growth is also a key focus area for Jessica, since starting her career she has been passionate about development in the Northwest. Jessica is now working with the business development community, Pro Manchester to connect and collaborate with local businesses in the north.
Outside of work, Jessica lives just outside of Bolton with her recent husband Dominic and likes to spend the weekends doing something active and outdoors. She will either be at the gym, a Hyrox fitness class or walking mountains. She loves to socialise, loves a holiday, and skiing.
Holly Mather | Engineering Manager | Enable
Holly completed a Master Degree in Materials Engineering at Swansea University and started her career as a research engineer in the field of metrology.
After progressing her career technically, she took a sideways steps into people management and leadership, managing a team of research engineers specializing in data engineering, data science and software engineering.
She then took an opportunity at ASOS as an Engineering Manager, managing teams of software engineers and QA engineers in the fintech space. Following her time at ASOS she has joined SaaS startup, Enable as an Engineering Manager and is paving the way internally for female engineers.
Since joining Enable Holly has been focusing on building and driving forward a DEI strategy within the Engineering department. She has created and influenced a more accessible and diversity-centric approach to their engineering recruitment and onboarding processes.
Holly is empowering and connecting with the Enable’s female engineers, building a community for these engineers to come together across the globe, creating opportunities for them to share challenges and solutions, exploring mentoring opportunities and focusing on building empowerment from within.
Holly is also a voice of diversity and leadership outside of Enable, speaking on podcasts, writing blog posts, delivering talks at events, supporting and celebrating other women within tech through mentoring, and as a UN Women UK delegate.
Faith Ida | Technical Professional services Consultant | Genesys
Faith has had a remarkable career journey marked by resilience, dedication, and a commitment to fostering inclusivity in the tech industry.
In 2021, she made a transformative career change by transitioning into the tech world. Her determination propelled her through a self-taught coding journey, which led to her current position as a Technical Implementation Consultant.
Faith`s impact extends beyond her professional roles. She developed TTPNetwork to assist immigrants during their migration journey, showcasing her passion for leveraging technology for social good. As a Full-Stack Software Engineer, she is currently revolutionizing the industry with Al. Migrate, an AI Immigration platform that simplifies visa information access.
In addition to her professional work, Faith is actively engaged in empowering others, particularly women and marginalized communities, through her work with organizations such as Code First Girls. As an Assistant Instructor and Confidence Coach, she contributes to women`s transition into the tech field. Faith`s commitment to education is evident in her roles as a Scratch for Kids tutor, a Teaching Assistant with Coding Black Females, and a Software Engineer Mentor with Black Codeher and Black Girls in Tech.
Faith`s advocacy extends to panel discussions on diversity in tech, where she focuses on encouraging women to pursue careers in technology. She also leverages her social media presence to inform and empower others about tech opportunities, events, and the importance of diversity in the tech community.
Helen Owen | Delivery Strategy Manager | National Grid
A pragmatic, pro-active and innovative People and Culture professional with more than 29 successful years of global experience in complex, matrixed organisations across the food industry, facilities management, Government and utilities sectors.
A proven expertise in organisational development and leadership capability build, DEI, employee experience, culture change and transformation management. An excellent communicator and coach at all levels and cross culturally, who establishes outstanding positive relationships with key stakeholders whilst delivering exemplary levels of service.
Of my 29 years of working life I have always worked through a people lens ensuring wherever I have worked I have created an inclusive environment and also sought to develop my team and support the development of my colleagues. I worked 28 years directly in the People and Culture space but have recently taken a pivot into an operational role (1 year ago). However, with my background I am able to deliver operational transformation through a people lens which enables effective collaboration, more engagement, productivity and belonging.
I have worked solely through consulting and contracting but have also lead high performing teams globally. Currently I have a team of 12 delivering the biggest transformational project I have ever lead and my passion lies in ensuring my team are set up for success and that they are working in an inclusive environment and that they feel they can bring their whole-selves to work should they choose to.
Jackie Rothwell | New Energy Portfolio Excellence | bp
A chemical engineer by background, I have been working on major projects within the energy industry for the last 10 years.
I have been fortunate to have a global career with projects across Angola, Azerbaijan, UK, Georgia, Russia and Indonesia. I`ve worked as a process engineer in FEED, a commissioning and start up engineer on new facilities and front end concept development engineering. A passion of mine, and thread throughout the last 5 years of my career, has been my involvement in GHG emissions reductions and the energy transition. Whilst working on front end projects, I took a lead role in developing our GHG forecasting methodologies and tools, performing low carbon evaluations and delivering training across the organisation. Most recently I have been in a New Energy portfolio role supporting a portfolio of hydrogen, CCS and biofuels projects. My role within the projects leadership team, has focused on developing portfolio tools and processes, improving ways of working and general performance management, all necessary to support a rapidly developing and fast paced portfolio.
Jacqueline Mathieson | Contract Manager | SSEN Transmission
I started out as a Trainee Quantity Surveyor with a Civil Engineering Contractor in 2013 whilst studying for a BSc in Surveying on a part time basis.
After gaining my degree, I progressed to a Quantity Surveyor role, mainly focussed on large building projects within the North East of Scotland which supported my professional development in terms of Technical & Management experience.
Having been enthused by the ’Pathway to 2030’ transition to Net Zero programme, and having gained significant delivery experience with a Contractor, I decided to take a leap into the unknown and join SSEN Transmission. I was delighted to be offered a Contract Manager role, specifically recruited for the procurement and delivery of Ofgem’s Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework.
Since joining SSEN-T I have been involved in the ASTI (HVDC - Offshore) Procurement event which has included significant supplier engagement, Framework award & Contract negotiations. Next is the exciting part!
As we move into the Early Contractor Involvement phase & delivery beyond that, I can`t wait to contribute to such an exciting time in terms of Energy Transmission in the UK.
Bring it on!
Liz Burlon | Senior Manager - Resources and Sustainability | Accenture
I am originally from Boston, (Massachusetts, USA) but have lived in Maastricht, NL and Cape Town, South Africa before coming to London in 2010 to complete a Masters of Science in Water: Science and Governance at Kings College London.
Since joining Accenture in 2012, I have gained 10+ years of experience in water utility and cross-industry sustainability and transformation, including working with the World Economic Forum WEF on accelerating Net Zero through the transition to a net zero grid and net zero carbon cities. I have experience in asset management, operations and customer service digital transformation for water and electricity utilities, specialising in complex programme management, process design and improvement and stakeholder management. My passion is water sustainability and resilience, and the practical implications for the electricity system, extractive industries and water supply companies of the water-energy nexus. I serve as a global cross-industry water sustainability SME for Accenture. Outside of Accenture I keep in touch with my colleagues in academia, and I have 4 publications on transboundary water management, virtual water management and the water-energy-food-nexus. I am on the Steering Board for British Expertise International`s Water Resilience Working Group. Last but not least I am Mum to two little boys!
Maddie Laidlaw | Commodity Financing Analyst | Macquarie
I grew up internationally in Argentina, Kazakhstan, and Thailand before doing my undergraduate degree in the UK and masters in USA.
My background is primarily in geophysics where I interned at a couple private equity firms specializing in developing mineral exploration projects through my undergraduate degree. While I wanted to stay embedded in commodities, I became more and more interested in the financing of these projects and so joined an institution that works with clients in the energy space to manage their working capital, logistics, and risk management needs.
Mel Liao | European Gas Option Trader | Macquarie
Mel joined the European Gas and Power team at Macquarie in 2020 in London as a structurer, having previously in the risk management function based in Sydney.
Mel quickly advanced in her career and started trading options in European and Asian gas and oil to help manage client’s risk and exposure to energy markets. During her time in this team, Mel was involved in the purchase of Societe Generale’s Energy portfolio. She worked to price analyse market, credit and funding risks associated with the portfolio pre-execution and assisting with onboarding post execution and managing residual market risks.
Mel plays an active role in supporting the Macquarie Early Careers team at University Open days targeted to females who may be interested to start a career in Finance. She is also a mentor in the Chartered Banker Institute Smart Futures programme that is aimed at providing paid work experience, interactive employability skills training and mentoring for Year 12 students.
Mel is passionate about helping other female students and those early in the career to help navigate their way through the workforce and challenges they may experience and find their true potential. She benefited from having a mentor whilst at university and it has a profound impact and is a firm believer on paying this forward in the hopes that she will have the same impact on others.
Nara Norberto | Senior Analyst | Macquarie Group
I’m a physical logistics operator at Macquarie responsible to managing the flow of our most complex refinery deal. I am part of the internal Platform Network focusing on knowledge-sharing initiatives.
Born in rural Brazil to farming parents, who believed I could achieve more than my town could provide, they said, “even if you go to the best university in Brazil, it still not good enough”, we moved to London. Despite not speaking English at the age of 14, I performed well academically, achieving a master’s in chemistry from the University of Nottingham.
I joined Macquarie in back-office, onward to the Physical Logistics team. Within 2 years I not only manage the most complex refinery deal the desk finances, but I am also able to cover all the complex transactions the desk runs. I support the client’s operation and financial needs, whilst ensuring the risk and exposure are managed for the bank. I have also been instrumental in the implementation of new technologies to allow for straight through processing.
I am an active member of Macquarie’s Platform Committee, the Committee is designed to drive collaboration, commercial outcomes, and career opportunities. I co-lead two of the main initiatives; Lunch & Learns and Deal Highlights, both are educational initiatives designed to inspire members of staff, promote knowledge-sharing between business and drive future collaborations.
I give back via our Rise-to-it Programme, sharing my experiences at an inner London state school, taking time to speak to Year 12 students from low socio-economic backgrounds and under-represented communities.