Anisha Kochar | Leveraged Finance Associate | NatWest
Anisha is a caring, determined, hardworking individual who approaches all aspects of life with enthusiasm and drive and is always seeking out opportunities to help others.
After discovering a love for mathematics at school, Anisha went on to achieve a first-class BSc Hons degree in MORSE (mathematics, operational research, statistics and economics) at the University of Warwick. In her first year of university, she completed a female insight week in Structured Finance at NatWest, leading to her being offered a summer internship with them. After successfully completing the summer internship, Anisha joined NatWest on the Structured Finance graduate scheme where she did 4 rotations in Rating & ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Advisory, CFILM (Corporates, Financial Institutions & Loan Markets), Mid Cap Leveraged Finance and Infrastructure & Project Finance. Anisha completed the graduate scheme in 2022 and joined the Mid Cap Leveraged Finance team as a permanent associate.
Anisha has always been passionate about helping underrepresented groups of people and creating more diversity and inclusion in society. This led her to become a strategy committee member on the Gender Network, leading the 50 Ways to Fight Bias initiative, and joining the People & Inclusion Hub for Corporate Banking & Structure Finance (CBSF) at NatWest.
Amber Sidney | Vice President, eFX Distribution | Morgan Stanley
North London born and raised, innately ambitious, perfectionist and a dangerous love of shopping - at least half the recipe of your typical Banking candidate.
Like many, I grafted my way into the Finance world through the classic concoction of an Economics-based degree, a Sales & Trading Summer Internship and various industry work experience. Combined with a focus on networking, hard work and a little helping of luck, 5 years later I now sit on the electronic FX Distribution team as a Vice President at Morgan Stanley.
Whilst my route into the industry was conventional, the path to my current role was not - after a spontaneous coffee with a mutual connection at Morgan Stanley and several interviews later, I made the somewhat risky decision to leave my Graduate Scheme at HSBC and undertake a new Sales role in a financial product I had no prior experience with. A steep learning curve initially, I now enjoy my day-to-day, which involves client relationship management and pitching for new business.
As a female in the industry, I feel deeply passionate about ensuring there is a sense of belonging for all individuals. I am an active member of various Diversity and Inclusion initiatives and work hard to challenge the status quo. On the other hand, I also recognise my place of privilege and prioritise working closely with colleagues to give back to external communities in need (most recently fundraising £29,000 for The Felix Project).
My life motto is that tough times don’t last, tough people do.
Synergised Solutions Ltd
Synergised Solutions Ltd provides aligned and meaningful business solutions, empowering and motivating your workforce towards organisational success.
We are a team of HR and D&I specialists with over 25 years combined experience working with multinationals, top tier consultancies, developing and progressive government and public sector agencies.
Throughout our careers, we have worked across the UK, Europe, USA, Caribbean, UAE and Australia delivering consultancy interventions and keynote presentations in the UK, Netherlands, Italy, Paris and USA.
We are a values based organisation with integrity and passion as our foundation stone in delivering solution-focused results. Using our knowledge and experience in emotional intelligence, authentic leadership and mindfulness; we create a holistic approach in our Diversity and Inclusion programme, which allows organisations to create an equitable platform that promotes honest and open dialogue during the implementation of culturally sensitive change initiatives.
We believe, organisations should aim for synergy across their infrastructure, ensuring progression and organisational growth.
EMPOWER: We believe empowering all individuals to understand and navigate sensitive subjects within the workplace, by increasing the capacity of individuals and groups: enabling them to make informed choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes.
ALIGN: We seek to illuminate the gaps between personal values and organisational practices in a way that supports effective and harmonious working relationships.
TRANSFORM: We seek to transform difficult workplaces, and by engaging with individuals, we can evoke and raise a higher motivation and value-led leadership style, encouraging them to make desired changes, to improve their current outcomes.
Atos IT Services Ltd
Atos are a global leader in digital transformation with over 107,000 employees in 71 countries and an annual revenue of over € 11 billion.
As European number one in Cloud, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing, we provide end-to-end Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, Big Data, Business Applications and Digital Workplace solutions.
Rethinking the way, we live and work, we believe we can take care of each other and the planet through making positive changes in business and society. The purpose of our business is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.
Decarbonization is the new crucial topic associated with digitalization. Digital increases the consumption of IT but also revolutionizes operation models, with the opportunity to redesign business models more respectful to the environment.
Starling Bank
Starling Bank is an award-winning, fully-licensed and regulated bank built to give people a fairer, smarter and more human alternative to the banks of the past.
It offers personal, business, joint, euro and dollar current accounts alongside a children’s card. Starling also provides a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) proposition through its subsidiary Engine, using the proprietary technology platform that it uses to power its own bank. Headquartered in London, the bank has offices in Southampton, Dublin and Cardiff.
Shruthi Govindarajan | Structural Engineer - II | Worley
While at school, Mathematics was my favourite subject and my strength in analytical skills and logical thinking were primary motivation factors for me to pursue Engineering as a profession.
I was fortunate to succeed in IITJEE, considered one of the toughest entrance examinations in India for admission into Engineering, and joined IIT Madras to pursue Civil Engineering. And here I am 11 years later still passionate about the subject and keen to make a difference in the field of Engineering.
I am a Structural Engineer with over seven years of global engineering and site experience and my role enables me to bolster the industry’s collective work to secure energy resilience by exploring and designing renewable sources of energy, and by sustainably extending the life of our current energy assets.
Through my career, I have had the opportunity to work with various clients such as TOTAL, Shell, Neptune, BP, Aramco with projects in various locations including North Sea, Saudi Arabia, Gulf of Mexico, etc. In my current role, I am part of the Advanced Analysis team and I help clients solve advance and complex problems in offshore energy platforms. My most recent work involved helping one of the clients to increase gas exports in an existing offshore platform by performing structural integrity checks and thus contributing to the sustainability of the asset.
I am also co chairing the Women's network at Worley and an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Claire Huxley | Commercial Code Change Manager | National Grid ESO
I have been in my current role since April 2022.
The team I lead look after changes to the commercial frameworks that govern how organisations who connect to the electricity transmission network are charged and the process for connecting. It’s a key role for driving net zero as it’s such a central part of the energy network, creating the drive and investment that is needed. Previous to this, I lead a team that developed the frameworks with interconnectors and European system operators in a post-brexit world, after having been in procurement since I graduated with a degree in Economics and Politics. I joined the procurement graduate scheme at National Grid in 2014, which provided a fantastic foundation of commercial understanding, working with lots of different stakeholders and project management. My passion was really in working at the heart of energy, so when an opportunity came up in the system operator to work in the European team, I jumped at the chance to make a change. I’m very grateful for the skills and knowledge that I developed during my 5years in procurement, and I now get to use them to shape and develop electricity markets.
I also lead a network of engagement Champions across the ESO, supporting and driving engagement plans that improve everyone’s experience of working here.
In my spare time I am a volunteer boarder for Guide Dogs, and have boarded 10 dogs since 2018.
Gemma Littlewood | DEI Strategic Lead / Project Manager | Oil Spill Response Limited
Gemma has worked for Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) for 17 years and now in the role of Strategic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Lead and Project Manager.
As Project Manager, Gemma is co-leading the organisation's 'Footprint for the Future' project, which looks to recommend and implement the future physical office and warehouse spaces needed by the organisation across its global Footprint. Gemma also leads the implementation of the DEI Strategy alongside her role as Project Manager.
Gemma is passionate about the synergy between establishing diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces in an organisational system design and translates this knowledge into supporting the Footprint for the Future Project, where future office and warehouse spaces alongside new working practices will be designed for the next 20 plus years.
Oil Spill Response Limited: OSRL is the world's largest international industry-funded cooperative which exists to respond to oil spills wherever in the world they may occur, by providing preparedness, response and intervention services.
Jacquelyn Fisher | Senior Project Engineer | bp
Jacqui Fisher is a project manager at bp with 9 years of experience delivering subsea projects.
Jacqui moved from the United States to the United Kingdom to attend Newcastle University where she obtained her master’s in chemical engineering. Whilst at bp she has been able to put her passion into leading teams and collaborating with suppliers into day-to-day action.
Jacqui has worked on projects spanning Egypt, North Sea, and Angola. Over her career, she’s taken on more responsibility and ownership, progressing from delivering major packages of a subsea equipment through to delivering a full project from concept through to production.
She started delivering various pieces of complex subsea hardware which are deployed on the seabed and control the flow of oil and gas to the processing facility for the WND project in Egypt. Then she moved to the North Sea, where she led internal and contractor teams to deliver operational support for subsea equipment leading to process and performance improvements. Off the back of this success in 2020 with less than 7 years of experience she was selected to lead the PSVM Infill Project in Angola, a three well subsea tie-in to existing infrastructure. Leading the project to an execute stage gate within nine months. She continued to lead the project through to a successful conclusion just 2 years after the Final Investment Decision the first well was brought online followed in quick succession by the other two wells. Most importantly the project was delivered with zero accidents or incidents.
Catherine Podesta | Offshore Installation Engineer | SSE
On completion of my master’s in mechanical engineering I joined bp where I had the opportunity to work in a diverse variety of roles within projects.
I started on the graduate scheme in Project Controls, learning the skills needed to help keep a project on schedule and within budget.
However, I had a desire to apply my engineering experience and jumped at the opportunity to work offshore on a construction vessel. This showed me my passion for subsea construction, and it allowed me the opportunity to learn from a diverse team and experience firsthand the challenges of working on site.
From there I managed the regional construction vessel program and contract for bp North Sea, which allowed me to influence safe and efficient offshore execution for the business. After which I moved to awarding and managing the services contract for subsea hardware in Mauritania and Senegal including new region entry for the contractor.
Following 8 years at bp I wanted to use the skills I had learnt to support the UKs transition to Net Zero. I moved to SSE Transmissions to help stand up the Marine function in the business and provide technical input into the network upgrades needed to support the UK's ambitious targets set out in the government's British Energy Security Strategy. Working with the head of development I am working on initiatives to streamline our procurement and front-end design to allow us to meet the 2030 targets.