Amy Woo | Operations Manager | Sullivan & Stanley
I am a dynamic and accomplished professional with a track record of success across multiple disciplines.
With extensive experience in Business Operations, HR, Finance, People Management, Sales Operations, and Process Optimisation, I have been described as a force to be reckoned with in the business world. My relentless drive to excel and passion for continuous learning have led me to achieve remarkable feats and earn the respect of colleagues and industry leaders alike. Whether I’m leading a team through challenging times or optimising processes to improve efficiency, I’m always pushing myself to reach new heights and make a meaningful impact on the organisations I serve.
As a second generation immigrant, the value of diligence and striving for self-improvement has always been instilled in me. Upon completing my English Literature degree at University, I was determined to find a career that would inspire and engage me in the same way that my studies did. My professional career has spanned across various industries, ranging from Law to the Arts. I developed my understanding of the mechanics of how a successful business runs and the importance of company culture, vision and purpose.
My commitment is to create an impact through my work and motivate those around me. As an Operations Manager in a specialised Change Consultancy, I persistently challenge the limits of what we can achieve and strive to move closer to our company's ultimate goal.
Alice Huang | Business Development Pipeline Manager | PwC
In 2019, I took a bold step and moved from China to the UK for my family.
I joined PwC UK and work as the Business Development Pipeline Manager for PwC’s Deals Line of Services. I am proud to be PwC’s Global Digital Accelerator and BE YOU at PwC award winner for sales and marketing.
Beyond my day-to-day work, I had the honor of serving as the first comm and media lead for PwC's East and South East Asian (ESEA) network. I am proud to have played a key role in promoting the inaugural firmwide Lunar New Year celebration and establishing September as ESEA heritage month in our firmwide D&I calendar.
I was also privileged to be selected as a ColorBrave Committee member, which allowed me to extend our current community engagement program with PwC foundation to ESEA charities. I onboarded Chinese Women in the City as their business mentor.
Together with Yvette's family and friends, I helped start the #SwabforYvette campaign, which aimed to diversify the stem cell registry and save her life. The campaign gained support from Gemma Chan and later became a joint effort endorsed by various different Chinese groups. Through this campaign, we were able to raise awareness and ask for more stem cell donors from ethnic minority groups aiming to create a future where ethnicity does not influence who survives blood cancer. I was shortlisted as Chinese Women of the Year in the volunteering category for my efforts.
Suri Shandilya | Managing Director | HSBC
Suri has been a driving force in championing women inside and outside of HSBC.
Despite males dominating Financial Quantitative Modelling roles, Suri has been able to make a change within his team to involve women who are often reluctant to embark on such careers. Today, while over 40% of his team are women, more importantly they hold leadership positions. This representation has been a great head turner for the industry. Suri assesses team members purely on achievements to ensure that there is no pay review bias against gender or other characteristics. The unmasked pay review saw more females promoted and compensated purely as a result of performance in his team!
Suri is an executive sponsor in D&I and oversees six Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). Suri has helped to setup chair roles equally across genders to benefit the business from diverse talent and gender neutral inclusivity for its 6000 members. Suri has often supported women in helping them balance family or personal needs around work. For one female team member, multiple life events (pregnancy/move to new country) taking place at the same time made her feel that there was no option but to resign, as the easy way out. Instead, Suri worked closely to plan various routes to either return to work or not, with no strings attached. Eventually, since the former was preferred, a new role was arranged and in a new country to show how HSBC goes the extra mile to not only support motherhood but meet the changing needs of the family. Through these examples Suri shows how one can spontaneously thrive from providing equal opportunities to women. As a Managing Director in HSBC, Suri sets an example of why it is can be so easy and natural to champion women for life inside and outside work.
Roger Taylor | Co-Founder | Famn
I am a coaching psychologist and work with senior leaders across a range of organisations in the insurance industry and beyond.
I believe my role is to assist my clients to develop awareness of their habitual patterns, developed in early life that have brought them success but can also have a shadow-side. My clients are mainly senior C-Suite leaders from organisations including Willis Towers Watson, Ed Broking, Janus Henderson, eBay, the ABI, Flood Re, the House of Commons, the NHS, and BP as well as leaders from other diverse organisations in the private, public and voluntary sectors.
I work by bringing together compassion and empathy balanced with provocation and challenge. I employ a psychologically-grounded approach that is also informed by several years experience of working as a leader in a corporate environment (in T Mobile UK).
Mike Smith | Wells Superintendent | bp
I joined the bp Women International Network in 2017 while working in Baku.
On my return to Aberdeen in 2019 I joined the Women in Wells North Sea Chapter and in 2020 I founded the Men as Allies Wells group in the North Sea. Since then I've helped to set up Men as Allies groups in London, Baku and Houston, with all groups staying closely connected to their local Women in Wells colleagues.
I grew up in a small town in Scotland. I met my wife when we both worked in Aberdeen. We married in 2014 and have two beautiful daughters and an adorable labradooble.
I work as a Well Superintendent for bp. My role is to ensure safe, compliant and efficient well intervention operations in the North Sea. I have 18 years of OIl and Gas industry exerience and have worked in Angola and Azerbaijan in addition to Aberdeen. I have a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Aberdeen University and a Master of Science in Subsea Engineering from Robert Gordon University.
Martijn van der Meulen | Development Director | Snap Finger Click
Martijn is the Development Director and co-founder of Snap Finger Click, an independent game developer based in Brighton, UK.
Martijn has 25 years of experience in the technology industry, starting his first business – a digital design agency – when he was just 18 years old. He started his career in the games industry at Electronic Arts working on huge franchises such as Harry Potter, The Simpsons, The Sims, and FIFA. He moved to the UK in 2008 to work for Sony PlayStation, being a senior member of the PlayStation Home team and forging key partnerships with companies including Red Bull and Rockstar Games during his time there. Martijn co-founded Snap Finger Click in November 2015 with the vision of making games people can play together, both in the living room and online over streaming platforms like Twitch. Under Martijn's leadership, Snap Finger Click has so far released seven games.
Mark Timms | Co-Head of Corporate Banking Origination | HSBC UK Bank Plc
Mark is Co-Head of Corporate Banking Origination for HSBC UK, leading our loan and investment banking origination for clients in our Corporate Bank.
Mark joined HSBC from Barclays, having also previously worked at National Australia Bank and Pinsent Masons. Mark's broad finance experience includes leveraged, acquisition and corporate finance. He is a CFA charterholder and qualified lawyer.
Outside the "day job", Mark is the Co-Chair for Balance UK at HSBC, aiming to support the recruitment, development and engagement of colleagues, managers and senior leaders in driving towards a gender balanced workforce.
Mark is married with twin daughters and a keen rugby (Wasps) and tennis fan. Interesting fact: Mark worked at Disneyland and the Sydney Olympics prior to starting his career in professional services.
Mark is also Co-Chair for HSBC UK’s employee resource group Balance UK. HSBC Balance has over 50,000 members, 220 Executive Leader Ambassadors and 1,000 Advocates across the world. It is an employee resource group focussed on gender equality and inclusion, working closely with other ERGs, to help drive awareness of intersectionality, and Mark has presented on a number of joint panel sessions in this regard.
Mark Smith | VP Digital & Talent Supply | bp
I am a transformational leader within procurement and supply chain.
I have a passion for digital and people, and the huge power that can be created when you bring them together in operating models that are effective and create inspiring places to work. Having worked for 10 years in consulting with some of the world's biggest energy, mining and utilities companies, I joined bp in 2012. Since then I have held a number of roles across our businesses, championing the power of procurement and supply chain to transform our business and support the energy transition.
Kabir Alam | Business Manager | HSBC
I’m a Bengali, Muslim, gay man from Birmingham, university educated, spending 15 years in the city as an Actuarial Consultant before moving 5 years ago to HSBC HQ in Birmingham working originally in Fraud before moving to People engagement.
I’m passionate to support gender equality and equity and those in the underrepresented parts of the community, intersectional identities i.e. black ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ and disabled colleagues. I create events that highlight issues faced within these communities, with hope of providing insight for those outside of these communities, creating further support for those within the community, hopefully empowering them to be their best selves
In the last 12 months I have spearheaded 9 HSBC-wide events and numerous specific gender equality events, with the support of 20 senior executives acting as hosts or panellist. These events have tackled a number of issues, many of a sensitive nature, including men and women’s health issues; discrimination within the LGBTQ+ community; HIV and testing, and transitioning. With 7500 colleagues from across the globe attending these events, I have received 100+ messages telling me how these events have provided awareness, knowledge and understanding for colleagues. There’s been a 15% growth in ally-ship across the Balance & Pride employee resource groups (ERGs) by those not affected by the same issues, realisations of the challenges faced by their colleagues and the need to provide support.
Active in supporting change of bank polices that have included procedural change on guidance on gender identity and sexual orientation effecting 5200cc
Graeme Fox | Director of Technical | BESA
I am refrigeration engineer by background and achieved my Chartered Engineer status in 2020 after evidencing my technical and professional competence via a professional competence review panel.
I was also elected a Fellow of the Institute of Refrigeration in 2012.
As Director of Technical at the BESA Group my role is to ensure industry standards are kept updated, to provide members with advice and guidance to help them comply with legislation and regulations, and to advise Government departments and assist them in keeping legislation effective and workable. I am also currently a Director at ACRIB (UK industry Board) and President of the IOR (Institute of Refrigeration), and Past President of European contractors’ association AREA.
With over 30 years’ experience in the HVAC sector, mainly in building services refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC), I have been the driving force in helping the United Nations Environment Programme to develop minimum competency levels globally to assist developing countries with their transition to more environmentally sustainable refrigerants to meet their Montreal Protocol Kigali Amendment requirements.
I ran my own family contracting company for over 20 years and gave hundreds of hours a year on a voluntary basis in performing most of the roles outlined above before selling up in 2016 and taking a paid role at the BESA Group running REFCOM – the UK’s registration body for companies working in the RAC sector before being promoted in 2022 to Technical Director for the whole group.