Anum Bandey | Controls Assurance Analyst | Aviva Investors
Anum Bandey is currently a Controls Assurance Analyst and is responsible for delivery of the internal controls report for institutional clients, as well as controls assurance for financial reporting purposes.
She is highly thought of in her role and delivers her work to an exceptional standard. She is agile and resilient and can pick up different types of work with ease.
In 2022 Anum was one of only two in the company to be selected to be a part of the new Diversity Project initiative, “Developing the Female Portfolio Managers of the Future Pathway Programme”, designed to create new pathways for women to enter investment roles and help grow female representation in investing.
Anum is an active Diversity & Inclusion champion within our company. She is part of the Gender Diversity workstream where she has internally published supported content and supported discussions, e.g. arranging and facilitating a panel discussing the menopause. She recently joined the Mental Health workstream as helping reduce the stigma around mental health resonates with her as an individual who suffers from anxiety. She is also part of our South Asian Professionals network, which encourages, supports and empowers individuals from a South Asian heritage.
Prior to joining the Asset Management industry, Anum was a professional swimmer who swam at the 2012 Olympic Games in London at the age of 15. Her experience as a professional swimmer helped her develop discipline, commitment, and the great work ethic she now brings to her role.
Anamaria Olaru | Relationship Manager | BlackRock
In my current role as Relationship Manager at BlackRock I am responsible for partnering with clients across Northern Europe to ensure they take full advantage of Aladdin's continuously evolving suite of analytics, applications and financial technology.
I am also the co-lead of the Women's Initiative Network (WIN) 'Art of the Ask' Programme and a key contributor to our firm's DEI efforts. My commitment to my clients is equally matched by my dedication to my peers and my ambition of making the financial sector a truly inclusive space.
Prior to my current role, I have completed the graduate scheme within the Aladdin Business, advising clients in all facets of the investment life-cycle, including risk analytics and portfolio management.
Originally from Romania, I moved to London to pursue a degree in Business Studies at Bayes Business School (formally Cass). I worked at Morgan Stanley during my placement year, within their HR department and completed a summer internship with BlackRock before starting my full time career.
Since my time at university I knew that my mission is to give back to the communities I operate in. I was a student representative for my year and acted as president of 3 different societies. I also worked for the 'Widening Participation' scheme, aiming to attract pupils from under privileged backgrounds to higher education. I am grateful that I have the chance to continue my work while having a demanding full time job.
Tamanna Advani | Senior Associate | PwC
I completed my undergraduate degree in Commerce and Finance in Dubai, and moved to London in 2018 to pursue my Masters degree in Accounting, Accountability & Financial Management from King’s College London.
This fuelled my desire to learn more about London’s financial services industry and the booming insurance sector, and I therefore joined PwC in 2019 within the Insurance Risk practice. I am also currently pursuing my ACCA qualification which I will further leverage to provide my clients with effective solutions.
Over the past three and a half years, I have worked with a number of general insurance and life insurers, including Lloyd’s of London Syndicates, and have helped them navigate through change driven by regulatory, technological and operational factors. I have led multiple workstreams on complex financial and operational transformation programmes with a focus on high quality delivery and value creation. My agility and flexibility enables me to deliver over a vast number of demanding engagements including, process and control remediation programmes, UK SOx readiness assessments and cost savings identification and recommendations.
Having grown up in three countries and being influenced by a variety of cultures has helped me understand the importance of welcoming different perspectives of people from different walks of life. This, coupled with the encouragement I have received from strong female role models has led me to mentor female students from ethnic minorities and underprivileged socio-economic backgrounds. I am a certified Mental Health First Aider, and organise insightful events at PwC focused on inclusion, diversity and wellbeing.
Sophie Robson | Claims Advocate | Marsh
Sophie is a Claims Advocate in the Management Liability Claims Team at Marsh, her work ensures that any contentious or complex claims are dealt with as smoothly as possible.
She has strong relationships with insurer claims teams, having had experience at insurers and as a former private practice coverage and defence lawyer, which she is able to leverage in her role as Claims Advocate advocating for global clients.
Sophie began working in the insurance industry in 2007. She is a qualified solicitor who trained in-house at US insurer HCC International, now Tokio Marine HCC, where she also sat on the wordings committee. Sophie also spent three years at insurance law firm Kennedys and was seconded to the AIG Complex Claims Team for almost a year.
Sophie has specialised in complex and high value financial and professional claims with her practice, involving both coverage and defence work. Sophie is involved in scoring insurer tenders for Marsh proprietary wordings and facilities and sits on the Carrier Engagement and ESG Claims Groups at Marsh. She was also selected for the Lloyd's of London Advance Programme which aims to develop those identified as future female leaders.
Shaunna Bell | Senior Vice President / UK Management Liability Placement Leader | Marsh
In 2012 I had to choose between a summer working in the Olympic Park or a summer internship at in construction insurance broking.
Despite only being 21, I chose the sensible option and opted to kickstart my career in insurance. I went on to complete the Aon graduate scheme, powering through my ACII exams whilst also throwing myself in to all the networking events I could find. I spent 2 years on the board of NGIN during its formative years, and learned so much about the importance of owning your career.
I have now been at Marsh for over 5 years, where I initially led a team of international wholesale brokers during the toughest D&O market seen for decades. Now I am the UK Placement Leader for the Management Liability practice in FINPRO. This basically means I am our face to the market, managing our placement strategy, insurer relationships and overall market interaction. I am the person people call when things don't go to plan! I like to solve problems, and love working within a big, high energy team.
Sam Robinson | Protection Specialist | HSBC UK
I have worked for HSBC from the age of 16, working my way through a variety of roles over the last 32 years, taking on financial advising roles, and then moving into leadership in a regulated role.
I am from Birmingham, and recently moved to Cornwall as my role as a Protection Specialist allows me to deliver coaching, training and support to Mortgage Advisers on a remote basis.
I moved into the Protection Specialist Role in 2018, and have worked alongside Mortgage Advisers and Wealth Advisers during that time, helping support their training, building confidence in conversations and building advice capability, which in turn means customers receive comprehensive protection advice.
Maisie Ward | Audit Manager | PwC
Hi, my name is Maisie Ward. I grew up in Colliers Wood, attending school and sixth form at a local comprehensive until I was 18.
I went on to study Biology at the University of Bath which included a year’s placement in industry. I applied for an executive assistant (EA) role at a market research company which I absolutely loved. It was my first experience working in that kind of environment, coaching people and spending time with inspiring execs. I learnt a lot, not only that EA’s know everything about anything (!) but more importantly that I wanted a career that encompassed the management skills I’d developed as well as one that allowed me to work with a range of different people and challenged me on a daily basis. This led me to the PwC Audit graduate scheme in 2017. I joined the insurance practice which initially I found quite daunting, there were so many different people, words (and acronyms!) to get my head around, alongside the extremely technical areas that come with accounting for insurance companies. But that’s exactly what I’ve grown to love – complex areas and intelligent people that challenge me on a daily basis. I worked my way through the ACA qualification and became a manager in January 2022. I work primarily with London Market clients and hold a role on our First Five Year’s committee, allowing me to support and develop our junior staff members.
Laura Barrett | Project Manager Commercial Strategy Initiatives | Lloyd's of London
Enabling the achievement of strategic delivery through comprehensive project management & purpose-led leadership.
Accomplished & driven professional, with experience in data migrations, product management, regulatory & digital change, within commercial & technical roles in Payments & Insurance sectors across the past 5.5 years.
Farirai Gora | Product Innovation | Mhururu neMuridzo Ltd
A biochemistry graduate by discipline I graduated in 2010.
Since then I’ve been able to carve out a career for myself in the insurance industry. I have over 12 years’ exclusive experience in the Lloyd’s and London insurance market. I help my clients exceed prior business performance and stay on the competitive edge of the global insurance market. I am a precise, strategic and qualified, product innovation and business change specialist.
I excel at driving forward business growth and regulatory agendas. I have worked with broking, underwriting, claims and operations teams. I lead my stakeholders in translating i) emerging risks and technology, ii) market trends, iii) UK FCA/PRA regulation into business and operational delivery goals. Achieving cutting-edge future proof change and technology outcomes compliant with the information security regulatory landscape.
I define and deliver project specific as well as long term outsourcing objectives with various partners.
I implicitly and explicitly lead teams across the full business change life cycle. I have strong stakeholder management skills used in scope definition, managing expectations and negotiating profitable outcomes. I have delivered operational transformation on large multi-million pound programs as well as stand-alone projects. Fondly called a ‘completer finisher’ I apply both a top-down and detailed perspective.
My expertise includes business continuity planning, scenario testing, front and middle office, HR, compliance, process re-engineering, scope definition and management, requirement elicitation, project reports, cost control, supplier management, team management, sprint planning, customer presentations, project close and adoption of large-scale business transformation and change.
Emy Passingham | Senior Audit Associate | PwC
My professional career began in March 2021, when I joined the PwC Audit graduate programme after studying BSc Geography at the University of Exeter.
My journey at PwC and passion for financial services began back in 2015 when I attended a Business Insight Week during my Sixth Form studies. This gave me the opportunity to experience a taster of working in Audit, as well as network and meet with some inspirational senior department leaders. Since joining permanently, I have remained in the same department, working alongside various female leaders who inspired me to join the firm six years ago. Seeing their enthusiasm and dedication to work, encouraged me to pursue this passion I had found, and overcome my battle with Imposter Syndrome that I had been struggling with.
For the past two years, in my role at PwC I have worked with a Lloyds of London Syndicate in between studying for the Chartered Accountancy qualification. Having started during the pandemic, it has not been plain sailing as the first few months of my career took place virtually. This provided an additional challenge to the already nerve-racking reality of starting a new job, requiring proactivity and assertiveness to learn quickly. As a result, in an attempt to give back, I took on a role to be a representative for my peer group (for new graduate intakes) through which I have prioritized smoothing their transition into the department.
