Karen Glenn | BritVic
I have done various jobs during my lifetime, ranging from back office support in the money markets, being a “Havenmate” for Haven holidays, customer assistance for Ford Motor Company, through to working in IT as a database administrator. It was during that role I found myself facing redundancy at the end of 2008. It was a complete shock but I was determined to find myself a new challenge.
Within a month of being made redundant, I found myself a new career direction and moved into the role of Office Manager and PA in a new start-up company. There I found myself involved with setting up the office from scratch, writing policies & procedures, project managing the conception, creation and completion of the company stand at exhibitions (both nationally and internationally) along with being the PA to the CEO of the company. Unfortunately the business began to struggle and things were looking gloomy as the company was hit by the economic recession, so that business was then put into administration. It was during that time when the administrators were appointed that I found my next PA role within Britvic Soft Drinks in 2010 and was excited to be appointed the PA to the Chief Procurement Officer.
I found that I had taken to the role of PA like a “duck to water”, I had finally found a career that I enjoyed and turned it into an opportunity where I could embark on a successful career as a flourishing PA, it was an area I found that I had a natural enthusiasm and interest in.
The main aspect of my current role is to support my boss and her Executive team of 5 other directors within the Procurement function, which ranges from the typical PA duties of diary management, travel arrangements, expenses, enquiries from suppliers, and helping new starters within the team find their feet when they join the function. Plus the event management side for large meetings, from sourcing the venue and taking it through to the close of the meeting (when I can then relax). I also get involved in various ad-hoc projects (some team focussed some confidential business projects). Recently I have set up an internal PA network within the business, it is early days but it has been well received and the feedback has been really positive.
I also belong to various external networks, and enjoy networking with other PAs from other Industries at those events. It is great to meet other PA/EAs and to hear that we all experience the same challenges. It is rewarding when you can help another PA out with advice or guidance from something you have personally learnt from in the past. I would encourage other PAs to network with others outside of any internal PA group they have.
In my spare time I give back to my local community in Essex as a volunteer at a local community youth group for children aged from 7 to 12. My allocated role within the group (as well as Youth Leader) is the "Event Manager" for the group, which makes me responsible for ensuring the activities are age appropriate, fun, engaging and different. I also try to theme events to tie in with special events e.g. Easter, Halloween etc. The club usually has around 60 children attending each event and is all mostly funded by the youth group with occasional funds provided by the local parish council.
I am so proud to be part of the Top 50 Rising Stars Awards, as I am passionate about the role of the PA/EA and providing a high level of support to my executive and her team. Described by my line manager and her executive team as there rock. I am able to successfully build strong, trusted and valued relationships and being in "tune" with the feelings of others around, knowing when to offer additional support or advice.
If I was lucky enough to win this award, I would be extremely proud and honoured to be recognised in the PA/EA field, as this is often a role that gets overlooked for all the hard work that the PA/EAs put in for their line managers/businesses.
Faye Kilgour | BDO LLP
Faye is a Senior Personal Assistant at BDO LLP, in addition to being a Board member of the professional women’s network ‘Ladies in London’ and a trainee Co-Active Coach.
Faye loves connecting with likeminded women and using her network as a platform to help promote others. Now training to be a Co-Active Coach, Faye is working with a number of clients with a focus on helping them live in line with their values and going for what they really want in life.
Passionate about education, Faye is creating opportunities to use coaching to transform the school environment.
Claire Sng ǀ DLA Piper
Claire Sng is a Senior Associate in DLA Piper UK LLP's London Intellectual Property and Sport teams. Claire was previously employed by London 2012 as one of only four Brand Protection Lawyers. Claire worked closely with enforcement bodies and was awarded a commendation by the Commander of the Metropolitan Police Service for "Professionalism and Outstanding contribution to Operation Podium" relating to her work in tackling illicit ticketing at London 2012.
Since returning to DLA Piper, in addition to her full workload, Claire has continued to give up her time to advise on strategy relating to brand protection and hosting major sporting events, including speaking at the World Intellectual Property Office's (WIPO's) first IP and Sport conference in Asia, held in Singapore in November 2014, which was attended by representatives from 12 Asian countries from the Asia Pacific; and WIPO's first such conference in Senegal in 2013 talking to government representatives and the sports industry. In addition, Claire has supported the UK Intellectual Property Office in projects aimed at sharing knowledge with Government and authorities, including speaking at a variety of workshops and sessions in Brazil in February 2014 and April 2015. This resulted in Claire being nominated by the UK IPO to attend a Royal Garden party at Buckingham palace to thank her for her "outstanding work".
Back at the office, Claire is a mentor in the firm's scheme, and has set up a breakfast training club for her team to share knowledge and keep up-to-date.
In her spare time, Claire is a keen sportswoman and is involved in raising money for charity. She has just completed the London to Brighton bike ride, raising money for the British Heart Foundation and she is currently training for the Amsterdam marathon for which she is raising money for Cancer Research UK.
Diane Kennedy ǀ Lloyd's
Diane is a solicitor in the Legal & Compliance team at Lloyd’s. Diane’s work spans a number of areas, including international licence development activity, IP/IT, commercial contracts and data protection. Diane has more recently focused her work on supporting internal project teams on Global Market Access and Making it easier to do business at Lloyd’s, two of Lloyd’s strategic priorities which underpin Lloyd’s Vision 2025.
Prior to this role, Diane worked in the Regulatory Division at Lloyd’s and subsequently joined the newly created compliance team which had responsibility for implementing the Financial Services and Markets Act regime within the Corporation.
Diane is Deputy Chair of the Lloyd’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee and a founding member of WorkAbility@Lloyd’s. Diane is also joint pro-bono co-ordinator supporting Lloyd’s membership of LawWorks and a volunteer for Lloyd’s language coaching initiative.
Sarah Brakebill | BNY Mellon
Sarah Brakebill is a Sales Manager in the Global Financial Institutions group at BNY Mellon Investment Management and is responsible for managing sales relationships and distributing funds to complex, cross-border organisations, wealth managers and family offices. BNY Mellon is one of the world’s 10 largest investment managers. Sarah joined the firm in 2010 as an intern in Corporate Trust before moving into a Business Development role in Global Client Management, which focused on growing business with strategic clients across the breadth of the company’s product and service offering.
Sarah is in her second year sitting on the Board of City Women Network as Secretary, contributing to enhancing the Board’s governance and effectiveness. She is an active volunteer with the Junior League of London, an organisation committed to promoting voluntary service, developing the potential of women and improving the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. She has served on a number of different committees in the organisation with the common goal of alleviating poverty in London. Prior to moving to London, Sarah volunteered during her gap year teaching HIV/AIDS classes in a village in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and teaching English in Rayong and Chumphon, Thailand.
She earned an MSc Management degree with Distinction from Cass Business School, City University London and a BSc Psychology degree from Northeastern University in Boston.
Angela Cooke | PwC
Angela Cooke is an experienced HR professional with specialist expertise in diversity, inclusion and employee wellbeing at PwC. She is a qualified business psychologist having gained a Master’s degree in Occupational Psychology and CIPD qualifications.
As part of her role as a diversity specialist, she is a trusted business advisor who works collaboratively with senior business leaders to help them create inclusive and diverse working environments. She has done this through a number of key initiatives:
She leads PwC’s long term behaviour change campaign, ‘Open Mind’, which focuses on unconscious bias. This campaign has transformed the attitudes and behaviours of partners and staff in PwC. It has also positioned PwC as thought leaders externally in the diversity space and Angela has developed a commercial proposition to sell aspects of the campaign to clients and works with them on their diversity issues. This has represented a significant and unexpected return on investment of £150k for the firm.
See here for details on the campaign
Angela leads the firm’s approach to diverse recruitment, ensuring that it is attracting from as wide a talent pool as possible. For example, she has introduced the innovative new initiative, ‘Back to Business’, a practical and positive way to help senior women return to their careers after a long break. The programme is helping the firm redress its gender balance and achieve its diversity targets.
She presents to students and potential applicants on the importance of diversity. Her presentations have helped attract more women to the firm - feedback received from one participant who attended a recruitment event at which she spoke: ‘I enjoyed the diversity and open minded presentation the most’.
As a result of the leading work she has been involved in Angela is frequently called upon by other organisations to share best practice.
Jessica Kemp ǀ Travers Smith
Jessica is a tax partner at Travers Smith. She specialises in mergers and acquisitions with a particular focus on private equity. She advises private equity houses, investee companies and management teams on a wide range of transactional, structural and incentive based issues.
Her recent experience includes advising on the IPOs of British Car Auctions, Revolution Bars and Spire Healthcare and the buyouts of Big Bus Tours, Aspen Pumps and the ASK/Zizzi Group.
She was educated at Grangefield Comprehensive School in Stockton-on-Tees and then at Oxford University (Merton College) and Harvard Law School, where she received her Master’s degree in Law.
Before coming to Travers Smith she worked for Clifford Chance in London and Dubai and prior to that she lived and worked in Malawi defending prisoners on death row and those accused of capital crimes.
She has carried out pro bono work at a West London law centre and is a member of her firm’s Women’s Initiative as well as a maternity mentor.
Monica Dupont-Barton | Reed Smith LLP
I've always wanted to build a European leverage finance practice from London. With the enlargement of Europe, the possibilities of investments in Europe have also increased. The leverage finance desk of every fund and every bank in London contains nationals from at least Germany, France, Italy and Spain (and possibly Holland). And yet law firms are necessarily national in their approach to delivering legal advice.
I joined Reed Smith last year to help build a truly European leveraged finance practice. I played a pivotal role in recruiting highly trained individuals that were well known in the leveraged market from Gide, Linklaters and White & CAse. I was also the driving force behind the growth of our French practice with the recruitment of a finance partner. We didn't use headhunters so my personal reputation in the market played a key role. We were just starting off at Reed Smith so people didn't know us. I used my personal credibility to attract both talen and clients.
One year on, we've worked on inovative unitranche transactions in a number of European jurisdictions including Germany, Holland, Greece, France, Norway and Italy and, most recently, we've extended our reach into the NY market. We've driven all deals from London - because our clients, the alternative capital providers are based in London. Our team in London can chair conference calls and negotiate deals in English, French, Italian or German and we're proud of our diversity. As a result, our skills set have improved, we're better lawyers and better business people, because we understand our client's business and we transpose it in different jurisdictions.
I have also become member of the 30% club and have founded an informal club of women in the leverage finance and alternative capital provider industry to help support each others careers. On every panel discussion that I have chaired over the past year, I've ensured that at least one panellist is a woman.
Last year I have become involved with the French Chamber of Commerce in London and have organised a number of ladies' event through the Chamber.
My biggest achievement this year is to found a team that works hard but has a life outside of work. The legal profession is a difficult one for work life balance, but we strive to introduce flexible working whenever we can and we encourage every member of the team to build a family and a life outside of work.
Polina Zabelina | BP
Polina Zabelina is a chartered Corrosion Engineer in BP Upstream Engineering Centre Team. In her current role she supports BP Projects and Operations by providing corrosion and erosion expertise.
During her 3+years at BP she developed and delivered Erosion training to more than 100 engineers in various BP regions and improved company’s erosion management strategy (estimated value for BP >$500M/year) and was recognised with a Tallow Chandlers Award (2014) for this work.
Prior to BP Polina was a Corrosion Engineer for Sakhalin-1 project (Exxon Neftegas Limited) where she managed Corrosion Monitoring and Chemical Injection program for the whole project.
Polina is from Siberian city Omsk, where she graduated as a Chemical Engineer in 2008. She is a committee member of Institute of Corrosion, member of NACE and PinkPetro Community board member. Polina is also a STEM ambassador and enjoys encouraging students to study engineering.
Vicki Ghiotti | Sodexo
Vicki joined Sodexo in 1994 following various PA roles within the pharmaceutical, IT and medical industries.
Vicki left Sodexo in 1999 to become self-employed and successfully ran a secretarial business from home providing support to local businesses and individuals.
Vicki returned to Sodexo in 2001 as PA to the Business Development Manager, Justice Services.
During her time with Sodexo, Vicki has also worked as a Project Coordinator within the Business Development Team assisting in the production of bid documentation for new custodial business. In 2009, Vicki travelled to South Africa where she worked with a team in Johannesburg producing bid submissions for four new build prison projects.
Vicki is a member of the Leadership Team for Women Work (Sodexo’s gender employee network) and assists in all activities including scheduling monthly team meetings, minute-taking, communicating with the network membership and promoting events. The main event in the Women Work calendar is the Annual Conference, and Vicki is heavily involved in the organisation of this. She also sits on the Events Sub-Committee which arranges and schedules regular events for the network’s members.
Vicki is currently PA to the Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director of Sodexo Justice Services. However, from 1 September Vicki will move into a new role as PA to the CEO, Justice Worldwide.
In her spare time, Vicki enjoys spending time with her young son. She also volunteers at events to increase awareness and raise much needed funds for Iain Rennie Hospice at Home.