Mwange Malawo | HSBC
Upon completion of my undergraduate degree in International Relations and Politics I joined HSBC as Personal Banker, where I worked for two years on the front line serving clients and providing them with a range of services.
Working in the branch gave me a great foundational knowledge of the banking industry to which I was then promoted to a Risk Analyst position within HSBC's commercial banking division. After a year in this role I was promoted to my current role as a CDD Compliance Manager which I'm currently enjoying.
Alongside my role I am also HSBC's Communications Lead for Embrace UK which is an affinity group who focus on supporting the bank to celebrate diversity whilst providing personal development support to all colleagues, particularly those from a BAME background.
Enjoying my career at HSBC by appreciating first hand how supportive the organisation is has also led me to be a mentor for front line staff that also want to progress their careers.
Clodagh McCullagh | Barclays
Clodagh joined Barclays in 2015 on the Markets graduate programme, in the Client Strategy team.
Clodagh has set high standards for her work and has led the client strategy and analytics support for several key areas of the Macro business, including the UK Rates franchise, the Global Rates Options business and our EM franchise. She has taken the lead in training and managing several graduates in the global team.
As well as driving the client strategy for these key businesses, Clodagh has taken a leading role in developing critical IT, MI & CRM tools for the business, has assisted with Barclays graduate recruitment efforts and also received her Professional Risk Manager designation and completed Level 1 CFA.
Clodagh has been actively involved in Barclays’ diversity agenda and community projects, specifically with the younger generation:
- Co-chair of the Win Enable and Engage committee which seeks to inspire and innovate in gender equality, personal development and talent pipeline areas
- Leads the Spotlight workstream which brings a wide variety of speakers, both internal and external, to Barclays colleagues on a range of subjects including communication, resilience, and diversity. Hosting 12 events a year with roughly 800 colleagues attending the events annually. Through which she was nominated for Diversity Network Member of the Year 2019
- Led the work with London Youth - City Leaders to arrange mentors for a variety of community groups across London. The goal was for the young people to pitch for funds to finance an idea that would help their community
- Partnered with Leaders in Community to help young people with their employability skills. Arranging numerous LifeSkills sessions on communication, job applications, and networking and hosted two of them alongside other volunteers
- Volunteered and hosted various LifeSkills sessions for young people in the community including workshops on CVs, interview skills and networking
Christine Ondimu | HSBC
Christine Ondimu is a volunteer mentor, striving to live a purposeful life to inspire kindness and to lead by example.
Christine is a Compliance Governance and Standards Manager at HSBC.
Christine has lived and worked for HSBC in four (4) countries – United States of America, South Africa, Kenya and now United Kingdom.
In her 11 year career at HSBC, Christine has been actively championed Diversity through the HSBC USA African Heritage Committee, Mentor at Sizanani mentoring program in Johannesburg South Africa and HSBC EMBRACE UK in London.
As Community Engagement Lead at HSBC EMBRACE UK she has created a strong partnership with charities like the Princes Trust Mosaic mentoring programs, HESTIA and Wildfowl Wetlands Trust and DWP mentoring Circles where HSBC EMBRACE members regularly volunteer.
Additionally Christine has spoken to students at London universities and schools on the importance of Diversity in an organisation.
Christine lives in Kent, with her two children, 17 and 7.
In addition to running the 2018 London Half Marathon and raising funds for the British Red Cross, her extracurricular activities include writing, baking, hiking and gymnasium
Preeti Chaudhary | AIB UK
Preeti is the Head of Lean at Allied Irish Bank (AIB UK), and is focused on delivering transformational change with long last impact.
In a short time at AIB UK, Preeti that has already delivered tangible benefits contributing to the bank’s growth and overall customer experience improvement. Her passion and drive for making a difference to AIB UK is infectious and we are seeing hearts and minds being changed as a result of Preeti’s approach.
Prior to her current role, she held various roles at RBS within ‘lean’ or with a coaching or people development focus, including Lean Academy Manager, Learning and Development Manager and Transformation Approach Manager. Throughout her career, she has been dedicated to sustainable behaviour and culture change. She has, and continues, to put herself in the shoes of customers to drive efficiency and effectiveness.
Preeti has grown her current team from the bottom-up, having identified and nurtured talent within and beyond the organisation. She is regarded as an inspirational role model by her colleagues, and a future leader for transformation and culture change within Financial Services.
Ericka FitzGerald | MUFG
After working as an ESL teacher for nearly 10 years for large corporates and a university in Brazil, I decided to challenge myself by applying for a sales role at Bloomberg following the advice of a Head of HR who happened to be one of my students at that time.
In a couple of years I became the top sales person for LATAM and decided to move to the UK where my family was based. I then joined Barclays as an eFX sales person and later MUFG. I got married, had two boys who are now 7 and 3 years-old, and, besides my role as a Vice President on the eFX Trading desk, I am the founding co-chair of Family Matters, one of MUFG’s Employee Networks founded in 2016.
I also lead the MUFG's mother’s forum, where I support new mothers coming back from maternity leave. This has significantly contributed to MUFG’s ability to support and retain women. As I work 4 days a week, I have been a role model for many others (men and women), who I mentor, to support them in finding balance in their day-to-day lives and careers.
After my first child was born I suffered from PTSD and know how hard it is to cope with mental health, a stressful job whilst being a mum and a wife at the same time. This made me passionate about creating networks and helping others especially at work where people usually suffer in silence. I regularly sit on panels to share my experiences as a working mum on a part-time arrangement and also about mental health. I have done Reiki and Healing courses and am an active fundraiser for Deep Sea Rainbows, a charity supporting young kids and teenagers in Kenya.
Jemma Waters | Lloyds Banking Group
Jemma leads the Insight, Policy and External Relations team within Lloyds Banking Group’s Responsible Transformation function. Using data analysis and mixed research methods she drives data-led strategies for responsible business and produces actionable insights for partners across the UK including charities, industry and government. This has made a real difference to the provision of digital skills in the country, and is widely recognised as a leading piece of annual insight by government and the other partners that use the data.
Jemma also leads external engagement for Group Transformation division, telling the story of Digital Inclusion, Responsible Transformation, and Diversity externally; all with the aim of Helping Britain Prosper. In this capacity she has worked to forge new relationships with corporates, policymakers, start-ups and small businesses. She has also shaped new propositions such as the Lloyds Bank Academy – a free skills academy aimed at helping everyone in the UK to get the skills they need to succeed - and #DiversitybyDefault – a series of events and papers seeking to spark new debate around the topic of Diversity. The next event will be on May 30th and will focus on suicide prevention and how corporates and policymakers can work together to help.
Prior to Lloyds Banking Group, Jemma worked at Accenture Interactive and dunnhumby, using data with human-centred design thinking to develop and deliver customer propositions and insights for a range of clients including Sky, Tesco, Channel 4 and leading FMCGs.
Rebecca Purchase | Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Working for a safer future.
My fascination with Health and Safety began at university where I studied a module and undertook my dissertation on 'Health and Safety in Nuclear Medicine'.
After leaving uni, I know Health and Safety was what I wanted to do, but it was for all the wrong reasons. My impression of health and safety was that you just read the legal stuff and got people to do it. You didn't need the 'soft skills'. I quickly learned that that was not the case so got to work on my soft skills as well as my technical qualifications. I was determined to see where it went and so far on this journey, health and safety has made me a better person and I believe that I am beginning to make a difference in the world of health and safety.
I started my career as a consultant and then (after a short break to try a career as a stock broker - mid-20s crisis!) moved into in-house health and safety roles at HS2, ZSL London Zoo and Canary Wharf Management Ltd, before landing my current role as Health and Safety Manager at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
It has not always been an easy journey and I have absolutely had to fight to be where I am today - by not listening to those telling me I couldn't do it/wasn't good enough and also by pushing on through my own self-doubt, I am now thriving in a role that I am genuinely passionate about.
I absolutely adore what I do from start to finish and I know health and safety might seem pretty boring to a lot of people but it is so necessary. From people working on the ground to the COO and board, we all need health and safety to be managed effectively. There are always challenges as you're constantly dealing with different people so using my coaching skills has never been more necessary and I love coming up with new ideas and ways to do things. I am here to enable companies to do what they do...safely. And that, to me, is a dream job.
Carol Valentine | Kent County Council
The highways industry is still largely male with little racial diversity.
For the past 10 years I have been working in highways and I currently work as a Highway Manager for Kent County Council. I manage a team of staff who deliver reactive maintenance on the roads in the west of the county and I lead on providing the road winter service for the county.
As a woman I have been able to influence work on developing modern approaches to winter road service (gritting and other activities) and developed a national presence and voice and I am currently the Vice Chair of the National Winter Research Group, the leading body for highways winter service. I have a drive to continuously improve the services that I deliver, and I am currently doing trials that are attracting attention from highway colleagues in different parts of the country. I am frequently requested to speak at seminars and conferences across the country and last year presented at an international conference in Gdansk, I feel that I am a role model for women generally and women of colour working and thriving in a male environment. Alongside my day job I have a passion for equality, diversity and justice. Contributing to my local community is important to me and I am on the governing body of a local college, with a remit on diversity and inclusion. I am a Tribunal Lay Member serving on two tribunals.
Prior to working in highways, I worked in diversity and equality, economic development and policy work. I also did a short spell in Central Government carrying out a diversity role
Lindsey Porter | Yoga Nu U
Following a successful 20 year career in Financial Services as a Project Manager working around the world I chose in 2015 to refocus my energy and drive into following my passion for sharing the benefits yoga can bring to all minds and bodies.
This has lead me to leading yoga sessions in my local area with different members of the community including, adults with learning disabilities, dementia patients in a care home, children with special needs (I am also a SEN mum), various children's interest groups such as Beavers and Rainbows and adults. I was selected to be a Tutor with Yoga Scotland to co-deliver the Yoga Foundation course. This passion to share has grown into co-founding and producing an international podcast series called Voices of yoga (voicesofyoga.com) where we record and share for free inspiring stories from yogis around the world covering a range of topics. We are already listened to in over 70 countries worldwide all through organic growth.
I've become a Signatory for the Mental Health Charter for physical activity and sport across Scotland. I've undertaken fundraising for SAMH charity the Scottish Association for Mental Health who also advise the Government on mental health policy - raising over £2500 last year. In October 2018 I applied and was accepted into Scottish Parliament to deliver an Evening Reception on Yoga; Mental Health and Wellbeing. I arranged for the Minister for Mental Health to give an opening address along with other keynote speakers and its still having a very positive ripple effect across Scotland. I've recently been featured on the latest SAMH social media campaign talking about yoga and mental health.
I write and have had articles published on yoga and wellbeing topics in the Huffington Post and major Yoga magazines. In December 2018 I published my debut book, 'Whirlpools, Yoga and the Balance of Life' which is already receiving positive reviews and sales. The book shares tales of adventure and my journey in to yoga and becoming an advocate for mental health and wellbeing.
'We all have mental health, just as we have physical health, and it’s important that we take the time to look after it.' - SAMH
Yasemin Sunbul | Openreach
I joined Openreach as an Apprentice Network Planner back in 2014, straight for leaving High School.
My apprenticeship was a 2 and a half year in Network Design & Planning for the BDUK Scheme. I gained the equivalent to 2 A levels on completion. I completed my apprenticeship 9 months early as I was always ahead of my work and also won Openreach Apprentice of the Year in 2016.
I pushed myself throughout my apprenticeship as I knew I wanted to get stuck into different roles as soon as possible so I could build up my skills and network.
From this, I moved into an analytical role which was using data to find solutions for our planning teams to help them improve productivity and quality. Alongside this role, I joined a BT Scheme called Future Leaders which is a programme for high achievers to help progress into management, we each had or own learning group and would catch up monthly to discuss opportunities, skills and experiences.
Throughout my time on this scheme, I was promoted into a people management role where I had a team of 21 people. The main bulk of the team was down in Ilford with a few team members in Bedford and Walsall. This was a long way from home back in Lancashire but I decided to take this challenge on to stretch myself. I gained so many skills and got a lot of great feedback from my seniors who explained that I showed strong leadership qualities. I increased my teams performance by 40% within 2.5 months while maintaining the quality. I achieved this by consistent structure, setting up support mechanisms and setting expectations from the beginning - having a firm but fair approach.
I was next looking for a role that had more of a solution based/continuous improvement focus so I gained a role as a Ethernet Service Delivery Manager. I was accountable for driving service levels set by Ofcom for North West & Midlands. We went from a low performing team, to being one of the best teams in the North. I helped to transform the age of our workstack from 59 days to 35 working days and delivered 4.77% in H2 for H2. This was achieved by taking 319 tails down to 85 a 77% net reduction in 118 tails throughout the year.
Openreach is now currently going through a big re-organisation so there is a lot of structure and role change. I am currently sat within the Lancs & Cumbria team covering the Service Assurance Manager Role. This is similar to my previous Ethernet role but now I am looking after multiple products such as Newsites and ILC. My short term goal is to achieve the Service Assurance manager role - this would also mean a promotion for me.
Throughout my time in the company I have also been very helpful and offered advice to everyone. I love to speak at apprentice events as I enjoy inspiring other young people. I cant wait to take the next step in inspiring more people as I am currently in the process of enrolling to be a STEM Ambassador and Women of the Future Ambassador.
I am enjoying my career so far and have just started my Business Management Degree which was kindly funded by Openreach.