Caroline Graham | Barclays
Caroline has responsibility for Barclays Legal external relationships with a primary focus on law firms, alternative legal services providers and active management of the Barclays legal panel.
Her relationship management and delivery teams work with external legal suppliers to ensure they deliver an effective and commercially efficient service across all interactions with the bank.
Caroline has been at Barclays since 2007 and has held a number of roles in operations, change management and transformation in both London and India. She joined the Legal function in 2017 as Head of Business Change Delivery managing a range of regulatory change programmes including Brexit and Libor before moving on to her current role.
Before joining Barclays, Caroline was Sales and Services Manager at financial services company Fiserv in London and prior to that was Marketing Director at Oceans Connect, an Indian-based outsourcer. Caroline also has experience in running her own business having founded her own PR agency.
Caroline is passionate about the Diversity and Inclusion agenda and uses her project management and communications experience to establish and manage diversity networks. Within Barclays she is Co-Chair of the Win UK Gender Network and founder of Barclays Win India. Externally, Caroline is co-founder of WeAreTheCity India, an associate board member of Gender Networks and Corporate Ambassador for the charity Smart Works which helps vulnerable women back into work.
Frances Scott | 50:50 Parliament
Frances Scott, founder and director of 50:50 Parliament, is a passionate advocate for gender equality of representation.
She launched 50:50 in November 2013 with the 50:50 Parliament petition. In 2016, 50:50 initiated “Ask Her To Stand” to inspire, encourage and support women along the way to Westminster. This has had a major impact with women signing up to stand on a daily basis. 50:50 are now taking action to help women get selected and elected.
Frances has a background in operations analysis, marketing and economic feasibility studies. She had an international career in the Hotel and Tourism industry. She has also been an antenatal teacher and has helped thousands of new parents prepare for birth and babycare. She sat on the Maternity Services Liaison Committee at St Mary’s Hospital Paddington giving input into provision of services for several years. She was named as one of the Evening Standard’s #Progress1000 most influential political changemakers in 2018. In October 2019 she was invited to present at TedX Brighton on what had been her “Turning Point” and why she started 50:50. In March 2020 and March 2021 Frances was included in the list of “Women in Westminster: The 100” which was a way to celebrate the achievements of those women who are changing the conversation, challenging the approach to policy making and providing a female perspective to the important political issues of the day.
Joanna Wales | Ascot Racecourse
In 2020, I lead the operational delivery of Royal Ascot Behind Closed Doors - the first international televised sporting event during a global pandemic.
The handbook for this event became the template for the racing industry operating under Covid safe protocols.
In 2021 Royal Ascot was selected by the DCMS to be part of the Event Research Programme, along with Wimbledon, FA Cup, etc. I led the build and delivery of this "Royal Ascot in miniature" under the watchful gaze of the industry, government and public, both on and off site, whilst still under partial lockdown rules.
I was integral to the concept, design and delivery of The Village Enclosure at Royal Ascot, a festival vibe enclosure holding 10,000 customers; the first new enclosure at Ascot in over 100 years.
As part of my security focus, I changed the customer behavioural profile of racedays by introducing new policies, documents and training for our 1,500 strong event security staff. Researching environmental and behavioural studies on shopping centres, crowded places, riots and Urban centres and implementing these changes into the venue to create a more harmonious atmosphere where people behaved with more respect to each other.
Over the last decade, my creative skills and operational expertise have played a key role, as part of a truly amazing team, in shifting Ascot from a national horse racing venue to an internationally recognised brand.
At work, I set up the Accessibility Working Group to deliver a more user friendly event to those with physical and mental challenges. In the first year we delivered 16 improvements to site creating better experiences for disabled customers. One of these was the introduction of the sunflower lanyard for hidden disabilities with associated training to temporary staff. This initiative was adopted across the racing industry following its success at Ascot.
I also established the Staff Engagement and Motivation Working Group to address the rising deficit in event staff by making Ascot Racecourse a leading place to work for Gig economy staff. Both of these are on-going projects but we have seen rising engagement across both groups of people.
I am a trained Mental Health First Aider as well as a First Aider ensuring that hopefully I can help any people either in work or outside who maybe in a crisis.
At home, I am a mentor for young people helping them into further education, work or training programmes. I work as a career coaching providing interview and CV help with year 11's.
Volunteering during 2020 lockdown, I ran the driver initiative providing a taxi service for nursing staff to get to their new hospitals; I was a companion to the blind providing phone support during lock down, as well as attempting to contact all 250 of my event staff many of whom were in the vulnerable category as they are over 65. I also oversee the Sebastian's Action Trust annual event at Ascot, supporting families with terminally ill children with a Christmas party. I might add that I was not furloughed at all during lockdown and was doing this alongside picking up work for the rest of my department, who were.
I am hoping to be accepted as a Samaritans volunteer next year.
Rhianna Dineen | Ashton Gate Limited
Whilst in school, I knew I wanted to get into work as soon as possible and a family friend who ran a restaurant on a match-day at Ashton Gate Stadium let me know that they were always hiring waiting staff.
I applied for a job whilst still studying my GCSEs with the full intention of studying my A-Levels and working towards becoming an aerospace engineer. Having achieved 2 A*s, 4 As and 4 Bs, I went on to study Maths, Further Maths and Physics at A-level. Unfortunately, I developed severe anxiety and found it difficult to attend classes so started distance learning and eventually had a break with the intention of starting again the following September. In the meantime, I still felt confident at work and had switched from working in the restaurant to working in the bars around the stadium. I've never particularly been interested in the football or the rugby but I fell in love with the matchday atmosphere and the passion shared by the fans. As my confidence grew, I requested more hours and picked up some casual work in the cash office at the stadium. Our cash controller at the time moved roles and I took on her job as a part-time role at the age of 17; whilst managing one of our busiest bars on a match-day. September soon came round and I realised I was already working towards a career I loved; so I asked our HR department if they would let me do an apprenticeship in accounting. They agreed, and I attained my assistant accountant qualifications. Timing was again in my favour; and an opening came up in our finance department as purchase ledger clerk for the stadium; so I applied for it and was successful but had to give up working the match-days to focus my time on the new job. Once settled, I signed up to do agency work and picked up shifts in various pubs & bars around Bristol, meeting some wonderful people along the way. Since then, I've taken on a lot more in the accounts department and currently look after credit control, purchase invoices and daily transactions; and am currently studying my level 4 professional diploma in accounting with a view to study CIMA and become a chartered accountant in the future. I also work between 20 and 35 hours at a local pub and love socialising with the locals and feeling part of a community.
Georgina Warren | IHG Hotels and Resorts
I have spent my career focused on People and Culture establishing creative Resourcing and Diversity Equity & Inclusion Change solutions.
To date I have led the Diversity Equity & Inclusion and Wellbeing strategy across different industries establishing true change across organisations and creating spaces where individuals can thrive. My most proud moments have been creating and leveraging DE&I tech solutions to empower leaders to understand the diversity of their teams and establish the right interventions. Also delivering a robust Wellbeing package to my last organisation to support colleagues through the pandemic, and this was seen via achieving the largest improvement in the external benchmarking tool provided by City Mental Health Alliance.
Since joining the hospitality industry, and the world recovers from the pandemic, I have seen the incredible opportunity to ensure Diversity Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of our culture and business at IHG Hotels and Resorts and across our industry. To ensure that when we aim to attract individuals back into the industry, that candidates view hospitality as an industry that can foster cultures and careers where all individuals can thrive. Most recently, I have established a core Global DE&I calendar that helps us bring colleagues together and deepen their understanding of the value of inclusion around five key global celebrations: International Women’s Day, Global Inclusion and Wellbeing Week, Pride Month, World Mental Health Day and the International Day of People with Disabilities. We have aligned a new people leader and tailored HR sessions to each of these important events as we build the inclusive capabilities of our leaders and General Manager by empowering them to have the confidence and courage to have challenging conversations around DE&I.
Over the past year, I was also keen to start to share my knowledge with smaller organisations, charities and changemakers; and work as a partner and coach for these change agents via my platform InclusionCreates to lead the change that we need to see across our local communities.
Neha Malhotra | J.P. Morgan Chase
Neha is a senior cybersecurity leader and practitioner, with over 16 years of work experience across varied industries.
She currently works as Vice President in Cybersecurity Operational Risk management and Compliance with JP Morgan Chase bank, Singapore and has earlier worked with several large financial, technology and consulting organizations like Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Accenture, Fujitsu, IBM, Crisil (a Standard & Poors Company), KPIT across Singapore, India and Malaysia.
She had started her career as a Software developer, and received many accolades and recognitions from her employers, but as she was always was on a search for her real calling. While she transitioned into project and program management roles; as soon as she found a role in the security domain, she realized it was the industry she belongs to and want to spend rest of her life working in. She worked hard to transition to a successful career in information & cyber security and loves her work and job to the core.
Neha holds coveted gold standard internationally recognized certifications including CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional), CCSP (Certified Cloud Security Professional), CISM (Certified Information Security Manager), PMP (Project Management Professional), PSM1 (Professional Scrum Master), CBSA(Certified Blockchain Systems Architect) and CBSP (Certified Blockchain Security Professional).
She shares her research and knowledge across the industry by speaking in conferences on various topics ranging from managing Cybersecurity risks & secure adoption of emerging technologies, software supply chain security, cyber risk quantification, women in cybersecurity and many more. One of her podcast – “Women in Cybersecurity” was widely admired and she received many testimonials for women who got inspired and benefited from the sharing.
Neha has been recognized with many global and regional awards for her work in cybersecurity including Top 100 Women in Technology in Singapore (recognized by Senior ministers and congratulatory speech by Honorable President of Singapore), Security Leader of the Year-Asia and two coveted (ISC)2 Global achievement awards in addition to numerous recognitions from her previous employers. She is also actively involved in a large number of community engagements, including mentoring numerous young professionals & students on a regular basis, being on the executive board of (ISC)2 Singapore Chapter, a co-opt member of Cybersecurity chapter of Singapore Computer Society, and many more. She also contributed to the AiSP (Association of Security Professionals) Singapore Information Security Book of Knowledge 2.0, and continues to inspire and motivate professionals across industries.
Jennifer Kent | Latham & Watkins
I am a senior associate in Latham’s Washington, D.C. office, representing private equity sponsors and company borrowers in secured lending and other financing transactions, including acquisition financings, asset-based loans and debt restructurings.
During my legal career, I have developed extensive experience with complex cross-border financings, advising on over US$10 billion worth of international transactions. I also previously spent 13 months in London working on European-based financings with multi-jurisdictional components.
My thought leadership in the finance field includes co-authoring the U.S. section of the International Financial Law Review 2018 Cross-Border Financing Report and leading a presentation on cross-border guarantees and security for Lawline’s 2020 Banking and Financial Services Curriculum.
I maintain an active pro bono practice, including advising low income and minority business owners and entrepreneurs and assisting people on US voter rights issues through the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline.
I am passionate about advancing diversity and inclusion in the legal profession – my personal motto is “lift as you climb,” which emphasizes the importance of creating pathways to allow others in the Black community and in other underrepresented groups to grow, develop, and succeed. As the first lawyer in my family, I benefitted immensely from mentors who guided and counseled me throughout my career, and accordingly actively work to pay that forward to younger lawyers.
Anna Radulovski | WomenTech Network
Originally from Ukraine, Anna began her diversity in tech empowerment journey in 2017 when she started Coding Girls.
Followed the launch of WomenTech Network, a women-led and women-focused organization to empower women globally through mentorship, career development, and networking. She’s the organizer of the WomenTech Global Conference uniting 100 000 women in tech, minorities, and allies, growing the community to 60K members since 2019. Her leadership inspired and empowered +6000 Ambassadors from 172 countries to join and unite women in tech in times of uncertainty.
As a Regional Director at the Founder Institute, her mission is to enable talented and aspiring female founders to become innovators and leaders and start and launch impactful companies. Ever since she joined the Founder institute the percentage of female graduates increased to 65% in 2021.
She is a regular speaker at large conferences in tech and business (Webit, EBAN, WeAreDevelopers) and a startup jury for girls and women contests and competitions like Enterpregirl. She views other women-focused organizations and startups as partners rather than competitors and due date WomenTech Network has over 200+ community members. (We'd be happy to have WeAreTheCity as a community as well)
As an organizer of WomenTech Global Awards, she put the highest priority on making sure women are seen, heard, and recognized. More than 2000+ women were recognized during the WomenTech Global Awards in 2022, with 60 winners in 22 categories including Women-Led Startup of the Year, Diversity in Tech Initiative, Diversity & Inclusion Officer of the Year, LGBTG+ AI Inclusion.