WATC Content Team, Author at WeAreTheCity Rising Star Awards

Carla Mazzaccherini | Morgan Stanley

As a Business and Languages graduate, I didn’t imagine myself to be working in Technology, let alone Cyber Security at Morgan Stanley. Looking back, technology and understanding how technology works has always been core to my professional experience. After completing my Masters in Information Technology, I spent a few years working in the IBM Support organization, as a Lead Product Specialist and then as a Technical Writer. I find technical writing to be a good bridge between my interests in language and learning about technology. This interest led me to work for Morgan Stanley, writing technical security documentation for developers and technologists across the Firm. This was my first experience of IT Security and it served me well as a foundation and learning more about security. Today I work in Vulnerability Management, as a Project Manager for penetration testing.

by WATC Content Team

Lucia Alejandra Carrillo | Bloomberg

Whilst doing my Finance degree in Mexico, I had a couple of work experiences during the Summer periods in London where I had a taste of the opportunities this dynamic city promises. After graduation, I knew I had to take that chance outside my hometown. I am one of many “post-Lehman graduates”, eager to pursue a career in finance and having to step back to gain valuable skills to become more competitive. London opened its doors with a challenging position as PA for Award winning British designer Lee Broom. It was the greatest lucks of all arriving to was then a small office in the living room of a house, working hard and witnessing the evolution of the brand, taking international recognition award after award, managing exhibitions across the capital, overseeing the product development of the new collections and taking charge as Studio manager when the doors opened in Shoreditch. After my time at Lee Broom I joined the initial team at Ultra Vie, a technology start-up where I developed contrasting skills, focused on user experience, social media and relationship management. Ultra Vie gave me the confidence to venture as a social media and web development free-lance with an eclectic mix of accounts, from Wine distributors, Luxury Goods and Hospitality brands, however the mix was not complete, a big gap with my initial interest in Finance which was what made me move to London in the first place was still there. Bloomberg offered the perfect fit, mixing my passion for finance and technology. The learning curve has been steep since my arrival in the UK, but it has surprised me with great opportunities regardless of my gender and nationality.

by WATC Content Team

Katerina Domenikou | Bloomberg

Born and raised in Ithaca, Greece, Katerina's childhood dream was to discover the palace of Odysseus. In her teens, she realised where her true passion lay and set off to pursue her personal Odyssey in technology. She studied Computer Engineering & Informatics at the University of Patras, graduating as the top student; then moved to London to do an MSc in Management at Cass Business School to engage more with her entrepreneurial side.

Katerina joined Bloomberg in 2010 as a software developer to put in practice her skills and further develop and challenge herself. She worked for six years on developing a high-capacity trading platform focusing on improving its performance. To quench her thirst for learning, Katerina joined the News Search Team to work on the News Alerting backend. This processes around 10 million search queries a day and is based on the open-source project, Apache Solr.

As a passionate advocate of Diversity and Inclusion, Katerina has been leading Bloomberg's Women in Tech Community (BWIT) in London since 2013. This initiative promotes female talent in technology, inspiring the younger generation to pursue a career in technology. Public speaking was her kryptonite, but Katerina was determined to overcome this, believing it is imperative for achieving her goal of making people excited about technology and championing Diversity and Inclusion. She grabs every opportunity to engage with a larger audience, from participating to panel discussions to delivering workshops and keynotes. One of her key priorities is supporting female tech speakers and providing them with a platform to grow and increase their visibility. That was the birth of BWIT Tech Talk Series, successfully running for a 3^rd year this year.

by WATC Content Team

Taylor May Woolsey | Moven

Taylor May is an energetic professional with diverse experience in both business and professional athletics. She is frequently described as a “young woman beyond her years" with plans to continue making a splash in the FinTech industry.

by WATC Content Team

Sian King | Worldpay

Sian joined the business in 2014 as a graduate product designer and in the last few years she has grown tremendously into a very capable and passionate Product Designer.

In her time at Worldpay she has worked predominantly on My Business Dashboard, the flagship online portal for all of our SME customers. She helped shape the user experience and design, setting the bar high for all future Worldpay products. Her key deliverables are detailed wireframes and high-fidelity designs which are well received by our development teams, and she works closely on the release cycle to ensure the quality of the product is at the highest possible standard. Sian is well versed in demos to showcase this work internally and externally.

Sian redesigned Worldpay’s customer invoices to make them easier to understand and on brand; this has now been adopted across the business as our customers move from paper invoicing to digital.

In terms of helping others, she has taken on a number of initiates to drive an agenda of better user experience (UX) in Worldpay. For example, she saw an opportunity as there were no resources or training in Worldpay on understanding user experience and presented to the Product team and Business Analysts on low-cost, high-quality education tools to change the way people learn design and UX. Sian is a keen advocate of product user testing and is constantly looking at ways that we can test and learn before we release features to customers – putting the customer first.

by WATC Content Team

Nicole Sandler | Barclays

Nicole Sandler is a lawyer in the Global Regulatory Policy team at Barclays. She focuses on the impact of fintech related regulation and initiatives on Barclays in the UK and globally, including advising on various sandbox and regulatory initiatives proposed by regulators such as the FCA, MAS, CFTC and Japanese FSA. Nicole engages with regulators both in the UK and globally in relation to fintech matters for Barclays including chairing a meeting with the Fed and sitting on panels with the FCA. Further she represents Barclays in various regulatory forums and industry groups. For example, Nicole is a member of the FMLC Finance and Technology Scoping Group at the BoE (and helped draft their 'Issues of Legal Uncertainty Arising in the Context of Virtual Currencies' paper) and the BBA Digital Strategy Group. Further Nicole represented Barclays at the EDCAB virtual currency and blockchain roundtables at the European Parliament.

by WATC Content Team

Nana Yaa Mensah | Worldpay

After an early career in financial services underwriting mortgages for companies such as Abbey National (now Santander) and the Woolwich, I was lucky enough to be involved in a technology initiative and fell in love with creating great software.

Moving into the world of payments a couple of years ago was quite daunting, but it very quickly became clear it was a great move. It's such an exciting industry that really embraces innovation. I never cease to be amazed by the different ways there are to pay, across countries and cultures. Enabling businesses to reach new customers around the world, giving people access to goods, services and opportunities that our grandparents couldn't have dreamed of is very rewarding to me.

by WATC Content Team

Isabel Cooke | Barclays

Isabel works in Barclays’ Blockchain R&D Team, identifying opportunities to experiment with distributed ledger technology (DLT), and other emerging tech. She is a delivery manager, and focuses on running experiments with business units within Barclays, often collaborating with startups, consortia and other companies in this space. She also helps to educate colleagues across the bank on the opportunities, and threats, of this nascent technology.

Isabel is an active speaker at events, recently participating as a panellist at a TechUK event, discussing the current state of the UK DLT industry, one year after the release of the Government Science Office’s whitepaper addressing this topic.

Her previous role was Operations Lead at Rise London, one of Barclays Open Innovation Labs, connecting the bank to startups, to co-create the future of financial services. Here, she worked with an array of FinTech companies in fields ranging from AI, to RegTech, and of course, Blockchain. Isabel maintains a passion for connecting incumbent companies with startups, and is a ‘chaperone’ on Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab, helping these startups to meet with relevant contacts within Barclays.

Isabel started her career on the graduate programme at Barclays Investment Bank, in Events Marketing, where she developed her aptitude for project and stakeholder management. She then discovered her passion for Fintech, recognising that she could help shape the future of financial services by being more closely involved with emerging technology. With this realisation, Isabel moved to Rise, and now into blockchain, embarking on a mission to help the bank look forward; she hasn't looked back since.

by WATC Content Team

Inbar Ravid | Deloitte

Inbar is an energetic, entrepreneurial individual. Inbar started her career when she was 18 in the Intelligence force of the IDF as a data analyst where she led teams, the development of new products and the training of 17 new recruiters as a commander. Following that Inbar held several products and high budget technological project management roles, she was in charge of finding solutions to complex technological challenges as well as making sure that projects are done on time, teams are working in collaborations and that clients are happy with the results. At only 24 Inbar joined Deloitte in 2015 leading the Israeli startup's team. During her tenure, there Inbar built several business platforms to connect Israeli startups with Deloitte's global clients, focusing on engaging and creating value to entrepreneurs she worked with, Investors and corporate clients. Later Inbar relocated to the UK and joined Deloitte's European Fintech team where she is working on widening Deloitte's reach and Impact in the different European ecosystems. Inbar is constantly meeting investors and startup founders across Europe to develop more ways for Deloitte to increase the level of innovation in large organizations.

by WATC Content Team

Shainul Kassam | Fortune Law

Shainul qualified as a corporate lawyer specialising in stock market flotations. Aged 29, she founded her own commercial law firm Fortune Law. She was reported at that time to be the youngest female to start a law firm in the UK solo. In her first year of trading, and initially from her kitchen table, she advised on 2 stock market flotations and was a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards.

Her expertise covers corporate matters including M&A, fundraising and sensitive boardroom issuesadvising on domestic and international shareholder and partnership disputes and unrest within family businesses. She has acted as expert witness for the CPS on AIM boiler room fraud cases and for defendants in FCA proceedings. Her primary focus however is advising business founders and smart start-ups. She has recently launched a legal boot camp for young entrepreneurs in partnership with The Budding Entrepreneur Academy with plans for national roll-out. Her key message for those wanting to start their own business: “if you don’t get a seat at the table, you can #buildyourowntable”.

Her commitment to pro bono work and giving back has changed her life in many unexpected ways. She is currently a board member on His Highness Aga Khan International Conciliation and Arbitration Board where, as an accredited mediator, she represents the UK and Europe dealing with cross border disputes, hearing arbitration appeals and drafting policy for 18 jurisdictions globally. She has contributed to the drafting of the Charter for International Family Mediation Processes an initiative of International Social Service (ISS) a Swiss NGO promoting child protection and welfare across borders.

Shainul has held several long standing trusteeships including the African Environmental Film Foundation. She lives in West London with her husband and two young sons with whom she runs, bakes and travels the world.

by WATC Content Team