Naomi Bennett | Planet Nation
Naomi is a lesbian woman on a mission to empower lesbian & bisexual women and to strengthen the LGBT community in her home borough of Lewisham. She is particularly passionate about ensuring all members of the community get support, including those working at grass roots levels or in minority areas that often get overlooked.
Naomi actively networks in the community and is always linking people up to facilitate collaboration as she believes that we are much stronger united.
Naomi is a firm believer that as women we can achieve a lot if they are empowered to believe in ourselves. She is proud to support women with learning new skills, gaining experience and increasing confidence. Many of her volunteers have taken the skills learnt through being a Planeteer and applied them to new careers.
Leyya Sattar | The Other Box
Leyya Sattar is striving for equality and diversity in the creative industry. Hailing from Manchester, Leyya has been a trail-blazer in her career and in just 3 years she has been promoted from intern to heading up the design division of Make Your Words Work™, a design consultancy based in London. Working directly with companies and not-for-profits to maximise their design capabilities, Leyya has also been instrumental in the ongoing development and growth of Make Your Words Work™ annual In-House Design team awards.
As an Asian, working-class girl in a homogenous creative industry, Leyya decided she wanted to support and recognise the talent and contribution of under-represented minorities in the industry and find new role models - not just for her own career progression but for others like her. After initially supporting two badass women-led entrepreneurial organisations: Flock Global (as UK Director) and SheSays (as Event Co-ordinator), her entrepreneurial mindset then led her to launch her own initiative - The Other Box.
The Other Box is a platform dedicated to increasing diversity in the creative industry.
Leyya recognised more could still be done to spotlight the under-recognised talent of minorities and people of colour in the creative industry and joined forces with Roshni Goyate (a fellow London creative) to change things. Garnering interest from leading media like Channel 4, Huffington Post and BBC Asian Network (to name a few), and they are now developing events and interview series - watch this space.
Lucile Kamar | RICS
Paige Horton | Citi
Tannith Cattermole | Interserve Plc
I spent my twenties bouncing between industries as diverse as architecture, sales and mining, but 3 years living abroad was to be a formative experience. My social life was spent volunteering with environmental friends – I had to ask myself why my personal passions weren’t my day job? I vowed to retrain in sustainability back in UK.
Initially I worked for an environmental consultancy acting as a consultant and facilitator to corporates, local authorities and communities on a complete range of sustainability issues whilst I studied part-time for a Masters in Environmental Management for Business.
Since then I have worked as a sustainability professional for Interserve, a global construction and facilities management company. My role has evolved over the years, offering sustainability support for various contracts, such as government, education, local authority and hospital contracts. A flair for talking to people, getting under the skin of operations, and writing engaging and inspiring communications now sees me focused on capturing amazing stories from across the business to share learning and replicate successful models.
One of Interserve’s crowning jewels is its forward-thinking sustainability plan, SustainAbilities, and a key part of my role is to help Interserve reach audacious goals across a broad spectrum of environmental and social aims. This gives me freedom to support myriad activities that aim to create employment opportunities through apprenticeships and work experience placements, foster diversity and inclusion, create opportunities for disadvantaged groups, encourage employee volunteering and promote sustainability in the supply chain via use of small/medium-sized businesses and social enterprises.
I’m passionate about community and equality, and thankfully sustainability has grown to include caring about people as well as the world around us. I’m delighted that my career gives me the opportunity to create real, tangible impact on so many issues that matter to me.
Priti Riggs | Transport for London
From an early age I have been interested in people’s behaviours leading me to study Psychology and become an accredited Chartered Occupational Psychologist.
I grew up in Manchester, in a predominately white area, where being an Asian woman was rare. When I moved to London at the age of 25, I was excited by the multi cultural nature of the city but struck by the lack of diversity in the workplace, particularly at senior management level. I also became aware of the different challenges people faced based on their gender, race, ethnicity and social class.
Through my career so far I have been committed to challenging attitudes and championing the importance and benefits of diversity and inclusion (D&I) to the business. I have been recognised internally and externally for the work I have done to remove barriers to entering employment and progression for certain groups. Over the years I have also presented at various events and forums, sharing my experiences and advising on what organisations can do to support their D&I agenda.
I can certainly relate to some of the challenges women in employment face and without the amazing support and encouragement from some great managers, male and female, who have seen the potential in me and pushed me, I would not have achieved what I have to date. My own experiences have highlighted the importance of line managers and that is where I hope to continue to make the biggest impact in order to drive the D&I agenda further.
Sarah Lambley | BBC
Sarah Lambley is the Development Project Manager in BBC News and Current Affairs. Championing talent and diversity is at the heart of all Sarah’s work. She is responsible for leading high profile programmes and development opportunities and working with pan-BBC stakeholders. She is currently project managing: the first ever BBC News Under 30s Panel; the Women in Leadership programme; the Women in Technical Production programme; and the Disability Scheme in Mobile & Online.
Prior to this, Sarah has worked in the digital current affairs team and audience research for BBC News. She also spent a year working for The 7.30 Show in ABC, Sydney.
Sarah sits on the EY National Youth Panel Steering Committee and is also a volunteer diversity consultant for Comic Relief.
Morenike Ajayi | Career Nuggets
I relocated from Nigeria after my 1st degree in Computer science in 1992. Even though I finished with a second class lower and despite the fierce competition and many rejections, I was tenacious, hardworking and determined to secure myself a graduate training role. I succeeded with the Royal Borough of Greenwich in 1995 and trained to be a chartered accountant. After qualifying in 1999, I joined PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as a senior associate and speedily rose to an audit manager post after 6 months in the firm. Having had enough of auditing and governance experience, I went on to Transport for London (TfL) where I held various roles including Head of Finance (Corporate IT) and managed a team of 15 staff. In my 9 year stint with TfL in several roles, I was able to deliver various transformation projects , saving to the tune of £10m. Currently, I work as the Assistant Director of Finance and Procurement at a London Housing Association, where I continue to make transformational changes and contributions to the organisation. I currently have responsibility for a team of 13 people including head of procurement, head of financial operations and head of treasury services.
In addition to my day job, I am passionate about developing and seeing others excel in their chosen career. I believe everyone has the potential to advance, if given the right nurturing and mentoring. Having mentored several candidates, I recognised that many are being held back from higher aspirations, largely due to a negative mind-set and ineffective work ethics. Identifying the gap in the marketplace has compelled me to create "Career Nuggets" a social enterprise aiming to bridge this gap.
I am married to Kenny Ajayi and we have a year old son “David”.
Michele Donald | Defence Equipment & Support
I started my career in Defence back in the 1980’s and have always worked within a HR role with them. Looking after people, developing them and mentoring them to further their careers. As an apprentice manager, I have looked after over 120 apprentices over the last 5 years. Managing them throughout their career. Helping them in the Engineering community that I am involved in. I have had many successes and have seen my apprentices qualify and rise through the ranks in defence.
I have a family with 2 grown up children and have spent time in America accompanying my husband working in defence. During that time I volunteered to help service people in trouble. I am a caring individual and have many roles outside of work with my church.
My Achievements: I have helped over 120 apprentices to qualify as engineers in Defence and I am now a manager of Degree apprenticeship and instrumental in the set-up of that apprenticeship in our area. I work closely with the EEF and IET within this region and 4 of my apprentices have won categories in those competitions.
I am a role model in my area and act as mentors to many apprentices. I actively promote apprenticeships to the wider communities within the south west and believe that apprenticeships are the new best thing.
I am an active church member and help the community I live in and also regularly attend further education colleges and schools to participate in workshops to help students prepare for their first steps in the working world. I have received several commendations for this work.
