Nadia Ibrahim | Melanin Medics
Dr Nadia Ibrahim is a junior doctor who qualified from Imperial College London and is now completing her training in London and Surrey.
She is the Director of Events and a Trustee of Melanin Medics, a national charity dedicated to supporting African-Caribbean aspiring medics, medical students and medical professionals in the UK and implementing positive solutions to overcome under-representation and socio-economic barriers in medicine.
During her time at university, she was the Vice President of Imperial College’s African and Caribbean Society, organising events to fundraise for Mind and the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust. She is passionate about widening participation, working as an Outreach Mentor, working with schools, colleges, and community organisations to help students develop interests in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine), and as a Mentor for Widening Access to Community Careers in Healthcare (WATCCH) which supports students from diverse backgrounds who have an interest in careers in community healthcare through providing work experience and application support.
Tara Bharadia | NHS Dentistry - The Tooth Place
Graduated from the University of Manchester in 2021. During my time there I made significant contributions to the university and local community through volunteering and public speaking.
Currently, working as a Foundation Dentist in the NHS, working in a high needs practice in Oldham. Working as a general dentist, treating all members of the community and restoring their dental health after missed appointments due to pandemic. Many patients have developed further dental anxiety due to not being seen for almost 2 years, so I am working to ensure everyone has a chance to achieve dental health and alleviate fears.
Nuthana Prathivadi Bhayankaram | Medical Women's Federation
I am the first person in my family to become a doctor. I am on a mission to empower every medical woman in their career.
I graduated in 2015 with Honours and having won several prizes in medical school.
I have been working as an NHS doctor for six years. I have done clinical and research training and currently work as a children’s doctor. In April 2019, I was elected Junior Doctor Representative on the Council of the Medical Women’s Federation, the largest body of women doctors in the UK. In this role I helped engage more junior medical women with the organisation and helped the organisation remain relevant to junior and more senior members. During the pandemic, when the health service was under so much pressure, I wanted to do more to help my colleagues, particularly as women’s careers seem to have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. This motivated me to apply for a leadership role and in April 2021, I was elected Vice President of the Medical Women’s Federation, and am likely the first junior doctor to hold this Office in the 105-year history of the organisation.
In February 2022, to celebrate the organisation’s 105th birthday, I launched The Medical Women Podcast. This venture was my idea and I plan, direct, host and produce the podcast with the aim of supporting and empowering as many medical women in their careers as possible.
Greta McDonald | Sweet Lounge
My name is Greta and being an entrepreneur has always been a passion of mine, I was always into business from a very young age you could even say it runs in my veins!
I started my own company at the age of 16, but after trying many different industries I landed on my current company, Sweet Lounge, which has been growing year on year.
I always had a passion for business, there's no doubt about that. When others at school were off to University, I made that all important decision to pursue my interest in starting my own company.
My first company was a florist shop which I opened in our local town. I encouraged my mother and aunt to leave their day jobs to come and make arrangements in the shop which quickly became a success. I was in charge of everything else.
I also got myself into a national and some local newspapers as well as winning some business awards too! My mum still runs this business to date, but as I was interested in discovering a different industry, I handed over the reins to her.
Fast forward a few years of experimenting to when I started Sweet Lounge back in 2014, all was well until I was hit with depression and anxiety, these were a few years of dark times that were hard to overcome, issues with my health, mental health, family relationship and money lead to me hitting complete rock bottom and it was somewhere I thought I would never get out off.
I found it so difficult to overcome this until my partner (now husband) gave me the utmost support. It took some time but I did see brighter days, I would never know how to thank him for getting me out and back on my feet again, he's the one that deserves an award!
Anxiety still hits me sometimes but I always remind myself that I always have his support no matter what situation I find myself in.
Sweet Lounge's journey carried on as I hoped it would, putting more effort into making this business grow.
I am now a mother of 2 small boys (a 2 and a 3 year old) although balancing life and growing a brand at the same time is tough and can sometimes be overwhelming, it's incredibly rewarding and keeps me super motivated. My husband also has a local business that's growing well in a completely different industry to mine (selling white goods) which we both run together, so my hands are always full, believe me!
A year after my 2nd child, I decided I really wanted to push the pedal on Sweet Lounge, so I decided to go into FMCG (fast moving consumer good/ Retail) with a line of my own packaged vegan gummy sweets. We are now stocked in around 140+ independents as well as BOOTHS, all 5 Daylesford store and recently Holland & Barrett and Gorillas App. I am currently in talks with Morrisons and Ocado to stock our products.
In 2021, I won ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ with Forward Ladies and secured Bronze in the Northamptonshire Food & Drink Awards under ‘Food & Beverage Achiever 2021’. Alongside this, I was also a finalist in Northamptonshire Business Excellence Awards under ‘Businesswoman of the Year’ and in the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2021 under ‘Food & Drink Entrepreneur of the Year.
I am incredibly proud to have achieved what I have over the years and I will keep on climbing.
Nicole Dellipiani | Bump to Bambino
Nicole is a Founder and Director of Bump to Bambino, a discovery and price comparison website for everything pregnancy and parenting from trusted brands and retailers.
Nicole has 10+ years experience in Human Resources, where she worked in the City of London for one of the Big 4 audit companies. However, whilst pregnant with her 2 children she encountered a a fragmented, stressful and soulless online shopping experience for new parents and set out to solve this problem.
She did not have any technology experience and faced with costs into their £100s of thousands to build a Minimum Viable Product she set out to learn to code and understand how to build a discovery and price comparison website.
Nicole and her business now partner with well known brands/retailers including John Lewis, ASOS and Mamas and Papas who believe and support Nicole's vision to build an online shopping community to parents. Hoping them to save money and time with their shopping and having everything they need all under one virtual roof.
Abbie Hills | The Dazey Hills Company
I am 26 years old and hold a BA degree in Film and an MA degree in Arts Management.
I have been working and trying to get my foot in the door of the entertainment industry since I was 15, and have worked in acting, modelling and film production. I founded my own Talent Agency to diversify the entertainment industry and provide opportunities to all. I am particularly interested in this because I have cerebral palsy. Recently, I also worked in the costume department of a Hollywood film. I am passionate about helping others and that will always be my motivation. I also mentor other filmmakers and produce my own projects alongside my Talent Agency. Currently, I am also working with a charity to support people with additional needs and disabilities.
Kelly Butler | Podcast Labs
I am the Co-Founder and Agency Director of Podcast Labs - a podcast production and marketing agency based on the South Coast.
We help brands implement audio campaigns that generate leads, increase brand awareness or sell products. I co-founded the company in October 2019, and since then have grown it to a six-figure turnover agency with 6 team members and a brand new 3,000 sq ft podcast hub with audio and video production studios in just 2 years through the pandemic.
Before founding Podcast Labs, I had just sold my previous business in the Wedding Industry, just 18 months after starting, which I had left my full-time job for, having identified a growing trend that I jumped on with the aim to grow and sell quickly. Before this, I built my early career in the marketing industry, working up through both client and agency side after graduating from the University of Exeter in 2014.
Michelle Leivars | The Soap Sponge Company
The Soap Sponge Company was created as a result of a series of traumatic events around 8 years ago.
Myself, my husband and our two daughters' world was turned upside down following my husband's accident and my own major surgery, ending up having a hysterectomy at 29 due to a series of hospital blunders. After being a stay at home Mum for 11 years, I found myself needing to take charge of the family unit and try to carve out a future for us.
With no qualifications, no business experience and no confidence, I was at a loss as to how we would recover as a family, frightened with no way to turn and no scope of getting us out of the situation, my mental health plummeted as I tried to navigate the situation we were in.
Financially in ruin, we had to visit food banks to get by and our future looked uncertain. Upon receiving their food bank parcels, it contained a sample sized body lotion, which was a luxury I had been unable to afford, and after using it I remember feeling so special and pampered.
At such a dark time, that one action of using that product lifted my spirits and in the midst of the chaos made me feel human again.
It was from that moment that I vowed to dedicate her future to making other people feel special, if only for a short time, just as I had at that moment.
In the years that followed we slowly started to get back on our feet and eventually The Soap Sponge Company was born. We have a deep rooted passion for self care, having kept our experiences at the forefront of our minds, every product is made with the same desire to deliver that same special and pampered feeling I had all those years ago. We handmake our products in our High Street shop in Witney, Oxfordshire, using kind to skin, vegan friendly ingredients.
The business ethos is that every single person deserves to feel special, you are all important, you are all worthy and everyone should practise self care, no matter how small, something so simple can make you feel special and human again.
Alexa Grellet | HR DataHub
I'm an experienced commercial leader and have worked in tech my entire career, from Enterprises to scaling start-ups, all over the world.
I'm passionate about using technology for good and have a talent for building strong inclusive cultures. I'm passionate about social justice and believe that improving the way we employ people is one of the most powerful ways to uplift society.
Tabitha Boyton | Res Publica
Res Publica, the media platform, magazine and website I’ve founded, has connected individuals and ideas from all around the globe.
Built and led by a team of women of colour, its goal is to break down the binary divide between ‘diversity of ideas’ and ‘diversity of individuals’ - precisely by showing that women who look like us have a place in academic and political debates alongside voices traditionally seen in media and academic spaces. Interconnectivity is at the heart of our publication and my personal work ethic; we turned a scholarly publication into a way of enabling people to express themselves during unprecedented isolation.
By way of a short introduction, I am a third-year Law and Politics Student with interests in art, history, philosophy, and event coordination. I began Res Publica over a year ago after encountering sexism and racism in and out of my professional life. Although it was really tough at the time – looking back at what we have built as a team, it is incredible; the team currently consists of over 35 people from Cyprus, to New York, Guatemala, San Marino, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, France, Germany and many more!
We are immensely proud to have worked on a number of major collaborations with: Phi Magazine, King’s College London European Society, Art and the City, Nottingham University Green Economy Society, King’s College London Latin American Society, Oxford Forum for International Development, New College of the Humanities, Pacific Chambers, King’s College London ThinkMental, FemLegal, Femme Mag, EasyA, Boston University’s The Politica, ZeroGravity, Joyn Media, Oxford M&A Group, Castle Fine Art Gallery, EU Neighbors East (Young European Ambassadors) Oxford Public Philosophy, Ivory Tower, The Edict, Admittedly Legal, Talk Books with ME, Northeastern University, King’s College London War Studies Society, Columbia University RightsView and Polity21. Moreover, last year Res Publica teamed up with the Oxford University Amnesty International Society to create an Essay Competition - sponsored by Blackwells - with a focus on asylum seekers and their rights in the age of COVID-19.
Alongside my work at Res Publica, I am heavily involved in my University life having been the youngest President of the Law and Politics Societies and being a member of the Ted X NCH London Committee. In parallel, I am an Ambassador for the Oxford Forum for International Development and Northeastern University Women Who Empower, alongside being a Member of the European Youth Parliament. In my spare time, I do pro bono work for Pacific Chambers, Pegasus Chambers and The Edict (a legal start-up based in the UAE).