Cat Wildman | Global Equality Collective
Cat is Co-Founder and CEO of the Global Equality Collective. She’s a diversity, equality and inclusion expert, an award-winning digital product person and most importantly, a mum of 3.
Cat is a scientist-turned-technologist who’s spent the last 2 decades solving problems using technology, and creating digital products for companies like The Times, The Sunday Times and Timeout London. As a STEM ‘lifer’, Cat had seen the sheer scale of the problem of imbalance and lack of diversity in the workplace, especially in STEM careers, and began mentoring and working with STEM women and girls. When she became a parent, and saw that Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in education hadn't substantially moved on since the 80s, she realised that she had a personal responsibility to change things. She decided in 2017 to dedicate the rest of her career to bringing about equity and solving imbalance.
As Co-Founder of the GEC, Cat is passionate about mentoring, and always has a number of mentees. In 2016 Cat worked for a year to conquer her phobia of public speaking in order to become as visible as possible and provide representation and inspiration for the next generation of diverse talent. She now speaks at events like Women of Silicon Roundabout on her favourite topics; diversity, equity and inclusion, underrepresented founders, start-ups and of course, working parents.
Lauralee Whyte | Spectrum Speakers & Entertainers Ltd
Lauralee Whyte is an Inclusion Evangelist, Event Specialist and CEO / Founder of inclusive talent bureau SPECTRUM - Speakers & Entertainers.
As a Corporate Speaker Agent and Events career spanning more than 15 years, Lauralee became acutely aware of the lack of Diversity of industry leading speakers and entertainers fronting events. SPECTRUM was founded to disrupt the generic speaker bureau offering and expose that speakers and entertainers who are Women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, Differently Abled, Neurodivergent and Socially Disadvantaged are leading experts in their own fields (be that Finance, Technology or Wellbeing) and not just called upon to discuss diversity issues.
Throughout her career, Lauralee has overseen a number of talent partnerships across key brand experiences, corporate conferences and events, such as BT Sport, Retail Trust Awards, Virgin Money, UEFA Champions League, Pfizer, Slack.com to list a few.
Spectrum Speakers & Entertainers is currently the only agency of it’s kind in the UK, wholly dedicated to supplying the event industry with intersectional talent, additionally partnering with organisations such as the BRIXTON FINISHING SCHOOL, Global Equality Collective and Change the Stage.
Lauralee is an ambassador for change with a vision for SPECTRUM to address the diversity gap in the industry and to be of service to progressive organisations who are striving for inclusivity.
Indie Gordon | Foundervine
Indie is an International Motivational Speaker, Coach, Angel Investor and Founder of Halo an all in one safety app that provides round the clock safety, resources and support for adult men and women, guardians and lone workers.
Halo connects to different health and fitness apps and software that allows users to track their physical health also, this ensures everyone is supported from all angles.
Indie started her career in Program Management, setting up social action projects in different communities, the aim was to bring communities together and empower people to become active citizens and not passive bystanders, this meant partnering with major companies like Sky, HSBC, Nandos and local government. Indie was responsible for ensuring over 7,7800 + young people successfully completed the program and achieved their goals.
After 6 phenomenal years of building a management team across London and Surrey Indie moved into the startup ecosystem where she now heads the international programs department at Foundervine a startup tech training consultancy company that works to empower anyone with a dream of starting, developing and scaling a business.
Indie has 8+ years of experience in large scale strategic program management, VIP stakeholder management and business growth and scale-up. Since joining Foundervine Indie has overseen the transition from a small, largely part-time team, to a fully staffed organisation of over 20 employees with offices on two continents. She has overseen a number of excellent, high impact business support programs for diverse entrepreneurs including:
- Barclays Black Founder Accelerator in partnership with Barclays Bank
- Lloyds Investment Readiness Accelerator and Immerse Program in partnership with Lloyds Bank
- Lambeth Business Support Program on behalf of London Borough of Lambeth
These programs amongst others have supported over 4,600 individuals in the last three years to build enterprise skills, take their first steps into entrepreneurship and scale new digital ventures.
Indie is on a mission to empower anyone, and everyone to speak, lead, work and live with unapologetic confidence. Indie has returned to school to achieve her degree in computer science at Harvard University. Her goal is to equip people regardless of gender, race and disability with the tools needed to achieve their dreams and live their best lives.
Indie took a leap of faith and transitioned into the tech industry after attending a coding class for women wanting a career change and was blown away by the scope and impact of what could be achieved. Now, Indie is in a position of leadership where she empowers the companies of today and tomorrow, ensuring all companies and organisations are tech-enabled and can weather the storm of any social, economical or environmental change
Lauren Neal | BP
“I champion Diversity, it’s who I am”.
With an English father, Trinidadian mother, growing up in Scotland and studying engineering, Lauren knew she stood out from her peers. From a young age Lauren recognised herself as a ‘disrupter’. On her 6th birthday, her father helped her build a Lego Technic JCB for ages 9-11 and called her his “little engineer”. Proudly sharing this at school, she was met with the first of many such responses throughout her life and career – “You can’t be an engineer, that’s a man’s job.”
Experienced project manager with a skillset tuned to innovative ways of working in a diverse, global environment, Lauren to date has had a very impressive career in the energy industry. Over the last 17 years, she has had increasingly demanding roles on several notably valuable projects across the UK (North Sea and Net Zero Teesside (the UK’s first decarbonised cluster)), Trinidad, Azerbaijan and Indonesia.
Currently, Lauren works on a major project in a remote part of Indonesia. Her role is responsible for integrating offshore, onshore and subsurface scopes. Estimated to reduce bp’s Aim 1 emissions (net zero operations) by a significant amount, the project also intends to provide additional energy for the region.
Prior to her current role, Lauren spent five years in Azerbaijan establishing a subsea services organisation that became a model for other regions around the globe. She also transformed bp’s regional women’s international network as co-chair with the mission: to support technical women to be seen, heard, and included. Network turnout grew from 12 to over 200 within two years under Lauren’s leadership with males and females in equal attendance.
Lauren has a passion for supporting and developing others outside of her day-to-day responsibilities; channelling this drive and enthusiasm has led her to take on additional roles such as: establishing a graduate development programme, chairing the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)’s Scotland North Younger Members committee, and tutoring students in mathematics as a STEM ambassador.
Graduating with a masters degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from The Robert Gordon University, Lauren is a chartered engineer through the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and is a member of the Association of Project Management.
Sherena Masharani | Centrica
Aged 24, Sherena is a friendly character, hard-working and truly strives to go above and beyond for colleagues and customers.
Whilst achieving a 1st Class Law with Business Degree at the University of Plymouth, Sherena’s passion for supporting others began during her work with Enactus Plymouth. Enactus is a student-run social enterprise society that uses entrepreneurial action to tackle global issues. During her leadership, she grew a team from 9 members to 80 members, across 8 new social enterprises in 3 continents. Through her efforts, the projects have transformed the lives of over 500 people, including providing lifelong access to clean drinking water to villages in Egypt. The social enterprises have received both national and international attention and awards.
Similarly, whilst a student, Sherena also spent time in Vietnam working with the Centre of Sustainable Development Studies, paying it forward by supporting establish a gender-equality programme across the Association of South East Asian Nations (2018). This project empowered 30 university students to each establish their own gender-equality projects within their local community in their respective countries.
Following Graduation, in 2019 Sherena joined Centrica’s Business Leadership Graduate Programme where she has provided customer-centricity and fresh engagement to the organisation through a focus on innovation. Her placements have included Team-Leadership in the contact centers, helping vulnerable customers and project management. Sherena was also selected to participate in the first ever CEO Challenge within the company. Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer and Senior Leadership Team, she was tasked analyse, ideate, and produce recommendations for implementation for a retention strategy targeting tariff roll off customers. As a result of her performance, in 2020 Sherena was listed in Centrica’s Hall of Fame.
Sherena is an aspiring Lawyer and Business leader with goals including qualifying as a Solicitor and the continuation on leading substantial cultural change across multiple organisations and their wider industries. Currently, she is undertaking the Solicitors Qualifying Exam as the first Solicitor Apprentice within the organisation. She is also leading the conversations for Diversity and Inclusion within Centrica as Head of Communications and Engagement for the VOICE (ethnicity) Employee Network. The impact of her quest for inclusivity has extended to the wider energy industry and within the Legal Profession.
In recognition, Sherena has been listed within the ‘HERoes 100 Women Future Leaders List’ as supported by Yahoo Finance (2021) and featured as best practice both internally and externally for her work advocating wellbeing and empowering accessibility to the energy industry, including as a finalist in two categories at the Young Energy Professional Awards for 'Diversity & Inclusion' and listed as a 'Rising Star'.
Judith Pomfret | Cavendish Nuclear
Judith has recently taken on a new role as Business Development Manager for Cavendish Nuclear.
After graduating with a business studies degree from Sheffield Hallam University in 2002, she started her career in global banking working for Citi Financial as a business analyst. She has grown into a highly skilled Chartered Project Professional (ChPP) and graduate from Cabinet Office’s Project Leadership Programme (PLP) and has spent the last 17 years in the nuclear industry holding a range of leadership roles covering programme and project delivery, risk-based assurance, strategy development and business development and has worked for government, client and contracting organisations throughout this time.
She first joined the sector in 2005 following a move back to West Cumbria, and has always been passionate about leading by example, inspiring people to be the best they can be and championing both stem and non-stem careers in the nuclear industry. She is driven by making a difference and focuses on building relationships and breaking down barriers to promote collaboration to clear up the nuclear legacy safely for future generations and whilst delivering value to local communities. She joined the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in 2012 to play a more significant role in this mission, particularly with its relevance in West Cumbria.
Throughout her career her priority focus has been on building collaborative relationships and bringing diverse people together across multiple organisations and disciplines to do the right thing. Judith believes we can achieve greater things collaboratively together and this is evident through her successes. She prides herself on her authenticity and is highly respected across a largely male dominated sector. She is recognized at all levels for her professionalism and natural approach to building relationships, developing complex stakeholder networks, acknowledging the value in people and listening to others. She has gained trust and respect across multiple organisations in both the public and private sector with a wide and hugely diverse network built up over time.
She is passionate about giving back both in her profession and personally and was an accredited IPA reviewer assuring public sector programmes, and with her passion and enthusiasm continues to champion and inspire colleagues including early career professionals to be the best they can be. She recently led a team in Mott MacDonald to support a local initiative BrightStars in Cumbria for the first time, which supports local primary schools to run an 8 week initiative in her area, teaching children about the world of business and recognising them as the leaders of the future.
She has always been dedicated to helping people and has held additional roles throughout her career as a first aider, mental health first aider, Safety Representative and well-being champion. She is also a member of Women in Nuclear and a mentor.
Outside of work Judith loves live music, playing a variety of musical instruments, fitness and spending time outdoors with her family and partner. Judith’s most important role and the one she is most proud of, is being a mother to her two children.
Lucia Urra Viana | Scottish Power
Lucia holds an MSc in Renewable Energy Systems and the Environment from the University of Strathclyde and a BEng in Energy Engineering from Polytechnic University of Madrid.
She has had a variety of roles within the renewable industry, ranging from Project Management in Construction of Solar Projects, to Energy Analyst on Renewable Projects. Currently she is an Assistant Project Manager within ScottishPower Renewables helping to deploy the new wave of renewable projects.
Having progressed through her career and realising the impact lack of female representation in senior positions was having inadvertently in her own career goals, she decided to become a champion in promoting diversity within STEM and a more visible role model for future generations. This has led her to become involved in the development of younger generation by actively mentoring female university students and delivering STEM sessions to primary classes.
Rimi Bassi | National Grid
Currently, as the Global Employee Resource Group (ERG) Manager Rimi drives the strategic roadmap for all our ERGs across National Grids global business.
Rimi has worked in National Grid for 15 years having a variety of roles in that time across multiple functions, ranging from working on meter queries, to Customer and Stakeholder management, process improvement and managing multiple programmes through to successful completion.
Rimi is currently working in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team which combines her passion for inclusion and developing people.
Rimi also led and grew the Women in National Grid ERG, which promotes the professional development of women and operates to attract and support a network of talent that enables National Grid to deliver its strategic priorities.
Kiera Rose | Thames Water
I am currently an Environmental Engineer at Thames Water, responsible for mitigating environmental risk in our Capital Delivery Projects, driving ambitious environmental deliverables including biodiversity net gain and net carbon zero, and actively supporting initiatives that enhance our local environment.
I'm passionate about meeting both business and environmental goals, as well as creating a sustainable future for generations to come. I work in a heavily male-dominated field and I am passionate about encouraging young women to pursue careers in STEM, environmental and construction fields.
At school, I knew very early on I was passionate about protecting wildlife and the environment, spending weekends and summers volunteering at local farms, equestrian centres and veterinary practices from a young age. This led me to study Animal Science BSc for my undergraduate degree, allowing me to focus on the health, welfare and conservation of animals. During this time I interned at two conservation NGOs, Elephant Family in London and Roots & Shoots in Beijing, where I campaigned for the conservation of habitats, wildlife and endangered species.
I subsequently studied Ecology at MSc level, achieving a distinction and an international poster award for my research into animal behaviour, and gaining the necessary practical ecological skills to pursue an environmental career. I then joined Thames Water, on the Graduate Scheme Science Pathway, successfully navigating four environmental placements spanning across wastewater environmental regulation, water quality and sustainability, showing my commitment to meet regulatory obligations and influence environmental issues beyond compliance. In my current role I am able to ensure that the development of our Water and Sewage Treatment Works can simultaneously meet growing water demands, improve the quality of water and reduce our environmental impact, whilst enhancing biodiversity and conserving protected species on our sites.
On top of my drive to enhance our local environment in my day job, as an individual from a BAME background, I am also committed to championing Thames Water as an inclusive environment, ensuring that our employees represent the wonderfully diverse demographic we serve and ensuring everyone feels safe and comfortable to bring their whole selves to work. I am currently the BAME+ & Allies Network Secretary, working on our business-wide Inclusion Sessions, leading on our collaboration with local BAME charity Reading Community Learning Centre and reverse mentoring Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Director.
In addition, as an ambitious female I am passionate about encouraging young women to pursue environmental careers through my involvement in STEM events, including WISE Campaign's #MySkillsMyLife.
Sarah Woolham Jaffier | National Grid
By background I am a civil engineer. I was sponsored by Vinci construction throughout my degree and one of five Santander mobility scholars selected to study in Calgary, Canada.
I joined National Grid after graduating and completed 12 months in construction along with 6 months in corporate strategy, after which I joined the £1.03bn London Power Tunnels project in a permanent role where I have been working ever since. I really enjoy working on large construction projects and would like to work in infrastructure for my entire career.
Since joining london power tunnels I was a key part of the investment case to secure the project funding and also the community outreach fund of £1.8m which was a huge achievement. I then acted as client representative mobilising the largest project site before becoming project manager for three sites after just 12 months. I now look after a team of 5 people working round the clock to represent national grid and take great pride in doing so. During this time I have created a solution to power the project tunnel boring machines that saved 2 months delay and £2m pounds in liabilities. I have also taken a keen interest in developing young people. I have taken 4 trainees through graduate placements and three work experience students into finding follow on employment.
I have been a key figure in media campaigns to external news outlets such as the BBC, the outputs of which have reached 70,000 people and been shortlisted for awards. I was also a judge and panel speaker at the 2021 tunnelling awards. I am chair of the ET shadow executive forum which creates a platform for colleagues to share views. I also established the civil engineers working group at national grid which allows civil engineers access support to become chartered despite the business not having an accredited training scheme, as a result three people have accessed mentors and 1 has successfully gained chartered status, membership has tripled in 3 years.