Rising Stars 2015 - What happened next for our winners?
In 2015, thanks to the help of a number of amazing supporters and sponsors, WeAreTheCity ran the first of its Rising Star awards programmes. The aim of the awards was to identify 50 future leaders and role models under a management level across 10 different industries. After a staggering amount of nominations and an intensive judging period, we finally arrived at our shortlist and opened the public vote. The public vote resulted in over 15,000 votes from across 112 different countries and galvanized amazing support from our nominees networks, their companies, the press, as well as our own sponsors and supporters. After a final judging process, we identified our amazing top 50 winners and celebrated their awards alongside our sponsors, friends and supporters at the House of Commons in September.
Over the next few weeks we will be featuring all of our winners to find out what happened next after collecting their Top 50 Rising Star Awards.
Firstly, we speak to Dara Kirton of PwC who was one of our winners in the Rising Stars in Consultancy category, sponsored by EY
Dara, please tell us what has happened since winning your Rising Star award in September?
Dara, please tell us what has happened since winning your Rising Star award in September?Firstly, I'm beyond grateful for the WeAreTheCity Rising Star award and really wanted to summarise how much the visibility I have gained from the award.
My employer PwC have been massive supporters of my progress. They shared the success with my team and beyond. They also posted my picture on the intranet and wrote an article on the day in the life of me! Because of the rising star award the people partner for consulting is also sponsoring me to attend a young leadership summit called” One Young World” in Thailand next week. The summit brings together global leaders aged 18-30 to discuss big global challenges. Please look it up as previous speakers have been epic! It's an opportunity for me to learn how I can continue to make a lasting impact in my organisation and community, but also on a global platform! I couldn't be more excited!
I also got to meet Gaenor Baegley who sits on the PwC board and is responsible for the people agenda. As a result, I'm going to be work-shadowing her for a day next month.
Last week I received another award from my team for in their words "being a rising star."
Alongside the recognition internally, there has been a great increase in my profile externally. Although I was doing a good job before, clients are now more aware of my achievements. I was extended on my project and have continued to build a great client relationship with key contacts.
A major newspaper called The Voice covered the Rising Star awards and I was mentioned. The Guardian also asked me to join a panel for young women looking for careers advice. Dream Nation are also currently doing a write up of my career journey so far for their readers (predominantly ethnic minorities).
I was also nominated for another award (Precious - celebrating women of colour) last month.
In summary, I used to think just doing a great job was good enough. However, the awards have helped me to realise how valuable visibility and sponsorship are and how one door can open so many others.
So what top tips would you give to our other members to enhance their careers?
- Network,
- Find people you aspire to
- Build a team of people you trust
Next, we talk to Lucy Brooker of RBS, one of our winners of our Rising Stars in Banking, which was sponsored by Societe Generale.
Lucy, please tell us what has happened in your careers since winning the Rising Star awards back in September?
Lucy, please tell us what has happened in your careers since winning the Rising Star awards back in September? I am pleased to announce that since the awards I have just received a double promotion! I will be shortly moving from my existing role in Learning and Development to a new role where I will be now be coaching senior leaders of the bank and leading a team of 3-4 people. This is a massive and exciting opportunity for me and totally unexpected.
Since the awards, I have also run and developed a ‘bio’ workshop alongside the Focused Women Network. This session was created to help others to create a powerful and interesting biography, which will help them promote themselves both internally and externally. It also gives our network a bank of bio’s that we can use in the future to nominate others for future awards.
So what top tips would you give to our other members to enhance their careers?
- Get involved with the ‘other stuff’ – the extra curricula activity. Volunteer to get involved with networks, volunteers to help on the charity day, volunteer to lead a team project! It all helps with the networking, experience and profile.
- Get a mentor and become a mentor – so many great opportunities have come from this, and also the feel good factor
- Look for a new job opportunity every 18 months, side ways or upwards.
Finally, we speak with Olivia (Liv) Cooke of Liv Cooke Freestyle, who was one of our winners of Rising Stars in Sport, sponsored by Ladbrokes.
Liv, please tell us what has happened in your careers since winning the Rising Star awards back in September?
Liv, please tell us what has happened in your careers since winning the Rising Star awards back in September? Since the awards I've filmed with Adidas for an upcoming commercial. I've done several workshops teaching children freestyle football tricks whilst aiming to inspire them to try to get active and have fun and at the same time implementing the message that stereotypes will be broken in the near future (i.e. a 16 year old girl teaching little boys and girls football tricks).
I had a meeting with Tracey Crouch the minister of sport to discuss how we can work together to get girls more in to sports. I've filmed as part of a channel 4 documentary for young entrepreneurs.
I've performed at half time for Everton football club. I also performed on the Jordanian stand at the world travel market in London where I had the honour of performing to the prince of Jordan. I also became the ambassador for football in Jordan. I'm now in partnership with TheSportBible (a Facebook page that have over 7.2million likes). I've been on euro sports TV showcasing my skills. Furthermore I've received lots of bookings for shows etc... For instance this weekend I'm flying out to Amsterdam to do a show and then to meet with an Dutch ex-professional footballer to help kick start her platform for female athletes.
So what top tips would you give to our other members to enhance their careers?
I seem to answer this question quite frequently now. My first big tip is: passion. There must be passion. If you love something and are passionate about it then you'll enjoy it and that's the most important thing in my opinion. This will give you energy and fuel your hard work, you'll love your job and you won't lose motivation. My second tip, is be driven. Obstacles will appear and problems will fly at you but you must be determined. You must keep pushing and working hard. My third and final tip is direction. You must know where you want to go, you must have a plan. Something may pop up tomorrow that changes everything however without knowing your out come, goals and destination you can't possibly reach it. If you're passionate, driven and know what you want then nothing will stop you. Love what you do and implement strategies to reach your goals. Good luck.
WeAreTheCity would like to extend our sincere thanks to all of our Rising Stars for sharing their successes with us. I am sure you will agree they are all achieving amazing things and offering sound advice to future Rising Stars.
We look forward to featuring another three of our rising stars next week. Please note our Rising Star Awards programme for 2016 opens on February 1st - click here for more details and to register your interest in our awards
Emily Lewis-Dunn | Clear Channel
I am 24 years old and come from Marple, a small town, on the edge of Greater Manchester. I attended Marple Hall School and later went on to read American Studies at Sussex University with a year in the US at George Washington University in Washington DC. The year abroad was undoubtedly quite life changing; on a personal level I became a lot more spontaneous and self-determined. During that year I attended a large civil rights demonstration, got involved in street volunteering helping, made loads of new and varied friends and travelled round the country on planes, trains (well, mainly greyhound buses!) and automobiles....all on a shoe string! I went with a 20kg suitcase and I returned with a 20kg suitcase!
On a wider level, I became more interested in global issues, especially those affecting inequality of opportunity and I became particularly interested in the history of the civil rights movement and the role of women within it. When I returned to Sussex I did my dissertation on 'The Identity Politics of African American Women and the Rise and Fall of Black is Beautiful 1968-2013’.
Like a lot of my contemporaries, I spent my first year after graduating struggling to find a full-time position; I worked part-time in a cafe and a bakery and then later I was lucky enough to work on a short term project as the archive researcher for a documentary film called 'Hustlers Convention'. The film tells the story of the making of the seminal album; Hustlers Convention and the life of Jalal Nuriddin, its creator; his place in history of the civil rights movement, as one of The Last Poets and as 'the grandfather of rap'. Towards the end of this project and as a finale, I went down to London to help film an event at the Jazz Cafe in Camden where Jalal recited extracts from the album.
It was whilst I was down in London that I took the opportunity to do some job hunting. It was hard to know where to start, I hadn't done a vocational degree but I had various skills (and interests) which I knew would be transferable and I wanted to be as open minded as possible. I met a great recruitment agent who said she thought I might be suited to a role in Outdoor Advertising. I didn't really know what that was but within a couple of weeks (and two interviews later) I had quit my part-time jobs and was about to head down to London - Dick Whittington style - to start work at Clear Channel!
In my present role as a media executive at Clear Channel, I assist the agency and trading teams in all aspects of their day-to-day work; this covers a broad spectrum of work and can include anything from attending meetings with agencies and other specialists in the field to creating targeted quick pitches to sell short term deals. Throughout school and university I was actively involved in many theatre productions and so I suppose the chance to do presentations brings out the performer in me! Clear Channel really encourage employees to think of new ideas, or develop old ideas, to help the business and this is something I particularly like; I think it helps foster creativity and promotes a real team spirit. As part of this process, I have been writing a weekly newsletter, which is a summary of clients advertising in the Press. I have really enjoyed writing and collating the info for the newsletter - so much so that I can regularly be found at my desk at 7.30am surrounded by a mass of news clippings - I think this is something that would surprise, and even shock, my former student self! I really love working with the team at Clear Channel, we often go out on client events in the evenings but, in spite of this, we're perfectly happy to socialise outside of work as well.
At my first interview at Clear Channel, I remember I was asked what drives me and then, as now, I think I would have to say that there are a number of things that spur me on. Work is a large part of most people's life, I think the more you throw yourself into a task, the more you'll enjoy it, so the happier and more exciting your life will be. I also want to be known as someone who does a first class job and is well liked. I think people often assume that the way to the top is through aggression and self centeredness and I hope I can show people that you can get there by being a decent person. Finally, money is obviously a factor because it opens doors to new life experiences and opportunities and it means you can help your family however, It certainly isn't my main focus.
I think if I was to have a careers chat with my younger self, I would say 'Always be open to new ideas, try to say 'yes' as often as possible, you will open up opportunities and have a lot of fun in the process - and finally 'be nice''.
Gloria Lombardi | Simply-Communicate
Gloria Lombardi is the Editor, Reporter and Community Manager of simply-communicate, and Co-Chair of SMiLE London.
Gloria’s responsibilities combine researching, writing, and publishing content on internal communications, employee engagement, leadership, social business and the future of work. She curates the publication of the weekly magazine and manages the on-line community of internal communicators throughout all the publisher’s digital channels. She frequently interviews companies and professionals in the field, writes case studies, products and book reviews, and report from internal communications and social business events.
She works on Social Media inside the Large Enterprise (SMiLE), developing products and presenting on issues around introducing Social Media in the Large Enterprise.
Gloria is co-author of the new edition of ‘Exploring Internal Communication. Towards Informed Employee Voice’ edited by Kevin Ruck, with a Chapter on ‘Social media inside the Enterprise’.
Gloria’s keen interest in the relationship between social technologies, employee communications, and the future of work is also reflected in her writing on Marginalia on Engagement, her personal blog.
You can find her on Twitter at @LOMBARDI_GLORIA
Jessica Gioglio | Sprinklr
Jessica Gioglio is the Head of Content Lab at Sprinklr and co-author of, “The Power of Visual Storytelling: How to How to Use Visuals, Videos, and Social Media to Market Your Brand.” As Head of Content Lab for Sprinklr, Jessica oversees a global team of social media content strategists and designers who help companies develop meaningful experiences and engagement opportunities with their target consumers.
Prior to Sprinklr, Jessica lead social media for Dunkin’ Donuts, where she lead the development and transformation of the company’s social media strategy. From developing innovative social media campaigns, to live tweeting from a Hollywood Red Carpet and managing high-profile partnerships, her work resulted in numerous industry awards.
Jessica launched her career in 2005 at Comcast, where she learned the value and power of social media customer service. Following a successful time at State Street where she managed 14 global agencies, Jessica joined TripAdvisor as the company launched their social media program.
A recognized thought leader and sought after speaker, Jessica was named one of the top women who rocked social media in 2014 and 2013. She also frequently contributes to industry publications, such as the Convince&Convert blog.
Jessica is now based in London. She holds a bachelor of science in marketing from Bentley University, with a minor in public relations.
Angela Payne ǀ Reuters
Angela is a Senior Media Account Manager at Reuters News Agency, based in London with 8 years of experience within the B2B media market. Her regions cover the UK, Ireland, Israel and the Palestinian territories and she specializes in business development and retention. Targeting challenges or redundancies in a client's workflow she advises editorial and executive teams across the broadcast, print and digital media market on optimisation of their multimedia content requirements and implementation of these.
Although she does not have a working knowledge of Hebrew or Arabic, she has been able to develop a strong reputation in the region through adapting to different business and cultural protocols of the Middle East, fortifying customer relationships and surpassing all previous growth achieved.
Angela has been an ambassador for a new vertical in the media business progressing ‘Content Marketing’ solutions by taking a pan-enterprise and collaborative approach across Thomson Reuters, focusing on customer needs and delivering product excellence for the wider marketplace.
Angela holds a strong belief in communication and teamwork, supporting one another and recognising individual strengths to drive the best results for her clients and business. This is not only illustrative in her professional career but outside of this in the community which she has been active in throughout her life. Notable achievements include:
- instigating a Women's Aid charity event in Canary Wharf to celebrate 'Success in the City' with 350 business professionals, raising £25k and,
- organizing a WW1 Centenary event for a city and media community based on ‘Women on the Homefront’ and ‘Britain's Black Poppies.’
Nicola Crowther | BBC
Nicola has a proven track record of developing, delivering and managing successful corporate social responsibility activities, events and campaigns throughout her career. With extensive experience of working with business partners, local communities and third sector organisations she is passionate about delivering top quality initiatives that bring positive change to those involved.
Nicola’s current role at the BBC involves designing, planning and producing high-profile events to attract a more diverse workforce to technical roles within BBC Digital. To date this has included two successful Women in Tech events, a People with Disabilities in Tech conference, autism awareness and unconscious bias sessions for staff and further events in the pipeline include a Make an App day for girls and disability confidence training for hiring managers.
Prior to joining BBC Digital Nicola was responsible for overseeing and managing the BBC national employee volunteering scheme within BBC Outreach along with leading on the community affairs work at MediaCity in Salford. This involved creating mutually-beneficial partnerships with other BBC departments and editorial teams and delivering a range of original, high-quality and successful audience-focused events.
Before joining the BBC Nicola worked at The Manufacturing Institute (TMI) where she set up the education liaison team for the TMI charity and created and led the ‘Make It’ campaign – a successful national STEM programme of events (the aim of which was to develop a pipeline of talent for the UK’s manufacturing and engineering industries).
As Make It Campaign Manager Nicola developed and led the campaign from concept through to an initiative that successfully won significant public funding and was cited as an example of best practice in a House of Commons debate (www.makeit.org.uk). Other key achievements included recruiting twenty-five corporate sponsors and supporters including Rolls Royce, Premier Foods, BAE Systems, Sellafield, Robert Wiseman Dairies and Jaguar Land Rover; delivering a range of imaginative and engaging Make It events for over 60,000 young people from hundreds of schools and colleges and creating volunteering opportunities for over 1000 employees from shop floor operatives to managing directors.
With two small children at home Nicola doesn’t have a great deal of spare time but when she does get a few minutes to herself she likes to head to the gym (well, either that or curl up on the sofa with a large box of chocolates and the remote control!).
Gemma Guise | Journolink
Managing director of Journolink, founder of Primedia Solutions, CEO of disguisepr and part time personal trainer.
I'm passionate about all the businesses I am involved with and look forward every day to expanding each of them.
I am driven and focused in everything I do, I love being able to interact with people on a daily basis. Apparently it's one of my great skill sets...'talking'
I have learnt a huge amount in every business I have started. I have worked what my weak areas are and I have employed staff accordingly.
Outside of my work life I like to be gyming or running, I'm also a health nut when it comes to food and I always have my head buried in a healthy recipe book.
My true love though is.....shoes :)
Emma Al-Munshi | Kruger Cowne
Moving from the Middle East to the UK at a very young age and having experienced adversity growing up, Emma channelled those experiences into her professional work. Moving swiftly up the ranks of the firm FinanceInterns, Emma's passion for spreading the message of equality for all young people saw her play a proactive role in opening doors to many students wishing to gain a foot on the finance career ladder.
Excited to further develop her communications, media and PR skill set , she was soon taken under the wing of entrepreneur and PR expert, Jessica Huie MBE. As part of JHPR, Emma worked on a range of clients; from personalities, to corporates, to brands, pushing the stories of inspirational businesses and their successful founders out into the public domain. She was involved in high profile projects such as Band Aid 30, and plays an integral role in leading talent management agency Kruger Cowne's Rising Star Programme. An initiative that lends a voice to young people, her work with this campaign has seen her champion young leaders and strive for a platform for the youth to engage in discussion around some of the world's most pressing issues.
Angela Garry | Pica Aurum
With over 22,000 first-level contacts on business networking site LinkedIn – and a three-level network extending to more than 36 million – Angela Garry is the most connected person in the world with the job titles of ‘personal assistant’ and ‘PA trainer’.
Angela is a fully qualified teacher with a BSc(Ed) and QTS from the University of Exeter, and has worked in administrative roles in England and Ireland since 1991, with 18 years of this in personal assistant roles. She has worked in two global banks, three universities, a sixth-form college, a water and sewerage utility, an engineering consultancy, an international seaport, a government-sponsored employment training company and an executive search company, plus her most recent role for over five years as the Principal’s PA at a brand new academy for 11–19 year olds in Nottingham, England.
Shortlisted for both the UK Head teachers’ PA of the Year and The Times/Hays PA of the Year awards in 2011, Angela has combined her teaching and PA skills to quickly become a renowned trainer, and is now a leading expert in educational administration training.
Angela has been delivering highly successful training and networking events and seminars for PAs since 2010 around the world – including the UK and Ireland, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and China – offering training courses to a variety of audiences in both the corporate and educational spheres.
Since 2012, she has been a leading educational administration trainer, creating and delivering training programmes specifically designed for educational PAs, and has worked with more than 350 Head teachers’ PAs and administrative staff from over 250 international schools and independent schools worldwide. To date, Angela has trained, coached, mentored, presented to and worked with more than 2,500 PAs, EAs, secretaries and administrators.
In April 2012, Angela created her training company, Pica Aurum, (Latin for ‘Golden Magpie’, hence the magpie in the company logo) with the aim of helping everybody find and reach their potential. Through Pica Aurum she offers training and mentoring worldwide, together with career coaching, life coaching, counselling and psychotherapy in her local area.
She is the owner, editor and writer-in-chief for NAHPA, the National Association of Head teachers’ PAs magazine – the UK’s leading publication for PAs and administrators working in education – and has also been a regular contributor to several other leading PA magazines, including Executive Secretary, PA Enterprise, PA Life and Executive PA.
Angela Garry is currently available for bookings worldwide.
Since "Brave PAs" came out in March I have also self-published my first therapeutic fiction book "Missing Mark" for children and young adults, and I'm almost finished on a fiction book "Sandy the Draycott Scarecrow". I'm planning on these being part of a series of at least 15 books under my own PICA BOOKS branding, with a range of topics and guest authors - some books being purely fictional for fun and learning, and others having an additional therapeutic element to help children with issues that are affecting them.
In addition, I'm halfway through writing the corporate / industry companion book to "Brave PAs", which is titled "The PA / EA Circus" - with the aim of publishing this summer.
NAHPA magazine's membership of PAs and admins in schools is growing, and plans are in place to launch UNIPA for PAs and admins working in Universities in early 2016.
I'm planning on being very active in the field of media and publications in the future!
Alessandra Villa | Arup
Alessandra is a driven and ambitious engineer. She graduated from the Politecnico di Milano University and has been working as a Bridge Engineer for Arup for the last 6 years, from offices in Birmingham, Amsterdam, London and Singapore.
She has a real passion about bridges and succeeded, through her daily job, to work on World record projects all around the World as well as in the UK. Together with being a hard worker and a bright engineer, Alessandra is passionate about mentoring young engineers, as well as increasing the visibility of the construction industry.
Alessandra is a guide for graduates within her company and students from both British and Italian universities.
Alessandra is deeply involved with the charity Bridges to Prosperity, working with them for over two years developing a tool for the design of suspension bridges in rural isolated areas. In 2014 she was part of a team who designed and built a bridge in the Panamanian jungle, which has since won the prestigious ICE Designed in London Award.
When she went to Panama she also championed and delivered a University programme that involved her teaching at a local university close to the bridge location and hosting the students on site for a day.