Imogen Fletcher | Centrica
Imogen is responsible for delivering Projects and Programmes for HR, Procurement and Services and Solutions areas of Centrica's business.
Currently these include leading transformation and modernisation in Centrica's Supply Chain, amongst other things.
Imogen began her Career at Centrica in Information Security, in an area of technology that is not heavily populated by women. She quickly moved on to write Information Security Policy for the group, as well as being responsible for the Security Education initiatives for Centrica; travelling to different sites and delivering awareness and education campaigns supporting Centrica's Security Strategy. Moving on from this, Imogen then began a role in a new area of Centrica's business leading the engagement with the government department BEIS and supporting the enduring Smart Meter Roll out, as well as leading the projects and programmes that transformed the existing Centrica smart meter offering. It was from there that she moved to a wider role leading the delivery of Projects and Programmes for Digital and Data systems, Telephony and Networks, and IT Operations at Centrica.
Passionate about Diversity and Inclusion, Imogen is chair of the company's Diverse-Ability Network. The network celebrates physiological and neurological diversity and abilities amongst colleagues, and provides a safe space to discuss topics around disability and wellbeing. Imogen is also an active member and ally of several other Centrica Networks, including the Centrica Women’s Network and recently Spectrum (Centrica’s LGBTQIA Network), for whom she spoke as part of a Panel for LGBTQIA History Month this year. Imogen was also interviewed as part of Centrica’s Diversity and Inclusion update in a video that is available on Centrica.com.
In her spare time, Imogen embraces her creativity as a member of the Windsor and Maidenhead Symphony Orchestra where she leads a section of the violins. She can also be found, on occasion, on stage as principle in Maidenhead Operatic Society's productions - usually involving singing in a funny costume.
Throughout her career, Imogen has strived to be a role model for other women, including mentoring several female colleagues, and since having a daughter of her own during 2020, Imogen hopes she will be able to instil that passion for inclusion in her daughter too.
Molly Edwards | NationalGrid ESO
I have a passion for working with people and making a direct impact to peoples lives. I chose to pursue a career at NationalGrid ESO four years ago and have shaped a career focussed on people strategy and organisational design.
I originally started my career by working on a project to review our operating model and reduce OPEX - this gave me my first insight into organisational design, HR and what the business required commercially to be successful. This was where my passion and interest started and led me to shape a career within workforce development. I love this role because I am fortunate to have a direct impact in designing and shaping the organisation for how we change the way we use energy for generations to come.
I led a mass recruitment programme to welcome over 250 new starters into the ESO last year; and the 'Build Back Better' return to office programme post pandemic and supported colleagues through this journey. I also set up 'Families in National Grid' at the start of 2021 to provide support to parents as the lines became blurred between work and family. By giving a voice to this community I've empowered discussions around baby loss awareness and as a result National Grid introduced a new policy to their Family Provisions to grant paid bereavement leave for women who experience a loss before 12 weeks.
At home I have a two year old daughter and am pregnant with my next baby. I feel proud of my achievements to know I am changing the workplace for them in the future and the world they will grow up in.
Holly Brown | British Gas
My recent career change, which has brought me into the Energy and Utilities Sector stemmed from the moment I was encouraged down the creative route at school and away from science and maths which I had always had great interest in but not the confidence to go against the direction I was being encouraged to take.
This start to my education and career has given me creative thinking along with my natural aptitude for analysis and technical process.
After studying an Art foundation at Central St Martins London and completing a degree in drawing design and practice at Bristol, where I focused on practical processes and workshop based skills, I came to the conclusion that I did not want a career as and artist.
After university I was successful in my application to work with The National Trust as a project assistant delivering contemporary arts programs in heritage properties, this was the beginning of a 7 year portfolio career in the Arts and Heritage sector working with incredible museums and collection such as the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate and installing exhibitions in a variety of countries within collection care and exhibition install project management roles.
The arts and heritage world was fascinating, the collections incredible and the work interesting however something for myself was missing.
I decided I needed to create more space within my working world outside of working within large arts institutes to be able to reflect on my experience and to reflect on what direction I wanted to take.
I set up a fine art picture framing business, as I had trained as a framer along the way, which gave me thinking time whilst framing and the opportunity to put a fund together to retrain. My thoughts kept coming back to engineering and working with something that could be considered a necessity.
The framing business was going well and had gained good traction from the network I had created within the arts and heritage sector and then just under two years on covid hit, museums and galleries closed their doors and stop commissioning new frames and my regular contracts came to a halt, I kept the business just about afloat by putting flyer through local doors to build a new client base, and then the owner of the workshop I rented decided to sell up, the business was just that bit to young to survive. I decided to use this a spring board moment and make the full move into a new direction, sold the business and took a sale a marketing role for a few months on a managers development program then came across an advert for the British Gas Engineer Apprenticeship.
There was no better time to go back to the beginning and retrain in a new industry and this felt like the right fit. I threw myself in and enjoyed learning the technical processes, achieved my gas and electric qualification as a metering engineer and was working as a metering engineer in central London, I have been fascinated by the energy market and the direction its moving and privileged to support energy customers within their homes. The combination of the human centered, technical and business factors that is the energy and utility sector has captured me, and after 6 months within the British Gas apprenticeship I had applied for and been offered the role I am currently in, Customer delivery manager, managing a team of metering engineers in North Kent.
It has now almost been a year since I took the leap into something new and the learning curve has been steep and the dust is still settling, I feel very motivated to support the work of the energy and utility sector and the people it impacts and I am excited for what the future holds.
Within my day to day I hope to inspire others with my experience and the character it has created in me to support others to feel confident in the choice they make. Through out my career I have face many challenges and unpredictable moments, made bold decisions and pushed boundaries with successful results. It is possible to turn life's challenges around when you stay strong, remain resilient and show courage. A message I hope to be able to share with many.
Adele Bates | Behaviour & Education Specialist
“I’ve had juice poured on my head, been whacked by a skateboard – and have taught a year 7 pupil who has experienced severe trauma, how to read their first ever word…”
Adele Bates helps school leaders and teachers to support pupils with behavioural needs and SEMH to thrive with their education. She’s an International Speaker, including TEDx 2020, the author of "Miss, I Don't Give A Sh*t," Engaging with Challenging Behaviour in Schools from Sage & Corwin and a fully funded International Researcher on Behaviour & Inclusion, in particular visiting Finland, Bulgaria and the Dominican Republic (spring 2022). She has featured on BBC Radio 4 as their expert on teenagers and behaviour; is a writer for TES, Sec Ed, Headteacher Update & regular blogger for Optimus Education and a Trainer for the National Education Union, Amnesty International, Red School and schools across Europe.
For her tips and resources check out adelebateseducation.co.uk.
Ebinehita Iyere | Milk Honey Bees
Ebinehita Iyere is the founder of Milk Honey Bees and a highly respected Therapeutic Youth Practitioner at Divert Youth, working with young people who encounter the youth justice system and those who are impacted by violence in the community.
She is widely recognised for her pioneering work with young people using holistic, relational and creative methods to support their needs, as well as working with multi-agency professionals across systems and decision making.
Milk Honey Bees is a creative and expressive safe space for Black girls to flourish and put H.E.R (Healing, Empowerment and Resilience) first. Milk Honey Bees is rooted in the creativity, celebration and liberation of Black Girlhood by amplifying the voice and visibility of Black Girls in all facets of life, opening doors that can often be closed to Black girls and ensuring that they are able to put both their Blackness and girlhood at the forefront, enabling them to discover not only their full potential, but also who they are. It’s more than just a charity, it’s a sisterhood, a family.
At Milk Honey Bees, Ebinehita has personally worked with over 150 young women and girls who are often deemed as hard to engage, supporting them on their journey of healing whilst equipping them with social, employment and life skills that enable them to mobilise in their communities. Through the project, at least 60% of the girls have found long-term education and employment opportunities. The remaining 40% are school aged and have achieved better attainment. 100% have reported better confidence and improvement in wellbeing. Milk Honey Bees has also supported over 4000 girls online.
Ebinehita is an active and vocal advocate who is not afraid to speak up and highlight issues as well as seek and implement solutions, she is embedded in the community and committed to seeing results and changes.
Last year Milk Honey Bees was recently awarded significant funding from Sony Music’s Global Social Justice Fund to facilitate their Creative Connection project, created due to the need for a space to influence young women and girls alongside their role models, to feel inspired to become the best versions of themselves through wellness, healing and creativity.
Globally-renowned poet Rupi Kaur recently joined one of these workshops, which is testament to their importance and success. Sony Music UK are so impressed that they have committed to funding these programmes into the future.
Milk Honey Bees were also selected as the focus of Barbie’s new video campaigns to empower young Black girls and close the ‘dream gap’ with Radio One presenter Clara Amfo.
In lockdown in June 2020, Ebinehita partnered with a USA-based charity to launch Milk Honey Bees’ Black Girls Global Justice Initiative (BGGJI) - purposed with emboldening the voices of Black British girls through the teaching of an academic curriculum focussed on identity, creative expression and sisterhood. Engaging with each other within both a digital and physical space, BGGJI nurtures the emotions, thoughts and opinions of Black/Mixed Black girls from many different backgrounds, with an accompanying campaign to highlight how adultification and criminalisation impact Black/Mixed Black girls in educational, familial and medical institutions in the UK. The project is still ongoing.
Ebinehita’s full-time job as a Therapeutic Youth Practitioner at Juvenis involves working with 10 to 17-year-olds currently in police custody and going through the criminal justice system, offering them emotional support and more. Through this, she has become a leading authority on the culturally aware Adverse Childhood Experiences movement and more creative, therapeutically minded and trauma-informed approaches within organisations and with young people aimed at healing youth violence.
Alongside her day-to-day work at Juvenis and Milk Honey Bees, she is a Partnership Reference group member on the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit, bringing the typically unheard voices of marginalised young people to the forefront.
Hei Wan Mak | University College London
I am a data scientist at the Department of Behavioural Science and Health in University College London (UCL) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Arts and Health.
As a sociologist, I have always been enthusiastic about the society and endeavour to make a difference in the world. In particular, I am committed to improving wellbeing at a whole population level through increasing the participation rate of arts and cultural community activities which have been evidently shown to have wellbeing benefits. Therefore, in my career, I conduct quantitative research using UK large-scale and nationally representative data to explore how arts and cultural activities are associated with improvements in people’s wellbeing (e.g. self-esteem, life satisfaction, anxiety, depression). In addition, I investigate the profile of engagers across the UK and identify enablers vs barriers to engagements to help improve equality in accessing the arts and culture. My work has been featured in the WHO, Arts Council England, Historic England, What Works Centre for Wellbeing, and the Social Prescribing Network.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, I joined the UCL Covid-19 Social Study team (one of the largest UK studies with 70,000+ respondents) and led on 43 regular reports, which had been used to inform the UK government, Public Health England and NHS England. I have also researched on the engagements in home-based arts activities and identified the patterns and predictors of the engagements during national lockdowns.
Sarah Chapman | 3M
A technical manager at global science company 3M and corporation board member at Farnborough College of Technology, Sarah was described as a natural dancer growing up and initially pursued a career in ballet.
Injury and an inspirational chemistry teacher led to a change of direction and she went on to pursue a career in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). Since graduating from the University of Southampton, with a first-class degree in Chemistry, and joining 3M as an application engineer, she has won multiple awards for her work as a STEM volunteer and diversity role model. She enjoys using her scientific skills in a collaborative, commercial environment and has held a variety of technical roles at 3M including approvals administrator, technical service engineer, regulatory specialist and build project manager for a multi-million-pound Customer Innovation Centre. She currently leads an international team of application engineers within the Industrial Tapes and Adhesives Division. As a mum of young children, Sarah is a passionate champion and role model for flexible working. She is a gold level #IamRemarkable trainer and speaks publicly on the importance of diversity to drive innovation. Sarah chairs the 3M EMEA Technical Women’s Leadership Forum and is the STEM Champion for 3M North Europe. Globally, 3M has pledged to create five million unique STEM and Skilled Trades learning experiences for underrepresented individuals by the end of 2025.
Nicole Ponsford | Global Equality Collective
Nic Ponsford FRSA is the Co-Founder and CEO, Education of the GEC (Global Equality Collective), a global grassroots #EDI movement of 15K+, a Collective of 400+ subject matter experts and creator of the award-winning GEC App, the world’s first diversity and inclusion app for schools and businesses.
Nic is also Director of Edtech UK, the national independent organisation, advisory forum and strategic body and is Editor of the digital publication, Edtech UK Magazine. In addition to this, Nic is a MSc in Digital Pedagogy lecturer at Leeds Beckett university,
Previously an AST and award-winning teacher and Harvard author (‘TechnoTeaching’), she is now an educational and technology thought leader. Whilst studying her Doctorate, she has recently been an EdTech50 Judge and headhunted for both a central roles with the Dfe Edtech Demonstrator Programme (2020-21, offering peer-to-peer support via 48 nationwide Demonstrator schools and colleges), and is now the Dfe Assistive Technology Training Pilot (which aims to grow and develop the use of assistive technology to support children and young people with SEND across 80 mainstream schools).
Nic is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist on closing gaps for the most vulnerable, #techforgood & #futureofwork, and all things diversity and inclusion in education.
Nic believes that technology is the equaliser for our time.
Harriet Moore | Plymouth College of Art Students' Union
Harriet Moore is currently Student Union President and Student Governor at Plymouth College of Art. Her work focuses on student wellbeing, representation and accessibility.
Harriet’s work advocating for students had led to her contributing an essay to the 2021 Plymouth White Paper, titled “How the pandemic has affected students in Plymouth, and how we can recover”. In recent months, 40,000 students voted her as the winner of an international award for Best Campaign Supporting Student Wellbeing.
Prior to this, Harriet worked for 3 years as a Student Ambassador and BA (Hons) Photography Student Representative at Plymouth College of Art and 2 years as Marketing and Enterprise Lead at Plymouth College of Art Students' Union. Harriet graduated with a BA (Hons) Photography from Plymouth College of Art before working full-time for the Students' Union. She was initially elected as Student Union President and Student Governor for Plymouth College of Art in 2020, and re-elected for a second term of office.
Shweta Singh | Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
Shweta Singh is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Management at the Warwick Business School, University of Warwick.
Furthermore, she is a Behavioral Data Science researcher at The Alan Turing Institute, London, United Kingdom. She received her Ph.D. in Information and Decision Sciences from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, United States. In addition, she holds a Masters in Computer Science and a Masters in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA.
Her primary research interest lies in Artificial Intelligence(AI), Behavioral Data Science and exploring value creation through Information Technology. Her AI research involves designing next generation AI, which includes mitigating AI bias, designing Explainable AI (XAI), responsible AI and fighting Societal Injustice through AI. Further, she uses IT outsourcing, sharing economy platforms and digital platforms as contexts to understand business value of IT. Her research has appeared in Information Systems Research, International Conference on Information Systems, Statistical Challenges in E-Commerce Research and Workshop on Information Systems and Economics.
Her research has won the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship and the McNamara fellowship from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She has also been selected as the finalist for the 2019 British Indian Awards, Science and Technology Professional of the Year.
She is currently on the Advisory Board of an Artificial Intelligence based online retail company 'Love the Sales', London, United Kingdom.