Claire Haye | Amazon
My career has taken me through different job titles, sectors and location but has always been focused in the Administrative Profession.
My first role was Office Junior way back in 2000 and from there I moved into Dorset Local Authority looking after small teams and eventually being responsible for 80 administrators across 9 county wide locations. I relocated in 2012 to the East Midlands and joined a Social Housing organisation in a PA role but restructuring I was promoted into a Facilities Manager position. Sadly I was then made redundant, which hit me hard so as part of my resilience I evaluated what I wanted the rest of my career to look like. This led to the realistation that I had moved away from what I enjoyed so I focused on a position where my skills would positively impact leadership. This led to me joining Amazon as a General Manager Assistant (Executive Assistant) at their Kegworth site in 2020; just as the World changed through COVID.
Véronique Jeannot | Capco
Born & raised in Paris , I moved to London 20 years ago, after I obtained a professional qualification as a Trilingual PA and one year at university.
When I arrived in London, I had an opportunity to support the veterinary team at DEFRA, during the foot & mouth outbreak to prove what I was capable of, as my qualification didn't really have an equivalent in the UK.
I then moved to roles within Cabinet Office, working for a team mixed with civil servants and emergency services officers to prepare London emergency planning; then the Home Office, and the defunct National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) in a team that buit the first Police National Database.
After leaving the Civil Service, I had different roles in the private sector but also worked for a couple of charities supporting Chief Executive Officer and the leadership team, which brought me invaluable experience and probably the most effective training to be an efficient Executive Assistant.
I’ve spent the last 7 years working for consultancy companies, supporting a number of Partners as well as looking after interns, organising events/talks on mental health and activities for different Diversity & Inclusion groups.
I live with my 16-year-old son, who is taking GCSEs this year and amazingly pursuing his professional career dream.
I am an active member of a lay-Buddhist organisation, supporting and organising activities for members in the area where I live.
Shruti Saujani | England and Wales Cricket Board
Shruti Saujani is the Senior Manager - Cities & Volunteers at the ECB. She delivers a key part of their city programme linked to their South Asian Action Plan, namely engaging and recruiting 2,000 South Asian females into volunteering roles, along with developing crickets game wide volunteer strategy.
Shruti's lifelong passion is to create equal opportunities in the game and she dedicated her dissertation to understanding the barriers that women from South Asian backgrounds face in sport. Her dedication for a more equal playing ground in cricket has seen her appear on the BBC, Sky and a number of other media titles. Shruti has grown and developed her leadership skills in diverse commercial roles and has also been recognised for bringing culture change in the automotive industry.
Priyaneet Kainth | GlaxoSmithKline
I am currently the Global Diversity Equity and Inclusion Manager for Consumer Healthcare, GSK.
My responsibility is to co-create and embed the DEI strategy for Consumer Healthcare for over 22,000 employees. I graduated with a degree in Computing for Business and started my career at GSK as an IT industrial placement student at a manufacturing site in Coleford. Once I graduated, I worked for Deutsche Bank where I held various roles within Tech including Production Support, Test Manager and Business Analyst. In 2018, I returned to GSK’s Maidenhead manufacturing site where I worked as the Site Tech Delivery Lead, followed by working in the Tech Transformation Team as an Agile Coach for two years. I supported the Tech and Business functions with instilling an agility mindset and working with teams and their leaders to deliver value early and often. It also involved coaching, training, facilitating, teaching, mentoring teams and individuals, and helping them move from having a fixed to a growth mindset. I was the co-lead for the UK Disability Employee Resource Networks at both Deutsche Bank and GSK, as well as the Health and Well-being Champion for Consumer Healthcare Tech.
I am qualified Personal, Business and Agile Coach (ICF), I am an ambitious and driven individual and with mission to elevate DEI within organisations and continually work on ways we can better understand what this means for leadership and organisations’ success. I believe understanding the intersectionality of people by providing them with an open and safe environment to explore and to be themselves is fundamental for happy, successful, and driven employees in the workplace. I seek opportunities for continuous development, and I have a keen level of curiosity to understand people, their cultures, values, beliefs, and experiences. I think outside the box, a strong problem solver, an energiser and I am confident and articulate in what I want to do and achieve. I am the voice for others that have not yet discovered theirs and I share my views in a constructive and empathetic way that can challenge the status quo. I truly believe diversity is the key strength to an organisation, and inclusion is the way to retain diverse employees. My personal experiences of living with an invisible disability within the South Asian community has brought many additional challenges to my daily life, including day-to-day management of my disability and leading the fulfilling life that I want. I have overcome challenges and broken-down stigmas within culture, society, employment and life in general, and it has made me more resilient, compassionate and driven to wanting to make a change for those around me and the next generation.
Annika Allen | Barclays
Annika Allen works at the vibrant intersection of communications and diversity and inclusion building communications, strategies, developing initiatives, interventions and practices to empower others to build their capabilities and maximise their performance in an inclusive environment that fosters their success.
Annika currently works in Global Diversity & Inclusion at Barclays where she wrote and project managed Barclays inaugural Diversity & Inclusion Annual Report, led on the creation of the Power of Allies Toolkit, which is a popular internal resource to help colleagues take conscious, positive steps to make everyone feel that they belong. She also recognised that conversations around various topics on diversity, equity and inclusion are difficult, but having difficult conversations is vital to the success of all workplaces so she designed Courageous Conversations - a global monthly thematic webcast and podcast series, produced to share meaningful dialogue and to empower and encourage colleagues to listen to and learn from each other, and to speak up and challenge in thoughtful, constructive ways. She also drove forward the creation of a new D&I Hub and was involved in the Race at Work taskforce creating the internal site to engage colleagues on Barclay's Race at Work action plan.
Prior to working at Barclays, Annika’s communications background led her to a career that spanned journalism, content and TV production. She worked on entertainment and reality formats, on shows that appeared on the BBC, Channel 4 to MTV.
Annika is an award-winning speaker, broadcaster and podcast host and is passionate about championing diversity, empowering women and sharing and amplifying stories from underrepresented voices, breaking down barriers and helping others to fulfil their potential.
If that isn’t enough, she also co-founded The Black Magic Awards - an annual awards ceremony that celebrates, honours the changemakers and the trailblazers in the Black community and provides a platform for stories of triumph and shinning a light on Black role models. This event creates a space for people to see what’s possible and inspires the next generation of talent. She also sits on the advisory board for UK Black Business Week and the Birmingham Black Business Show.
Nisha Long | Citywire
Dr Nisha Long is the Head of ESG and Cross-Border Investment Research at Citywire where she is involved in fund selection and analyses the performance of over 16,000 fund managers globally.
Joining Citywire a year after completing her Doctorate at Imperial College, London, she has 15 years’ experience in fund and manager analysis. Her investment commentary and research features in Citywire’s media and the international press, including The Times, Bloomberg and Handelsblatt. Nisha regularly presents to the international fund selection community at conferences held worldwide on investment topics such as new fund selection techniques and the latest developments in sustainable investing.
She spearheads Citywire’s annual Alpha Female report which shines a light on gender diversity issues in the fund management industry and presents unique performance data to show why a diverse team can enhance performance in fund management. Nisha is a member of Citywire’s inclusion and diversity executive committee and is a Certified ESG Analyst (CESGA) from the European federation of financial analysts society. She also holds the CFA UK Diploma in Investment Management (ESG), and the CFA Institute’s Certificate in ESG Investing.
Aurelie Herrero | Bloomberg
I grew up in Cancun, Mexico with a very limited landscape of what I could achieve, the most common careers choices involved tourism and communication and this was not something I was interested in, I had a dream of going into the corporate world.
I wanted to leave my small hometown and find my own passion. After turning 18, in 2010, I moved to Paris as I have some family there that welcomed me in their home. I started working in a fast-food restaurant hosting, cleaning bathrooms, cooking and then moving to the cash register. Whilst working in this restaurant, I started studying my bachelor in International Languages and Trade at the Sorbonne University. Through the 3 years of that degree I worked and studied at the same time. I worked in Sales, in restaurants, in shops and I babysat. I then had the opportunity to study 2 Master degrees, one in International Trade and another one in International Business and Exchanges. During the later, I had a class in Human Resources that sparked my interest in a future career in this sector.
In order to graduate from my Masters degree, I had to complete a 6 months internship in 2015. As a child, I've always dreamed of visiting and living in London so my research for this internship focused in opportunities in this city. I was lucky enough to be selected as a Summer Intern in Bloomberg as a Project Coordinator in the support team. After completing the internship, I was offered a full time role in the team. Since I had a strong interest in moving to HR in the future, I used my time in the Support team to network and learn more about the opportunities in the HR team. In 2017, I moved to HR as a Talent Coordinator, during this role I had the opportunity to learn about the candidate experience, the business needs, the importance of recruitment and the strategy behind meeting targets. With the help of my peers and managers as I was able to develop my skills and my knowledge. I had the opportunity to do a secondment in 2018 in Singapore that help me gain confidence in my knowledge and skillset. After this experience, and as I continue developing as a senior Talent Coordinator, I started taking opportunities to interview, screen and analyze data that will then help the strategy meetings. In 2020, I was given a secondment as recruiter whilst a colleague was out on maternity leave. This helped me ground myself in the recruiter role and continue developing my skillset. Finally in 2021 I was given the full time role as a recruiter at Bloomberg covering our User Support areas.
Through the years in the company, I've been part of different projects such as leading our Early Engagement programmes like our Insight Weeks, co-leading our Summer Internship and creating and managing our Bloomberg Launch programme. The later has now been recognized globally within the organization and has had a fantastic impact in our recruitment efforts, increasing the diverse representation in our entry-level roles.
Ayshah Tull | ITN
Ayshah Tull is a multi-award-winning correspondent and broadcaster for Channel 4 News.
She hosted a first of its kind initiative called Black to Front in September 2021, where Channel 4 News featured an all-Black presenting and reporting team – underlining its ongoing commitment to improving Black representation on TV news.
Her broadcasting on the programme has included extensive coverage of the coronavirus crisis, including being one of few Black British journalists to ask questions at Downing Street briefings. She has also led reports on the Black Lives Matter protests in the UK. And travelled to America to be part of the US coverage team for the 2020 elections.
She was previously one of the main presenters for the children’s news programme BBC Newsround from 2013-2018.
Ayshah has worked in broadcasting for over 10 years, and has championed diversity throughout her career, supporting and mentoring colleagues from a range of backgrounds to help them navigate the newsroom.
Jignasha Kanani | Lloyds Banking Group
Jignasha is currently a Credit Officer in Corporate and Institutional Credit, directly managing a portfolio of Manufacturing Clients that are typically FTSE 100 & 250 companies.
Within this role, she is an effective 'end to end' credit and manufacturing sector specialist and has built excellent relationships with key stakeholders, including Senior Sanctioners, Coverage colleagues and Product Partners. She is openly regarded as a knowledgeable, inclusive, approachable and empathetic team player who is always willing to go the extra mile for both her colleagues and clients. Jignasha has been recognised as a future leader and is a graduate of LBG’s Risk Leadership Development Programme.
Jignasha is extremely passionate about supporting and developing others and channels this passion through a number of activities over and above her day to day role. This includes mentoring, buddying and being a lead member of her divisions Inclusion & Diversity and Learning & Development Teams. She was named a 2021 & 2020 I&D Role Model for her efforts in driving forward various initiatives to support her peers especially during the pandemic. Jignasha is identified as a “Commercial Banking Role Model” and a REACH (LBG’s ethnic minority network) Role Model featured in particular for her desire to inspire and help others accomplish their goals. In September 2021, Jignasha was awarded “Outstanding Returner” at the Women in Credit Awards for her achievements.
As a mum to two young girls, Jignasha strives to be a good role model to them and show that with hard work and perseverance, they can achieve anything. She wants to inspire and give back to the next generation and was honoured to be featured as a ‘Woman of the Future Ambassador’, sharing her journey with A Level students to show that having a flexible working pattern and young family doesn’t mean that you can’t excel in your career.
Prior to her current role, Jignasha was an Associate Relationship Manager in LBG’s Mid Markets division. In this role, Jignasha was ranked 1st of all her peers in London and the South East. She began her career in branch at Barclays Bank Plc, progressing to the SME Banking Division as a Local Business Manager and successfully growing a large portfolio of start-up businesses. In this role Jignasha was awarded the Barclays ‘Platinum Award’ for outstanding performance and was runner up London ‘Newcomer of the Year’. Jignasha graduated with a degree in Financial Economics in 2005.
Megan Smith | KPMG
From a young age I have had an awareness of inequality and feel a strong personal responsibility to make a tangible difference.
This led me to focus on gender studies for both my Undergraduate and Masters’ degrees and ultimately to pursue a career in Inclusion, Diversity & Equity.
I began my career at KPMG on a graduate scheme in 2018, during which I also gained my CIPD qualification. At the end of my scheme, I joined the Inclusion, Diversity & Equity team as an Assistant Manager and have since progressed to Manager.
During my time in the team, I have successfully seen KPMG recognised as a Times Top 50 Employer for Women (for the 11th consecutive year) and I was responsible for KPMG placing 17th in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index (a significant jump from the previous ranking of 49th). I also have recently worked on the FTSE Women Leaders Review event launch (this is an independent, business-led framework supported by the Government, which aims to improve the representation of Women on Boards and in Leadership positions).
Outside of my role, I am a passionate advocate for raising awareness of cancer in young people, following my own cancer diagnosis when I was 21. I have worked as an ambassador for charities such as Teenage Cancer Trust and done several public speaking events and online campaigns.