Patrizia Capogreco | 3M
Patrizia is a Senior Application Engineer, supporting EMEA Adhesive Solutions for Transportation Industry at 3M and a STEM role model for the next generation
A Material Scientist, a patent applicant who recently achieved the exclusive European Adhesive Engineer (EAE) certification, granted by the European Welding Federation.
Patrizia was born and raised in Italy. She was full of curiosity, enthusiasm, supported and encouraged in her learning and her aspirations by her family.
She studied materials science at university in Milan and Strasburg in France, specializing in composite materials and soon started working closely with both customers in the transportation market and the 3M Research and Development labs to develop new applications
Following 3M vision, Science needs to approach real applications to solve materials, products, equipment, process related issues and Application engineers play a critical role connecting technologies with the needs of customers, with women typically underrepresented on this career path.
Being part of a multicultural team Patrizia strongly believes in the power of comparison and collaboration of technical teams with different experiences and skills: the creativity that derives from it in solving a problem she thinks is the real key to scientific innovation. And that is how she has been named as an inventor on a patent relating to a high-profile customer project.
Patrizia is a STEM Ambassador encouraging and inspiring young people to consider a career in science, technology, engineering and maths with the mission to support kids to see themselves reflected in the science community, no matter their gender, ethnicity, or ability.
She also advocates for diversity in STEM being Lean In Circle leader and Gold facilitator of #IamRemarkable initiative, empowering women and other underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond. Her daughter, Beatrice, has been an inspiration for Patrizia to continue her drive to give those who are underrepresented in STEM a voice so they can reach their full potential.
Aparna Saroagi | NatWest
Aparna Saroagi, Vice-President & Head, Credit Risk, India, Natwest Group.
She has been spearheading inclusive workplace practices by advancing organization women's engagement; going beyond, as a key driver in propagating women empowerment across industry sectors by mentoring and guiding women at all levels to achieve their potential to fulfil professional and personal goals.
On inclusive leadership, in her own words, “a diverse and an inclusive society starts with leader’s personal actions and advocacy, to bring clarity to where we (women) are as a gender and the capability required for tomorrow. That journey is by itself a motivation to bring our best selves to work."
Over her 9 years in RBS, Aparna has been instrumental in setting up various teams in RHI, and leading initiatives to ensure a safe and secure customer proposition. She has been committed on achieving business priorities by driving the people agenda (Career Fairs, Women’s leadership mentoring), defining effective Target operating models and driving consolidation of the various controls function.
She has led from the front, supporting teams with opportunities to develop with positive Our View D&I scores and conscious effort to build an inclusive team.
Aparna has made a significant impact in India as the Co-Founder of Women Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Foundation (WEE) which is fully supported by Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Government of India to strengthen the global Women eco-system. Under Aparna's leadership, WEE Foundation has remarkable achievements till date:
- Mentored 5200 Indian women entrepreneurs in start-ups including AI, Beehiving, Menstrual Hygiene, Tactile technology for differently abled etc;
- Facilitated GBP 125,000 grant as venture capital support
- Drive sustainable environment initiatives on smokeless cooking stoves.
Aparna's achievements continue as a regular TedX and keynote speaker; on behalf of Government of India as a Chair/ Presenter of round-table conferences on women empowerment hosting overseas high-level Government delegations from:
- UK (Jonathan Reynolds, Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Member of Parliament & Virendra Kumar Sharma, Member of Parliament),
- Canada ( Naveen Bains, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation)
- Israel (Ofir Akunis, Minister of Science, Technology and Space)
She is the winner of the prestigious "Social: India Women entrepreneurship Leadership award 2017". In recognition of her Gender diversity contribution, she has earned an honorary appointment in the Standing committee for Promoting Women in Science, Government of India.
Aparna has been recognized as Young Innovator and Leader by Israel embassy in India.
Aparna has demonstrated that achieving equality is about more than just creating ‘opportunities for women’ – it’s about creating a positive work environment, encouraging colleagues on the importance of diversity and enabling a great workplace resulting in brilliant outcomes for customers, colleagues and the community.
Aparna's work has been covered by leading medias Bloomberg, BBC, Business World, Government of India portal. ( Please feel free to search my name on internet, almost 5 pages talks about our work on women empowerment)
Stephen Gill | Salamander Limited
Over 40 years of progressive responsibility and achievement in the HVACR/Building Services Engineering industry.
A specialist in refrigeration systems and energy efficient solutions for buildings. I also have a keen interest in personal development within the workplace and am involved in a number of initiatives raising awareness of the HVACR sector.
Broad international business and technical experience as company owner, board director, senior manager, design engineer, projects manager, consultant, speaker and technical/business writer. Contributing chapters to several business books and numerous technical articles to trade press.
A champion of a number of industry causes and initiatives in the refrigeration and air-conditioning engineering (RAC) sector: I am the founder of the Women in RACHP network – an RAC industry wide network started in 2016; and founder and Head of Secretariat of World Refrigeration, Air-Conditioning and Heatpump Day (World Refrigeration Day - WRD). A new initiative started in 2019 which aims to raise awareness to the wider public of the role of refrigeration technology and science in modern living. This has received the support of UNEP’s OzonAction programme, and UNIDO. In its inaugural year, WRD was celebrated by over 1000 events in over 153 countries making an overnight industry global success.
After working for several engineering companies in increasingly senior roles, I formed my engineering and business consultancy in 2014.
Lee Chambers | Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing
Lee Chambers is a psychologist, coach and founder of Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing, a wellbeing and inclusion consultancy.
After a diverse career, including time in corporate finance, elite sports and the third sector, alongside scaling a videogame business, he has brought his knowledge and lived experience together to support companies in creating equitable culture, psychologically safe spaces and effective wellbeing strategies. This has been borne from his own lived experience, which has included mental health challenges, time as a stay at home Dad, and learning to walk again in 2014 after illness.
Daniel López Rovira | OLIO
Daniel has been working in Software Engineering for over ten years, after graduating from university in Barcelona.
He worked at Klarna in Stockholm for a few years before he moved to the UK in 2014, where he has worked in a few startups of different sizes. As an individual contributor, he mainly worked on backend and data, which continued when he moved into a leadership position.
Daniel focuses on culture and creating safe and inclusive places where everyone can become the best version of themselves. Nowadays, he's leading teams and driving high performance while building high trust, safe and inclusive teams in startups.
Richard Pickard | Inclusive Search
Equality, purpose and mission are important to me. I want to give back more than I take from life.
20+ years experience personally delivering exceptional recruitment solutions, both on a contingent & retained search basis, to start-up & scale-up tech firms through to FTSE100. Exciting and engaging teams with empathetic leadership, launching new business units for international recruitment organisations.
Having served as a Board Director for 10+ years, I created a business with a clear purpose & mission to represent a broad talent pool of diverse candidates.
Businesses with diversity have a greater balance of voices that enable them to create innovative solutions. Companies need to reflect their customers and the regions they operate in. Also...surely it's just the right thing to do.
The data is in...diverse companies achieve better commercial results, with most successful companies now viewing equality, diversity & inclusion as essential to their business performance and growth.
Inclusive Search works with the highest quality diverse candidates in the market, and with clients who value, reward, respect & celebrate everyone's diversity - and who wish to be proactive in recruiting, retaining & developing high-performing diverse talent.
As an advocate for TLA Black Women in Tech, The 30% Club, and a judge of the WeAreTheCity Rising Star awards, I am actively involved in creating leadership dialogue around equity and allyship, and also advising & mentoring candidates.
I am the author of the ‘Exceptional Female Role Models’ interview series – championing the achievements and excellence of inspirational females trailblazing in business. I won the LinkedIn 'Best Talent Voice, UK' award for 2021. I was listed in the Top 50 Trailblazers in Gender Equality 2021.
William Torrie | Barclays
William is VP of Legal External Engagement at Barclays, having started his career on the 2018 graduate programme following University.
A passionate advocate for change, he quickly climbed the ranks of Win, Barclays’ gender resource group, where he now serves as UK Deputy Chair, and is widely recognised for his campaign for gender equality. He also founded the ‘Alison Scott Scholarship’, a competitive programme awarded to four female undergraduate students at Queen Margaret University – providing the opportunity to upskill, travel and gain work experience whilst they complete their undergraduate studies.
In addition, William sits on the board of an LGBT+ Early Careers group; is a member of a London-based Think Tank, focussing on gender in the UK’s Foreign and Economic policies; and has held various roles in electoral and referenda campaigns in the UK and overseas.
Ian Clarke | Deilight Consulting
A successful, multi-award winning Philanthropist, Entrepreneur, Author and Social Justice campaigner, London-born, racially non-binary and LGBT, Ian Clarke, 36, has been recognized by Rising Stars, Social Entrepreneur and Millennium volunteers as a leading mind globally on human rights, the value of human differences and the costs of oppression.
A 9-times chartered and certified Psychologist, Therapist, Management, D&I practitioner and Investment Banker, with 15 years’ experience advising the world’s top companies across 2 continents, the authority of Ian voice comes from extraordinary life experiences, complex intersectionality and his ability to represent anyone by listening and then projecting empathy.
In 2021, his lifelong work to advance sustainable business practices globally culminated in his 45-page report he dubbed Project Speak Up, cataloguing the causes, costs and solutions of oppression in global financial services. Ian single-handedly delivered the change that led to the first black appointments in history to the board of Europe’s largest bank, and the first black female appointment to any European banking board in history. He now manages Deilight Consulting, a multi-award-winning Culture Transformation practice working at the forefront of boosting representation for marginalized communities everywhere.
r10 Consulting
r10 is a management consultancy, focused on helping the global insurance market embrace change through business and technology transformation.
Since 2012, we envision a better future for the insurance industry and strive to help our clients welcome future challenges and maximise long-term potential.
Our clients include leadership, technology, and change teams of leading (re)insurers, syndicates, brokers, MGAs, insurtechs, and service and software providers.
When our clients need a trusted partner to guide them on their transformation journeys, they turn to r10. Using a diverse network of industry experts and partners, we share insights and deliver outcomes in a bespoke approach for each client's unique scenario.
We provide consulting services that focus on growth, operations, and technology – including business strategy, technology investments, change management, and capabilities enhancement.
Kanika Selvan | University of Sheffield
Kanika Selvan is Associate Director of Data and Technology at the University of Sheffield.
At the age of 33, the youngest member of her leadership team and a committed advocate for diversity through technology, her Transformation Director states that she is ‘the most talented Data and Technology leaders I have ever had the privilege of working with’.
Kanika is a strong believer that social change is best achieved through reshaping how technology is delivered and led in organisations. Inclusive Leadership practices are embedded in all that she does, whilst mindfully building a pipeline of talent, set up to challenge the norm. She often talks of herself as a 'professional disrupter', leaning into uncomfortable conversations and challenges to ensure the right outcome for her people, her technology, the HE institution she works for, feeding into the wider communities it serves.
Her role as AD of Data and Technology, means that she leads technical teams to deliver strategic change that will shape the experience for Students and Employees. Her career path speaks a story of courage and resilience, as a BAME, neurodiverse woman who has transitioned through; starting her own social enterprise, a graduate programme in Energy Retail, to Telecoms and finally into Higher Education. She has grown through 4 incremental promotions in the last 3 years, now managing teams of over 80, sizeable budgets and delivering releases of technical changes that cover both software and infrastructure in complex technical ecosystems. Kanika is a strong believer that her personal progression is directly correlated with her passion to grow talent and empower teams to think differently. Through restructures, she has built in roles to drive a pipeline for diverse talent, championed the adaptation of procurement processes to speak directly to the Diversity & inclusion agenda in recruitment, grown, recruited and trained female tech leaders internally and supporting them to grow into other organisations for further development. She is now celebrated as a public speaker, showcasing the practices diversity of experience and thought can bring to technical change.
As working from to her values is her core driver, her work to promote inclusivity and equity is also shown in the portfolio of other activities she does. She mentors for the Ada woman's network, Black Valley technical Career Accelerator Programme and Diversity in Housing, offering up personal time to connect and coach other women to succeed.
She supports the supports the Tech Training Organisation, Diverse and Equal, with strategic & commercial development, enabling them to deliver new initiatives to grow diverse tech talent. Speaking at their events, driving new commercial partnerships and shaping the vision for driving a shining new future for communities that have been historically marginalised to step into their power.
She is also a Non Executive director for Incommunities Housing Association, sitting as Group Board Member and Chair of Customer board, she takes on an additional role as Diversity & Inclusion Lead. This Social Housing provider of 25,000 homes, with a £100m turnover, she supports the board as both a strategic leader and embedding Inclusive leadership practices at a senior level. She regularly speaks out to support employee engagement with D&I and draws the link between the ability for the organisation to be successful & the need to understand their diverse Northern Bradford community base
Kanika has founded and led employee diversity networks. Her most notable, the founding of Npowers women's network (Moxie) The ambition to create an employee network that would increase representation of female staff, create a space for a discourse around gender related work inequality & support other diversity networks to encourage an intersectional approach. She chaired the set up and delivery of the employee network as it recruited representation across 8 sites, grew its membership to 300+, delivered diversity events, reported to the executive board, started a new engagement with HR professionals who quickly collaborated with us and quick following of LGBTQI+, Neurodiversity & BAME employee networks.