Thea Crawshaw | Latham & Watkins
I am an associate in the Corporate Department of Latham & Watkins’ London office, representing alternative investment fund managers in fundraising and operating real estate, venture capital, and private equity funds.
I also co-lead Latham’s Women Lawyers Group (WLG) in London which seeks to support the retention, development, and progression of women; increase opportunities for engagement; and partner with individuals and organisations who are working towards advancing gender diversity. Recognising the importance of allyship to building an inclusive culture, the WLG and I collaborate closely with Latham’s Black Lawyers Group (BLG), the Asian & Middle Eastern Lawyers group (AMELG), and the LGBTQ+ Lawyers Group, to ensure that the WLG serves every type of woman, using intersectionality to consider and understand each individuals’ unique experiences. My WLG position and role as a mentor are some of the most rewarding aspects of my career. My drive to improve diversity stems from an ambition for everyone to feel like they belong and to have a toolkit of skills to reach their potential.
Shirin Shah | Exscientia
Shirin is currently Legal Counsel at pioneering pharmatech, Exscientia.
Prior to this she completed her training contract at CMS UK and qualified into their Corporate Transactions team. In 2016 she co-founded South Asian Sisters Speak (SASS) which creates spaces for South Asian women to share, connect and learn. SASS run sell-out panels and workshops addressing taboo topics (such as mental health) and run the Brown Girls Book Club celebrating literature by South Asian women. In 2020 she became a Trustee of the East End Women's Museum, a charity that rebalances the history books by shining the spotlight on inspirational women, and which is due to open its first physical home in Barking later this year.
Kelly Fox-Petersen | Tate & Lyle
When I left school I didn't know what I wanted to do.
I began working in an office from the age of 17 and stayed in my first job for almost 10 years where I learnt so much about various different departs such as Accounts, training, conferences etc. For the next four years I worked on the IT Helpdesk and then got a job working for a global insurance company where I was trained and encouraged to become an Exectuve Assistant. In 7 years my role slightly changed and I added Events & Conference Planner to my EA title.
Then when I worked at Tate & Lyle I was a Group insurance Administrator but after about 6 months I missed my EA role and had the opportunity to work for the General Councel and the Company Secretry and also support the Board members.
My role has evolved during lockdown and I now support additional executives but what I love is using my mental health training to encourage staff to talk about mental wellbeing.
Samaira Mehta | Coder Bunnyz LLC
Samaira Mehta is a 13-year-old Tech Entrepreneur who was recognized by TIME as “One of the 8 Young Leaders Shaping the Decade” and a “Real-life Powerpuff girl” by Hulu for her invention “CoderBunnyz” - a board game that simplifies complex coding concepts and teaches them in a fun farmyard adventure.
Samaira is also the founder of “CoderMindz” - the world’s first-ever Artificial Intelligence board game that simplifies the intricacies of how AI works, and “CoderMarz” which brings together her love for coding and AI with her interest in outer space and Mars.
Mehta is a Gen Z ambassador for Arm with their program GenArm2Z, works with the United Nations for gender equality, and is a Softbank Masason Scholar. She was featured on platforms like Vogue, CNBC, CNET, Business Insider, Today Show, UN Women, and Washington Post for her creations and 500+ workshops that she has lead, which spotlight her board games, through which she has taught over 15,000 kids to code. She has been a speaker at over 100 conferences nationwide and internationally including at MWC’19, C2 Montreal, and corporations like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Intel, SAP, Walmart, and IBM.
Her STEM initiative “Yes, One Billion Kids Can Code” and entrepreneurship academy “Boss Bizz” are ambitious but that’s not her only goals. She wants to become President of the United States when she’s older, giving her a bigger platform and voice to do what she believes is right for the country.
Arsenia Nikolaeva | SumUp Payments Limited
Arsenia joined SumUp in October 2018 to head up PR & Communication functions in Europe.
Since joining, she has focused on positioning PR & Social Media as channels driving brand awareness & recognition at scale and laying foundations to Influencer Marketing and Event strategy development at SumUp.
Arsenia has spent the last decade building creative strategies for internal and external communication practice in various fields including Ad Tech, FinTech & Gaming industries with companies such as Fyber and Nintendo of Europe. Her work focuses on crafting engaging narratives for emerging technologies that have a positive impact on people’s lives. She is a passionate leader who empowers teams to grow through agile approaches to creative communications and is a strong advocate for female leadership and diversity in tech.
Arsenia holds a Masters degree in International relations & Political Science with a focus on European Migration Policy and a BA in European studies from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Vicki Lau | VFX/ VR Specialist
Without any contacts or connections in the United States, Vicki made her way into the Hollywood film industry and landed her first break working on AMC's hit series, The Walking Dead (Season 4), as well as other movies such as Guardians of the Galaxy, War for the Planet of the Apes and Aquaman, whilst working at mobile and virtual reality (VR) early-stage startups in Silicon Valley and Beach.
At 24, she was one of the youngest speakers and presenters at the SMPTE Annual Technical Conference in its time, where she was a panelist and speaker for virtual reality in motion pictures. As a woman working in a male-dominated STEM field, Vicki was also invited to give a TEDx talk on visual effects (VFX) and VR in 2016 in California, USA and in 2018, was invited to speak as a keynote speaker at Elliott Masie's Learning 2018 conference, along with keynote speakers Former First Lady Laura Bush and Hamilton star Leslie Odom, Jr.
In 2016, Vicki left her cozy desk job to start a Singapore VR startup where the business (which was set up with a 100% remote working infrastructure) with 18 collaborators from 5 time zones, developed and launched a VR game on the Oculus Store, within 7 months. The entirety of the work was done successfully without any of the team members having to meet face-to-face. Whilst the startup had closed in 2018 mainly due to a lack of market demand, that failure did not stop Vicki – it simply made her a better artist and leader for future projects.
Today, Vicki teaches over 80,000 students from over 180 countries VFX skills & career tips with the aim to democratize the knowledge and insights from within Hollywood VFX studios themselves, to the global masses. Thus far, Vicki is the only known female VFX artist with this level of independently-amassed influence in the VFX education space.
Isabella Gomes | Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Isabella Gomes, 26, is a graduate student and public health reporter, based in Baltimore, Maryland.
She previously earned a Bachelor of Arts in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University in 2016, a Master of Arts in Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting at Columbia Journalism School in 2017, and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University in 2019. Isabella is also a two-time grant recipient with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and a former reporting fellow with the Miami New Times. She is currently freelancing as a Coronavirus frontline reporter for the Baltimore Sun and is pursuing a Master of Science in Medical Science at Hopkins.
After graduation, she hopes to continue her career in feature writing, covering public health and human rights issues in the U.S. As a queer, multiracial woman of color, Isabella is most passionate about her advocacy work, fighting human trafficking, anti-LGBTQ violence, and anti-immigrant policies.
Angeline Aow | WomenEdDE & Berlin International School
Angeline Aow is an international educator, learning and development specialist, workshop facilitator, school evaluator and pedagogical leader.
Angeline trained and taught as a teacher in Sydney, Australia. She began teaching internationally in Nanjing, China and has worked at Berlin International School, Germany, since 2005. Her experiences as a teacher, music specialist, curriculum coordinator and professional learning and development designer has given her unique insights in multiple areas of organizational change, growth and development.
Born in Malaysia, Angeline’s family migrated to Australia in the mid-1980s. Growing up and attending school as a visible minority in a country with colonial roots was challenging across multiple factors. Through this experience she developed an empathy for learners who are seen as being different and a moral purpose to create learning experiences that values multilingualism, intercultural understanding and being an ethical upstander who values others with respect and dignity. Angeline is a lifelong learner who values the development of ‘soft skills; although she much prefers calling them transferable skills as there is nothing soft about these essential capabilities. She believes that learning is a social and interdisciplinary act and has consistently worked to build stronger partnerships between organizations from the business and entrepreneurial world and schools. Angeline’s goal is to make learning purposeful and to cultivate active citizens who have the skills, mindsets, knowledge and understandings to transfer and create actionable solutions for a better and more peaceful world.
Career highlights for Angeline can be captured through the pedagogical leadership she has engaged in throughout her work in school and educational institutions across the globe. She works for the International Baccalaureate organization to develop curriculum documentation and professional development materials. Angeline has also led 100+ workshops for teachers and leaders to support learning and teaching, pedagogical leadership and understanding of multilingual and intercultural landscapes across the Europe, Middle-East, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions.
Arpita Agrawal | HSBC
Robust experience of nearly three decades in leading Finance change, large scale global IT delivery and support functions primarily in financial services and manufacturing domain across consumer markets including retail and institutional.
Pioneered focused practices for mergers, divestments, strategic sourcing initiatives, global development services and sizeable supplier engagements. Managed delivery verticals, lead shared services horizontal teams and setup technology & testing methodologies. Record yield output by devising competent models for account management, change management and resource management.
Contributed to strategic initiatives for nailing financial challenges and provided sturdy guidance for entire progression cycle from conceptualization to implementation. Proficient in operating mature Finance Technology & Change function that enables informed strategy and decision making in alignment with financial objectives and target operating model. Drives delivery of investment projects as per P3M standards along with dexterity in driving CXO engagements, team management and performance improvements.
Lead various Diversity & Inclusion initiatives including women empowerment, pride & rainbow, workforce enablement, People with disabilities, Girl Child Education in India.
Anju Gurung | British Gurkhas Nepal
After my studies of intermediate level in Commerce, I immediately started to look for a job due to financial problems.
I started my first job as a sales executive in an art gallery from the year 2002 to 2006. It involved the selling of arts and decorative objectives. My main job also included the dealing of customized framing for arts, photos, and decorative objects.
I joined British Gurkhas Nepal in the year 2007 as a telegraph operator. Getting adapted to a military environment was amazing. It was in a different city from where I live. In between the years, I continued my studies and graduated with a Bachelors’ degree in Humanities and Social Studies. Then I was posted as an assistant mess manager back to my hometown in 2014. A very challenging job since day one but a great experience. Then 2017 was the year that I was promoted to my current position as an assistant to Civil Secretary in the headquarter. This must be the most suitable position for me as I felt I have achieved a lot for me as well as the organization. I got the opportunity to test my skills in Human resource matters and issues.