Emily Wallis | Sainsbury's
Emily Wallis is one to watch in Digital Marketing, passionate about creating more impactful and powerful customer experiences.
Having worked for Sainsbury’s Argos for two and a half years she has quickly established herself as a passionate and determined colleague. From the delivery of new marketing strategies to the rolling out of automated creative ad templates to create a market leading digital marketing experience. She has worked across a breadth of campaigns across General Merchandise, Clothing and Groceries. Her enthusiasm for inclusivity has also seen her move at pace to deliver plans within the Sainsbury’s gender balance network, Inspire, in ways that have never been achieved before.
Charlotte Morphet | St Albans City and District Council/Women in Planning
As a co-founder of the Women in Planning network, Charlotte has actively sought to achieve equal recognition and opportunity for women in the sector.
She is a considerate, passionate, and an inclusive advocate. Charlotte is distinctive in her focus on partnership working as a route to achieving change. As a chartered town planner, she realises she has a critical role in shaping inclusive and equitable places and spaces.
What makes Charlotte unique is her dedication to evidencing the issues in the planning sector. In her spare time, she has produced research on the gender leadership gap in planning. Charlotte has now embarked on a part time PhD to study women’s experiences as leaders and managers in planning, after being awarded a bursary from Leeds Beckett University.
Charlotte strongly believes that early career professionals should have a voice in shaping the future of their industries. She is Chair of the Planning Officers Society NOVUS network for early career planners; as well as sitting on the Board as a Trustee and a Director; representing their voices. Charlotte is also a member of the Academy of Urbanism Young Urbanists Steering Committee; which is committed to engaging in multidisciplinary discussions. She has previously
Sabina Kravcak | AXA
Sabina brings a unique background merging experience from digital strategy and management consulting within financial services, and a formal education in digital innovation.
She moved to her current role as Head of Strategy at AXA from the Group Strategy team at Barclays. Prior to Group Strategy, she was in the Barclays Digital Strategy team and has worked in New York and London. Before joining Barclays, she was a Strategy Consultant at PwC Toronto working with the largest Canadian banks. Prior to that, she worked with European and Canadian companies at a Chamber of Commerce in Canada on market entry strategies.
Sabina received an MSc in Digital Innovation from the London School of Economics and delivered her master’s thesis as a case study on the application of Big Data in a large and systemically important bank. She also holds a dual BA in European Economics from Sciences Po Paris and a BA in International Relations from the University of British Columbia.
Sabina enjoys the world of politics and international development having participated in numerous conferences including being a UN foundation fellow at the Social Good Summit in New York. Sabina’s global citizenship is underpinned by having lived in five countries across Europe and North America and speaking five languages.
Stacey Kowalczyk | Oliver Wyman
I am an extremely skilled Executive Assistant of mixed heritage; my ethnicity is British, Dominican, Irish, and Nigerian.
I am a mother to two wonderful children aged 3 and 8, I studied Business & Finance at Sixth Form before entering the working world. I currently work within the Corporate & Investment Banking, Insurance, CFA practices, I also sit on the Global Leadership Team Council at Oliver Wyman and co-lead our EMPOWERED UK & Ireland Racial & Ethnicity ERG. Prior to this I worked for the Global Head of Development at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, where I oversaw all administrative duties for the Global Head of Development, as he directed Four Seasons’ growth and development function globally. I also spent six years working for Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels & Hospitality team providing secretarial and administrative support to the Northern European CEO, EMEA COO, Associate Director and a team of five professionals within the London & EMEA based valuation and advisory team at Jones Lang LaSalle.
In my various roles I have provided Business Development support, advanced administrative support on projects, identified complex requests to many stakeholders, senior leadership internal and external clients while responding effectively. I have also taken the time to understand the most effective communication medium to resolve client issues. Adjusted priorities in response to changing requirements to ensure objectives are achieved with limited support, executed complex projects and assisted administratively with our Partner Review Committee. I have a strong sense of urgency about solving problems and getting work done and addressing risk-related issues when they occur and escalates concerns when necessary.
I am passionate about change and determined to help strengthen whatever environment I enter. As a black, female, EA and leader of mixed ethnicity I believe that the world should be a place where everyone can thrive. I believe in including the margins of society no matter their background and empowering them to be all that they can. Our workplaces of the future needs to look like the major cities around the world, which are multicultural, creative, fast paced and forever evolving.
Saadia Sharmin | Black Antelope Law
Saadia Sharmin is a Practice Manager at Black Antelope Law who is strongly recommended for her work and has made a substantial impact in the EA/PA sector.
As Practice Manager, Saadia Sharmin has been responsible for overseeing the accelerated growth of the firm’s practice in the two years. Saadia is also responsible for the day-to-day running of the legal practice with a primary focus on maintaining quality mark standards, legal, regulatory and data protection compliance, risk management, performance, change management and process implementation, marketing, and brand management.
Saadia is hugely passionate about promoting and encouraging diversity and inclusion through her role as London Ambassador for Women In The Law UK, mentor at Muslim Women Connect, and Head Secretary at The Old Cowperians.
Karen Barnicoat | Ministry of Defence
I joined the Royal Navy in 2001 as a Warfare Officer and after basic training and short spell at the French Naval College, I served at sea in warfare and ship navigation roles before starting my journey as an aviator.
An Anti-Submarine Warfare specialist and Merlin Mk2 Helicopter operator, I’ve enjoyed roles as an Aircrew Instructor, Flying Training Manager, Flight Commander and more recently Senior Observer/Executive Officer of 820 Naval Air Squadron embarked in HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have deployed to the Far East, USA, Mediterranean, North Arabian Gulf, North Atlantic, North Sea and UK waters in Frigates HMS CORNWALL, HMS PORTLAND, HMS NORTHUMBERLAND and HMS KENT, helicopter carrier/assault ship HMS OCEAN and aircraft carriers HMS ARK ROYAL and HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH, as well as serving ashore in Oman, at Royal Navy Air Station Culdrose in Cornwall and Navy Command Headquarters in Portsmouth.
I’m currently serving in MoD Whitehall as Military Assistant to the Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Personnel Capability). My role is primarily one of Executive support to the Admiral, advising staff and liaising with ministerial and senior military/Civil Service offices on all Military HR matters. Alongside this I lead a voluntary Working Group tasked with looking at how we can improve gender balance at the most senior levels of the military.
Hugely passionate about promoting an inclusive culture and maximising everyone’s potential, my work in this area has been incredibly rewarding. I lead a diverse civilian and military team of volunteers with no formal hierarchy from multiple areas of Defence who have drawn together best practice from every sector, from international comparators and from our own experiences to identify ways in which we can improve gender diversity at the highest levels of the Armed Forces. We are looking across all elements of the people environment from policies to promotions rules, education, training and addressing behaviours, and are already making a tangible difference thanks to a brilliantly collaborative and innovative group of volunteers.
Though my work is London-based, I live in the South West with my wife. We both have a passion for the outdoors and enjoy walking with our border terriers, paddleboarding, kayaking and getting away in our campervan. Any remaining free time is spent reading or on long runs along the South West coast path and I have added road cycling and woodwork to my hobbies during lockdown.
Oliver Holmes | Accenture
Oliver joined Accenture in 2014 from the Home Retail Group (Argos, Homebase & Habitat).
He is currently is the Accenture UK Technology Inclusion and Diversity Engagement Lead; driving the strategy, initiatives and engagement around Inclusion & diversity to ensure it is holistically embedded into the fabric of the organisation. He works very closely with senior leadership in the various business areas & functions to ensure that programmes are put in place to support Accenture's ambition to be the most inclusive organisation in the world.
He has made a significant positive impact to Accenture Technology's metrics around Gender & African-Caribbean representation (2019 all-time high) and helps govern leadership around the recruitment, retention & progression of women whilst leading & advocating for all of Accenture's inclusion pillars (LGBT+, Enablement, Family, Social Mobility, Gender and Ethnicity) to Technology's c.6000 employees.
He has driven the development and growth of many of Accenture's Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to ensure maximum engagement from employees and the measureable impact it makes the the business by increasing retention & progression of diverse talent.
Joy Foster | TechPixies
Joy Foster is an award winning entrepreneur who helps women upskill with modern technology in order to return to work, change careers or start a business.
Most recently she was recognised by Grant Thornton as one of the 100 Faces of the Vibrant Economy 2018, she was awarded Startup Director of the Year for London and the South by the Institute of Directors (May 2018). She was the only Startup female finalist in the national IoD awards (Oct 2018). Her business, TechPixies was named Women in Business Startup of the Year 2018 and Enterprise Nation Female Startup of the Year 2017. Joy and her company have recently been profiled in Forbes for raising £150,000 and Stella for breaking down barriers for women wanting to re-ignite their careers and in April 2019, TechNation has named TechPixies ‘one to watch’ in the EdTech space.
She is a Mum of 2. Her husband is Tim Foster MBE, one of the awesome foursome who won the Coxless 4 Rowing event at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Jim Bichard | PwC
I was a professional rowing coach prior to joining PwC in 1996. Like many colleagues, I joined PwC to get my accounting qualification but loved the client and people experience as well as the opportunity to do different things.
Like a lot of people I didn’t choose Insurance - but my first client was in the industry and I immediately liked that they had a positive impact on people’s lives and could model the future!
After qualifying I had five great years in PwC New York where I met my wife before coming back to London and taking on a role running our risk & regulation team, then our London Market practice.
I now lead our UK Insurance practice with responsibility for all PwC's services to insurance clients across every industry segment, from global groups to InsurTech startups. In the summer I will take over responsibility for our practice globally and will continue to enjoy working with some of our largest international insurance clients.
Bea Jackson | Royal Marine Cadets
Bea has been a Royal Marine Cadet for 18 months now.
She joined as she was being bullied at school and wanted to develop the confidence to deal with that situation. During this time Bea has taken to Social Media to speak out against bullying in any form and to let people of all ages know that there is help out there.
To help spread the work of the Cadets Bea has launched OPERATION BUMBLE which will see here doing two of the four Commando tests. She will be completing the 30 mile march in less than 8hrs and the 9 mile in less than 4. At the time of writing she has raised over £5000 in sponsorship. She has also attracted over 30 adult instructors to join along with the 50 and still counting Cadets.
Bea’s long term goal is to become one of the first female Royal Marines Officers, and then a Royal Marine Female Junglie Pilot.
Ever active on Twitter so has attracted quite the following, with even a follow form the First Sea Lord. Bea lives in West Yorkshire with her Mum, Dad and older sister who is to join the world famous Royal Marine Band this September.
To donate to Bea's campaign, click here.