Fiona Yelland | Queen Mary University London
Fiona is responsible for the administration and coordination of Teaching Recognition and Student Engagement within Queen Mary Academy.
To date, this has included acting as the administrator for a national week-long online Festival of Education, encouraging both staff and students alike to think about the way education is changing as a direct result of the COVID-19 Pandemic. She also works to recognise the work of both teaching staff and students through her role within the Queen Mary Academy, who deliver university-wide support and development of education and research. We work with staff and students to develop and enhance their practice in teaching, learning, and research.
Prior to joining, Fiona managed Educational programmes for social enterprise Code First Girls, working to address gender parity in the tech industry by training women for free in a variety of tech skills. In this role, Fiona was responsible for coordinating and working with 25+ universities across the UK and Ireland to provide free education and training for c.1000 women every month of 2020, leading CFG to hitting our target of teaching 20,000 women to code for free before the end of 2020 early in September of that year.
Alongside this, Fiona holds an MA in Education in Arts and Cultural Settings from King’s College London, where she specialised in museum learning provision for young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Through this work, Fiona partnered with numerous Museums and Cultural Heritage sites to grow and develop their offerings for those with ASD.
Meera Chudasama | Oakgrove School
My name is Meera Chudasama and I have 3 exciting roles.
• English, Media and Film Studies Teachers at Oakgrove School, Milton Keynes
• Research Lead, Oakgrove School, Milton Keynes
• Editor, Innovate Journal
In each role I am privileged to develop strong teaching and learning practices for other practitioners and myself. For myself, I have developed students as researcher who have taken part on research; this has lead to students leading and presenting their own findings to their peers. Such presentations have provided further evidence for the role of students academic research. Furthermore, I have been able to support students achieving their target grade; 70% and above for English and 98% for Film Studies coursework.
My love of teaching and learning led me work with a growing network of global practitioners. At the core of this network is Innovate Journal. I re-invented this journal and curate it by myself. As a result, I have grow an in-house teacher-research journal to an international platform that shares best teaching practice.
Alongside the journal, I connect with a (put a number in here) teachers to support their investigations into their practice; as well as working on a one-to-one level with teachers to develop their own action research in their unique contexts.
Toria Bono | Thomas A Becket Junior School
Toria is the Equity and Diversity lead at Thomas A Becket Junior in Worthing, a Primary Evidence Lead Educator for Durrington Research School, the OU UKLA Reading for Pleasure Lead for West Sussex and a class teacher.
She is in her 21st year of teaching and has held a number of roles across the primary sector during that time. In June 2020 she was awarded a fellowship by the Chartered College of Teaching for her commitment to education.
Toria is passionate about preparing young people for the world that lies ahead of them and believes that if educators collaborate and learn from each other, the life-chances of young people will be significantly improved. In February 2020, she created #TinyVoiceTalks as a platform for the quieter voices in education to be heard. She believes that we all have a voice - we just need the right platform. From that date, the #TinyVoiceTalks community have come together every Tuesday on Twitter to find their voices and enable others to do so too. In August 2020, she launched a podcast of the same name to enable quieter voices to speak about big issues. Toria has spoken to educators about significant issues such as 'coming out', 'inequality' and 'disability'. She hopes that by having these conversations, it will enable educators to better understand the young people they teach and know how to support and prepare them for their future.
Recently, Toria has become an anchor presenter for Teacher Hug Radio and has her own show 'Origins' and is a presenter on Teacher Hug Book Club. Toria's love of books and of teachers as readers extends further and she created Tiny Voice Book Salon in November 2020. This monthly show on YouTube is an opportunity for authors and educators to come together, discuss a theme and share their love of books. Children's authors and educators are dedicated to improving the lives of young people and this show gives them an opportunity to collaborate on themes such as 'Diversity', 'Family', 'Journeys' and 'authentic representation'.
Above all else, Toria is a mother and wife who recognises that without the unwavering love and support of the family she adores, all her achievements mean very little. She is also a passionate full-time class teacher and her pupils matter most amongst all her other projects. The last year has certainly been challenging for all educators, however Toria believes that even with these challenge there are a myriad of opportunities to connect and to learn from each other.
Hettle Vasani | Coty Inc.
Hettle Vasani, a commercially astute Board and C-level Executive Assistant with thirteen years of experience in the professional services industry within private practice law firms and in-house legal departments for FMCG companies.
Working her way up the ladder from Administrator, Personal Assistant, Executive Assistant to most recently Executive Business Partner. With a proven track record of diverse experiences serving international business leaders to help maximise time, increase efficiency, productivity, and bottom line within multinational organisations.
Having graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in LLB Busines Law and completing law school at City, University of London, with a postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice (LPC), Hettle began her career as a Legal Advocate and spent the early part of her career representing the world's leading financial institutions in County court hearings across England and Wales. She then transitioned to working as a Legal Administrator at LPC Law, where her passion grew for working as an administrative professional. Hettle found she could leverage both her legal and business skills gained from her qualifications by adding value to her executive and organisation, whilst working in a support role. Hettle expanded her career holding several PA/EA positions at some of the world’s top leading global law firms and multinational corporations, these included Allen & Overy, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC) LLP and Burberry based in London.
Hettle currently holds the position as Executive Business Partner and Senior Legal Governance Specialist, supporting the Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at Coty Inc., a global leader in the Beauty industry.
Hettle is a full-time working mum of two boys, aged 9 and 2, who continually worked throughout her career, balancing work and motherhood. She aims to be a role model to her boys.
Davina Soochit | Egon Zehnder
Davina started her career in 2002, where she volunteered to be an administrator for a small consultancy company, from there she then completed her degree in Business Studies and Management.
On completing her degree, Davina realised that she really enjoyed working in administration and joined Fortis Investments as a Team Assistant, from there she joined Goodhart Partners, a multi boutique asset manager. After 6 years in Finance, Davina changed industries and joined Skillcapital, an Executive Search firm as a PA. Davina now works for Egon Zehnder, as an EA to a Partner, as well as being an EA, Davina is a strong advocate for learning and development; Davina co-leads the London Mentoring program and co-leads the London EA Development program at Egon Zehnder. During the pandemic, Davina, and her colleague in Canada, began coordinating the Global EA learning modules for their peers. As well as being an Executive Assistant, Davina is a wife and mother to 3 young children.
Jenny McRae | OGTC
Jenny is an experienced Executive Assistant working in Administration in the Oil and Gas Industry for over 20 years. Jenny's current role is Personal Assistant at OGTC providing, support to 4 members of the Leadership team.
Before joining OGTC, Jenny was an Executive Assistant to a member organisation's CEO. Jenny is passionate about the Personal and Executive Assistants' role and champions the role wherever she can. Jenny loves learning new tips and tricks from her peers.
Jenny is a proud member of The Officials and a fellow member of EPAA. She loves learning about new technology and bringing what she learned into practice to enhance her contribution to her role.
Jenny has worked hard on continuous self-development, improvement, and growth. Jenny also founded The Aberdeen PA Group, an Aberdeen EAs and PAs network.
Outside of work, Jenny loves spending time with her family, long walks in the country with the dog. Jenny also enjoys catching up with friends and loves attending concerts, and festivals, and enjoys dancing the night away in Ibiza.
Jane Jones | Dell
I have always had a strong work ethic. I started my working life aged 14 in retail after school and at weekends.
On leaving school I fell into full time work in administration. Everyone seemed to want to work in a bank and I decided it was office life that appealed to me.
I had the good fortune to work for a small family run telecommunications company for 13 years. The owner became a mentor and friend. He took me under his wing and expanded my horizons. I learnt about all aspects of office management and gained experience in accounting, payroll, projects, HR and how to drive a forklift truck! It gave me a great insight and gave me the knowledge and the confidence to test the water for alternative roles. However, I found my best fit and what I enjoyed most was the role of an assistant, which as most assistants will know, also encompasses all of those other roles – whether working on a special project or simply as part of the daily tasks – with the possible exception of driving a forklift truck!
It was on that basis I decided to continue along the PA/EA career path.
I subsequently gained experience in a variety of roles and businesses to progress from Admin Assistant, Secretary then to PA and EA. In this position your job title is likely to be determined more by who you are working for, than your own ability. Your manager’s journey is very often your journey as their assistant. I am fortunate that through my good judgement and maybe a little luck, the managers I have chosen to work with share my destination plan.
I have always enjoyed the variety that the position of EA brings and if my job continues to offer this, I would not change it. Working at Dell over the last 16 years has never disappointed. Due to the constantly changing landscape, there is always a new skill, system or process to learn which keeps me motived and interested. I have moved around within the business with my managers, learning as I go and building on my network of contacts within different teams along the way. Most recently in the UK working for the SVP &GM but prior to that for 12 years working with our Europe Middle East and Africa teams
Chloe Roberts | Nivaura
Chloe is a highly skilled Executive Assistant adept at managing priorities for C-Suite stakeholders with over a decade of experience in the finance, technology, professional services and real estate sector.
She has always had a relentless work ethic with a thirst for knowledge, ready to take on new challenges to drive the business forward.
When her career started, she excelled at communicating and organising a wide range of administrative activities across a large team. She quickly realised that she wanted to use these strengths to make a greater difference to an organisation’s success. To enhance her toolkit of skills she moved into the busy and demanding world of real estate. There she developed her relationship management and negotiation skills resulting in her role being expanded to include office management and book-keeping responsibilities.
This led to her move into professional services where she took on a broader role providing invaluable support across multiple service lines and locations to senior leaders, partners and directors at Deloitte. To continue delivering value in her role she joined external PA networks to absorb the latest techniques and was a role model for other EAs across the firm.
She now works in the world of finance, initially in the FX arena supporting a COO and CTO before being spring boarded into the fintech space reporting to the CEO and his executive committee. She is an integral part to delivering their vision and takes on a more strategic role in all aspects of the business including marketing, HR, recruitment, risk, legal, inclusion and wellbeing.
Chloe still adds to her day-to-day activities whether embracing new technology, mentoring fellow EAs or finding fun ways to build a positive culture during the pandemic. She continues to be curious and sees every day as an opportunity to learn something new.
Ann Hodson | PwC
I think I was always destined for a career as a personal assistant.
When I took my options at school (way back in 1989), the “art” subject I chose was keyboarding applications and, as one of the top five in my class, I was one of the first to be allowed to use the electronic typewriters (the ones with the little window that printed a line of text that you typed in) and yes, I did learn to type on a manual typewriter! I stayed on at school to do my A Levels but decided it was not for me and left after a few months. I got a job as an office junior at a construction company and went to night school to study typing and shorthand. I loved both and knew this was the career path for me.
After a couple of years I moved into professional services and that is where I have spent most of my career - mainly solicitors, corporate real estate and accountancy firms. I gradually worked my way up from an office junior to secretary and then to senior secretary/PA.
I met my husband in 2003 but I lived in Birmingham and he lived in Lancashire. After months of weekend travels on the M6, we decided to move in together so I moved “up North”. I worked locally as a secretary for a year before I secured a job as Office Manager at JLL in Manchester where I had worked previously in Birmingham.
After the birth of my first son in 2009 I wanted to work closer to home and was lucky to secure a job at a local housing association which included a role in governance looking after the Board. It was whilst I was advertising a PA role for my team that I noticed an offsite PA role advertised at PwC which looked perfect for me as I was then a mum of two children under 8. I previously worked for PwC in Birmingham and only left to move to Lancashire so it felt like it was meant to be. I was lucky to succeed in the interview and I re-joined PwC in 2016.
I have been very fortunate in my career to work at some amazing companies, with some brilliantly talented people and been exposed to a wide variety of opportunities to challenge myself, learn new skills and share my experience and knowledge with others.
Tegan Duffy | Baker McKenzie
Hello I am Tegan, I am 23 years old and from Essex. Before I started my career at Baker McKenzie I completed my A Levels in Business Development, Personal Business Finance and Sociology at a sixth form college near where I live in Essex.
Before I started my A Levels I was set on becoming a hairdresser but that quickly changed once I started my A Levels and I realised my skills are in organisation.
My career at Baker McKenzie started in September 2016, I joined the firm at 19 years old as a Legal Administrator Apprentice. I was one of the first legal administrator apprentices at Baker McKenzie. During my apprenticeship I completed my Level 2 CILEx qualification. My contract was for 2 years and I was so ready and determined to complete my course, I completed all my exams and coursework and qualified within a record time of 1 year and 4 months.
After qualifying I applied for a Legal Administrator job within the firm's IP, Data and Technology team in January 2018. As the only Legal Administrator within my PA team, I supported a range of Trainees to Mid-Level Associates and supported the Senior Legal PAs on departmental tasks. Whilst being a legal admin I realised I wanted to get more involved with tasks for senior members of the team and wanted to challenge myself further and move to the next step of becoming a PA.
After being a Legal Administrator for one year, I applied for a Legal Personal Assistant role within the team and was successful in January 2019. I can proudly say that I had moved up three job levels within 3 years and was still only 21 years old.
Fast forward to now, I have been a Legal PA for just over two years supporting a variety of levels within the team and covering a range of colleagues within our department. I currently support 3 Partners, 2 Senior Associates, our BD Manager and our Knowledge Lawyer. I enjoy these responsibilities and I am determined to carry on climbing the PA job ladder