Diviya Devani | Q-CTRL
Diviya is a Space Systems Engineer specialising in the next generation of space technologies.
She has experience designing, building, and testing systems for space, including the Sentinel-5, FLuorescence EXplorer (FLEX) and Cold Atom SPace PAyload (CASPA) missions. The results of her work across space imaging, quantum technologies and satellite communications have been utilised on a global scale by clients including the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA), the European Space Agency (ESA), Inmarsat and OneWeb.
As a Product Engineer at Teledyne e2v she provided technical leadership on the ESA Sentinel 5 mission which monitors air quality, climate and solar radiation and the FLEX mission which will map vegetation fluorescence.
Diviya also oversaw a two year, world-first project, CASPA, managing a six strong consortium from both industry and academia, to deliver a shoe box sized satellite that will demonstrate a Quantum experiment in space. As well as her role as the systems engineer she was also the marketing manager in the team and took a lead on all PR related activities. With a particular focus on promoting engineering to young people to encourage a more diverse workforce.
She is currently working for Q-CTRL as a Quantum Sensing Consultant. Where she is responsible for enabling the next generation of quantum sensing in harsh environments, such as the Lunar/Martian surface, as the first and only female systems engineer in her team. Quantum sensors have numerous applications including climate monitoring and supporting the development of a human settlement in space.
In parallel to her role at Q-CTRL, she is also a satellite Communications Consultant at e2E. In this role she works for global satellite communication companies, as Lead Systems Engineer and Project Manager on major projects to provide fully integrated communications services to clients (ground stations and spacecraft).
Diviya was awarded a scholarship of €17,500 from ESA and the UKSA to study at the International Space University where she worked with a team of 20 to develop a nutritional and agricultural settlement for humans in space.
She is passionate about about promoting diversity in STEM fields and has started a women's network at Q-CTRL. She is also a mentor for the Space Generations Advisory Council and has also held various voluntary positions at the Institute of Engineering and Technology.
Caitlin McCall | The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC)
Caitlin is an Advanced Research Engineer at the Manufacturing Technology Centre where she focuses on technical research in the electronics and robotics industry.
She is a Chartered Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and is a Member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
Previously, she was a Materials and Manufacturing Engineer at Swansea University where she worked towards her Engineering Doctorate in printed electronics for flexible packaging. Key areas of research included printing methods, deposition analysis, ink manufacture, rheology and electronic testing of antennas.
She graduated in 2016 with a First-Class Honours in Mechanical Engineering. She has over 7 years' experience in Manufacturing Engineering as well as experience of working in numerous engineering fields including printed electronics, mass manufacturing, medical engineering and defence. Through her experiences with the Army Reserves, she has achieved an additional qualification in Leadership and Management with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).
Caitlin is passionate about developing others and supporting her community. In 2021, she was awarded the Top 50 Women in Engineering: Engineering Heroes 2021 for her contribution during the pandemic. She regularly promotes engineering as a STEM ambassador, is a member of the Women’s Engineering Society Event Directors Committee and is Vice-Chair for WES Early Careers Board.
Lisa-Jayne Cook | GEA Heating and Refrigeration Technologies
My engineering career started in the drawing office at Heating and Cooling Coils, but I quickly moved into their Sales and Applications Department.
Here I found a love for all things Refrigeration and Air Conditioning. Keen to progress within the industry, after two years with Heating and Cooling Coils I moved to Kelvion Searle where I was put through an apprenticeship program. I studied for a Level 3 BTEC in Building Services Engineering on day release. Using my working days to learn more about the fundamentals of refrigeration and to gain some hands-on experience in the factory, brazing and assembling commercial coolers.
I completed my apprenticeship with a Double Distinction, finishing top of the class and showing my male peers that’s girls can do just as well as boys (and often better). I received a Governor’s Award from College and made the final top 10 for RAC/IOR Student of the Year awards 2004, the only female in the shortlist.
I am grateful to the strong role model l had in my mother (also an engineer). She taught me to have confidence in my knowledge and to never give up on what I love. Her influence has propelled me through a career I am passionate about. Some days are more challenging than others, but with every challenge, I grow stronger and more confident in my abilities.
Fast forward 22 years from the start and I am still here, enjoying the career I’ve built. I’ve moved from airside product design to complete system design, and still love every bit of the job as much as I did all those years ago. Extremely proud to have been elected onto the Board of Trustees at the Institute of Refrigeration during 2019. Even prouder to have made history last year, being one of two females elected onto the Board of Directors at ACRIB (Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Industry Board) as the first females to sit on the board.
Aside from my day job, and my Non-Executive Directorships, I am also an advocate for Diversity and Inclusion, being an active STEM Ambassador and STEMazing Women.
Lynette Kebirungi | Rolls-Royce
Lynette is an ambitious aerospace engineer that is devoted to empowering others and changing the world one act at a time.
She was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda where she held several leadership roles throughout her formative years around driving change in her community and co-founded the first digital lifestyle magazine at the age of 18. This game changing brand transformed the communications industry and saw many print magazines build an online presence. Many years after it was dissolved, KGlam remains a household brand in Uganda. Despite many great challenges, Lynette pursued a degree in Aerospace engineering at the University of Liverpool because she wanted to transform her country's engineering sector and inspire the youth to build their nation using the various fields of engineering. She became Uganda's first Aerospace engineer with an MSc when she graduated from Imperial College London. Following her passion for aerospace, Lynette joined Rolls-Royce Plc where she has worked across three business sectors; Control Systems, Civil and Defence aerospace. Within these sectors she has designed and tested various engine components across the fuel, combustor, turbine and cabin bleed systems. She is currently working on the Tempest team that is designing the future combat aircraft systems that will keep our airspace safe. Alongside her career in aerospace, Lynette has helped shape and improve Rolls-Royce company culture and policies with her efforts in Diversity and Inclusion for both gender and black and ethnic minorities. She was awarded as the UK Top 20 women in data in 2019 and highly recommended in the Commonwealth category of the Women of the Future in 2020.
Gemma Timmons | Oliver Wyman
Gemma is a Senior Consultant at Oliver Wyman, a global management consultancy firm.
She is deeply involved with making a positive, lasting impact on the community around her. Gemma is especially passionate about causes relating to mental health, workplace culture, and entrepreneurship and innovation. She holds a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.
At Oliver Wyman, Gemma works to deliver impact for global clients across a variety of sectors. Her work has included a group strategy project for a specialist bank, conducting end-to-end due diligences on firms, delivering a risk function improvement programme for an international insurance company, and supporting the development of a new green lending framework for a national bank.
As part of Oliver Wyman’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee, Gemma is organising an office-wide pilot of a new initiative to encourage acts of kindness, designed to improve well-being, connectivity, sense of purpose, and more. Gemma also represents Oliver Wyman on the Thriving from the Start Committee (part of the City Mental Health Alliance), which is working to create a culture of positive mental health in businesses for people in their early careers. As part of this role, she is co-organising and chairing an event on Mental Health and Loneliness for people in their early careers, tied to the 2022 National Mental Health Awareness Week.
Gemma is also committed to enhancing the culture and community at Oliver Wyman through her work as co-lead for Oliver Wyman’s UK & Ireland Social & Sports Committee
In recognition of her sustained work to making a positive, lasting impact at Oliver Wyman, Gemma was recognised as a UK & Ireland Firm Building Champion in 2022.
Passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation, Gemma is also the co-founder and non-executive director of OX1 Incubator, the University of Oxford’s first early-stage startup incubator. Now in its fourth year, OX1 Incubator has successfully supported over 20 startups and provided over £25 K equity-free support for more than 50 student founders.
From 2018 to 2021, Gemma was a co-founder and the Chief Business Development Officer for Idea Atlas: a digital platform for co-developing ideas, problem-solving, and transparent decision-making.
Claire Magudia | Aon
I work at Aon as UK Operations Lead for our Defined Contribution (DC) Pensions Consulting Team.
DC is a rapidly evolving area of the pensions market and a key growth area for our business. In addition to advising a portfolio of clients on all aspects of DC pensions governance and scheme design, I am responsible for ensuring the DC advisory team of over 50 colleagues is fully supported to deliver high levels of service to our clients and is well-positioned for growth.
I have a keen interest in diversity, equity and inclusion and in developing colleagues to help them reach their full potential. I have mentored many colleagues, both formally and informally. On my return to work following the birth of my first child in 2011, I identified a need for enhanced support for colleagues before, during and after maternity leave, to ensure their transition back to work is as smooth as possible. With a small group of colleagues, I established a mentoring programme for maternity leave returners, which began as a local initiative and has since been widely adopted across Aon; I now lead a UK-wide network, providing mentoring to colleagues who take maternity, adoption or shared parental leave.
Adina Pintilie | Ridgeway Information
Adina is a Senior Researcher specializing in applying open sources to research tasks at Ridgeway Information, a research consultancy in London.
Her work centres around finding new tools and refining research techniques which have applications for the intersection of security and social issues. Adina has led the creation of Navigating Disinformation (https://unw.thinkific.com/) an online course for UN Women, aimed at empowering girls, women, and gender minorities in the face of disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech.
Most of her technical work, especially around automation, supports an independent UN agency. Her open source research has supported EU’s European Union Agency for Asylum, the National Police Chief’s Council, the UK Civil Service and several private sector clients. She has led digital literacy sessions for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and the World Institute for Nuclear Security.
Adina is Ridgeway’s focal point for the Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy network and leads Ridgeway’s work on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Adina is a mentor for Girl Security and En Voz Alta.
Previously, Adina worked in the European Commission’s polling services in Brussels and supported ESRC projects on social politics. Adina is a first-generation immigrant, the first in her family to compete post-graduate education, and she has self-funded both her degrees. She holds an MA in Applied Security and Strategy, where her thesis focused on strategies used by disparate groups at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. In her BSc in Politics and International Relations, she focused on big data and elections.
Candida Paiva | PwC
I was born to parents who did not study beyond the eighth grade.
While I applaud them for being persistent about seeing all their children obtain university degrees, there was no getting around the huge disadvantage that them not being ‘in the know’ posed. I watched my friend’s parents, guide and expose them to various courses and activities that were beyond my parents’ world. So, from a young age it was clear to me that if I wanted to succeed, it was going to be down to me. The decisions and the choices I've made were driven by a large extent by that.
Today, I am a Technology Risk Manager at PwC, however I started my career selling houseboats and then on to selling computers and peripherals at a computer showroom in India. Back then, not knowing much about computers, I was expected to meet aggressive sales targets with little upskilling provided. I reached out to my network of friends and spent many an evening learning what made up a computer to be able to talk the language. This became a common theme in my career - taking up opportunities and work that I was not used to and making a success out of it. A significant example of that is when I took up a role I knew nothing about (risk management) to oversee risks in a Technology department. While the task was daunting, I embraced the challenge, learned on the job and upskilled myself through courses on both IT and risk management to earn the respect of my IT colleagues and to bring credibility to the role.
I moved to the UK 15 years ago with my husband and our 5-month-old baby with no family support around us. While I embraced being a new mum and the experience of being an expat in a new country, I was also driven to be successful in my career. I picked up a job almost straight away at a well-known Bank and pushed myself to make my mark at work. I have battled with the joy of being a new mother and the drive to feel successful in a great career, dipping in and out of work till I found a way to make my peace with it all.
Growing up, I did not know of professional service firms or routes in. When I was introduced to the concept of consulting and working with various clients, I was intrigued and jumped at an opportunity to work with the leading professional services firm – PwC. At PwC I have worked across a range of financial services clients, helping them build and improve their risk frameworks. Working in professional services though is not for the faint hearted. That lifetime of training on taking on tasks I knew nothing about was about to pay off. There’s never been a week where I have not been pushed out of my comfort zone to deliver on engagements. This was all hard at the beginning till I realized that the key to success lay in the wealth of knowledge within the firm. Networking and knowing how to be resourceful, how to join the dots and how to confidently hold discussions with just enough knowledge across a range of subjects is all an art, but it’s an art that one can master through hard work and preparation. In fact, preparation is the magic ingredient. There’s been many a night where I have pushed aside my beloved Jane Austen’s to give way to reading what the latest article from the regulator is and how it would impact my client engagements. I have worked very hard to overcome that feeling of being out of my depth – feeling like an imposter even, to now feeling comfortable in my skin.
From selling houseboats and computers to confidently and successfully advising clients about their technology risks at PwC – I have come very far indeed and am grateful for where I am. I support PwC's Social Mobility initiatives so I can support those who come from humble beginnings like me. I have worked with schools enrolled in the programme to open avenues and options to students who otherwise would not know were there. That has been one of the most rewarding and satisfying initiatives I've been a part of.
Catherine Kenny | EY
I am enthusiastic, with strong people management skills and passionately champion diversity and inclusion both in the workplace and outside.
With over 13 years of risk and controls experience in the Wealth and Asset management industry, both in-house and as an advisor I have a strong technical track record in Internal Audit and in building trusted relationships with a range of stakeholders.
EY Senior Manager – Wealth and Asset Management Internal Audit October 2016 – Present (more details of EY below).
As a senior member of our Wealth and Asset management risk and controls industry practice, I worked with several large UK and global financial institutions. I am also actively involved in promoting our talent agenda and the performance of the team.
SEI Europe Investment Limited (UK) Head of Internal Audit May 2013 – October 2016
SEI is a global provider of asset management, investment processing, and investment operations solutions. I led the European Internal Audit Team where I helped improve Internal Audit’s focus on the high risk areas of the business, and worked closely with senior stakeholders as a trusted advisor for insights and assurance on control frameworks, program assurance and business monitoring
PricewaterhouseCoopers Ireland Senior Associate (Asset Management) October 2009 – May 2013
I was selected for the PwC graduate programme from University, and I also qualified as an ACA during my time at PwC. I gained a wide range of experience in statutory and financial funds audits, as specialised in alternatives and hedge funds whilst at the same time contributing to the people agenda within PwC.
Philippa Allen | Aon
After studying accountancy and finance at university in New Zealand Philippa worked as a graduate accountant for a chartered accountancy firm.
She gained valuable skills, and wanted more varied and challenging work and was attracted to the finance industry. To facilitate a shift in industry she began studying for the CFA and got a job on a private wealth graduate programme for one of Australasia’s largest banks, Westpac. After spending time in Westpac’s investment operations and insurance products teams she moved into the investment solutions team as an analyst. Her focus was on investment manager research, with involvement in all areas of the investment process, from strategic and tactical asset allocation through to client reporting and governance committees.
After four years in the investment solutions team she wanted to further develop her skills and look for different opportunities within the asset management industry. After a six-month career break doing charity work and travelling in Eastern Africa and South America, she relocated to London from New Zealand, and built upon her investment experience by moving into her current role as a portfolio manager in Aon’s fiduciary business.
Since joining Aon in 2019, Philippa has become lead portfolio manager for 14 clients (c.£1b AUM) and three asset class funds (c.£2.6B AUM). She is the fiduciary lead for responsible investment, and is heavily involved in presenting to researchers and clients and pitching for new business.
She enjoys helping more junior team members develop and does regular formal and informal development and mentoring sessions with colleagues. She has recently taken on people management responsibilities, managing four junior colleagues. She also contributes outside her formal role responsibilities, and has participated in several initiatives, including initiatives focussed on boosting social mobility, and tutoring students from underprivileged backgrounds. She is passionate about health and fitness and outside of her role at Aon is a group fitness and Pilates instructor.