Siwan Smith | KTN
As Knowledge Transfer Manager for Diversity & Inclusion at KTN, Siwan works to ensure diverse innovators have access to the support and funding opportunities they need throughout the UK’s innovation eco-system.
Leading on KTN's activities for Innovate UK's Women in Innovation and Young Innovators programmes, Siwan has supported thousands of innovators through workshops, webinars and 1:1 support. She is also a key member of the Diversity & Inclusion Taftie Task Force, which is working with Innovation Agencies across Europe and beyond to develop Inclusive Innovation practices.
A graduate from the University of Chester, Siwan has worked across several technology sector areas and has extensive expertise in marketing, PR and events management.
Siwan is a trained facilitator, a mentor as part of LMF Network’s global mentoring programme, and a dedicated champion for diverse entrepreneurs, ensuring they have the opportunity to shine. She counts show management for the Liverpool Comedy Festival and volunteering for Manchester Pride amongst her favourite memories, and hopes to take up more volunteering positions within 2021.
Born and raised in Liverpool, when Siwan isn't spending time with her two Goddaughters and Sprocker Spaniel Loki, she is a keen traveller, with Singapore, New York and Dubrovnik amongst her favourite destinations to date, although she is still very much looking forwards to visiting Hobbiton in New Zealand and having a pint at the Green Dragon when time allows.
Apoorva Varma Mehta | NatWest
My Masters degree in Management of Technology and Innovation from LSE paved the way for me to join NatWest Group on the Technology Graduate Programme where I joined the Mobile Banking Team as a Product Owner.
Banking is a part of everyday life and with mobile increasingly becoming the channel of choice, particularly during the pandemic, digital banking should be a simple, intuitive and enjoyable experience for customers. From day one I was passionate about thinking creatively and seeing my ideas come to life in the hands of our customers, helping millions of users self serve. Seven years later, I'm still in the team and I'm really glad I found early on in my career a role where I was able to apply what I had studied but also thrive creatively.
I have now been in the Mobile Leadership Team for a couple of years leading my own team of Product Owners. I work with large teams of technology and design to seamlessly and consistently deliver top functionality to our mobile app. One of my key responsibilities is to prioritise the mobile roadmap ensuring we are building the best banking app by continuously launching what our customers need and want. This role has propelled me to find myself as a leader through strong communication, negotiation and relationship building at all levels.
I enjoy coaching and developing my team so they can harness their strengths and become the best Products Owners they can be. I was recently selected to be a part of the NatWest Group Advisory Chair where I'm bringing a diverse voice to the bank leadership table and have the opportunity to drive what I'm passionate about such as Women in Technology, developing out graduate talent and sharing all the hard work we are doing to create the best banking app.
Katherine Eyles | BAE Systems Applied Intelligence
Katherine studied a MEng Chemical Engineering Degree at the University of Birmingham.
She completed and international study abroad year at the University of Melbourne, Australia and joined Applied Intelligence at a graduate consultant in 2016. For the last five year Katherine has pursued a career supporting public sector clients with digital and data initiatives. Katherine has worked across a number of government organisations and has aspiration to become a lead consultant in this domain.
Vivian Lee | Harry's
Having taken the leap in switching careers from investment banking to marketing, and joining Harry's as a Digital Marketing Executive in 2018 with no prior marketing experience, Vivian has since been promoted twice.
She now leads Digital & Broadcast acquisition as Performance Marketing Manager across Social, Search, Display & TV for the UK, and most recently launched Harry's in 4 new markets across Germany, France, Netherlands, and Belgium.
Since university, she has always been passionate about gender equality and empowering womxn. Vivian led the Bristol Consulting Society as President and also co-founded the Bristol Women in Leadership Society during her time as a student at the University of Bristol. She is now a co-leader of the All Equals Employee Resource Group in the Harry's London office, aimed to improve gender inclusivity by providing a system of support and programming for womxn and their allies.
Vivian continues to be focused on her professional development. She previously completed the Reforge Growth Series, exploring growth topics in depth - from customer acquisition and retention to user psychology and experimentation. She is now studying for an MBA with the Quantic School of Business & Technology, balancing part-time education alongside her career.
Outside of her marketing career, Vivian is extremely passionate about mental health care and awareness. Since August 2020, she has been a Text Line Volunteer for Shout, a text messaging support service for anyone struggling to cope. Most recently, she's also fundraising for the mental health charity Mind in taking on the National Three Peaks Challenge this summer.
Daniella Chrysochou | Capco UK
I grew up believing I could be an astronaut, a forensic psychologist and a firefighter.
I soon realised not everyone felt as empowered to dream. So I decided to become a psychologist to help others overcome the challenges they faced, and become the best versions of themselves.
Upon completion of my BSc in Psychology, I wanted to reflect on my learnings to better understand what my role could be in shaping other people's journeys. I took a research assistant position in my university where I conducted studies with individuals who were deemed high-risk for developing schizophrenia. I hoped this would help me see how mental health affects one's decision making. I then experienced the impact societal and external conditions have on one's confidence and autonomy when I volunteered for 3 months in South East Asia. I coached high school graduates who were about to launch their careers, taught at a special needs primary school and also mentored women in multiple psychiatric hospitals, helping them build life skills such as reading, writing, pottery classes, singing and interacting in groups. This humbling experience taught me how I took my feelings of empowerment for granted. So I decided to focus my career on just that - empowering people to excel at what they do.
After finishing my MSc in Occupational Psychology and Psychiatry at King's College London, I joined the world of business where I saw the potential to apply my learnings on human behaviour, mental health and self-determination.
During my time in Capco, I have taken on an Agile coach role in a multinational investment fund manager and an international investment bank. I leveraged my psychology background in coaching the leadership team to shift from a manager mindset to a leader mindset, and guide them in defining the North Star for their team. I set up multiple agile delivery teams, upskilled a team of 30 project managers in agile behaviours and trained them in their new roles as they transitioned to the new ways of working.
I delivered behavioural assessment tests to improve team cohesion and performance, building high performing teams that succeeded in maintaining collaboration, transparency and productivity throughout the pandemic and working remotely. I embedded constructive feedback behaviours, coached them in adjusting their behavioural profiles to those of their colleagues to enhance communication and setting up praise boxes to provide positive feedback and acknowledge their colleagues' contributions.
After months of finishing these projects, I am still in touch with the clients who regularly share updates on their personal lives and send pictures of their kids. Although they were at first sceptical of my 'fluffy' ideas and praise boxes, they now openly talk about where they map on the emotional cycle of change, ensure their colleagues' peaks and troughs are shallow and entrust their teams to shape their continuous transformation journey.
My experience so far has bolstered my ambition to drive change in the business world through psychology; to remind people they are fully empowered to be their best selves at work, whether that is being an astronaut, a forensic psychologist or a firefighter.
Vanessa Fong | ONE CodeBase
Vanessa is the social media and digital coordinator at ONE CodeBase – shouting out about tech startup wins, news and events in the digital tech scene in the North East of Scotland.
After graduating with a Law degree from Robert Gordon University - where she was student rep, volunteered and took part in moot competitions, Vanessa fell into logistics and worked in the freight forwarding industry for over 5 years before leaving her role to pursue a passion for creating online content and social media at ONE CodeBase.
During her time at ONE CodeBase she became a STEM Ambassador using her spare time to volunteer at kids coding clubs and creating online digital skills tutorials. Stepping outside of her comfort zone; she hosted a series of live online webinars for CodeBase designed to keep the Scottish tech community connected during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She also runs a lifestyle blog called ‘These Stories’ documenting her life in Scotland with her husband and mini lop rabbit.
Rimshah Razzaq | BBC
When I was growing up in Pakistan, I never thought that one day I'd be working in the Tech sector. Moving to England was a massive change as a 12-year-old; I had to learn a new language and culture while battling an identity crisis.
At 16, I wanted to join the army - crazy I know! But my media teacher knew I was made for the Tech and the Broadcasting world, and encouraged me to apply for a media apprenticeship. That’s how I ended up working for the BBC and haven’t left yet. I honestly believe we are making a difference - I passed my GCSEs because of Bitesize.
I have been been very fortunate and have had various job roles across the organisation. At 16 no one really knows what there doing. I started my career journey in production as a runner setting up a production offices on location, getting to mess around with cables and tech was a dream. I tried Talent and Resourcing for BBC Children's for a while and then moved on become an IT Manager for BBC Religion, Comedy & Children's. This is was my calling, I loved fixing issues and helping teams make the most of their IT equipment.
It's so important to keep learning and then I went on to do an operations role, where I was responsible for the operational delivery and the point of contact for all publishable content through to iPlayer, Red-button and Technical Operations. This allowed me insight to the digital world and then I went on to become a Project Manager in Software Delivery in BBC Design and Engineering. It was only at this point I knew the career path I wanted and it was in project management.
As a Project Manager I get to work with people across the organisation, solve problems, help build strong teams and deliver change that helps the public in England and Worldwide. Soon I will be working for BBC Sounds, A streaming media and audio download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers, cars, and smart televisions.
Jessica Thorne | IBM
I graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2018 achieving a First Class Honours in Business Management with a Year in Industry.
For my undergraduate placement I worked as a digital specialist at General Motors for the myOpel service across multiple platforms. I had personal accountability to improve the customer experience, working closely with senior stakeholders, across many different cultures and countries. Throughout my education, my efforts and attitude have been formally recognised and awarded with prizes for my contribution to school life. Having grown up playing netball, tennis, lacrosse and dance, I have always thrived in a competitive environment. This has channelled my ambition and drive to exceed in all aspects of life. In my final year of university, I received the Accenture Award for Business, achieving the highest mark in a strategic management course. Whilst at university, I was selected by Capgemini to lead a student project team to identify new marketing opportunities for local charities. I have always had a passion to give back to the community. In 2015, I went to Tanzania to volunteer, teaching maths and English to orphaned children. In 2019, I joined IBM on their graduate scheme. I did not have a technical background, however, I rose to the challenge and immediately immersed myself in becoming a technical consultant; upskilling myself and learning to use various technologies, consequently becoming a subject matter expert in cognitive applications. I am now a cognitive consultant, specialising in delivering AI solutions for various different clients within IBM. I am currently working with a UK Top 10 bank to deliver a new asynchronous AI messaging platform for their customers.
Swati Gupta | Cognizant Technology Solution
Swati is a Digital Consultant at Cognizant, with a problem-solving attitude to help Financial Services clients enhance their customer experience and increase operational efficiency while collaborating with various FinTech partner ecosystems.
Being part of the business family in India, her father insisted on joining the steel business while she wanted to fulfil her mother’s dream to become a doctor. Little did she know when she sat down with her first computer that she found her partner for life. The enthusiasm for technology increased manifold when she developed a visual cryptography project during her engineering degree by dividing and encrypting image to resolve digital crime.
Being part of business family, she wanted to create a healthy mix of finance and technology to resolve real life challenges using digital transformation. MBA in Finance and CFA helped her understand the business side of the coin. In 2014, she published an article on Big Data: A ‘Big’ leap towards profitability.
At Cognizant, she is currently working on hyper-automation of cross-asset post trade operations using FinTech platform. She has led engagements in consulting services including advisory and implementation of digital operational transformation of risk and wealth management domain for leading investment banks. She has been engaged in implementing industry landscape, defining business strategy, identifying regulatory impact, reinforcement of core business positioning and bringing in digital transformation using leading disruptive technology including FinTech, AI & cloud.
She coaches and mentors the new analysts and always tries to bridge a gap between objective of the organization and needs of the colleagues. She also holds a Certificate in Agile leadership.
She has authored various point of views including ‘Digital transformation of trade expense using AI/ ML’ and ‘Analytical enterprise data migration- a strategic approach’. She has won ‘Consulting award’ in 2017 at Cognizant for her engagement in data strategy project. She currently works as the co-editor of BFS Consulting newsletter.
She is a firm believer of education and actively engage in teaching program in ‘MyPustak’ to help underprivileged children learn and grow.
Outside of work, she likes to paint, dance and cook.
Anisha Malde | IBM
Anisha is a Developer, vegetarian foodie and advocate for Women in Tech.
She grew up in Nairobi, Kenya and later moved to the UK where she gained a 1st class Masters in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College. Her outstanding all round performance at Imperial - including helping to raise over £9,000 for the Anthony Nolan Trust - made her a finalist for female undergraduate of the year. During her masters, Anisha landed a very prestigious internship at Rolls Royce in Service Engineering. She’s now a frontend developer within IBM’s Digital Agency iX, with expertise in Blockchain, the futuristic technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.