Rabab Malik | Unite & Uplift
My name is Rabab Malik from Birmingham, and i am a community activist.
I have helped numerous women through my charity and media work. I have been involved in many projects over the last few years which have helped empower women in the UK and Overseas. I always believe that to have self satisfaction you should help others and by doing that you will find peace in your own life. I have done fundraising for many charities via street collection and hosted charity events. I am fortunate that by working on National TV and Radio Channels, my voice has reached out to thousands of women who have looked at me as their rolemodel and pledged to seek employment. I aim to continue this work for a very long time and leave a legacy behind.
Sharon Benning-Prince | Sophia Consulting Limited
I have successfully been working as a general counsel trouble shooter since 2008 which allows me to have flexibility to work on my pro bono projects but to also give key focus to my clients and family.
I have been assisting International Justice Mission as an international advocate on anti slavery matters and awareness campaigns. My roles as a trustee of each of Talitha Arts and the Medaille Trust have provided me with insight and wide reaching knowledge of the front line processes for anti slavery and victim support. I only recently stepped down as a trustee of the Medaille and now am the Greater London/London anti slavery envoy for the Medaille Trust and through this role, have the privilege to disseminate information on modern slavery in the UK to a wider audience. This role as an anti slavery envoy provides me with a platform to expand people’s knowledge on modern slavery and spotting signs and further education on grooming and slavery in school provides the younger generations with greater understanding and insight.
More recently, I am also proud to be one of the founding participants of womenpedia.com through Thankful.org that has the objective to provide a global platform for all women, from all races, religions and industries to tell their stories and empower other women. A different form of Wikipedia for women that celebrates all women – From the farm and factory workers, the caregivers and the well-known successful women that we all admire, womenpedia.com will record stories of these unsung heroes as part of the Thankful4Women initiative. It is a platform that will ensure their legacy and contribution to their families, community and society will be forever documented and recorded as an anthropological record of women’s contribution to the world. Never again will these stories be untold. I am extremely proud to be one of the founding contributors and participants of womenpedia.com and urge all women to share their stories.
Melanie Manning | FREEDOM 2
The founder of FREEDOM 2, Melanie Manning is a qualified primary school teacher with over 10 years’ experience in Education and over 20 years working with children and young people.
After initially working as a class teacher, she then qualified to be a Special Educational Needs Coordinator and has been a trainer on the subject of early trauma and attachment. She has vast experience of supporting and engaging with children and their families, including looked after children and children with special educational needs. Melanie has led interventions and training for parents, carers, special guardians, school staff and professionals and has extensive experience of multi-agency work.
Melanie is currently the Chief Operations Officer for FREEDOM 2. Her works involves working with vulnerable teenage girls in East London, offering services to help girls know their worth and significance, so that they can go on and reach their potential.
Melanie holds a degree in Applied Social and Sciences and an MSc in Anthropology Human Rights and Justice. Through her fieldwork for her Masters, Melanie spent time working closely with the human trafficking department at Essex police, considering the role of training in child protection.
Marjolein Schaap | Cancer Research UK
Marjolein started her career as a scientific associate at Novartis where she studied the pulmonary delivery of a number of drugs.
This sparked her interest in research, which led her to UCL, School of Pharmacy to work as a research biology technician and part-time PhD candidate developing novel methods to screen drug compounds.
After completing her Cancer Research UK (CRUK) funded PhD, Marjolein decided to pursue her career from a funder perspective and joined CRUK as a Research Funding Manager, managing a portfolio of Drug Discovery Awards, acting as key point of contact for the CRUK & EPSRC funded Cancer Imaging Centres and delivering the first few funding rounds of the CRUK Pioneer Award, a funding scheme that supports innovative, high-risk, high-reward cancer research projects.
During her time as Research Funding Manager, Marjolein developed a keen interest in supporting the ongoing development of early career researchers, prompting her to make an internal move to the Research Careers team. In her current role as a Research Programme Manager she supports a portfolio of early to mid-career cancer researchers, including students, postdoctoral and independent researchers. As well as providing funding through, for example, personal fellowships, her team also delivers training and provides networking opportunities to support researchers at every stage of their career.
Marjolein holds a BSc in Nutrition and Health and MSc in Molecular Nutrition from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Adeola Gbakinro | Uplift TNG
Adeola is the founder of the social enterprise, Uplift The Next Generation, that helps young people aged 13-19 from disadvantaged communities connect with professionals in different industries - through annual conferences, mentorship and self-development workshops.
This derived from her own experiences at university and not having a wide range of networking opportunities with employers. As an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society, she has engaged with Commonwealth citizens, including young people from around the Commonwealth, and works to develop solutions to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. She has travelled across continents to further understand the inequalities that exist in various communities and hopes to make a lasting impact in the lives of others.
She is a member of the Victory Youth Group, a UK-wide youth group that offers weekly support to young people aged 14-25 through tailored meetings and outreach programmes.
Monica Stancu | Royal Academy of Engineering
Monica Stancu is the Diversity and Inclusion Manager at the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Previously, she has worked in diversity and inclusion at Sodexo and F. Hoffman La Roche. Monica has also worked in international affairs and human rights at the European Medicines Agency (EU agency) and the United Nations. She holds an MA in Women’s History from Sarah Lawrence College, USA and was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality at Columbia University in the City of New York. Monica has been selected as a Global Champion for Women’s Economic Empowerment by UN Women.
Ivana Skerlikova | Atos
A passionate green advocate who actively promotes new talents and mental wellbeing, and fosters a diverse IT workplace.
Moving from a small town in Slovakia, into a big London world can be scary. But once you get out of your comfort zone, great things may happen. For me, it was to follow my passion to study Psychology. Once entering the workplace, I did not want to only ‘’do a good job’’, I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives and so in my spare time I launched a number of initiatives.
Helping our talents to accelerate their career
Atos X is an annual ‘’TED style’’ speaking competition I started in 2016 where the top 10 UK young talents (graduates/apprentices) will work with mentors from the leadership team to develop their presenting skills and create inspiring talks. Over 10,000 employees watched Atos X talks since 2016 (the most popular non-mandatory learning intervention in the UK). At the same time, our Atos X finalists will have an opportunity to accelerate their professional career, getting new job offers on the back of the competition. This year the competition is expanding to Germany and Netherlands.
Reducing carbon footprint to protect our planet
I recently launched Atos Green Network – a community that aims is to connect like-minded individuals, raise environmental awareness and reduce carbon footprint. We are planting trees for each new member and in 4 weeks we have more than 700 employees (with this speed we will plant thousands of trees later this year!). The plan is to transform our offices, data centres and operations for greener and more sustainable, and assist our clients on the same journey. Also, to educate employees (create a personal footprint calculator) and volunteer in nature reserves and parks to actively protect our environment.
Fostering diversity to create a more inclusive workplace
When Gender Pay Gap was introduced, I felt that the scope was too narrow and we surely need to look at other diversity and inclusion aspects. With a help of volunteers, I started a data analysis initiative to understand our BAME (Black, Asian and Ethnic Minorities) employee data and identify any gaps in talent development, management and recruitment. Thanks to this intervention, various measures were put forward (e.g. BAME mentoring) to ensure we support and grow our diverse community.
Reducing re-offending and fostering mental health
In my spare time I support ANTZ charity by mentoring prison inmates in London and also volunteer as a Mental Health 1st Aider to support fellow colleagues who are going through a difficult time. At work, I recently moved into Health and Life Science department where I focus on projects that can help to transform our hospitals and that support drug research, so we can prevent or better handle situations as the corona outbreak.
Daphne Coates | IBM
I studied Computer Science as a GCSE, IT as an A-level and went on to study Information Systems Management & Innovation as a degree; but being similar subjects wasn’t all they had in common – I was always part of only a handful of females, for 15 years.
Women don’t really belong in tech right? Wrong. I set out to prove this mission after joining IBM in 2018; not only do women belong within the technology sector, but our artificially intelligent systems should not discriminate against them.
Upon joining the Graduate Scheme at IBM, I became an Application Developer, thrown in at the deep end from day 1 with managing two clients simultaneously, whilst figuring out how to code and execute technical delivery. These experiences shaped my managerial and planning approach going forward, as I moved on to lead the largest Public Sector Work Stream for Digital Security, pioneering new ground for an area of business previously untouched. Alongside my 9-5 I also work as an Artificial Intelligence bias SME (Subject Matter Expert) advising bids, projects and IBM research how we can pioneer ethical AI, as well as hosting Byte Size Learning Webinars, Lunch & Learns, Practice Calls and guest lecturing at numerous events such as Europe’s Leading Digital Twin conference in Frankfurt. I aim to pave the way for ethical AI and ensure we do not build systems that replicate our past, but represent our diverse future.
I focus my efforts outside of work on shaping AI regulation and standards (such as IEEE), growing a thriving community of young female professionals interested in AI and crafting academic papers, one of which has been published in IBM Systems Journal.
Katie Shannon | Accenture
Before my time at Accenture, I worked in a retail environment at New Look for 2 years.
Working with customers and training new members of staff. I realised this is not what I wanted to do with my life and so I looked into start my own career.
I have currently been at Accenture for nearly five years, starting my career as an Apprentice in 2015 which was a three year scheme, whilst also getting a degree by the end of it.
Last year, I completed my degree in Digital and technology solutions at the University of Sunderland with my goal of a 2:1, which was achieved! I was incredibly proud of myself having a full time job and doing a degree at the same time. My time here at Accenture has already been great, working on two large government accounts where I’ve developed my technical skills and also my confidence which was very low when I first joined.
My day job consists of being on the onshore support team for Azure Development environments, working with a back office team of 10 people, working with any issues that people face and completing these to a great standard.
Arteesha Bosamia | Dentsu Aegis Network
Arteesha’s journey into technology began at the University of Warwick where she studied both BSc and MSc in Computer Science.
Her first step into the working world was with Experian on the EITS Technology Graduate Programme. The scheme acted as a catalyst, exceling her career, and providing her with exposure to a depth of technologies and skills. She then transitioned into a fulltime role as an IT Governance Specialist working in EITS Risk and Compliance to ensure compliance with internal policies, and external standards and certifications, such as ISO 27001/22301. Arteesha moved to the big city in June 2018 to work at Dentsu Aegis Network as an Information Security Analyst, where she has been a key contributor to many projects, including a successful security awareness campaign, and the ongoing delivery of an ISMS program. She was promoted to Internal Security Assurance Lead in September 2019, now with the responsibility of building an internal assurance function from the ground up. She is well recognised for her outreach work for young people in STEM. Arteesha strives to lead in her profession alongside being a strong advocate for women in technology.