Adele Mitchinson | Venture Stream
Finishing University in 2011 with a 1st Class BA Hons in Advertising and Design I went on to secure several design and marketing roles, working with leading national and global brands.
Since 2014 I have worked with multi award-winning agency, Venture Stream as a Design Consultant. Producing print and digital creative as well as building and strategising marketing campaigns.
In 2016 I helped Found “That’s Champion Pet”, an online marketplace specialising in Northern products with Venture Stream. Aiming to highlight and support local Northern business.
I am also proud to be Creative Director and Ambassador for the Northern Power Women campaign which aims to accelerate gender diversity from the North of England as well as lead the Northern Young Creative Council hub, helping motivate, educate and support anyone wanting to enter the creative industries.
Carol Yung | Deloitte
As a Manager in Deloitte Digital’s Experience Design practice, I help our public sector clients imagine and deliver transformation that impacts the lives of millions of citizens in the UK and beyond.
I’m passionate about growing my teams and the people around me, and helping my clients solve their most challenging problems, by designing and delivering innovative, user-centred solutions that improve policy outcomes, reduce costs, and deliver better experiences for citizens and staff. I specialise in digital strategy, end-to-end service design, digital transformation and applying design processes to support large-scale agile delivery.
Beyond my client delivery, I lead and participate in a range of initiatives to encourage young people, particularly young women, to pursue STEM careers, and help individuals and organisations shape their digital business propositions.
Prior to joining Deloitte Digital in 2016, I was part of Deloitte New Zealand’s Consulting practice, where I held a series of leadership roles, including Chief of Staff for the Public Sector Group. I also have extensive international public sector experience, previously as the Private Secretary to the New Zealand Minister for Building and Construction, during the Canterbury Earthquakes, and representing New Zealand at a range of international engagements, including trade negotiations, and UN and OECD meetings.
Outside of work I regularly participate in a range of sports, paint, and travel extensively. My love of travel has taken me to variety of places recently, including all over Europe, Israel, Canada, the United States and various parts of Asia.
Karolina Szudrzynska | Mastercard
Karolina is a Digital Acceptance Manager at Mastercard, responsible for European coordination on strategy and sales approach for the company’s digital agenda.
Karolina has worked for Mastercard in London, Warsaw and Singapore. In 2015, she was selected as one of 12 employees worldwide to participate in Mastercard’s exchange program, where she managed online merchant programs across the Asia Pacific. While working in Poland, Karolina made a significant impact by broadening payment acceptance and introducing new payment products and solutions to the market. Her varied experience at a broad range of roles has given her valuable skills, knowledge and exposure that she has continued to leverage.
A keen advocate for diversity, Karolina holds a key role in Mastercard’s Women’s Leadership Network, managing external engagements and supporting female talent. She actively engages in charity and mentoring activities, including volunteering with the First Love Foundation to Mastercard’s Digital Girls’ Day School Trust challenge, promoting girls in STEM.
Prior to joining Mastercard, Karolina worked at the BZ WBK bank (Santander Group), managing onboarding programs for bank customers. Outside of the office, Karolina is Vice President of Membership at London’s Toastmasters Club where she develops her public speaking skills and encourages others to overcome their fears of presenting. She also enjoys adventurous traveling, hiking and backpacking around the world.
Liz Marlow | Sodexo
I’ve worked for Sodexo for five years as social media manager. Previous to that I worked at a number of agencies running social media for clients including Coca-cola and Volkswagen. How I got into social media was through blogging and an art project I started in spare time (around 12 years ago now) Before social media was main stream I was obsessed with social communities and how people interact with each other, so I set up a project called Niceties Tokens. Which was a bit like an offline social media platform (sounds a bit weird I know, but this interview I did with the Londonist describes it well)
At Sodexo I use social media to create solutions across all parts of our business. Sodexo has 34,000 employees in the UK and Ireland alone, so using it for internal communication has helped increase engagement of staff. We also use it for communicating with our customers, clients and stakeholders.
One of the projects I'm really proud of is, when I came back from maternity leave I really felt there was a huge information gap for maternity returnees, and I believe that was resulting in women feeling disengaged. So along with a couple of other mums, we set up the Sodexo Working Parents group.
I'm also the communication lead, on the committee for the Sodexo LGBT Pride network, and amongst other things use social media to make Sodexo a more inclusive place.
Bobbie Mansfield | XL Catlin
Having only started her career at the end of 2015, Bobbie has made herself a prominent part of XL Catlin's innovation transformation. After a successful graduate scheme, she secured the role of Digital Change Manager, responsible for communication, education and colleague engagement for XL Catlin's digital transformation. Her remit has seen her lead the partnership of two InsurTech Accelerators, facilitate ideation sessions with key business partners and speak at conferences and exhibitions on our immersive technology capability.
Notably, she is a founding member of the London office's Future Focused Network, leading the launch of London's first innovation demonstration space where colleagues can learn, experiment and engage with XL Catlin's innovation projects. She is currently managing its global expansion to help create a culture where innovation can thrive, while the London committee has expanded from 3 to 10.
Bobbie has a passion for people and community, evident in her capacity as the colleague engagement representative of the UK Charity committee and member of the women's and LGBT+ networks at XL Catlin. She has been the co-chair of the Associate Board of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation since it launched its London division 2 years ago, combining the collective support of the industry to make a positive impact in the community. She promotes diversity and inclusion as key catalysts for innovation, sharing her experiences as a young woman in technology at school outreach events and with anyone who will listen!
Her spare time is spent participating in a variety of networks, supporting charitable activities and salsa dancing.
Stéphanie Donaldson | Thomas Cook Money
I came to the UK in 1998 working as an au pair for 12 months to improve my English before returning to France to complete my English Literature Degree. I never went back.
I felt home in England, having found something that I had not known I was missing and soon discovered that if you are willing to take on any job and learn, it’s easy to get by in Britain.
After a couple of jobs (hotel receptionist, Lab tech for the M.O.D. at Forensic Science), I entered the beginning of my career in Financial Services, working for Travelex doing reconciliation of the French and Belgian corporate accounts.
Since then I’ve generally changed job when I have needed a new challenge, I worked on the French line in the Concierge Service, the Complaints team, the Prepaid Card Project team, and finally the Product team, looking after the Japan and South Korea Prepaid card programs (unfortunately, I never got to go there). MasterCard bought then bought the Prepaid Card Management Services from Travelex and after a few years, I felt it was time for a new adventure. Every successful interview has been due to my ability to learn, my passion for getting things done and getting them right, while being pragmatic.
Thomas cook were looking for a Web Product Manager with Financial Services knowledge. The idea of travelling for a travel company where taking care of the best 2 weeks of someone’s year is the aim, really suited my way of thinking: Customer at the Heart.
Thomas Cook then decided to create a new Company, Thomas Cook Money, to give more focus to Financial Services and rebuild what used to be a core part of the Thomas Cook business. Having acquired knowledge about the existing products as well as their interaction with the world of holidays at Thomas Cook, I was the prime candidate to take on the role of Web Product Manager in Thomas Cook Money and I have not looked back since.
On a personal note, I am married and enjoy traveling, cycling, writing, singing, composing, gardening, cooking and most recently, I’ve taken up greenwood carving, which turns out to be a very therapeutic and relaxing hobby.
Katrina Young | Katrina Young Consulting (KYC) Digital
Katrina’s 18+ years of extensive marketing experience as a Strategist/Consultant include working on behalf of Research Houses as a usability tester, market researcher and focus group facilitator, managing consumer interviews with clients such as Tefal, Experian, Coutts, Moschino, Vodafone, Volkswagen, Kia, Jaguar, BMW, Sony BMW Mini, Department of Health, HSBC, Persil, Muller Light, Mcvities, Disneyland Paris, Candy and Candy, Levis, Diesel, American Tobacco, AOL, EE, T-Mobile, Verizon and Investec as well as more on Research, Marketing, Focus groups and Advertising campaigns.
She holds a Prince 2 Project Management certificate, a Degree in Marketing & Advertising with a certificate in Teaching and Lecturing with the City & Guilds. She is currently studying Robotics and Robotic Process Automation.
Nadia Johnson | Thales UK
I am Nadia Johnson, 21 year old software engineer for Maritime Mission Systems Thales UK, working on SONAR processing. My current position is one of four third year software degree apprentices, where I study my degree part time alongside my job. I work with languages such as Java and C++ and for the first project at Thales, I had to teach myself python. My role doesn’t only revolve around constant programming, but requires a key understanding of the systems you’re working on.
I’ve taken it upon myself to introduce new innovative ideas never considered before in my department which I demonstrated on my first project with Thales. I was given the role of evaluating and establishing a new automated test system based around a technology called Squish. The technology and the culture of such an automated testing system were new to the software team and department I work in.
I have now moved on and working with our biggest SONAR system S2076 updating the software for our Astute Class Submarines. I have taken it upon myself to investigate new technologies that we can use in future developments of the system. I can combine these aspects of my role to my University projects, giving me a complete understanding from both an industrial and academic view of the technical units and technologies.
In addition to my role, I have owned and led the following activities in Thales:
>Snapchat – I have been the Thales UK lead for snapchat usage. I helped create a snapchat channel for the Thales early careers site showing life as an apprentice at Thales for prospective employees.
>UK Apprentice Committee – I am one of six members of the Thales UK apprentice committee, regularly presenting to the UK management board.
>Work based groups- I am currently a champion for both our ‘Your Employee Society’ (International) and ‘Employee Engagement’ teams at the UK and regional level here at Thales.
>I am a mentor for our new intake of apprentices, encouraging them to get involved in the same types of activities I found myself doing throughout my apprenticeship. I am also there to provide support with University also.
Rebecca Fyans | Royal Navy
After travelling across Asia Pacific in 2004 I realised I wanted to do something different so I joined the Royal Navy in 2007 at the age of 27. I have worked in many different places HMS York, Camp Bastion hospital in Afghanistan and HMS Nelson before I found out I was pregnant in 2012. This is when my life changed for the better, forever.
Sebby was born in 2013 with Down Syndrome (DS). The Royal Navy allowed me to take a career break to dedicate my time to ensuring he had the best start in life. During this time I became closely involved with a children’s charity, the Portsmouth Down’s Syndrome Association. In the last few years whilst volunteering as a charity Secretary, Trustee and new parent liaison; I have delivered training to midwives on how to give a positive diagnosis of DS; lectured college students and educational professionals; spoken at charity events and high profile dinners; been filmed for the Channel 5 Great South Run; organised and taken part in multiple fundraising events; and featured in the Navy News on several occasions.
I am extremely passionate about ensuring new parents have a positive start on their family journey and are given the support they need in the early days following a diagnosis. I actively seek out military families with a child with DS and signpost them to groups and military charities that can support them.
I am part of a global initiative to spread positive awareness of DS, networking with local businesses and organisations UK wide. I thrive on both promoting the charity and the work that we do. I feel proud to be a part of a such a wonderful and close community.
After 4½ years I returned to the RN in June 2017 working in Legal Services at Navy Command HQ dealing with Service Complaints and have not looked back. I am proof that you can have a full-time career in the RN, a husband that is also serving in the military, 2 children- one with additional needs and a Trustee who aims to inspire women to stay in the Armed Forces after having children.
Elspeth Hulse | Royal Navy
From the age of 10 I always wanted to be a doctor. After school, I secured a place at Aberdeen medical school and during this time I joined the Royal Navy as a medical cadet. After graduation, I worked as the sole doctor on two Royal Navy Destroyers where our tasking ranged from providing disaster relief after a hurricane in the Caribbean to evacuating civilians from a conflict zone in the Middle East. I have worked as the medic onboard Search and Rescue helicopters and during an operational tour in Basra, Iraq, I led a trauma team providing care to combat casualties in the field hospital.
For the last 7 years I have trained to be an anaesthetist in both Devon and Edinburgh. During this training I developed an interest in toxicology and undertook a diploma at Cardiff University and a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. My research interests include studying the effect of organophosphate poisoning (nerve agents or pesticides) on the lung and immune system and the measuring of blast lung injury in casualties hurt by explosions.
I currently work as an anaesthetist in both the NHS and Royal Navy and live in Edinburgh with my amazing husband and two children. I play violin in my local church and love to paint with acrylics.