MEET THE JUDGES
We our proud to announce the judges for WeAreTheCity’s Top 100 Rising Stars. All of our judges have been carefully selected based on their industry experience and their passion to inspire future role models.
On behalf of WeAreTheCity, our sponsors and nominees we would like to sincerely thank all of our judges for donating their time to judge the 2022 Rising Star Awards.
Anne Golden | General Manager, Pan Pacific London
Previously with Morgans Hotel Group – the boutique lifestyle brand originally created by Ian Schrager – as Regional Vice President for London, Anne oversaw the iconic St Martins Lane, Sanderson and Mondrian at Sea Containers. In 2014, she opened Mondrian (now Sea Containers), the first lifestyle hotel for the South Bank and home to the multi award-winning Dandelyan bar. During her tenure at Mondrian, Anne was heavily involved in corporate social responsibility and local and economic issues, becoming the inaugural Chairman of the South Bank Business Improvement District. She started her career in London with Forte Hotels and held positions in operations, sales and revenue.
Anne is honoured to be spearheading the team who are bringing Singapore to the City as General Manager of Pan Pacific London.
Andrea Thompson | Editor-in-Chief, Marie Claire
Andrea Thompson is Editor in Chief at UK Marie Claire, which has a combined audience of over 7 million women a month across its site and social channels.
She has overseen the brand’s journey from a print magazine to digital-first brand over the past 2 years and regularly speaks at events and chairs panel discussions around topics such as women’s empowerment, The Future of Work and Diversity and Inclusion. Andrea has worked as a journalist for a range of publications over her 20 year career including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Channel 4, Glamour and Grazia.
In her years as an undercover investigative reporter, she exposed everything child labour in India to rogue doctors on London’s Harley Street. She also went undercover to investigate the dubious property dealings of Donald Trump for The Daily Mail, a whole decade before he took up residence at the White House.
At Marie Claire, Andrea is passionate about telling the stories of those often marginalised by the mainstream media and oversaw a feature about rape in the Congo that won the title an Amnesty Media Award. She is passionate about championing sustainability, inclusivity and equality and regularly chairs events around these themes. She has also been instrumental in the Marie Claire Future Shapers awards, now in its 8th year, which recognises those making positive steps to change the future of work for the next generation, and has worked tirelessly during the pandemic to highlight the impact of Covid and months of lockdown on gender equality.
Andrea sits on the committee of the British Society of Magazine Editors as Head of Inlcusion and regularly mentors young women from disadvantaged communities trying to break into the media industry.
Rosie Nixon | Editor-in-Chief, Hello! Magazine
Rosie Nixon lives in Surrey and is Editor-in-Chief of HELLO! magazine, where she has worked for 13 years, she is also an author of four books and mother of two young boys. Rosie has worked in the magazine industry for over 20 years and previously held senior positions at glossy women’s titles including Grazia, Glamour, and Red. Rosie was named Editor of the Year (entertainment and celebrity) by the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2017. Rosie’s debut novel, The Stylist and the sequel, Amber Green takes Manhattan are published around the world. The Stylist is in development for the screen. Rosie’s third novel Just Between Friends was published by HQ Stories, an imprint of Harper Collins in November 2020 and her first non-fiction title, Be Kind, published in November 2021. Rosie is a proud ambassador of the charity SafeHands. When she’s not keeping on top of the latest Royal and showbiz news, Rosie is passionate about issues concerning women and children and their right to equality. She is a passionate believer in the power of kindness and enjoys speaking about this topic.
Julie Baker | Head of Enterprise and Climate Engagement and Partnerships, NatWest
With a 30+ year career in the world of Banking, Julie has held a variety of Leadership Roles across the Commercial Bank, and now as Head of Enterprise and Climate Engagement for NatWest Group, Julie leads on working with external strategic partners from both the Private and Public Sector who are valued supporters of entrepreneurs in the UK. Julie’s primary focus is to help those that have traditionally faced the highest barriers to entry such as females, Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority communities and Social Enterprises.
Julie is an ardent supporter of business expansion, job creation and economic growth and is seen as an external influencer who sits on the board of the EM3 Local Enterprise Partnership, The Investment Committee of Innovate UK , the X-Forces Enterprise advisory board and is Chair of the Access to Finance Group at the APPG for Women in Enterprise. Julie is passionate about supporting the next generation of Entrepreneurs and Future leaders through mentoring opportunities and valuable connections.
Dr Ruth Oshikanlu MBE | Award-Winning Expert Nurse, Midwife Health Visitor & Social Entrepreneur
Ruth Oshikanlu is a multiple award-winning expert nurse, midwife health visitor and social entrepreneur with more than 26 years’ experience in delivering secondary and primary healthcare services in the public, independent and voluntary sectors.
Ruth is a mindset expert, trainer, speaker, mentor and performance coach. She is a Queen’s Nurse, Churchill Fellow, Fellow of the Institute of Health Visiting, Royal College of Nursing, and The Royal Society of Arts and The Royal Society of Public Health. Ruth is the recipient of several national healthcare and business awards. She is a regular columnist and has published several feature articles in numerous national nursing and healthcare journals.
Ruth is passionate about equity and social justice and spent most of her career working with marginalised communities to reduce health inequalities and improve life outcomes. Her Churchill travel scholarship focused on trauma-informed approaches to care. She is a Florence Nightingale Senior Leaders Scholar and is working to reduce the disparity in deaths of Black and Asian women in pregnancy and the perinatal period.
Ruth was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the New Year 2019 Honours List for being an ambassador for the health visiting profession and for services to community nursing, children and families. She also received an Honorary Doctorate degree from The London South Bank University in November 2019.
In 2020/21, to celebrate The Year of The Nurse & Midwife, Ruth created a platform Nurses&Midwives Talk, to showcase the contribution of nurses and midwives and interviewed over 380 nurses and midwives from around the globe.
Her motto is: Leading with Love………
Sue Percy | CEO, Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation
Sue Percy is the Chief Executive Officer of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation. CIHT is a charity, learned society and membership body with 14,000 members, who are mainly engineers and transport planners, operating in the UK and internationally. Sue’s interests include improving the way transport infrastructure – including roads – is planned, funded, designed, built, managed and operated to meet societal needs, environmental imperatives and supporting a strong economy. She has a deep interest in changing the image of the transport infrastructure industry and making it a more diverse and inclusive career for all.
Sue holds several voluntary Trustee and non-executive Director roles and is a member of the roads expert panel of the Office of Rail and Road. She has worked in the built environment sector for over 30 years in allied professions, Higher Education and in local government. Sue was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours in June 2019 for services to transport.
Lieutenant Colonel Sulle D Alhaji | Royal Army Physical Training Corps
Born in Newcastle, Sulle joined the 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment in June 1978 and was posted to Germany, his first active duty was in 1979 in Northern Ireland. In 1982 he took part in the Falklands War where his unit captured Mt Longdon. In 1984 he served 6 months on an operational tour in the jungle of Belize protecting the border.
In 1986 he transferred into the Royal Army Physical Training Corps where he ensured each unit he served with, was physically fit to be deployed worldwide for any operation, this is also where he learnt the skills to be an effective mentor. He attended Farnborough college in the evenings to study Sport Science and sport therapy. He was promoted up through the ranks and commissioned to the rank of Captain in 2000. He completed the Junior Command Staff College course in 2002 at Shrivenham. Gaining much experience (and further promotion) through a variety of jobs he was selected for Lieutenant Colonel and responsible for designing the assurance process for all physical, adventurous and sport development in the Army. In 2017, he took on a new assignment as the director of the Army Youth Outreach Team, responsible for identifying opportunities to engage with diverse youth communities across the country. During this assignment he was awarded a commendation for an act of bravery from the Chief of General Staff.
Lieutenant Colonel Sulle Alhaji has an interesting story of overcoming adversity, social mobility, bullying, dealing with dyslexia and much more. He uses his story to mentor disenfranchised youths, which includes students at pupil referral units and secure homes. His story is changing the way audiences assess their own situation. Consequently, he won the Business in the City 2018 Best Employer for Race Award for the Army, his contribution ensured the Army won the European Diversity Team of the Year 2018 and is currently nominated for 2020 Soldiering on Awards.
Rav Bumbra | Founder, Structur3dpeople & Cajigo
Rav Bumbra is a diversity consultant, advisor to organisations, speaker and award-winning diversity champion. She has been showcased as one of the Most Influential Women in UK Tech since 2017.
She is Founder of Structur3dpeople, a diversity consultancy that helps organisations attract, develop and retain talent. She is also Founder of Cajigo, driving a social mission to engage 20,000 girls into technology and empower women of all ages into a variety of careers, across industries. Cajigo was shortlisted as the DEI Initiative of the Year by Women in IT Awards in 2021.
With a 20-year consulting background, Rav also sits on the Women in Business Board in Bristol, to support the progression of women in the Southwest, and on the Advisory Board for Learning People, to help young people find their route into technology.
Rav is also host of “Women Talk Tech” a weekly Instagram Live chat show, where she interviews women leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs and everyday role models to share their tech journeys and strategies for a successful career, with the aim to inspire more girls and women to see their limitless possibilities from a career in technology. The show was born during the pandemic and all episodes are available for playback on the Cajigoapp Instagram page.
Paul Sesay | CEO & Founder, The Inclusive Companies and The National Diversity Awards
Paul Sesay is the Founder and CEO of Inclusive Companies Limited, the National Diversity Awards and the Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers List. Paul’s business acumen has mainly been with a social focus.
With over seventeen years’ worth of experience within the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion sector, Paul has worked with some of the largest organisations in the world on their diversity and inclusion profiles. He has also worked holistically with communities to help individuals and groups from various backgrounds to achieve and empower disadvantaged groups across the UK.
Charly Young | CEO & Co-Founder, The Girls’ Network
Charly Young is CEO and Co-founder of The Girls’ Network – a charity that provides 14-19 year old girls from the least-advantaged communities across England with a female mentor and a network of professional female role models. As a secondary school teacher, she saw first-hand how girls and young women were limited by their gender and background, and knew she had to do something! She left teaching, and has since grown the charity from supporting just 30 girls in 2013, to over 1,200 in 2020.
Charly has experience in scaling organisations from idea to reality, and has supported social entrepreneurs working in the education and social justice space through Teach First, the Fair Education Alliance and Expert Impact.
She previously worked at the Royal Society of Arts as a researcher, was a primary school governor, and sits on the Expert Impact Alumni Board.
Dr Diahanne Rhiney | Founder The Baton Awards and Be & Beyond, a female intersectional safe space
Dr Diahanne Rhiney BCAe is a renowned Champion for female entrepreneurs, an Ambassador for WorldVision Campaign, Strong Women, Strong World – leaders in gender equality, and a Social Change Advocate at the forefront of high-profile campaigns to support and influence the thinking, policy and practice in Government, Local Authorities, Commercial and Social Enterprises through building their capacity to support women and girls worldwide to achieve positive change that benefits society, a cause for which she has been voted one of the top 50 Best Advisors Award by community business advisors Enterprise Nation.
30 years ago, she set up the first social change agency, Naked Truth, specialising in diversity marketing and race relations. Today her thought-leadership skills as an authority in social change for personal and business success is sought after and has been rewarded with big business contracts worth £3.2b. Her agency supports entrepreneurs, and professionals from the world of sports, fashion, education, politics, music, and journalism through her mentor and thought-leadership programmes and professional coaching. She believes that to develop and empower oneself is the best armament one can have.
A pro-active Women’s Rights Campaigner, Diahanne is also renowned internationally for her integrity and profound passion to raise awareness of specific threats that particularly challenge women’s culture, race, gender, class, competence, and ethnicity, inspiring her to establish the ‘Baton Awards’ – celebrating the achievements of women pioneers and trailblazers from diverse racial groups; and ‘Strength With in Me’ Foundation – promoting healthy relationships through preventative measures. One of her proudest moments was when she masterminded and led the development and implementation of an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), lobbying continuously for healthy relationships to form part of the compulsory teaching in UK schools. In September 2020, this ground-breaking change was passed and announced by legislature to the Children and Social Work Bill.
Working closely with many multinational businesses, SMEs, Government, teachers, and leaders in the community with the vision of ensuring social justice for all, Diahanne endorses her life-long pledge to give, support, and equip everyone with an opportunity to succeed in life and at work and ardently shares her lived experience through interviewing or contributing to debates, chat-shows, and social media platforms to bring attention to those discriminating issues women continue to face today and ensure that everyone’s views count.
Diahanne’s professional stamina has merited her and her Agency many awards including British Citizen Award (Education) for her positive contribution to Britain; NatWest Everywoman Athena Award (Most Inspirational Woman Running a Business); Violent Crime Prevention Board (Championing Social Wellbeing Award).
Dr Funke Abimbola MBE | Chief Executive Officer, The Austen Bronte Consultancy
Dr. Funke Abimbola is a performance driven, C-suite leader, corporate lawyer, and pharmaceutical healthcare executive with over twenty years’ UK and global professional experience. She is a recognised diversity, equity, and inclusion leader with a strong record of over a decade of impact within the field.
After a stellar 20-year corporate law career culminating in her twice serving as General Counsel (including for Roche, the world’s largest biotech), Funke founded the Austen Bronte Consultancy in September 2020. The consultancy’s main goal is to empower corporates and firms to improve leadership by leveraging the impact of diversity, inclusion, belonging and equity. Clients include Levi Strauss & Co, Macquarie Group, Hiscox, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Covington & Burling amongst others.
Funke is a Business Committee member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Governance and Inclusive Leadership, tasked with raising the issue of inclusive leadership and governance in all areas of society. The APPG’s aim is to tackle the barriers prohibiting people from visible minorities from achieving positions of power and influence throughout the UK.
A regular BBC media contributor, Dr. Abimbola has experience of commentating on a broad range of topics including leadership, pharmaceuticals, diversity, inclusion, and women on boards. She is also a seasoned non-executive director, currently serving on the board of a fully listed company within the beverages sector.
Dr. Abimbola is a notable alumna of her alma mater, Newcastle University. Her leadership and influence have been recognised by the Financial Times who listed her as being one of the top 15 ethnic minority leaders globally. The Prime Minister awarded her ‘Point of Light’ status in 2016 due to the positive impact of her equality, diversity, and inclusion work.
In 2017, she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for services to diversity and young people, recognising her contributions in leading on the diversity and inclusion for over a decade.
She was subsequently awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Hertfordshire in 2019 for contributions to social and corporate diversity.
She is the proud mother of a 19-year-old son who is a future software engineer studying Computer Science at university. Together, they host a podcast series called The Power of Privilege and Allyship podcast, showcasing exceptional role models who have used their privilege to maximise the impact of their allyship to transform lives. Now in its fourth season, the podcast has amassed a global following across 745 cities, all 7 continents and almost 60 countries, interviewing over 60 inspiring leaders. Ranked and listed on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Spotify and Google, the podcast now also has over 4,300 downloads.
Penny Triantafillou | Business Development Manager, Warwick Business School
Penny has been working in diverse industries and several countries for over 30 years. She began in the finance industry in Toronto and Vancouver, then moved to Greece where she ran her own business in the Education Sector before settling here in the UK and pursuing a career in Higher Education in 2015.
Her current role is Business Development Manager at Warwick Business School (WBS), focusing on the Executive Diploma suite of programmes. She also co-leads the “Succeeding through Change: Reflect. Reimagine. Reset” campaign, offering a wide variety of free resources and events to help push through the global pandemic crisis. She is a passionate champion of the gender agenda and “WBS Inspiring Women.” This is a platform for students and academics to showcase their amazing achievements and research which is critical to further amplify the female voice.
Penny is a super-proud mum to two high-achieving daughters. One is completing a PhD in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) at the University of Toronto this year, the second finishing a Master’s degree in Marketing and Strategy here at WBS.
Adam Green | CEO, FM Conway
Adam Green is CEO of FM Conway.
Adam joined FM Conway in September 2019 as Managing Director and moved to the role of CEO in the summer of 2020.
He joined FM Conway after working closely with Michael Conway for many years and was drawn to the family ethos of FM Conway and the value it places on its people, as well as its unique self-delivery capability.
Adam is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers with over 30 years’ experience working within the construction industry, previously leading multi-billion infrastructure and construction businesses in the UK and Middle East.
As part of the Infrastructure Client Group Adam supported such initiatives as Project 13 and more recently played a key role in establishing the new Highways Sector Council who have been developing a new sector deal for highways and advising the Department for Transport on COVID-19 related issues.
Adam is also recently retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Staff Corps and a keen cyclist.
Lucy Chamberlain | Founder, C&C Search
With a 20 year career tracking the industry’s leading recruitment companies, Lucy founded C&C search to redefine and elevate client and candidates’ recruitment experience.
Coming through a challenging personal time – three years as a single mum, single-handedly responsible for her daughter – Lucy found her career was out of sync. In C&C, she’s built a successful business aligned with her high standards, ethics and goals, and created an inspiring workplace for her team to fulfil their own career goals.
Lucy believes encouraging teams holistically, and nurturing happy, engaged, market-leading talent has the most impact on a company’s success. It’s this foundation that serves to empower, captivate and delight C&C’s clients as they build their own teams, and has been at the heart of our story.
With her team, Lucy actively collaborates with and supports as many other female business leaders as possible; social consciousness and legacy is at the business’ core.
Amanda Brock | CEO, OpenUK
Amanda is CEO of the UK body for “open”, OpenUK, the Chair of the Open Source and Intellectual Property (IP) Advisory Group of the United Nations Technology Innovation Labs, the European Representative of the world’s biggest defensive patent pool, the Open Invention Network and a member of the OASIS Open Projects’ Advisory Council (open source and open standards) and the KDE Advisory Board.
Amanda was a joint-organiser of the UK Open Source Awards in 2019, having been a judge of the awards in 2014 and 2015; CEO of the Trustable Software Engineering Project, a project focused on solutions to risk in Open Source Software during 2019 and continues as a Director of this organisation; General Counsel of Canonical, one of the world’s biggest open source companies and the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, setting up the global legal team and running this for 5 years having worked as a lead lawyer in a variety of sectors, ranging from .com to a data centre and Fintech on the mobile, across EMEA, US, AsiaPac and Emerging Markets, based out of both the UK and Amsterdam.
As well as many years of structuring and negotiating a multitude of deals, Amanda’s roles have included contribution to, and leadership of, a number of multi-organisational collaborative projects and open source initiatives. She has expertise in open source software, strategy, governance, IP, compliance audits, policies and processes as well as commercialisation and contracting around open source and provides consultancy and advisory services around these.
Amanda was a member of the Open Stack Drafting Committee during its set up in 2012. She is a regular international keynote speaker and panel member and an author covering open source, collaboration and legal issues, in particular open for good and commercial models of open source. She is an Executive Editor and co-Founder of the Journal of Open Law Technology and Society (formerly IFOSSLR), a Fellow of the Open Forum Academy.
Amanda is the Editor of the book, Free and Open Source Software: Law, Policy and Practice”, 2nd Edition, to be published by Oxford University Press in August 2021 with open access sponsored by the Vietsch Foundation and contributed to by 20 leading figures in open source.
Commander Sam Kinsey-Briggs MBE MA | Chief of Staff to Assistant Chief of Naval Staff, Royal Navy
Sam went to school in Stellenbosch, South Africa and Coronado, CA, USA. She worked as a scuba instructor in Egypt for 4 years before joining the Army Air Corps in 1998. After a short period as an Air Trooper she commissioned into the Royal Logistics Corps from Sandhurst in April 2000. During her time with 17 Port and Maritime Regiment, Marchwood she deployed on Operation AGRICOLA (Kosovo) and took part in Exercise Saif Sareea II in Oman (RFA Sir Galahad).
On transferring to the Royal Navy she spent some time in HMS ARK ROYAL, 820 Naval Air Squadron, HMS SOUTHAMPTON – seeing deployments to Iraq, Caribbean and Falkland Islands.
In early 2009 she deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan in support of Operation HERRICK (HQ ISAF Media Officer). She joined HMS EDINBURGH as the Logistics Officer in May 2010, bringing the ship out of refit and taking her through Basic Operational Sea Training and an APT(S) deployment back to the South Atlantic via Africa. She joined Commander United Kingdom Amphibious Forces in September 2011 as the Military Assistant to the Commandant General Royal Marines and deployed on Ex Cold Response in Norway and Ex Eager Lion in Jordan. She joined the Naval Staff in August 2013 as an International Defence Engagement Officer. She was awarded an MBE for her contribution to Diversity and Inclusion and Women’s Sport in the 2016 New Year’s Honours List. On completion of Advanced Command and Staff Course 20 in July 2017 she joined the Standing Joint Force Logistics Component as Staff Officer Operations Support in August 2017; and deployed on Ex Saif Sareea 2 (Oman) and also to Germany. Since Sep 19, she has been the Executive Assistant and now Chief of Staff to the Assistant Chief of Naval Staff in the Ministry Defence.
Sam is a Royal Navy Triathlon Association coach, a member of the Naval Service Women’s Network and the Navy Compass Network (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Network). She enjoys many sports, a good book, a mean game of chess and a glass of red wine if it is raining. As an Ambassador for the Inspiring the Future Campaign, she regularly speaks at local schools and supports local charity events in various guises.
Joe Incutti | Group Managing Director, Kier Highways
Kier is a market leading infrastructure, buildings, development and housing Group with annual revenues in excess of £4 billion employing some 16,000 people in the UK and Middle East.
Joe is the Group Managing Director for Kier’s market leading Highways business which employs 3,000 people operating from over 70 sites across the country and with responsibility for some 30,000 km of England’s strategic and local road networks, enabling some 300 billion vehicle miles to be travelled each year. Kier Highways also undertakes major road building, improvement and renewal projects across the country. With over 12 years experience in the business, Joe has overseen Kier Highways growth from an annual turnover of £70m to over £900m.
Joe is focused on building long-term collaborative business relationships, including with clients and the supply chain, and is actively engaged across the highways sector with peers, clients, DfT and industry bodies.
Joe is a Chartered Management Accountant with extensive post qualification experience in roles that have spanned operational and corporate finance, change management, process re-engineering and business improvement. This experience has been gained in several sectors including the NHS, automotive, rail, defence, banking, construction and infrastructure services, primarily in blue chip organisations but with SME experience also.
Jessica Taplin | Chief Executive Officer, The British Gas Energy Trust
Jessica began her career at News International and IPC Media where she established a reputation for innovative multi-platform UK wide campaigns and new business devleopment. Over a decade ago she had her epiphany moment and moved into the Third sector; initially supporting the Big Lottery Fund with their UK wide public consultation before working closely with the UK funding committee to re-invigorate their multi-million pound public engagement grant portfolio.
Jessica is a member of the Strategic Advisory panel for the Patchwork Foundation and a Trustee of the CareTech Foundation, she is also a mentor for final year students at Leeds University, who are the first generation in their family to attend university, as she was herself. She’s passionate about supporting and encouraging new female leaders, and ensuring that society is reflected around the Board room table.
Previously she has held roles as Chief Executive Designate of Treloar Trust, the UK’s leading centre for physically disabled young people; Chief Executive of vInspired, the UK wide legacy youth volunteering charity & Regional Delivery partner (RDP) for National Citizens Service for North East; Chief Executive of Get Connected, where she led the organisation into a successful merger to create The Mix, one of the UK’s leading digital support and helpline services for young people. Keeper of Bees and mum of three, she loves developing organisations, re-structuring, strategic innovation, campaigns and problem solving – to help bring about effective social good, efficiently. Helping making lives better through enabling enhanced services, that are there to help support people when and where they need it most.
Khayala Eylazova | EMEA Value Creation in Deals, PwC UK
With over 16 years of experience in Technology and Financial services, Khayala enjoyed a variety of experiences and leadership roles. Prior to joining the PwC Insurance practice in 2017 Khayala worked at Microsoft Global HQs for nearly 10 years holding various senior roles in Technology. Currently she is a Commercial Director in EMEA Value Creation in Deals for Financial Services, Energy & Utilities.
In 2021 Khayala was selected as one of the Top 50 Trailblazers WeAreTheCity for her contribution for Gender Equality and she is the Winner of Women in Finance Awards 2020 under ” Advocate of the Year” category, also served as a Judge for Women in Finance Awards and was the finalist for Women in Insurance Awards 2020, 2019 under the category “Insurance Women of the Year”. Khayala also won the PwC Empowerment award in 2019 and made the Chairman’s empowerment list in the same year for her leading role in driving Diversity and Inclusion in the industry. She is an active supporter, ambassador and speaker on D&I, Insurance Technology, Leadership and Equality topics.
Khayala holds an Executive MBA degree from Cambridge Judge Business School and MSc degree from BI Norwegian Business School. In 2016, Khayala was awarded ”Best Start-Up” at Cambridge Judge Business School for proposing wearable technology for children with epilepsy.
Khayala was born and raised in Baku, Azerbaijan lived & worked in Norway, China, Russia, Ireland, now residing in London, UK. Her biggest pleasure is watching her nieces grow and learn to have a voice. She enjoys philosophy, learning different languages/cultures, discovering new thoughts and meeting new people. Being a Female Drummer is her new passion and hobby.
Richard Pickard | Chief Executive Officer, Inclusive Search
I am CEO of recruitment firm, Inclusive Search. My background is in personally delivering exceptional recruitment solutions, both on a contingent and retained search basis; whilst also managing and developing high performing teams delivering to a wide range of clients – from start-up/scale-up tech firms to FTSE100 global brands. As part of the leadership team of several large international recruitment organisations, I have grown and launched dozens of specialist business units.
Equality, purpose and mission are important to me, and having served as a Board Director for 10+ years I wanted to create a business that had a clear purpose and mission to represent a more diverse pool of candidates. Inclusive Search only works with clients who value, reward, respect and celebrate everyone’s diversity – and who wish to be proactive in recruiting, retaining and developing high-performing diverse talent. There is growing awareness that diverse companies achieve better results, with most successful companies now viewing Diversity, Equality & Inclusion as essential to their business performance and growth.
Ania Rontaler | Partner, Simmons & Simmons
Ania is a partner in the Corporate group in London and heads up the Private Markets group.
She advises on a variety of corporate matters, including M&A, restructurings and general corporate matters particularly in relation to partnership arrangements.
Ania has a particular focus on the asset management sector, advising alternative investment managers on all aspects of their business, including the implementation and structuring of “start-ups”, general operational day-to-day matters and ever-increasing M&A in the sector.
Ania is co-chair of the Simmons & Simmons women’s network, TNOC. She is also on the firm’s ESG steering group.
Victoria Wratten | Founder, Executive & Personal Assistants Association (EPAA)
Victoria is a former Multi Award Winning Executive Assistant from the United Kingdom.
She is extremely passionate about the role of the Assistant and actively encourages it as a truly fantastic career choice, after experiencing an extraordinary career journey herself.
Victoria spent the first five years of her career, from the age of sixteen, working her way up the secretarial career ladder. She commenced her work as an Office Junior for a car leasing firm, before moving to a Junior Personal Assistant role at her next company. She then became a Secretary, until receiving her first Executive Assistant position at the age of 21, this was for Susan Scott-Parker OBE, CEO of the Business Disability Forum.
Victoria then went onto to join one of the world’s leading specialist recruitment firms as an Executive Assistant and shortly after joining, went on to set up an award winning Internal PA Network in November 2009.
In 2008 Victoria was a Finalist in the Hays/Times PA of the Year and in October 2011 Victoria received ‘Outstanding Contribution to the PA Profession’ at the Mayfair PA Magazine awards.
Victoria has appeared as a judge on many prestigious awards for Assistants, most recently Wearethecity.com ‘Rising Star Awards’.
Victoria contributes to industry press on a regular basis and has appeared on the BBC Breakfast Show, BBC Radio 5 and in newspapers/magazines such as The Times, The Daily Mail, London Business Matters, People Management Magazine (CIPD), Executive Secretary Magazine, former Office Secretary Magazine and Management Magazine to name but just a few.
In 2015 Victoria was placed into the City AM Newspapers ‘Women in the City Power List’ and is currently in the Top 30. She was the first Executive Assistant to be recognised in a list such as this!
Victoria regularly presents and trains Assistants at events and conferences across the UK and also internationally including; Belgium, Dubai, Ireland, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, South Africa and the USA.
Katie McEwan | Business Affairs and Communications Manager, Ann Summers
Katie McEwan is Business Affairs and Communications Manager for Ann Summers.
Having previously worked as Executive Support Manager to Jacqueline Gold CBE, CEO Ann Summers for 11 years, Katie was promoted to the role of Business Affairs and Communications manager, as a result of winning the WeAreTheCity Rising Stars award in the EA/PA Category in 2017.
Katie now leads the delivery of Ann Summers’ core business strategy, manages the delivery of key business-critical projects, as well as owning corporate reporting, communications and reputation for the organisation.
Despite moving away from the EA role, Katie still has a real passion for brilliant executive level support and continues to play a key role in driving the EA/PA profession forward, as Chair of the General Advisory Board for EPAA, the Executive and Personal Assistants Association. In addition, Katie has been incredibly fortunate to present at a number of conferences including; the Hays PA Network, the PA Hub, Manchester PA Network, ACE’s Scotland, the Office Management and PA Conference & OFFICE, as well as proudly judging the Executive PA Magazine awards and the Hays High Achieving PA of the Year award. In 2014 Katie was awarded the SecsintheCity award for Social Networking PA of the Year a
Finally, outside of work Katie is Musical Director of a brilliant community choir, Southend Vox, based near her home town of Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, which allows Katie to bring her love of music and singing to a varied and dynamic group of people.
Helen Pankhurst CBE | Writer, Women’s Rights Activist & International Development Advisor for CARE International
Helen Pankhurst CBE is an author and a women’s rights activist and international development practitioner.
Helen studied at Sussex University, Vassar College, New York, and Edinburgh University and has an honorary degree from Edge Hill University. She is a Professor at MMU and the First Chancellor of the University of Suffolk.
Helen is a Senior Advisor for CARE International. She previously worked for other international development charities including WaterAid, Womankind Worldwide and ACORD. She is currently a Trustee of ActionAid.
The great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, leaders of the British suffragette movement, Helen carries on the legacy. This includes undertaking re-enactment work for current-day awareness-raising including at the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, the 2015 film Suffragette, leading CARE International’s annual #March4Women event ahead of or on International Women’s Day in London and convening the Centenary Action Group and convenes the Greater Manchester focused GM4Women 2028. She has worked with the composer Lucy Pankhurst, on the lyrics of the Emmeline Anthem commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and in 2018 published the book: Deeds Not Words, the Story of Women’s Rights, Then and Now.
Elliot Shaw | Executive Director of Strategy and Planning, Highways England
Elliot Shaw is the Executive Director of Strategy and Planning at Highways England. Within Highways England, he has responsibility for the development of the strategy for the Strategic Road Network, the company’s organisational transformation agenda, it’s analytical and economist functions and the relationships with key statutory and regulatory bodies, including the Office for Rail and Road and Transport Focus.
Before joining Highways England, Elliot was a civil servant at the Ministry of Justice and Department for Transport. Prior to this, Elliot was a management consultant, working in Accenture’s UK and US strategy practices. He holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, has been a Public Policy Fellow at Cambridge University and completed the Major Projects Leadership Academy at Oxford Said Business School.
Sally Penni MBE | Award-Winning Barrister
Sally Penni MBE is a high-profile award-winning barrister with 20+ years experience in practice.
Sally specialises in criminal law, regulatory and employment law. Sally has a particular specialism in the handling of vulnerable witnesses. Sally is a Master of the Bench at the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn.
In 2021, Sally was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for her services to diversity in the workplace, social mobility and law. Outside of practice, Sally lectures extensively and is the host and producer of the popular Talking Law podcast with over 72,000 listeners.
Jenny Blackford | Head of Project Finance, EMEA, Energy Sector, Siemens Financial Services
Jenny is the Head of Project Finance, Energy Sector in Siemens Financial Services’ Project & Structured Finance Debt Business Unit for EMEA. In this role, she leads an experienced cross-border team focussed on the identification, origination and structuring of transactions in the energy sector, taking a leading role in lending mandates. With nearly twenty years of energy experience, Jenny is passionate about supporting Siemens Financial Services in its endeavours to promote the energy transition.
Prior to joining Siemens Financial Services, Jenny spent more than thirteen years in various project finance roles at BNP Paribas and Fortis Bank, focussing on lending and debt advisory mandates in the power and renewable energy sectors in the EMEA region.
Paul Sainthouse FCILT | Managing Director, Dawsongroup Bus and Coach, International President Elect of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and a Vice President of CILT (UK)
Paul is Global President of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport International and also immediate past-President and a Vice-President of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK). He is a Board member of the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), Chair of their Suppliers Committee, and member of their Governance Committee. He is both Secretary and Advisory Board member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Road Passenger Transport Industry.
In his day job Paul is Managing Director of Dawsongroup bus and coach limited, a position that he has held since 2002, and is a member of the Dawsongroup plc Advisory Board. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and a member of the Institute of Directors.
He is also a Patron of the London Transport Museum, a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Carmen, where he sits on their Educational and awards Panels, as well as being the proud owner of 2 restored London Transport Routemaster buses.
Paul lives in Bedfordshire with wife Jane and has 4 children.
Nabeela Butt | Medical Standards Director, GSK
Nabeela was born in Kenya and came to live in London when she was 6months old. She currently lives in the suburbs outside of West London and keenly enjoys any sport but mostly playing football, going road or mountain biking and running. Nabeela is a Programme Director of Process Simplification for Written Standards and Compliance Learning at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). She has been in the wider pharmaceutical industry for just over 20years holding a variety of roles including within the Packaging Technology and Regulatory functions. These roles and opportunities have provided a great breadth of understanding of how the industry operates both internally and externally and what it takes to be at the beating heart of serving consumers and patients with the highest level of service and integrity.
Nabeela is committed to influence a positive change to organisational attitudes towards equity whether that be in race, gender sexuality etc. She works to ensure our generation, and those following us, have fair and equitable opportunities. She is the co-lead for the race and ethnicity Employee Resource Group(ERG) at GSK – EMBRACE which this year led and delivered its first ever EMBRACE ERG awards to recognise individuals and teams who are working to bring about change. The intersectional experiences Nabeela has felt provide her with personal insight to the challenges under-represented groups face and by leveraging this ERG co- lead role Nabeela intends to bring about a lasting and systemic change within her organisation transforming its cultural environment to bring about workplace racial equity.
I am delighted to support and highlight the fantastic work being progressed by the dedicated individuals and organisations in the diversity agenda and am looking forward to being a judge again this year for We are the City!
Adam Fidler | Principal and Founder, Adam Fidler Academy
Adam Fidler is the Principal and Founder of Adam Fidler Academy, which offers inspirational teaching and learning for PAs, EAs and business support professionals. His most popular courses ‘Get Ahead as an Executive PA’ and ‘The Strategic Executive Assistant’ run regularly in Manchester, London – and abroad.
After graduating with a first degree in business and economics in 1999, Adam worked as a corporate Board-level Assistant in a variety of organisations, including The Boots Company PLC, Bank of America and Salford City College. He qualified as a teacher in 2008 and has, since then, educated hundreds of Assistants all over the world.
In 2017, Adam Fidler Academy was appointed preferred training provider to the Executive & Personal Assistants Association (EPAA), the UK’s leading professional body for EAs and PAs.
Adam is also the author of the ‘EA Manifesto: What I Am’ which elevates and articulates the true role of the Executive Assistant, a definition which has gone viral on social media with some 1 million views on social media alone.
Adam’s cutting edge perspectives on the true role of the Executive Assistant make him a leading authority and thought-leader in the industry, where his work has received worldwide acclaim.
India Gary Martin | Entrepreneur, Speaker, Coach & Advisor, Leadership For Execs
India Martin is a 25 year veteran of financial services and a member of the Forbes Coaches Council. She has held a number of global C-Suite roles including expatriate assignments in London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Hong Kong. In her final role at JPMorgan, India was Managing Director & Global Chief Operating Officer for Investment Banking Technology and Operations where she had multi-billion dollar budgetary management responsibility for 15,000 staff in more than 40 global locations.
India is a globally recognized leadership expert and coach with a clientele of Fortune 500 and C-Suite executives from around the world. Formerly an adjunct professor of Corporate Education at Temple University in Japan, she is a well known keynote and panel speaker. India is on the coaching faculty at Georgetown University for the Executive Master’s in Leadership and is also on the coaching faculty of the New York City Bar Association’s Associate Leadership Institute.
Jenny Garrett OBE | Award-Winning Career Coach & Leadership Trainer
Jenny Garrett OBE is an Award Winning Career Coach and Leadership Trainer, with over 15 years experience of running a Global Business.
Jenny empowers people to make the transformation that they are seeking actually happen, that could be: navigating their career successfully finding work that is more on purpose for them or getting the best from their team.
Everything she does is aimed at either advancing gender balance, creating inclusive workplaces or equipping young people with the skills that leaders of the future need.
What she is best known for is her book Rocking You Role which is a guide to success for female breadwinners, delivering inspiring talks, career coaching, delivering leadership training, speaking in media, facilitating retreats and running teen conferences.
Charlotte Sweeney OBE | Founder & CEO, Charlotte Sweeney Associates (CSA)
Charlotte Sweeney OBE has specialised in Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) for over 20 years. Her clients include many FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies and gained much of her global experience leading D&I in both Retail and Investment Banking. She’s conducted independent reviews for the UK Government, has worked with the UN, co-created and launched the City of London ‘Power of Diversity’ programme with the then Lord Mayor of London Dame Fiona Woolf and the European Parliament and was Vice-Chair of an Acute Hospital with responsibility of a £500m annual budget. She is the co-author of the Financial Times published book ‘Inclusive Leadership – the definitive guide to developing and executing an impactful Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, locally and globally’, which was shortlisted for Management Book of the Year by The Chartered Management Institute (CMI). She holds Fellow status with Windsor Castle Society of Leadership Fellows, Chartered Institute or Personnel and Development and the Chartered Management Institute. She has also been awarded Chartered Management Consultant (MCMI ChMC) by the Chartered Management Institute. She was recognised in the New Year Honours 2017 list with Officers of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to Women and Equalities.
Joy Burnford | Founder & Director, My Confidence Matters
Joy Burnford is the Founder and Director of My Confidence Matters, an experienced business leader, entrepreneur and a recognised trailblazer in gender equality. She is the host of ‘The Confidence Conversation’ podcast, a regular speaker, author of a book called ‘Don’t Fix Women: The practical path to gender equality at work’ (being published in November 2022) and has written over 70 articles on Forbes.com.
Joy works with organisations to progress gender equality by building confidence and capability. Through her extensive research, she helps build awareness and understanding of the barriers and obstacles that women face at work and provides bespoke practical tools and frameworks to make big change happen. She does this by delivering talks, workshops, coaching and leadership programmes for both men and women across her client organisations.
She is a supporter of the Unleashed Women campaign led by the Hunger Project UK charity, and also sits on the Board of Directors of the East of England Co-op, playing a key role in ensuring the long-term success of the business, shaping future direction and overseeing governance, policy and strategy decisions.
She is a busy mum to two wonderfully different young children and a puppy called Ziggy, and so understands the challenges that many of us face on a daily basis!
Daniele Fiandaca | Co-Founder, Utopia
Daniele is co-founder of Utopia, an award winning culture change business that creates more inclusive, more entrepreneurial and healthier cultures for clients. Utopia’s top-to-bottom, boardroom to factory floor approach has clinched household names including Alexander McQueen, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Google, KP Snacks, Levi’s, Nestlé, Nomura, Spotify, TikTok and Universal Music.
He also co-founded Token Man in 2014, an initiative that gives men a better understanding of gender inequality in the workplace and inspires them to accelerate inclusion in the workplace. He was named one of Management Today’s Top 30 Male Agents of Change and has also co-authored a number of books including Creative Superpowers: Equip Yourself for the Age of Creativity.
Melanie Seymour | Managing Director, Head of BlackRock Budapest
She is responsible for Global Implementation, Contracting, AML/KYC, Client Order Management (COM), Reporting, and Invoicing as well as the Service delivery for Strategic clients including Outsourced CIO (OCIO ) and Separate Managed Accounts (SMA). She is a key partner for the global client businesses, helping to define and implement improvements to the digital Client Experience.
Prior to this Melanie was Head of BlackRock Budapest, responsible for establishing a presence and building out the footprint in Hungary.
She joined BlackRock in 2011 to review the strategic direction of DC and took over the Operations in May 2013. Most recently she transformed our UK DC Administration business and led its sale and transition to Aegon.
Prior to joining BlackRock, Melanie worked for Hewitt as the operational lead for their European benefits business where she was responsible for setting up a near shore location in Eastern Europe and developing a TOM to incorporate this.
Melanie is part of the Technology and Operations Leadership team, the EMEA Executive Client Committee and a Human Capital Committee Alumnae..
Melanie is passionate about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She is on the Advisory board of Women in Banking and Finance where she actively supports all levels of women in the industry. She coaches and mentors both internally and externally.
Vanessa Sanyauke | Founder & CEO, Girls Talk London
Vanessa is the Founder & CEO of award-winning global agency, Girls Talk London, connecting women with businesses to empower them to develop the skills and confidence to succeed in work and life. Through this agency, Vanessa works with companies such as Facebook, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Snap Inc, Virgin Media O2, BT and Vodafone to connect them with diverse talent across all levels within their businesses.
Vanessa is also a Business Podcaster with her podcast, The After Work Drinks Club debuting at Number 4 on the Apple Business Charts.
Vanessa has 14 years of experience in diversity, inclusion, responsible business and sustainability working in the financial services, technology and government and has been recognised as a leader in her field listed as #15 in the Financial Times, Yahoo Finance and EMpower top ethnic minority future leaders in Europe, U.S and Canada.
Her expertise sits in creating and executing global diversity, inclusion and sustainability strategies and programmes, building capability & influence in organisations and partnering with & advising C-suite executives, senior leadership and HR colleagues
Vanessa has also been recognised as one of 30 people changing the world by the London Business School, one of London’s most influential people by the Evening Standard Newspaper and has featured in The Guardian, Cosmopolitan magazine, Sunday Times Style magazine, Stylist magazine, The Evening Standard newspaper and the Financial Times.
Vanessa has worked with over 50 businesses that include The Bank of England, UK Parliament, Facebook, Snap Inc, LinkedIn, PwC, O2 Virgin Media, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Barclays, State Street, Salesforce, Vodafone, BT, Ericsson, Allen and Overy, UBS, RBS Legal, Rabobank and Reed Smith. Vanessa has also been an adviser on Youth Policy to the former UK Prime Minister David Cameron and The former Mayor of London Boris Johnson.
Vanessa is also the Host and Creator of Girls Talk, an online panel talk show for millennial women that has been viewed by over half a million people worldwide.
She is a sought-after Presenter and Speaker on business, women’s issues and popular culture featured on BBC Radio One and hosting the Penguin Living and Virgin Books ‘Live.Life. Better’ Podcast.
Her speaking engagements have taken her across the globe at institutions such as The Southbank Centre, Glitz Africa She Summit, UN Women UK, Cosmopolitan Self-Made Summit, Investec, Royal Bank of Canada, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Google UK, City Hall, Institute of Directors and Women in Research UK.
Vanessa is a regular visiting lecturer and speaker on Social Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity and Inclusion for London School of Economics, City University London, Kent Business School, Brunel University and Kings College London.
Vanessa has written and featured in publications such as The Guardian, Stylist, The Telegraph, LOOK Magazine, virgin.com, Confederation of British Industry and Entrepreneur Country. The 16th April 2017 Edition of The Style Magazine Sunday Times Supplement listed Vanessa as one of 10 people changing the workplace for women in the UK.
The 9th March 2015 issue of Look Magazine featured Vanessa as one of the most inspiring women in the UK and in June 2015 She was named as one of 67 Changemakers in the UK at The Southbank Centre as part of their annual Festival of Love.
Lin Yue | Executive Director, Goldman Sachs
Lin is a senior executive at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, responsible for managing and growing key relationships across UK institutional investors. As a senior leader of mainland Chinese origin in London, she helps elevate women and ethnic minorities in the workplace. She is a multi-award winning thought leader and keynote speaker in delivering the intersection of diversity, culture, leadership and business.
Lin was recognised in the HERoes 100 Women Future Leaders by Yahoo Finance for three consecutive years, a finalist for Asian Women of Achievement and Women in Finance Award as an advocate in 2021. She is one of 50 Most Inspirational Women in the City of London by Brummell, a top Ethnic Minority Future Leader by EMpower, and the winner of the “Excellence in Banking” award at the Chinese Business Leaders Awards.
A graduate of Experimental Psychology from Oxford University, Lin is also passionate about applying behavioural science in the workplace and making life skills accessible to all.
Phillip Palmer | Chief Executive Officer, Collyer Bristow
Phillip is the Chief Executive of Collyer Bristow, a medium-sized London-based law firm. The firm provides high-quality, tailored legal services to commercial organisations, particularly medium-sized businesses and SMEs, entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals and families, based in the UK and internationally. This is a full time executive role in which Phillip is a member of the firm’s Board and has day to day responsibility for the operations (both internal and client facing) and performance of the firm. He works closely with partners and other firm leaders to shape the firm’s strategy and to implement initiatives and projects designed to support the strategy, to improve firm performance and to ensure the delivery of premium client service. He has a particular interest in attracting and developing young talent. Phillip formerly practiced as a banking and financial markets lawyer and was a partner at global firm Clifford Chance, where he trained and worked for 25 years, latterly holding practice and firm leadership roles. He worked extensively with international clients and spent a number of years living and working in Tokyo. He is married with 3 adult daughters and, outside of work, particularly enjoys watching sport (especially tennis) and listening to jazz.
Stephanie Armstrong | Global Marketing Director, GSK
Stephanie Armstrong joined GlaxoSmithKline on a graduate programme 10+ years ago, following international experience across a couple of pharmaceutical companies. Throughout this time, her career has spanned a number of different business areas, as well as geographies, before recently holding various leadership roles within the commercial business. She is currently a Global Marketing Director for an oncology medicine.
Having experienced first-hand the importance of sponsorship and mentorship to define and accelerate women along their chosen career path, Stephanie is passionate about supporting the development of female talent in the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical industry. She is also one of the Co-Leads for the Women’s Leadership Initiative at GSK – leading a team to deliver the aspirational gender targets set by GSK. She is delighted to be one of the judges this year and hopes the awards will not only support the development of more female leaders across the industry, but also inspire the next wave of Rising Stars for the future.
Heather Melville OBE CCMI | Senior Managing Director, Ridgeway
Heather Melville OBE CCMI is a Senior Managing Director at the executive search firm Ridgeway. Heather leads the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Practice.
With a career spanning over 40 years, Heather brings a wealth of experience across corporate and international banking, technology, and most recently in professional services, which positions her to advise leaders on both the challenges and opportunities in building commercially strong and inclusive businesses. She has a proven track record of helping companies to attract, develop and retain the very best talent whilst ensuring they create inclusive cultures that nurture innovation.
In 2017, Heather was awarded an OBE for her work, as well as an Honorary Doctorate from Portsmouth University, recognising her influence and impact on diversity in business. In 2021 Heather received the prestigious President’s Medal for leadership by the British Academy of Management. She holds a number of trustee positions as Chair of CMI Women and Patron of Women in Banking and Finance, and is also a member of the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), a global network of C-Suite leaders.
Margarete McGrath | Global Strategic Propositions Lead at Dell Technologies
Margarete McGrath leads global strategic propositions for Dell Technologies. Margarete drives scalable partnerships and new go-to-market initiatives, leveraging her extensive experience from leadership of complex change programmes at EY and PwC.
Prior to Dell, Margarete worked as a management consultant where she worked for EY and PwC leading complex change programmes. She previously worked for PwC in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and more recently in Ireland. Margarete supported many public and private sector clients with their business transformations. Alongside this, Margarete previously ran two successful start ups’ focusing on sharing models in food sustainability and building social networks while in New Zealand.
Today, Margarete works with a diverse group of Dell Technologies clients to support them with their digital and security transformations. Dell Technologies provides a wide range of solutions ranging from edge computing delivering smart solutions to advanced analytics to drive enhanced and secure customer and employee experiences.
Margarete is widely recognised as an industry thinker on the future of work, digital and security transformation, diversity, inclusion, and positive mental health initiatives. Margarete was recently named by SC Media Women of Influence awards to be one of the top 30 cybersecurity leaders in 2021.
Carol Ann Whitehead FRSA | Founder, The Zebra Partnership
Founded in 2000, The Zebra Partnership is headed by Carol Ann, a Royal Society of Arts Fellow, an advocate of women’s rights, equality, diversity and inclusion.
The Zebra Partnership, is a UK based agency that brings together talented freelancers in the fields of publishing, campaigns, communications and event management on a project by project basis across all sectors.
A flexible team that can white label, co-produce or work under their own brand.
Carol Ann is a communications expert that has had over twenty years publishing, promotions and organising events of all shapes and sizes from 8 to 8000, indoors and outdoors, in the U.K. and overseas, plus experience of developing and organising five royal visits since 2004.
Recipient of the Inclusive Companies Certificate of Excellence, Carol Ann is winner of Entrepreneur Jacqueline Golds #WOW Award, #QueenOf Engaging Events award, in addition to Regional and National Winner of the Forward Ladies Mentor of the Year 2019, WeAreTheCity Rising Star award Champion 2020 and on the Northern Powerwomen Power List 2020
Carol Ann, is an award-winning publisher from the European Publishing Institute, and the publishing arm of the business, is managed by Editorial Director and games veteran who is a voting member of BAFTA with over 20 books, graphic novels and comics under their belt.
Representing ‘The Peoples Hub UN’ 2018-2020 she has championed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Campaign especially gender equality and improving inequality sdg5 and sdg10. Plus sdg17 Partnership working. Carol Ann has delivered lecture at the UN Youth Association in Denmark, a participant of the Global Festival of Action in Bonn, Germany and she was awarded the honour of Global Goodwill Ambassador title where she continues to champion the SDG’s.
Carol Ann is a founding member of BURN (The Black United Representation Network) which is actively tackling persistent racial inequalities in Greater Manchester through economic empowerment of communities and businesses.
A Wiki Editor she is co-founder of the Ada Lovelace Day Zebra Global Wikieditathon, a quest to improve wiki diversity their base is at the Pankhurst Centre, home of Suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst. Carol Ann is also a 50:50 Parliament and Pankhurst Trust Queen Bee Coaching Ambassador.
Lecturer since 2014 at Manchester Metropolitan University, Fashion, Buying & Merchandising Faculty, Access Creative College and guest lecturer at The University of Manchester.