SPEAKERS
Co-Hosts
Shereen Daniels
Managing Director
HR Rewired
Biography
Shereen Daniels is Managing Director of an anti-racism and racial equity consultancy – HR rewired and Vice Chair of the Black Business Association with the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
On a global mission to unlock over one million conversations about race by 2025, her story has been featured in Forbes, she was recognised as a LinkedIn Top Voice for 2020 and her first book, Advancing Racial Equity: Moving Beyond the Conversations will be out in the autumn.
With a mantra being we can’t fix what we don’t understand and we can never solve what we don’t talk about, Shereen is determined to inspire as many people as possible to become part of the solution.
Ramat Tejani
Founder and Chief Encouragement Officer
The Inspiration Box
Biography
Ramat is a multi-award winning woman in tech who also proudly has the title of Chief Encouragement Officer at The Inspiration Box. Through The Inspiration Box, she is creating spaces and products to ignite curiosity. By exploring the idea of intentional personal development, Ramat is encouraging people to keep on growing through the both good and the bad times that life will inevitably throw at us. She calls herself a realistic optimist and uses confidence coaching to act as a pocket cheerleader for her clients whatever stage of life they may be at.
Ramat holds a BA (Hons) in International Business from the University of Hertfordshire and an MSc in Consultancy and Organisational Change from Birkbeck, University of London.
To find out more about Ramat’s work visit: https://www.theinspirationbox.com/
speakers
Ruchi Aggarwal
TEDx Speaker, Director Business Development
University of Lincoln
Biography
Ruchi is a business professional with over 2 decades of multi-industry, cross cultural experience across UK and India. She has worked in diverse industries like Sports, Telecom and IT @ Microsoft – before joining the University of Lincoln, where she is an Associate Professor and Director Business Development at the Lincoln International Business School.
Ruchi manages business relationships in Greater Lincolnshire, across the UK and even internationally. She is additionally the Regional International lead for India, building key partnerships across nations. She and her team have received many awards for their work at the University, which span innovations with local businesses, the Military and International partnerships.
As an additional interest, Ruchi is a keen speaker on Diversity and inclusion, with a focus on Inspiring Women leaders. She is currently authoring her first book on Women Leadership which focuses on taking charge and ‘Getting off the Sticky Floor’.
Connect: www.linkedin.com/in/ruchispeak
Saba Ahmed
Senior Manager
Accenture Security
Biography
Saba Ahmed is a Senior Security Consulting Manager with Accenture Security UKI. She leads the Managed Security Services business for Media and Resources clients. She has over 18 years of experience in the Cyber Security domain focussing on building and transforming security operations. . Saba has global experience having worked in Asia, Middle east and Europe and is passionate about mentoring and building female talent in the cyber security industry.
Dr. Chitra Balakrishna
Program Leader, Cyber Security, Institute of Coding
The Open University
Biography
Information coming soon.
Kathy Baxter
Principal Architect, Ethical AI Practice
Salesforce
Biography
As a Principal Architect of Ethical AI Practice at Salesforce, Kathy develops research-informed best practice to educate Salesforce employees, customers, and the industry on the development of responsible AI. She collaborates and partners with external AI and ethics experts to continuously evolve Salesforce policies, practices, and products. Prior to Salesforce, she worked at Google, eBay, and Oracle in User Experience Research. She received her MS in Engineering Psychology and BS in Applied Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology. The second edition of her book, “Understanding your users,” was published in May 2015. You can read about her current research at einstein.ai/ethics.
Joel Blake OBE
Founder and CEO
The GFA Exchange
Biography
Joel is a multi-award-winning businessman and public speaker specialising in inclusive business growth.
Joel is the Founder & CEO of www.gfaexchange.com an award-winning FinTech portfolio risk management solution for the financial services sector.
Previously, he was the Executive for Access to Finance and Growing Business (GBSLEP) and former National Diversity Advisor for Golf. He also advises professional service firms and public sector bodies on inclusive business support strategy.
Joel is also the President of the Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce, a Fellow of the National Centre for Entrepreneurs and a Non-Executive Director of two organisations.
He was awarded an OBE in 2016 for Services to Business Support and Enterprise.
Louise Brown
Digital Services and Diversity Lead
Heathrow
Biography
Louise Brown heads up the Digital Services team at Heathrow Airport, responsible for deploying digital transformation technologies, tools and processes needed to advance Heathrow as a digital leader in the aviation industry. Louise is passionate about Diversity and Inclusion and digital literacy and the connection between them. Louise has a background in leading complex business change programmes as well as building and launching products whilst at Vodafone and BT.
Louise is married with two children, she enjoys cooking, reading and will be regularly seen running around Berkshire.
Avril Chester
Chief Technology Officer
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
Biography
Avril is an award-winning technology entrepreneur, executive, speaker, author and cancer thriver. Featured in Computer Weekly’s most influential women in UK IT 2020 long list, Avril won Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2019 Women in IT Awards, is Founder & CEO of Cancer Central, Chief Technology Officer at Royal Institute of British Architects, one of the 3 Digital Amigos (podcast series), author of ‘Be with me, it’s c’ and ‘Taking That Leap of Faith’. She loves good food, big dreams and a giggle.
Fiona Daniel
CEO and Founder
FD2i
Biography
Fiona is an HR qualified diversity and inclusion leader and D&I company award winner with over 15 years’ expe-rience of leading and growing the global diversity & inclusion agenda for one of the largest banking and financial service organisations in the world, including leading the UK as the Head of Diversity and Inclusion.
She is passionate about people and inclusion and works tirelessly for the implementation of a holistic strategic approach which underpins all aspects of people decisions in business. She is an awards judge, speaker, panelist, thought leader, mentor and career coach.
Fiona has been named as one of the most influential D&I Leaders of 2020 in the Hive Learning List and one of the Top 50 Must Follow Black Female Entrepreneurs, Influencers and Speakers in 2020.
She is a proud carer and the founder of FD2i a diversity and inclusion practice focused on driving action which aspires to move companies from diversity to inclusion. Fiona partners with many organisations as a consultant and Associate spreading her expertise and knowledge.
Fiona is a Non-Executive Director, a company member of the UN Women National Committee UK chaired by Baroness Sandhip Verma, sits on an advisory board, and is a Women on Boards Ambassador & Consultant.
Jasmine Dhiman
Managing Director, Technology Sustainability Lead
Accenture UKI
Biography
Jasmine is Accenture’s UKI People and Diversity Exec Sponsor, on Accenture’s UKI Executive Board to lead on Accenture’s UKI People Strategy. She is responsible for employee experience, inclusion & diversity and talent strategy, looking at ways to innovate and improve how we all work and live.
Jasmine has been with Accenture for over 21 years working across Financial Services and Health & Public Service. She has deep transformation and delivery experience and also holds FS business practice and client account leadership roles. She has also recently completed a qualification in Business Sustainability Management with Cambridge University and been appointed the UKI Technology Sustainability Lead to ensure sustainability is positioned at the heart of our Accenture technology’s strategy and supporting clients in their journey. She is proud of her Indian Punjabi heritage and is a working parent to a 13 year old daughter and an 11 year old son and has long experience of working part time and flexibly.
She is passionate about creating environments where we can all bring our authentic selves to work and thrive and believes in I&D as also being a key catalyst to building a sustainable future for people and the planet.
Tania Ferreira
Head of Event Content Production
Bonhill Group PLC
Biography
Head of Event Content Production for Bonhill PLC.
Jessica Figueras
Vice Chair of Trustees
UK Cyber Security Council
Biography
Jessica is a tech strategist specialising in government, policy and regulation, and
civil society. She currently advises start-up and scale-up founders on growth strategy, with areas of focus including cyber security and digital trust, government and corporate transparency, and undertakes tech futures research for the UK government.
Barbara Gottardi
CIO
Vanguard Europe
Biography
Barbara Gottardi was recently appointed as Chief Information Officer for Europe at Vanguard.
Previously at HSBC where she spent 16 years where she has held a number of senior leadership roles in different areas during her 16 years, including Investment Banking, Asset Management and, for the last several years, Retail Banking & Wealth Management. She also spent 2 years in the Legal department as Chief Risk Admin officer.
In her most recent role, Barbara was the CIO for Retail Business Banking and Channels where she had responsibility for leading the global contact centre, self-service estate (including ATM) and CRM/frontline tooling teams.
Dr J. Harrison
Harbinger of Change
Thoughtworks
Biography
With 20+ years of experience as a Service Designer/ Business Analyst using agile processes to build software, mixed with my talent for really understanding clients, combined with being out as Non-Binary GenderQueer for well over 10 years, I bring queer theory (with a slice of humour) into the tech space.
I am looking at the problems technology and business are solving and how to make great teams deliver real value.
I represent the self defining future – My job title is ‘Harbinger of Change’ and my gender is ‘Transgressive Non-Binary GenderQueer’ (yes officially, I have all the paperwork for it!)
My passion? How you can do things better with just simple changes – bringing Service Design thinking into both the Technology and the Diversity and Inclusion spaces.
Challenging. #queernuisance
Cecilia Harvey
CEO / Founder & Chair
Hyve Dynamics / Tech Women Today
Biography
Cecilia Harvey is the Chief Executive Officer of Hyve Dynamics, the pioneering sensor technology firm and the founder and chair of Tech Women Today. Having started on Wall Street, her 20-year career in banking and technology has spanned senior positions with Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital, and IBM Consulting, as well as former COO of Citigroup Markets and Securities Services Technology. Cecilia appears in Forbes “Leading Ladies of Tech”, and has been featured in British Vogue’s 2020 “Forces for Change” campaign.
Fiona Hathorn
CEO
Women on Boards UK
Biography
Fiona is the CEO of Women on Boards UK, an Advisory Board Member to Spktral (a technology company that helps organisations simplify the gender pay gap reporting process), advisor to Peel Hunt (mid-cap stockbroker) and Chair of Hanx‘s Nominations Committee (FMCG start-up). She is an expert in the areas of Governance, Regulation and Talent Management who has sat on both marketing and audit & finance committees. Fiona is also a Patron of Fight for Sight (a medical research charity) and was formerly a director for Hill Samuel Asset Management.
She has advised the board of the Thai Euro Fund and is a Judge for the Non Executive Director Awards, sponsored by The Sunday Times. In 2020 Fiona joined King’s College London’s ‘Global Institute for Women’s Leadership‘ Advisory Board.
Karen Huish
Head of Retail Banking – UKI
Google Cloud
Biography
Karen recently joined Google Cloud to lead the Retail Banking team in the UKI. She has over 20 years financial services experience having joined Google from Accenture where she held a leadership role working with a number of banks to support their transformation ambitions. Prior to this, she spent 10 years at SAP leading the team to shape solutions to deliver business-critical change and IT projects for UK financial institutions. Whilst at Accenture, Karen also led the Inclusion and Diversity programme and is passionate about the benefits of creating an environment where everyone feels they can contribute without fear. Outside of work, she has two daughters, a golden retriever and a desire to do more running.
Erica Langhi
Senior Solution Architect
Red Hat
Biography
Erica is a solution architect at Red Hat with over 25 years of experience in a range of different roles from consultancy to solution architecture.
As a solutions architect, she helps customers understand how technologies can solve their business problems and provide real value.
Erica started her career with AI and how supervised ML could support hematology diagnosis and therapy. Since then she always had a passion on open source and data and the value it can bring to drive positive change.
Erica is also a passionate promoter of women in technology and support activities to encourage young people to grow their interest in STEM.
Gavin Laybourne
CIO Automation, Global Operations
Maersk
Biography
Gavin Laybourne joined APM Terminals as Chief Information Officer (CIO) in 2019 and is a member of the Senior Management Team. He is also responsible for Strategic Brands, and is also the CIO for the largest Vessel fleet in the world.
Prior to joining APM Terminals, Gavin held senior technology leadership positions within various industries, including Oil & Gas, Telecoms, Retail and Supply Chain & Manufacturing. Gavin has lived and worked in the United States, China, The Netherlands as well as other countries throughout his career.
In addition to having earned his degree in Electrical Engineering from Bournemouth University and being a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEE), Gavin has also completed several advanced leadership programs at the Geneva-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD).
Satya Mishra
Vice President and Business Unit Head – BFSI
Tata Consultancy Services
Biography
Satya Mishra is Vice President and Business Unit Head at Tata Consultancy Services. He manages the portfolio of Banking and Financial Services customers in the UK. Satya has extensive experience in business consulting and his passion for customer success has led to several strategic Growth & Transformation initiatives. He has a keen interest in technology and innovation leading to greater future.
Satya is passionate about Corporate Social Responsibility and a strong advocate of Diversity & Inclusion at the workplace – and is involved with various TCS initiatives to drive this.
Kathleen Moore
CIO Automation, Global Operations
HSBC
Biography
Kath Moore is Strategic Projects Director – Data and Architecture at HSBC. She was previously Chief Information Officer, Business Optimisation Solutions, within the Wealth and Personal Banking Team in HSBC. She led a team of around 800 designers and engineers, in 12 countries, delivering Intelligent Automation and Communication solutions to customers across the globe. Kath has 30 years’ experience in the Financial Services Industry across Technology and Operations and describes her experience as quill pen to robot.
She is a passionate advocate for Diversity in Technology and an active mentor of new female talent. She feeds her “inner geek” with an active interest in the application of Artificial Intelligence to improve customer experience and is still seeking a bot that can manage wardrobe effectively.
Simon Ratcliffe
Board Advisor, Non-Exec CIO, Principal Consultant
Ensono
Biography
An established thought leader and innovator, Simon served as a Virtual CIO, CIO Advisor and Leadership Mentor for a wide variety of organisations before joining Ensono as Principal Consultant. He is an IT evangelist capable of promoting the value of IT within organisations by developing a single strategic vision that unites business and the IT department. Simon originally trained as a psychologist specialising in organisational change and still adopts the mantra that change is driven by people, process and technology … in that order.
Connect: linkedin.com/in/itevangelism @ITEvangelism
Penny Richardson
Principal Engineer, Test Automation | Technology D&I Lead
Maersk Line Operation
Biography
Penny is a Senior Leader in Maersk Technology with extensive experience in building and leading software engineering teams. She has been with Maersk for 3.5 years and has held various roles as Head of Test and Assurance, Head of Product Group for Terminals and Ocean Operations, Head of Digital Enablement and currently she has a dual role as Principal Engineer Test Automation and Technology D&I Lead.
Before joining Maersk, Penny’s background was in financial services and she has worked in Software Development and Testing for over 30 years having started her career as a Software Developer at an Investment Bank in Cape Town, South Africa. Penny moved the UK in December 2000 and has held senior roles in Software Testing at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, RBS and Centrica Communications.
Penny has contributed to significant organisational transformation initiatives, building new organisational capability and leading transitions to new ways of working. She has developed immature testing teams into quality focussed professional organisations with mature processes and frameworks in place and achieved a reputation for delivery excellence.
Penny loves the people aspect of leadership and as a servant leader, focusses on building trust, relationships, empowering teams and helping people to develop and achieve. She strives to create an inclusive culture where people feel respected, appreciated and valued.
Penny is married with 2 adult sons and 2 French Bulldogs and in her spare time enjoys walking with her dogs, travelling and watching cricket.
Preeti Sinha
Executive Secretary
United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)
Biography
Ms. Preeti Sinha Executive Secretary of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Ms. Sinha is a globally experienced investment and development banker with a 30-year track record associated with raising and managing institutional public and private development capital. She served as CEO & President of FFD Financing for Development LLC, a specialist development finance firm focused on financing the UN SDGs. Ms. SinhaÕs role as CEO and President was built upon her experience as a pioneering Global Leadership Fellow at the World Economic Forum, on the Financing for Development Initiative, with the UN FFD Office. Ms. Sinha managed the YES Global Institute, a practicing private sector think-tank for socio-economic development in New Delhi, building the impact investment ecosystem in India.
She also served in senior resource mobilization roles at the African Development Bank including managing its ADF-13 Replenishment raising US$ 7.3 billion from 27 donor countries. Previously, she was an investment banker at HSBC, Rabobank, Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan in London, Hong Kong, Mumbai and New York. Ms. Sinha graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Executive Education program in Public Financial Management. She also holds a Masters in Global Leadership from the World Economic Forum and a Masters in Public and Private Management (MPPM)/MBA from the Yale School of Management (SOM). Ms. Sinha graduated from Dartmouth College with Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Computer Science.
Jennifer Stanzl
Head of Talent Management UK&I
Tata Consultancy Services
Biography
Jennifer heads the talent & diversity agenda for TCS UK & Ireland with 18K employees from 46 countries. She believes in creating an organisational culture of belonging that enables all individuals to flourish.
Jennifer holds an MSc from LSE in Social Psychology and a Practitioner Diploma from Academy of Executive Coaching. She has expertise in cross-cultural teamwork, talent development, gender intelligence and cultivating belonging at scale.
Jennifer is determined to shift the dial on gender equity and co-founded the TCS Good Growth community of 180 women entrepreneurs. She was awarded a prestigious position in the 2019 OUTstanding 50 Executive Ally list.
She lives in London with her multi-cultural family and loves traveling & running.
Joanne Webb
Founder
The Girls Club – Network
Biography
Joanne is a board level director with a background in e-commerce, marketing and digital transformation. She has a track record of turning around poor performance, driving cost efficiencies and delivering exceptional results with some of the biggest (and smallest) names in the retail, leisure and entertainment sectors including Disney, Vue, Gap, Universal Pictures and more recently Merlin Entertainments.
At the end of October last year, Joanne set up a networking group for senior women to support, share knowledge, laugh and learn (over a cheeky glass of wine!). She thought it would be a small group….but it’s already topped 550 members globally…and there’s plenty of room for further growth – so please contact her if you’d like to join.
Deborah Williams
Founder
The Women’s Association
Biography
Georgina Owens has held global leadership roles in large organisations across multiple sectors. She has a reputation for tackling large scale challenges and being capable of making intelligent sense out of chaotic and poorly managed IT capabilities. She is at home working in a fast-paced environment dealing with uncertainty, ambiguity and constant change and manages to navigate her teams through transformation to deliver simplicity, excellence and best in class at the end of the journey.
Now SVP IT at DAZN, the sports media company who are leading the world in the battle to be the best broadcast and OTT company in sports services as well as media and content solutions unique in the digital sports market. She is an active networker and participates and contributes to many tech leadership and diversity events and she has become a sought after contributor and public speaker on transformation and technology leadership.
Across her career, Georgina has taken leadership roles in transforming teams and tackling large-scale challenges across multiple industry sectors. She is now taking on board level roles providing Digital Transformation advice and guidance. It is her personality, experience and independent approach that gains her the respect of company executives and allows her to facilitate in a challenging but collegiate atmosphere. She is able to influence and guide an executive team providing strategic insight with strong commercial instincts combined with an entrepreneurial mindset and all delivered with a dynamic and high energy approach.