Vanessa is one of the UK’s most well-networked women and has provided keynotes on a variety of career related topics for over 500 companies worldwide. Vanessa is also one of the UK’s most prominent figures in gender equality and often provides guidance and consultancy to both government and corporate organisations who are seeking to attract, develop and retain their female talent. Vanessa was awarded her OBE in June 2018 for her services to women and the economy.
At the height of her successful 25 year career in the financial services, Vanessa launched the award winning WeAreTheCity.com in 2008 as a vehicle to help women progress in their careers. WeAreTheCity.com now has over 120,000 members and provides resources/conferences/awards/jobs to women across the UK.
Vanessa is the also the -founder of UK wide diversity forum Gender Networks. Gender Networks (formerly The Network of Networks) brings together diversity leaders from 85 cross sector firms to share best practice on a quarterly basis.Vanessa is also the author of the book “Heels of Steel: Surviving and Thriving in the Corporate World” which tracks her career and shares 13 chapters of tips to succeed in the workplace.Over the past twelve years, she has accumulated over 20 industry awards, including Women in Banking & Finance’s Champion for Women, Financial News Top 100 Rising Star, The International Alliance for Women Top 100 Women globally & Brummells Top 30 London Entrepreneurs. In 2015 Vanessa was in GQ UK’s Top 100 Connected Women and the Evening Standard’s 1000 Most Influential Londoners. Vanessa is a regular guest on TV and radio and also sits on the Government Digital Services advisory board.Vanessa is also the Pearly Queen of The City of London, a tradition that has been in her family for over 100 years. She is an avid charity worker and sits on the board for Cancer Research UK as one of its Women of Influence. Vanessa also sits on the Centenary Action Group founded by Dr Helen Pankhurst CBE.
Recently named one of the 'Top 25 Women in the Metaverse', Amelia Kallman is a leading London futurist, speaker and author. As a technology communicator, Amelia regularly consults brands, agencies, and governments on the impact of new technologies on the future of business and our lives. She forecasts global trends and behaviours, helping clients navigate innovation, build strategies, and deliver industry leading initiatives. She specialises in the emerging opportunities – as well as the risks – of AI, XR, IoT, and Web 3.0. Recent areas of study include the metaverse, sustainability, Gen-Z / Gen-Alpha, NFTs, and the surfacing human rights issues of tomorrow. Host of XR Star, Blockchain in the Metaverse and The Big Reveal, Amelia's clients include Together Labs, Unilever, JLL, Lloyd's, Red Bull, TD Synnex, and UK Parliament. She is a mentor, activist, and is currently writing her third book. www.ameliakallman.com
Multi-Award winning Engineer | Blockchain Enthusiast | Public Speaker | Blogger | Poet | Engineering Mentor | Founder
Beth Clarke is an Astrophysicist turned Software Engineer, specialising in quality, testing and DevOps. She is passionate about creating software that keeps people safe in their everyday lives, and helps us move towards a sustainable future and believes that technology holds the key to our safety. Beth has worked in a range of sectors including rail and satellite communications, and is currently working in the energy and pipelines sectors. Beth is also the Vice Chair of the WISE Young Professional’s Board. Her enthusiasm and expertise in both her work and wider diversity and inclusion issues led to her recognition as one of the top voices in technology being recognised as a Rising Star of Women in Technology by Computer Weekly in 2021, and a finalist in the Rising Star Category of the 2023 Everywoman in Tech Awards.
Lianne is an award-winning cyber anthropologist and security transformation leader with experience in the retail, healthcare, finance, private and non-profit sectors. Her consultancy, The AnthroSecurist, enables teams in complex organisations to understand each other’s motivations, identify barriers that have prevented good security practices in the past, and provide practical steps and insights to increase collaboration between the security team and the rest of the organisation.
Lianne is also the Head of SecOps for the largest greenfield technology project in Europe where she builds strategies to create sustainable security cultures throughout the organisation. As a respected speaker, Lianne has delivered talks across the globe to share her vision for a new type of security function. Drawing upon her expertise as an anthropologist, her practical experience as a security-focused software developer and as a security practitioner; Lianne combines the human and the technical aspects of security to evangelise a cultural security transformation.
Victoria Baines is a leading authority in the field of online trust, safety and cybersecurity. She frequently contributes to major broadcast media outlets – BBC Newsnight, Radio 4, and Sky News among them – on digital ethics, cybercrime and the misuse of emerging technologies such as Extended Reality and Artificial Intelligence.
She is Professor of Information Technology at Gresham College, London’s oldest higher education institution, where she is responsible for delivering public lectures that demystify world-changing technologies for ‘ordinary’ people. Her current series of lectures puts citizens back at the heart of decision-making on the future direction of IT, tackling questions such as how the Internet should be governed, how best to fight fake news, what life in the Metaverse might be like, whether we can expect our private communications to stay private, how we can protect ourselves and others from digital infection, and why making IT more inclusive will make all of us safer.
Victoria has published on cyberspace governance, online surveillance, the future of cybercrime, and the politics of security. She was Facebook’s Trust & Safety Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, providing support to law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and engaging with ministers and heads of state on key policy issues. Before joining Facebook, Victoria led the Strategy team at Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), where she was responsible for the EU’s cyber threat analysis. She designed and developed Europe’s flagship assessment of cybercrime, and authored scenarios for the future of cybersecurity that were the bases for award-winning movies.
She is co-host of the award-nominated Cyber Warrior Princess podcast, has been named as one of the top 25 women in cybersecurity (IT Guru & SC Magazine). She is also a Liveryman of the City of London and Chair of the Security Panel of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, the voice of the IT industry in the City. She serves on the Advisory Boards of Snapchat, cybersecurity provider Reliance ACSN, and the International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE), and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
Victoria is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She is a Visiting Fellow at Bournemouth University’s School of Computing, a former Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University, and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020.
Sarah Wilson is co founder of the Digilearning foundation and passionate about driving positive change in the digital and tech space. A powerhouse and energy and drive; Sarah has had a varied career working in digital including design, marketing, project management, publishing and training spanning over 20 years. Digilearning is her greatest passion; providing quality digital education and career pathways for young people to step-up into rewarding careers. Sarah has made it her mission to empower the next generation of digital leaders and wants to make industry roles accessible to anyone who has the talent and drive to succeed.
Ramat is a multi-award winning strategist, public speaker, community builder and storyteller who also happens to be a woman in tech.
She is the CEO (that's the Chief Encouragement Officer) at The Inspiration Box an organisation dedicated to encouraging intentional personal development. She's a pocket cheerleader for anyone that needs it, and believes in the power of helping others to discover, embrace and nurture the truest version of themselves. Her passion to help others extends into her day job at Google, where she is the Strategic Partnerships Lead for EMEA in the Diversity Recruiting team. In this role she is focusing on strategies to diversify the talent pipeline at Google.
Ramat is very familiar with the TechWomen100 awards having been recognised in the 2019 TechWomen100 cohort and she was also recognised as a Rising Star in Marketing, PR and Communications in 2018.
I jointly lead the skills charity Tech She Can - working to increase the number of women in technology roles. As a woman in tech, a returner, a physicist and a mum, I’m super passionate about innovation, parity and equality in the workplace, and STEM education and research.
I also support the creation of deep-tech science companies as Venture Partner at Deep Science Ventures where I’m developing a new flavour of PhD: the Venture Science Doctorate - diversity-first and venture-led.
My background is in innovation in research-intensive environments, spanning universities, government and business. I’ve led multi-£million acquisitions, such as iKinema by Apple; developed the vision and strategy for Imperial College London’s White City £3bn 23-acre innovation district; and operated the #1 global university business incubator. I’ve worked across digital, smart infrastructure, space, security and defence innovation ecosystems.
In 2022, I was named in Computer Weekly’s ‘Top 50 Most Influential Women in Tech’ and am a member of the Institute of Coding’s Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board. I hold a PhD in Astroparticle Physics from Imperial on the direct detection of dark matter, conducted in a working mine 1km underground.
Nicola is passionate about increasing diversity and inclusion in software engineering. She mentors and coaches professionals wanting to either change or develop their careers. Nicola is a Council Member for the British Computer Society. She is also a professional member of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES). Nicola is passionate about increasing diversity and inclusion in software engineering. She mentors and coaches professionals wanting to either change or develop their careers. Nicola is a Council Member for the British Computer Society. She is also a professional member of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES). Nicola is a speaker and panelist at events on diversity, women in tech, quality, AI, software testing and mentorship.
Nicola has been included in the 2022 Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK Tech List (top 30). She has also been a judge for the UK Tech Awards and will be part of the judging panel for the Black Tech Achievement Awards in 2023.
Chen arrived in the UK in 2002 with little English, and studied for her PhD in Computer Graphics. She then moved into her dream career working on visual effects for blockbuster movies including Gravity and Blade Runner 2049, winning Oscar & BAFTA awards in best visual effects. Her life course has changed completely after she become a mother and experienced tremendous challenges with breastfeeding. Her experience motivated her to develop the LatchAid 3D breastfeeding tool and to found the Anya app to revolutionise breastfeeding and motherhood support using innovation and empathy.
Irene is a software innovator and expert in executing complex, first of its kind technologies to meet business needs while minimising risk and maximising value. Prior to emTRUTH, Irene was a technology consultant to Fortune 500 companies in industries like entertainment, engineering and academia. emTRUTH is Irene’s second start-up. Her first was acquired by a publicly traded company. Irene spent many years at NASA JPL and was responsible for flight and ground software on a mission to Pluto. While at JPL, she also led a team of researchers on advanced information systems. Irene is an inventor, author and speaker.
Dr Pearl Jarrett is a multi-award winning disruptive changemaker and Founder & CEO of The Jarrett Foundation and Veranda Connect Ltd. In 2005 Dr Jarrett was diagnosed with cancer. After winning the fight of her life, she decided that as she had been given a second chance, this was her opportunity to change the world. Today, she works at the highest level of government both in the UK and Jamaica. In Jamaica the foundation delivered half a million pounds worth of furniture and new school resources to 136 schools. In 2021 The Jarrett Foundation decided to help Jamaica fight COVID-19, by shipping a donation of two million face masks worth £620k and distributed them free of charge. In the UK, Dr Jarrett runs a youth mentoring programme for disadvantaged youth. She’s currently driving a London wide Reducing Knife Crime school programme in association with New Scotland Yard and sponsored by Tesco. She recently delivered a masterclass for Upskill Me to over 300 young women in STEM and their mentors from companies such as Google, Meta, Dyson, EY, BP, GE etc. She’s an Entrepreneur, Doctor, Actor, Singer, Public Speaker for conferences and podcasts, Musical Theatre Producer, Playwright, and Mentor – AKA “Aunty Pearl” to numerous young people with budding entrepreneurial ideas – and she is a former adviser to No 10 Downing Street. She’s the Founder of Veranda Connect Ltd a start-up where she developed the Sustainable Water Ecosystem, producing free water from the air, powered by the sun, to industries and communities in Jamaica.
Kinjal Dave is a consultant analyst for CORDA, BAE Systems Digital Intelligence. CORDA helps customers and clients in industry sectors of defence, transport, security, business and UK Government to make informed decisions in complex environments. Kinjal’s interest in space and defence can be traced back to her primary school days, when she expressed an interest to build a satellite from a cardboard box! With experience in the engineering and tech sector across space and defence engineering, strategic development, knowledge sharing, diversity and inclusion. Kinjal is passionate about young girls breaking barriers and our workforce becoming more reflective of the current society. She is a multiple award winner and her accolades include Techwomen 100 award, Rising star award and Asian Women of Achievement award. She is also an ardent STEM Ambassador, extremely active in her local town.
Katie Prescott is one of the UK’s best-known technology and business journalists - a familiar writer and voice to millions as The Times Technology Business Editor and, before that, the Senior Lead Business Presenter for Radio 4’s Today Programme and a Business Correspondent across BBC News.For readers, listeners and viewers across Times platforms. Katie reports on the dynamic changes across the tech, media and telecoms sectors and their impact on business and our everyday lives. She’s a weekly columnist for the newspaper’s award-winning business section and hosts some of the major events staged by The Times. At the BBC, Katie worked across all the corporation’s major news outlets as the on-screen face and voice explaining and analysing the tumultuous changes wrought by COVID-19, the European debt crisis and new technology, in addition to the challenges of sustainability and climate change.
Victoria Tomlinson is 67, founded her second business Next-Up five years ago and has developed an online platform to help employees coming up to unretirement, as well as running workshops for pre-retirement partners in professional firms. Victoria’s TEDx talk on a Generation of Wasted Talent has had 20k views. A former director of EY on the London leadership team, she ran an award-winning comms and digital business for 30 years. She was founding chair of Women in Leeds Digital, now rebranded to WILD Digital, increasing the diversity of digital teams. She chaired the management division advisory board for University of Leeds and sat on Northern Ballet’s board for eight years. Victoria is an Amazon bestselling author, blogger and BBC expert woman commenting on news. She has coached chief executives and directors, mentors, start-up businesses, young people, ex-offenders and those transitioning into retirement. She has just joined HMP Askham Grange advisory board to help ex-offenders find employment.
With a 20-year career in communications, Rebecca Donnelly is a Senior Partner at Tyto, Europe’s fastest-growing B2B tech PR agency. She helped build the company into a fully-remote business with a diverse, 60-strong team based across Europe, and works with high-growth and established tech companies to build their reputations. She is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in the tech sector and a non-executive director for the Tech Talent Charter. She also hosts their podcast, in:tech where she had the pleasure of talking with Vanessa Vallely about the importance of networks in retaining female talent. Rebecca believes in the transformative potential of remote and hybrid work for building inclusive workplace cultures where anyone can thrive.
I currently oversee IT & Network audits across 14 countries in Africa – where Airtel has operations. I specialise in reviewing IT, cybersecurity and telecom networks’ controls to identify gaps and ensure business addresses them. I hold a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications and information engineering. I am also a certified ethical hacker and a certified information systems auditor. I am a ‘Young CISO award finalist-2022’, an award whose objective is to recognise young and extraordinary professionals across Africa making an impact in information security.
I love to paint, going on road trips, karaoke, a good book over some Kenyan masala tea and cozy indoor time with some Netflix binging. Farming is also one of my favourite pastimes, and spending some weekends with my many beloved feathered friends is an absolute delight.
Lisa Goodchild is an experienced and passionate devotee of digital communications, having spent 20 years in the industry. The agency she founded, Digiwoo-enjoys huge influence over a range of sub-sectors of the digital industry. Lisa's latest venture, Digilearning, is arguably the most ambitious & important project of her career to date. Digilearning is an undertaking aiming to change the way digital skills are delivered to people across the world. Lisa will not be happy until digital is held in the same regard as Mathematics, English & Science as a core totem of the education sector. Digital changed Lisa's life from humble beginnings. Now she wants to help underprivileged and marginalised young people (&adults) realise it can do the same for them.
I have two roles, I am a technology innovation Leader at PwC, and the founder and co-CEO of the charity, Tech She Can, an industry-led tech education and careers charity that creates initiatives and pathways to increase the number of women in technology. It has over 250 member organisations, spanning more than 40 sectors across all regions of the UK. At PwC I work with all parts of the business to develop new products and services for our clients. I have over 20 years experience working with clients from public and private sector organisations, harnessing technology and innovation to benefit people and transform organisations. I was named by Computer Weekly as one of the 10 most influential women in UK Technology in 2022 and as one of the 30 most influential women in Cyber in 2021. More recently, recognised by Forward Ladies as Business Women of the Year and Social Impact Leader of the Year. In 2020 I was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to young girls and women through technology.
Sharon Vibert the Director of Corporate Enterprise at Henpicked: Menopause in the Workplace. Their focus is supporting employers in becoming menopause friendly, by following best practice standards. From introducing policies or guidance, resources, educating, training colleagues, managers, and champions. To embedding menopause into the culture of an organisations by keeping conversations going and providing the right going support.
Sharon and the team at Henpicked Menopause in the Workplace are passionate about empowering people to live their best lives. They're into their 6th year and work with a wide range of public and private sector employers, large and small both in the UK, Ireland and Globally.
Sharon's interests are in female health and wellness, particularly focusing on menopause, which also led her to start Good Midlife Vibes providing a community and platform for women to help one another by sharing their wisdom, stories, tips and support.
As an experienced public speaker Sharon is often asked to share her professional and personal menopause experience across all media platforms, empowering women to take positive action.
David is the award-winning Group Technology Evangelist for Nash Squared; he is responsible for helping shape and share the best thoughts and insight in people and technology with the wider market. A regular event speaker, host and moderator David writes for industry publications, contributes to (and hosts) technology-focused media channels and is editor and host of ‘Tech Talks’ the long running technology leadership podcast, a show with 25,000 monthly streams and in the top 5% of 'most shared' podcasts in the world on Spotify.
Naomi is currently Director of Solutions Consulting in the Enterprise Architecture group. In this role, she leads a team responsible for providing consulting services to the technology enterprise. She is also responsible for leading Enterprise Architecture engagement across the technology and business organisations to drive alignment and collaboration across the communities. The key aim is to elevate architecture skills and adopt well architected practices that underpin digital modernisation and the strategic initiatives that drive the realisation of business outcomes.
Prior to her current position, she has held a wide variety of roles across the Northern Trust technology organisation over her twenty year career.
Naomi is a strong female role model, passionate about diversity and inclusion. She mentors internally and externally, is a Mental Health First Aider, an LGBT Great Project 1000 Ally, and co-founder of the EMEA Technology Diversity group and EMEA WIT. She is also actively engaged in the 30% Club Ireland and is a passionate advocate for equity, opportunity and social inclusion for the autistic community.
She was on a panel at the 2021 WeAreTechWomen conference discussing how businesses can drive their own DE&I initiatives and was a speaker at the conference in 2022 discussing how women can balance their career and family commitments. She is also a mother of four children.
Nikki Gonzales is an experienced engineer, entrepreneur, and co-host of the podcast Automation Ladies. She has been involved in the industrial automation and robotics industry for over a decade, starting her career as a sales engineer for machine vision systems and mechatronics. Nikki then transitioned to the design side of engineering with multi-physics simulation for virtual prototyping and data analytics in the supply chain. Her passion for automation and innovation has led her to create Quotebeam, an online marketplace and workflow automation platform for industrial automation distributors and their customers to collaborate and simplify the procurement process. As co-host of the podcast Automation Ladies, Nikki is dedicated to sharing the stories of women who are making an impact in the automation industry. In this keynote speech, Nikki will share her insights on the rise of women in the automation industry and the future of industrial automation and robotics.
Tech Returners Co-Founder, Confidence Community Founder and Mum to Ethan and Emmie, Beckie is an executive coach with over 18 years of HR and people development experience. She has a focus on talent management, team effectiveness, continuous performance development, building a diverse workforce and flexible working and has acted as a global HR leader, spearheading business growth for international tech companies.
Beckie leads the Confidence Community – a programme focused on empowering individuals to transform their confidence and careers as well as 'Reframe: Women in Tech', the largest conference of its kind in the North West. Beckie is Co-Founder of Women In Tech North and has won countless awards for her efforts to create accessible opportunities into tech, including the Women in Software #WIS Changemakers award in 2022 and the Talk Talk Women in Tech 2022 Outstanding Achievement Award
Alison Pain joined Northern Trust in January 2020 as Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Global Technology Services in EMEA. She also holds a regulatory role as part of the Senior Managers Regime (SMF24) acting as the technology interface into the PRA and FCA. She is based in London. As CTO she is responsible for helping develop and drive the Technology strategy across EMEA whilst ensuring Business requirements and strategy are understood and delivered.
Throughout her career Alison has a proven track record of delivery, driving a material reduction in the technology total of ownership (TCO) in all of her previous organisations. She is passionate about ensuring a premium user experience, flexing technology to allow our Businesses to be responsive to the markets & our clients whilst ensuring a laser focus on reliability, stability and security.Alison has more than 25 years of experience in senior leadership roles with UK Financial Services organisations across both Infrastructure and Application Development teams.
Before joining Northern Trust, Alison spent 4 years at Deutsche Bank where she was a Managing Director. She held multiple senior roles including Global Head of Backup & Storage and Global CIO for End-User Computing. Previously, Alison worked at Goldman Sachs for 11 years where she was an EVP and Senior Engineer. She held multiple senior operational and transformation positions and was the only Global Head of a technology function based outside of the US. Prior to Goldman Sachs she worked at other financial service organisations, including Barclays and RBS.Alison holds a BA(Hons) from Greenwich University in Humanities and an MBA from Southbank University.She is an active supporter of diversity and is the technology representative on the EMEA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion council. She is also a keen mentor. In previous organisations, Alison has been an LGBT+ Ally, Diversity Network champion, co-founder of the Working Mothers Network, and a member of the Disability Working Group steering group. Whilst at Goldman Sachs Alison was a member of the ‘Girls in IT’ working group, through which she presented to more than 1,000 school-age girls, encouraging them to choose a career in Technology.
With extensive experience in the IT industry, Gillian setup Tectre Ltd, in 2010, providing training, recruitment and consultancy to CIOs and IT Managers. Tectre focuses on supporting their positive action campaigns to attract more diversity into their technical teams with training on misogyny, racism and with diversity recruiting. Most of Gillian’s early career was spent working for IBM in the UK where she held customer facing training, technical, sales, business development, strategic marketing and consultancy roles. She is President of the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT (from March 2023), sits on the board for the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (CEPIS) and Chairs the European Taskforce for Women in IT for CEPIS. In 2021, Gillian edited and published ‘Women in Tech: A practical guide to increasing gender diversity and inclusion’. She won the 2012 Cisco / Everywoman In Technology award for 'Technology Inspiration of the Year' and, along with Martha Lane Fox, Dame Steve Shirley, and Dame Wendy Hall, has a place in the UK ‘Women in IT Hall of Fame’. She was granted an honorary doctorate by the University of Bath in 2019 for her work on diversity in the technical professions.
Áine Tobin has worked Cyber Threat Analyst in the Northern since 2018. She has 10 years’ experience in the IT field before focussing on Security and has a Masters degree in Cyber Security and Digital forensics from Limerick Institute of Technology.
In his role as Group Chief Information Officer for Barclays, Craig is responsible for the bank’s global technology systems and infrastructure, focusing on further digitising our client proposition and accelerating growth across our retail and wholesale businesses. He has extensive experience in leading technology functions, and in designing and implementing complex and large-scale cloud and digital strategies. Craig joined Barclays from Westpac, where he held the role of Chief Information Officer, in 2020 and, prior to this, he was the Chief Technology Officer for Citigroup’s Global Consumer Bank. Craig has over 30 years’ experience in technology and financial services, and has also held senior strategic and operational roles at National Australia Bank and Ernst & Young.
As the Global CISO for Barclays I am responsible forestablishing and maintaining the enterprise vision, strategy, program and operations to ensure information assets and technologies are adequately protected across Barclays Group, additionally as the deputy CSO I support continuous development of an integrated approach to effectively manage a wide range of risks facing the bank. My vision is to ensure Barclays has a truly world class cyber security capability, operating as part of a holistic approach to securing the bank.
Augusta Sanfilippo has more than 25+ years of investment banking technology experience. She has worked in key financial institutions providing strategic leadership, creating strong partnerships and building innovative global technology solutions as part of large change programmes. Her efforts have led to significant savings and processing efficiencies for the Global Markets Operations division, automating front to back trading flows and breaking down silos across organizations. Augusta is Global Head of Markets Operations Technology at Barclays International. She supports markets post trade processing across multiple asset classes and post trade functions including tax reporting and shared services functions. Her team has been recognized with the best risk system for implementing a strategic risk based exception management system streamlining critical exception processing for global markets operations. She also leads the buildout of the markets post trade operations front to back target state architecture initiative. Outside of her primary role, Augusta is the co-lead of Women in Technology (Americas), and D&I Committees, as well as a member of the Whippany site D&I Council. She is extremely passionate about diversity and supporting other women in their careers.
CEO of Tapoly, one of the first on demand insurance providers for SMEs and freelancers in Europe, and the winner of Technology Development at the European Business Awards 2021 and the Best SaaS On-Demand Insurance Provider Award 2023. Listed by Forbes as number 6 of the Top 100 Women Founders to watch, and among the Top Ten Insurtech Female Influencers according to The Insurance Institute. Recently she has been named as one of the Most Influential Women in Tech 2021 and as the winner of Insurance Leader of the Year by Women In Finance Awards 2021. She was a former chartered accountant and internal audit director at investment banks, having previously worked at UBS, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, and BNP Paribas.
Dr. Andrée Bates is a leading Artificial Intelligence thought leader, tech provocateur, neuroscientist, board director, public speaker, podcast host, author, serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Eularis, a firm focused on tackling industry challenges with artificial intelligence since 2003. She is a leader and innovator in future-focused strategy and technology, and a force for immense change and growth, especially in healthcare and biopharma. Part of her work focuses on the strategic planning of AI across healthcare companies' entire value chain to ensure that boards understand its value and how to use it to effectively solve their unique growth challenges successfully and that their companies are future-proofed as the world evolves with tech.Dr. Bates has worked in Pharmaceuticals since 1993 in Europe, USA, Canada, LATAM, EMEA, Japan, UK and China.
Dr. Bates is a trailblazer in infusing sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to fuel dramatic improvements in the financial results of pharmaceutical companies through custom, targeted AI solutions. Dr. Bates has led Artificial Intelligence powered analytics programs for numerous top-tier pharmaceutical companies in diverse areas such as clinical trials and R&D, medical affairs and sales and marketing. These have all resulted in measurable growth in profit and market share for her clients. Having worked in the healthcare industry since 1993, she has an enviable contact base of top healthcare CEOs.She has authored many articles in peer-reviewed journals and industry reports and has a monthly column on this topic. She has been a guest lecturer on Healthcare Innovation and AI in four university MBA programs: INSEAD Business School (Fontainebleau) and St Josephs’ University (Pennsylvania), and Fordham University (New York) Global Healthcare Innovation Management postgraduate program, as well being a guest speaker in numerous internal pharmaceutical company meetings and international conferences in UK, France, Germany, Spain, Hungry, Australia, Canada, USA, Latin America, Japan and China.
Mivy James has been an IT professional for nearly 30 years. She is Digital Transformation Director for BAE Systems Digital Intelligence. Mivy helps UK government departments with their digital transformation journeys, focussing on enterprise architecture and technology strategy, and has a particular focus on high trust sectors of government.
Mivy started her career as an analyst/programmer after completing a degree in Computer Science and Maths and soon moved into technical leadership and system design. Mivy has worked for a range of clients across UK government on everything from cutting edge technology research to the strategic design of multi-billion-pound programmes.
Mivy is enthusiastic about technology and particularly keen to encourage women to follow careers in the IT profession, she is the founder & chair of Digital Intelligence’s gender balance network.
Emma is an experienced business leader with an extensive background in leveraging customer data and behavioural science for the benefit of leading FTSE 100 companies. She was one of the founding team who set up i2c - a leading customer data & insights business for Sainsbury’s. She has also had significant experience in establishing mutually beneficial commercial partnerships to deliver B2B2C solutions - such as the partnership between Nectar and Sainsbury’s. As Commercial Director at Virgin Management, she experienced first hand the value of putting purpose at the heart of the business. Joining Cogo gave her the opportunity to combine her passion for data for good with a drive to help empower consumers to live more sustainably and ethically through better insights. Since joining, Emma has driven significant scale and impact through partnerships with leading Financial Institutions including NatWest. Santander, ING, TSB and The Cumberland. Emma speaks three languages, is passionate about supporting working parents and advocating women in tech & data. She has two energetic children, a patient husband, and being half Norwegian has a passion for the outdoors and swimming in cold fjords.
Antoinette O'Neill is CIO for the Corporate and Investment Bank. Her team is approx. 8000 strong and works hand in hand with the Markets and Corporate Banking business, providing integrated services back to customers and clients. The team is global, with a presence in London, New York, Whippany, Pune, Chennai, Prague, Glasgow and Manchester.
Her previous role at Barclays was as the CIO for Risk, Finance and Functions Technology, driving strategic and regulatory change alongside functional partners in Risk, Finance, Treasury, Compliance, HR and Legal. Antoinette joined Barclays from Credit Suisse, where she had worked for 20+ years across London and New York, starting out as a hands on developer, building out trading and risk systems, before going on to work across multiple asset classes and functional domains, in both a horizontal, as well as vertical capacity. Not surprisingly, having studied Computer Science and Math, followed by a career dominated by technology, Antoinette views herself, first and foremost, as a technologist and with the growth of Cloud, Machine Learning and DevOps combined with the power of data, strongly believes that this is one of, if not the most, exciting times to be working in this space. Antoinette is also passionate about people and relationships and finds building deep relationships with key stakeholders, growing and mentoring talent, as well as building effective teams, hugely rewarding.
Jo Stansfield is Founder and Director of Inclusioneering, a social enterprise offering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultancy in the technology and engineering domains. Alongside this, she is Director of People Data and Insights for AVEVA, a leading industrial software firm. Jo holds a number of voluntary positions. She is a member of Council for the BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, co-chair of BCS Women, a member of the Industry Advisory Board for TechUp bootcamps, and Fellow of AI ethics and audit charity, ForHumanity.
Jo began her career as an engineer, developing enterprise software for global industry, spanning energy, automotive, aerospace and marine sectors. Having pivoted her focus from the technical to human dimensions of engineering, Jo now works as a Business Psychologist. She works with innovative tech and engineering firms, often at the intersection between the technical nature of the work, and the impacts of products and operations to people and planet.
Suzi specialises in leadership development, including executive coaching, leadership programmes for CEOs and executive leadership teams, and organisations throughout New Zealand. She is the author of the bestselling book, Beyond Burnout, which reached the top 10 nonfiction book sales in New Zealand - and is the author of the award-winning blog, The Leader ’s Digest, which has been named in CMOE’s Top 100 Socially-Shared Leadership Blogs, Serve To Lead’s Best 21st Century Leadership Blogs, Charles Specht’s Top 50 Global Leadership Bloggers and Hubworks Global Top 25 Leadership and Management Blogs. She has been featured in the Sunday Star Times, the Sunday programme, Radio New Zealand, the NZ Herald and Inc. Magazine. Suzi is also the creator of The Leader’s Map, a blended leadership programme for organisations wishing to equip their emerging leaders with the necessary leadership capabilities for success. She is based in Nelson, New Zealand.
Pinky is an award winning transformational life and business coach working with career driven professionals and entrepreneurs across the UK and globe. She is passionate about helping her clients become empowered to achieve personal and professional goals with purpose, drive and vision. Whether it’s asking for a promotion or chasing leads and closing business deals, believing in yourself is the first step towards creating a life you love. She will help you create your killer mindset that dismisses your inner critic and overcome imposter syndrome to put you on the right track for professional and personal success. She is a master practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) trained with the co-founder and qualified with Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) in coaching and mentoring.She founded Netwomen.co in February 2020, a global online community helping organisations increase their profitability and performance by elevating and retaining their female talent in tech. At Netwomen we believe in bridging the gender gap to make a difference by retaining talented women and keeping female leaders at the top for a sustainable future. Our mission is 50/50 gender split and an equitable world. The platform is online personal development and skill sharing, D&I program, coaching, mastermind groups and networking. Your membership and sponsorship will contribute to moving the needle on gender equality through equity.
Mary Agbesanwa is passionate about how technology is transforming wealth management and supporting millennials to achieve their full potential. She has spent several years working as a Management Consultant working with banks and fintechs looking to scale or adapt their business models. Now she works at Seccl, a B2B fintech building the 'Stripe for Investments'.
As their Fintech Growth Lead, she is focused on turbocharging the firm’s growth and expanding their portfolio of fintech clients.Outside of work, she runs a female professional community called the ‘Now You’re Talking Network’ which has over 1,000 members from tech and financial services. She is also the Learning Facilitator for Imperial College Business School’s quarterly Fintech Programme.
Her recent accolades include being part of Brummell’s 30 Inspirational Women in the City list 2022, Shortlisted for Black Tech Achievement Awards 'Fintech Professional of the Year 2022 & 2023', MCA Young Consultant of the Year Finalist 2021 and Innovate Finance Women in Fintech Powerlist 2020.
Regina is an Enterprise Transformation Strategist for Public Sector, Private and Finance clients. She works with PwC leadership to drive the ET strategy and market opportunities. With broad experience in technology implementation, strategy and portfolio management; Regina is solution-orientated with a strong ability to communicate effectively with executive and business audiences. Based on her experience as a client for large professional service firms, Regina brings a strong customer-centred approach to any project she leads. Regina also Co-chair’s the PwC Black Network - leading a community of black professionals within the firm and working with the board to improve Diversity and Inclusion in the Firm. In 2020 she was named in Consulting UK’s Top 80 Females in Tech. Regina is also Founder of Mainstream, a growing and international community that supports the personal development of early-mid career women who are working professionals and business owners. We do this through community events, workshops and coaching.
Liz Hardwick is a Digital Productivity Specialist, Professional Speaker, Trainer and Tech Founder, and has been sharing her expertise and experiences of “harnessing digital for human benefit”, for over 15 years through engaging talks, trainings and virtual seminars, and via her online eLearning Platform. Described as a forever-smiling, down to earth, and approachable expert, she is known for advocating a strong work life balance, using Digital to solve human problems, and loves to demystify technology so everyone can be digitally included. Liz has been recognised for her achievements in TechWomen100, TechWorld’s Top 111 UK Women in Tech Speakers, and DigitalLeadersUK100.
A highly accomplished entrepreneur, CEO and team builder. Over 25 years’ experience leading growth in marketing, digital media and technology businesses across consumer, B2B and public sectors. Karen successfully built and sold 3 businesses, including the UK’s Number 1 consumer PR agency (acquired by Tribal Group plc.), an integrated marketing and digital agency (acquired by the Economist) and an online shopping centre (acquired by intu Shopping Centres plc.) Karen is currently founder and CEO of StoriBoard. A global platform that makes it easy to find others going through the same life experience, empowering people to tell their story, share lessons learnt and connect. Karen has mentored women at Google and Amazon as well as a number of small businesses. She is currently a trustee of Jewish Futures and Chair of Trustees of Noa, a mental health charity for girls.
Leila Singh is an accomplished Sales and Finance professional with a corporate career spanning over 25 years. She has a wealth of experience initially gained as a qualified accountant (FCCA), followed by 16 years spent at Hewlett Packard Enterprise initially in Corporate Finance, and latterly nine years as a successful Sales Executive delivering a little shy of $1bn of business. In parallel, during the last nine years Leila has established her Coaching Practice & Personal Brand Consultancy, mi-brand, drawing on her breadth of skills, knowledge, and experience in the areas of sales, finance, and extensive personal growth and development, where she coaches highly motivated and ambitious career professionals at all levels up to CXO and NED’s, typically in the tech industry, to establish their competitive advantage, be best in class, and accelerate their career, by creating a powerful personal brand and showing up as their best self.Furthermore, Leila, a TEDx & Keynote Speaker, is accredited as a Master Coach, Coach and L&D Trainer, and Professional Speaker Mentor, Certified Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) & Hypnotherapy, Podcast Host of ‘Life Leadership – All Things Coaching, Career & Personal Brand!’, and Published Author of ‘Success Redefined – How to leverage your natural talents to be limitless!’
Dr Kate Devlin is Reader in Artificial Intelligence & Society in the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London, UK. With an undergraduate degree in archaeology and an MSc and PhD in computer science, her research investigates how people interact with and react to technologies, both past and future.
Kate is the author of the critically acclaimed Turned On: Science, Sex and Robots (Bloomsbury, 2018), which examines the ethical and social implications of technology and intimacy. Kate is currently Advocacy and Engagement director for the UK’s Trusted Autonomous Systems Hub – a collaborative platform to enable the development of socially beneficial robotics and AI systems that are both trustworthy in principle and trusted in practice. She is a board member of the Open Rights Group, a UK-based organisation that works to preserve digital rights and freedoms, and is a campaigner for gender equality to improve opportunities for women in tech.
In 2022, Kate was appointed as a patron of Humanists UK for her contribution to the greater public understanding of science.
With over a decade of experience in the media and tech industries, Carlotta lived and worked in four different countries before settling down in London, England. From the bottom of the mountains in a small Italian town, to the heart of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley (California) working for emerging tech and networking startups through academic paths in Scotland, US and Sweden - all the way to corporate advertising and tech hives based in London, Carlotta is now a Sr. Partnerships Manager at Shopify. Additionally, she is also a Tech Career Coach for a growing NYC-based startup called School16. Prior to that, Carlotta led Enterprise Brand partnerships at Oracle Advertising & CX. Carlotta is also a guest lecturer for the University of Sussex, a board member for Hastings College - and a coach for ambitious women who are looking to grow their career. In 2023, Carlotta is going to be a delegate for the UN Women UK commission on the Status of Women (CSW67). In 2022, Carlotta was recognised as winner by Lead5050 for their Woman in Tech award, by Women of the Future Programme for their Mentor Award, by ForwardLadies for their Emerging Leader award - and was listed on the INvolve Future Leaders List. Carlotta is also a TechWomen100 winner from 2021.
Jodi Goldman is a Personal Impact Coach and experienced international speaker. She's worked with thousands of professionals and business owners to help them develop magnetic confidence, a powerful personal brand and assertive communication skills. Her corporate clients include companies like Google, RBS, Merlin, Sony, IG and the Epic.
Wincie Wong uses her background at the leading edge of creative and disruptive innovation in the banking industry to break down barriers and transform the shape and diversity of the tech and data workforce. An international speaker and a digital evangelist, she is passionate about spearheading the growth of a diverse technology workforce as co-founder of the NatWest Girls Can Code network and founding member of Tech She Can, a charity representing 250+ corporates working together to increase the number of women in technology roles in the UK through education. She is also co-host of the NatWest Technically Speaking podcast series discussing current topics in the evolving world of tech. She has a background working with the UK government to tap into the huge unrealised economic potential of female entrepreneurs by making the UK one of the best countries in the world for women to start and grow a new business as recommended in the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship. A serial entrepreneur herself, she has been featured in Season 2 of BBC’s My Million Pound Menu with host Fred Siriex for her business running Burmese supper clubs – now available on Netflix globally. She was named Woman of the Year at the 2023 Women in IT Awards and one of the Top 100 Most Influential BAME Leaders in UK Tech by Inclusive Boards & the Financial Times in 2019. Having grown up in New York City, she’s spent over a decade in London where she is passionate about making innovation useful for customers.
Birgit Neu is a senior DEI advisor and the former Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at HSBC, with a broad career spanning multiple sectors including digital, retail, publishing and financial services. She has been named in LinkedIn’s Top 10 UK Voices for Gender Equity 2022, WeAreTheCity’s Trailblazers Top 50 in 2021, Top 20 Diversity Professionals in Industry 2020 by the Global Diversity List, and was Head of Diversity of the Year at the 2019 European Diversity Awards. Birgit has held leadership committee roles on a variety of diversity networks and campaigns, and is a regular contributor to thought leadership and advisory groups across different aspects of DEI and ESG for leading organisations worldwide.
Reedah El-Saie, is the founder and CEO of multi-award winning EdTech startup Brainspark Games, building an eduverse of culturally inclusive, 3-D immersive educational mobile games, aligned with the British national curriculum, for 7-13yos. Reedah graduated in Law from the London School of Economics, read a Masters in Law from UCL before qualifying as a barrister. She spent several years working as a management consultant before launching a number of businesses in the creative industries. She spent 6 years working as a Portfolio/Project Manager working with local government in the Middle East & UK. She founded Brainspark Games as a result of her frustration with her son’s addiction to gaming and disillusionment with an ‘exam driven’ antiquated education system. Innovate UK’s ‘Women In Innovation Winner’ 2022-23, Reedah has won 5 Innovate UK grants including Smart, ‘Audience of The Future’ for a climate game and ‘MindsetXR’ for neurowellbeing. Finalist for Barclays ‘Entrepreneur of the Year – Games Award’ 2022/23, having won 4 DevelopHer Awards including ‘Amazon Games’ Category, Reedah was named ‘Inspiring EdTech Female Founder’ 2021 by Super Charger Ventures. A thought leader in Edtech and Games, she was invited to speak at the ASU+GSV 2022 on ‘Future of Learning, Web3, Metaverse & Educational Games’, ‘London Tech Week’, ‘World EdTech Forum’, ‘Women In Tech Festival’ and Barclays Rezzed Stage at the EGX Conference, amongst others. Reedah lives with her husband and three children in London and is passionate about fostering a love of learning through play.
Raman Rai is a multi-award winning Product Manager who applies human behaviour and design thinking to help build inclusive products.Named 2022's TechWomen100 and One Young World Ambassador, Raman is one of 100 influential female tech leaders in the UK. She has helped scale 50+ social enterprises during COVID-19 by turning ideas into sustainable and scalable ventures and is an ambassador for Europe’s largest female and non-binary hackathon, Athena Hackathon, which she has won twice and mentors hackers on how to take an early stage idea to a MVP.In her first year at PwC UK, Raman was named a Rising Star and won the Building Purpose Award and Spotlight Award: Beyond Change for her contributions to driving inclusive digital transformation across PwC. She created a legacy of upskilling 3000+ people and clients on digital technology at a time when delivery was virtually impossible. In 2019, Raman represented the UK advertising industry at the Roger Hatchuel Academy at Cannes Lions and Google Creative Campus in Silicon Valley, California.She is an avid travel photographer and Gen Z writer.
Dawn M.K. Zoldi (Colonel, United States Air Force Retired) is a licensed attorney, U.S. Air Force veteran and the founder and Chief Executive Officer of P3 Tech Consulting, connecting people who have a passion for advanced tech platforms with the plans, programs, policies and information they need to succeed. Ms. Zoldi was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1992 and commissioned through direct appointment in the Air Force in July 1993. In her almost 25 years of active duty as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps as a military attorney, she performed a myriad of duties at various command echelons in the continental U.S. and deployed forward. Upon retirement from active duty in 2018, she spent two years with the Office of the Air Force General Counsel as the Business Matters Attorney for the U.S. Air Force Academy and an additional one as the Deputy Director of the Academy’s Center for Character and Leadership Development. She is an internationally recognized expert on uncrewed aircraft systems and advanced air mobility law and policy. Her recognition includes: MOVE America (Mobility) - The Disruptors (2022), Airwards People’s Choice - Industry Impactor (2022), eVTOL Insights Powerbook (2022), Top 100 Women in Aerospace and Aviation to Follow on LinkedIn (2022, 2021) and the Woman to Watch in UAS - Leadership Award (2019). Her endeavors in the drone law, regulatory and policy arena include roles as a consultant for multiple technology companies, columnist & contributor for several magazines, host of multiple popular weekly podcasts and conference planner. She has strategic partnerships and leadership roles in multiple aerospace, drone education, non-profit, and media-related companies and organizations. She is a former adjunct professor of homeland security, a current graduate-level adjunct for UAS law and policy and the author of the book Unmanned Aircraft Systems Legal and Business Considerations: A Modern Primer for U.S. Drone Programs.
Sharon has been with Sky since 2020, moving into Tech in March 2021. Her role sees her overseeing the delivery of the Group Technology People Strategy at Sky. In fulfilling the role, she draws on innumerable years of L&D, Early Careers and Leadership Development experience with a passion for DE&I woven throughout. With an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and a recent postgrad in Organisational Psychology, this role brings both strands of Sharon’s interests together. She has recently been selected as a UK Delegate to the UN Commission on the Status of Women where the 2023 theme will be how technological change and innovation can improve gender inequalities. Her TEDx talk in 2016 was on the topic of “Developing the Conversation about Women in Leadership”. Sharon sits on the Scottish Young Persons Guarantee Employer Advisory Group, and has worked with Scottish Government on the subject of Trauma Informed Practices in Employment in the Private Sector.
Libby Heaney is an award winning artist and quantum physicist whose solo exhibitions include arebyte Gallery London and Light Art Space Berlin, 2022, which was named by Weltkunst* as one of the best exhibitions of March 2022 alongside Louise Bourgeois, Jenny Holzer n& Yves Saint Laurent. Heaney is considered to be the first artist to use quantum computing as a functioning artist medium and her notable quantum artwork Ent- has won the Lumen Prize and the Falling Walls Art-Science Prize, 2022.Other solo and group exhibitions & performances in 2022 include Calder and the 21st Century, Nahmad Contemporary, NYC; a month long public screening, Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul; Biomedia, ZKM, Karlsruhe; Quantum Hivemind, Serpentine Gallery, London & CASCADE, Southbank Centre, London.
Heaney was awarded the 2022 Mozilla Foundation Creative Media Award, has been the recipient of numerous Arts Council England grants and is in major private collections including Zabludowicz Collection, London. She is currently resident artist of Somerset House Studios, London.Before retraining as an artist at Central St. Martins, London, Heaney completed a PhD in Quantum Information Science at the University of Leeds and led her own research at the University of Oxford, publishing around 20 papers on the topic of quantum entanglement. She won the HSBC and Intitute of Physics, UK, Very Early Career Woman Physicist of the year in 2008.
Madhvi is a principal consultant at Delta Capita focusing on strategy, operating model design, technology transformation and automation projects. She is a 2022 TechWomen100 award winner and GG2 2023 finalist for the women of the year award. She started her career with a first class B.SC (Hons) Computer Science as a programmer. With over 15 years of experience, she has a sustained record of success, delivering change within the fast paced dynamic financial institutions. Born and raised in Kenya, educated in the UK and working as a technical leader within the male dominated Technology and Financial Sector, Madhvi has a deep passion and drive for making a difference. She is a women’s success mindset and empowerment coach and a delegate for the UN Women UK commission on the Status of Women (CSW67). She is the founder and global head of Women’s Network at Delta Capita bringing together women from all regions to discuss initiatives for success.
Lily leads the delivery of executive appointments at technology recruitment firm Harvey Nash, specialising in CIO, CTO and CDO appointments throughout the UK and internationally. She works cross-sector, with FTSE, Fortune and private equity-backed organisations among her main client base. At Harvey Nash she leads best practice in search across their 9 UK offices and regularly presents the group’s thought leadership at industry events. Lily has a keen interest in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, particularly the (under)representation of women and minority groups in the CIO community.
Emma has a passion for creating change and playing her part to create workplaces where everyone belongs, regardless of background and can thrive to their absolute potential. Emma is a mother to two young daughters and knows first hand the value working parents can bring to business. Emma’s career spans 20 years with experience across global Media and Technology organisations, including Sky and her current role at Google.
Catherine Wright is a Senior Vice President in the Corporate Finance team at Silicon Valley Bank UK where she is involved in the origination & execution of innovative debt funding for both listed and private mid-market transactions in the Technology ecosystem. She is passionate about supporting her client’s move towards a sustainable future through the implementation of appropriate ESG strategies. Catherine is a strong advocate for Inclusion & Diversity and is Co-Chair & Founding Member of SVB’s EMEA Gender Employee Resource Group, also partnering with The Gender Index, engaging and leading over 650 colleagues to drive systematic change towards a gender-balanced, inclusive and equitable workplace.
Catherine has been recognised for three years running in the Top 100 Future Female Leader HERoes List by Yahoo Finance (2022, 2021 & 2020), she was named as a winner in WeAreTheCity’s TechWomen100 in 2022 and was also shortlisted for the Women in Finance Award 2022. In 2020, Catherine founded The Women in Business Society, an international professional community currently serving over 1000 women, supporting the professional development of members by way of masterclasses, workshops and a quarterly magazine. As a Keynote Speaker and accredited Life and Career Coach, Catherine individually coaches and mentors highly motivated and ambitious women across the UK and internationally.
Maria is a Young Trustee and Co-Chair of EY Foundation’s Youth Advisory Board. She is a self-motivated analytical leader and board member passionate about creating opportunities for young people, especially those from low socio-economic backgrounds. Her unique lived experience has inspired her to advocate for others, making her thoughtful and measured in the boardroom, when making complex decisions and engaging with diverse perspectives. She is an active team player and effective communicator with excellent relational skills, focused on making a positive difference. She currently has governance responsibility for over 2200 young people, 2230 volunteers, 40 employees. Maria currently works as a Credit Analyst at BP, assessing the creditworthiness of various counterparties and monitoring their ongoing financial performances. She is also the founder of the social media platform Navigate Up which aims to inspire and equip young professionals in navigating their career and personal development.
Laura works within the Client Tech and Innovation function at EY responsible for Client Technology and Emerging Technologies such as Trusted AI, Blockchain, Quantum and the Metaverse.She is focussed on productising solutions for EY’s clients and service lines as well as driving awareness and fame for EY in this space. She joined the firm a year ago following a 25 year career in consumer tech (telco) in leadership positions across companies such as Samsung, Microsoft, Nokia and Sony.Laura’s strengths lie in commerciality, go to market and leadership. She is also passionate about driving the DE&I agenda and is an active member of the WIT community.
Marika Roque is the current chief operating officer and chief innovation officer at KERV Interactive, a multi-award-winning interactive video company revolutionizing the performance of digital advertising with its patented technology. Marika is a top expert in digital media, data and organizational infrastructures recognized by her peers for her genius-level knowledge and advancement of the advertising industry where she holds over 15 years of professional leadership experience.
Previous to KERV, Marika worked as the vice president of digital operations for Mass2, a division of multi-billion-dollar corporation Nexstar Digital LLC. While at Mass2 and Nexstar, Marika was praised for her data wizardry and success in leading several key business divisions. Her unrivaled passion and powerful work ethic enabled her to create many new data-driven acronyms and tribalize new data elements. Marika also spent three years and served as vice president of digital media activation at LIN Digital, an online advertising and media services company that is now part of Nexstar Media Group. While at LIN, Marika acted as a spokesperson and was a proactive innovator in solving industry topics.
Marika has held senior-level positions for leading advertising agencies and technology companies in the Austin, Texas area including Sizmek and GSD&M where she was recognized by clients as a value-extended team member in digital planning. She spent years in Chicago working for FCB Global, one of the largest global advertising agencies, and Starcom MediaVest Group, one of the largest media networks in the world. While at Starcom, Marika was recognized for her involvement in the significant creation of the first agency-side programmatic pipelines and what the industry now refers to as an agency trading desk. She also has experience working as an executive producer and brand manager for Border Media.
Marika holds a Bachelor’s in Advertising from The University of Texas at Austin, which she achieved while also participating as a former D1 collegiate athlete.
Managing Director of Block Venture Studio, I am a Technology Leader with 26 years experience, including 13 years in Investment Banking. I studied at the SOAS, University of London, achieving a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics. I am passionate about the community and have been Secretary of the Society of African Earth Scientists for over 10 years.
Amanda Creak is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley. She joined the Firm in November 2021 as EMEA Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and CDRR Transformation Lead. In November 2022, Amanda was also appointed as Head of EMEA Technology assuming overall responsibility for leadership and management of EMEA Technology Division in relation to the Morgan Stanley International Group. In January 2023, she additionally became the Global co-lead for Technology Risk, Governance and Control functions. Amanda is a member of the EMEA Operating Committee and Co-Chair of the Bank of England CIO Forum.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Amanda worked at Goldman Sachs, where she held the role of EMEA CISO and led the Global Technology Risk Governance team. She has over 30 years of experience in cyber and information security, leading operational security teams, delivering cyber consulting services and regulatory engagement. Amanda began her career in 1991 as a systems developer building and maintaining secure systems for the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence before transitioning to work in the security division and a predecessor to the current National Cyber Security Centre. In 1998, she joined Ernst and Young’s newly formed UK cyber security team, where she played a key role in the cyber leadership team leading the EMEA technical security delivery teams. During this time, she delivered a wide range of critical cyber security engagements and multi-million dollar investment programs for financial services clients.Amanda holds an Honors degree in Mathematics from University College of Swansea.
Amy joined Barclays in June 2017 and is the Chief Information Officer for Business Banking within Barclays UK Technology. Business Banking (BB) Technology work with the Business team to define and execute the technology solutions which support the delivery of the business strategy, and outcomes for our customers and colleagues. We look after c20% of UK Small Businesses, and just under 30% of British Farms. BB Technology consists of around 400 colleagues working across the UK and India, with roles within CIO (Programme & Project Management, Business Analysis, Business implementation & the Programme Office) and Engineering (Software Development & Testing).
Prior to joining Barclays, Amy worked at Accenture for 11 years, largely focused on delivery of complex systems integrations programmes at a number of Financial Services Institutions and joined Barclays to lead the Open Banking Programme for BUK.
Amy is Wellbeing & Recognition Lead as part of the BUK Technology People Agenda and is a champion of embracing and adopting Hybrid working, following leadership of the Return to Office Activity for 6,000 technology colleagues across all of our UK sites at the end of 2021.
As of June 2022, Amy was appointed the Site Lead for Barclays at Radbroke and works with leaders across the campus to help shape and drive the colleague engagement agenda, talent attraction, and corporate real estate teams through the refurbishment of our site- ensuring we are building and curating a world-class place to come to work. We have c7,000 colleagues based at Radbroke, with our majority of colleagues working in technology and security.
Amy mentors and coaches a number of colleagues to help them succeed in their careers at Barclays and is a passionate advocate and sponsor of the Barclays Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Agenda.
Hannah Awonuga is a Global Director leading the DEI Colleague Engagement strategy as Head of DEI Colleague Engagement at Barclays Bank. In her role, she is responsible for global strategic oversight of DEI campaigns, communications, the global employee resource group strategy and responsible for the banks global socioeconomic agenda. Hannah a strong leadership background with over 10years leadership experiences managing remote and diverse teams across the organisation.
Hannah has been working for Barclays since she was 17yrs old and for the past 17yrs has spent time in the Retail bank, business and corporate bank before transitioning into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in 2019. Hannah has been named an inspirational D&I leader by esteemed professional body D&I leader’s inspirational leaders 2021 list and received an We are the city 2021 rising star award in the banking and capital category.
Hannah is an award winning DEI speaker who actively uses her voice to speak on DEI issues around Gender, race and ethnicity, social mobility and generations in the workplace. She has recently been appointed as a Non- executive director for the UK government membership body Progress Together which has been set up to increase socioeconomic diversity at senior leadership level across the UK financial services. She is also a foundation school governor at a Catholic secondary college in south London.
Marcia Williams, Chief Product Officer & Co-founder, Greylfy.ai As Chief Product Officer at Greyfly.ai, Marcia leads product development and manages the activities of the Data Science team. Marcia’s background is in IT Audit, Risk and Consulting with 20+years of experience. She previously worked at the Big 4 consulting firms, including spending time working abroad in Bermuda and San Jose, USA. As well a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Certified in Risk & Information Systems Control (CRISC), she holds a Master’s degree in Information Systems Management from the London School of Economics.
Claudia van der Salm is the Portfolio Manager for Technology at DeepMind, where she brings extensive knowledge from her experience as an executive working in Insurance and Tech in Europe, USA, and Asia. She works with teams of Researchers and Engineers to contribute towards solving intelligence to advance science and benefit humanity. She loves working in complex, ever-evolving environments and has a strong drive for positive change.
Sims is the Climate & Sustainability Lead at DeepMind, where she works with teams of Researchers and Engineers on the application of AI to solve challenges that contribute to climate change. She has spent 11 years building technologies for social good and was a founding member of Google's Crisis Response team. Sims is also the co-founder of the Centre for AI and Climate (CAIC), an international organisation based out of London. She holds an MSc with Distinction from University College London and a BA with Honours from University of Pennsylvania.
As CEO of Code First Girls and Member of Institute of Coding, Anna is on a mission to eliminate the diversity gap in tech by providing free education and employment to women, globally. Anna has transformed Code First Girls from a social enterprise to a rapidly accelerating profit-making business, including securing Series A funding from female angel investors and a leading investment firm to accelerate the company’s growth and close the gender gap in the traditionally male-dominated tech industry. Anna has plans to create one million opportunities for women to learn to code and participate in the tech industry in the next five years– providing women with £1bn worth of economic opportunities.
Prior to Code First Girls, Anna was the Commercial Director of both Lynda.com and LinkedIn. When LinkedIn acquired Lynda for $1.5 Billion in April 2015, she became part of the fourth-largest acquisition in social media history and subsequently contributed to the creation of LinkedIn Learning, one of the largest online learning platforms.
Anna is also Advisor to HM Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter.
Christina is a Global Director, Sales Strategy, Data at LSEG. She focuses on ensuring complete interlock between sales and data. Partnering with all relevant stakeholders in Sales Strategy & Execution and Data Strategy & Management, to co- create a systematic way to talk about Data. She has held a variety of different leadership roles within Thomson Reuters, Refinitiv and LSEG, managing teams within Customer Content Solutions and Data Strategy & Management, since 2012.
Prior to that, she was Global Head of Research, Fixed Income at Dealogic and prior to that Fixed Income and Credit Analyst, at Bloomberg.
Christina holds a MSc in International Business Economics from City University London. Proud champion of promoting gender equality in the working environment within LSEG group and acting on the management board of Women in Banking and Finance, as Director of Corporate Relations.
Ali Roff Farrar is a wellness writer, yoga teacher, and mindfulness expert. She is passionate about combining the western sciences of psychology, neuroscience, and coaching with the Eastern philosophies of meditation, mindfulness, and yoga, to cultivate true wellness of body and mind. Her first book ‘The Wellfulness Project (Aster, £16.99) was published in 2020.
Marija Butkovic is a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur, innovation and business consultant, feminist, and advocate for diversity and inclusion in the tech sector. As a consultant, she loves working with innovative companies, supporting them in the areas of marketing, PR, community building, market research, and business growth. Her clients include corporates, universities, tech companies, and innovative startups.
She is the founder and CEO of Women of Wearables - a leading global organization and ecosystem by and for women and allies in wearable tech, health tech, and femtech industries.
Marija is a Forbes contributor writing for the Forbes Women, where her key topics of interest include diversity and inclusion, female leadership, women’s health, and healthcare technology innovation.
She is also an Advisory Board Member for the Women's Health Innovation Series - the leading platform for the key industry players in women’s health innovation, where she is positioned as the thought leader shaping the health of women in Europe, the USA, and globally; Innovation Equity Forum Steering Committee Member - a joint project by The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and Leadership Council Member at the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) - a global non-profit and the professional home for all members of the digital medicine community.
Marija is also a Venture Partner at Simsan Ventures where her mission is to find and back the best underrepresented founders, supporting them to create world-class businesses. Fund operates in Europe, India, and South Korea, and invests in early-stage tech businesses with diversity at its core with a focus on FinTech and Deep Tech from the Pre-seed stage to Series A.
She has been featured in major tech and business publications such as TechCrunch, The Next Web, and Huffington Post, and selected as one of the Most Influential Women in UK tech by Computer Weekly in 2018 - 2022, as well as added among the Top 25 HealthTech influencers to follow on Twitter and 17 female startup leaders in Europe to follow on LinkedIn by Sifted.
Marija regularly appears as a public speaker and panelist at conferences, meetups, and corporate events where she covers topics of diversity, emerging technologies, and female-led entrepreneurship. She holds an LLM degree from the University of Law in Rijeka, Croatia.
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With more than a decade of experience in leading private, public and third sector organisations through significant periods of innovation and change, Natalie leads Profusion, a data consultancy. Her mission is to support organisations large and small to get the right insight into the right hands at the right time to create value. She was recently named in the 20 Women in Data and Technology and has been recognised multiple times in the top 100 data professionals. She holds various leadership roles in the data community including Chairing a Women’s Health movement, leading a cross-industry Data Ethics Advisory Board, and being a member of the Mayor’s Data for London Advisory Board.
Prior to Profusion, Natalie scaled a start-up from £6 million to £30million in just 18 months and ran above the line, digital and email marketing campaigns for the Mayor of London to launch a new brand ‘Team London’ and build and engage a database of 1 million Londoners who would volunteer, securing London the title of European Volunteering Capital. She was also part of the team that delivered the London 2012 Olympic Games and started her career at Deloitte, leading transformation programmes. As a career problem solver, she truly believes data is the key to solving our problems and enabling our businesses and society to thrive.
Ritu is the Managing Director and Head of EMEA for Syndio. She has over 20 years of experience in senior leadership roles with HR and tech and talent-focused businesses, including leading business development and strategic growth efforts in EMEA at Glint (now LinkedIn) and Managing Director, Europe at Kenexa (acquired by IBM in 2012). Ritu has personally led and delivered many key projects for some of the world’s largest and most complex global organisations, linking results to overall strategic business goals to drive performance improvement. She is passionate about making workplaces more diverse, inclusive, and fair. Ritu is the winner of multiple awards and has been recognised on the EMpower Top 100 Ethnic Minority Senior Executive lists on several occasions.