7-8 December 2020
ExCeL London
6-7 September, 2018
ICC Sydney, Australia
6-7 September, 2018
ICC Sydney, Australia
(We'll be announcing more every week!)
Dave Wascha
Chief Product and Technology Officer @ Zoopla
Antje Bustamante
Head of Data and Analytics @ Zoopla
Col Dame Kelly Holmes (MBE mil) is one of Britain’s most recognizable and admired athletes. She has won Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European medals, and added the ultimate sporting trophy to her cabinet at the Athens Olympic Games – Double Olympic Gold.
Kelly, however is not only known for her medals and records, but also for her gutsy, committed approach to athletics and her ability to overcome injury and illness in order to still stay at the top of her discipline. Her strength and courage has won her many fans both within the sport and outside of it.
She started her athletics career as a promising athlete as a junior and won the 1,500m at the English Schools Championships, but chose to give up her early athletics career in favour of a career in the army. She signed up a few months before her 18th Birthday and over the next 9 years worked her way quickly up the ranks until she was a Sergeant. She joined with the aim of making the rank of Officer, but once she started to run again, initially for the forces, and started to win major titles she faced a really tough decision – army or running?
In 1997 she took a massive step and left the army, making athletics her focus and career. Her desire to be the best demands that she gives100%, something she does in everything she takes on. She has the fundamental element for success – the ability to be focused. She was awarded the MBE in 1998 for services to the British Army and was honoured by the Queen in the 2005 New Year’s honours with a Damehood.
Kelly won Olympic Gold in the 800m and 1500m races at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, becoming the first woman ever and the first Briton in over 80 years to do so.
Kelly retired from competition in the autumn of 2005 but remains heavily involved in the sport. Among her many activities Kelly has also written her autobiography, ‘Black, White & Gold’, appeared in the Celebrity TV Series ‘Dancing on Ice’, and has been appointed by the government as the first National School Sport Champion. She founded the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust in 2008 with a vision to get young lives back on track using the unique skills of world class athletes to engage, enable and empower young people.
In 2018 she was appointed Honorary Colonel of The Royal Armoured Corps Training Regiment, becoming the first person to ever be attached to a regular unit which was signed off by the Queen.
In 2019 Kelly released a new book calledRunning Life: Mindset, Fitness& Nutrition for Positive Wellbeing – an inspirational and attainable guide to how mindfulness, exercise anddietinterlink to transform your overall wellbeing. It was awarded Sports Health and Fitness Book of theYear at The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2019.
Kelly speaks passionately on employee wellbeing and mental health, motivation, inspiration, sports, entrepreneurship and diversity & inclusion.
Lucy Hawking uses story-telling to help audiences understand and engage with science. Lucy is the creator of the George Greenby books, a series of adventure stories which use dramatic story-telling to explain complex science to young audiences. Lucy has collaborated with several distinguished scientists on the George Greenby series, including her well-known father, the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. Translated into 40 different languages the books have each met with rave reviews. Lucy is currently working with Canadian animation studio DHX media to develop the series into an animated television series.
Previously, Lucy worked as a journalist in London and New York. She subsequently moved into publishing with two comedy novels for adults: “Jaded” (2004) and “Run for Your Life” (2005). While working on the George series, Lucy spent a year as Distinguished Writer in residence at the Origins Project, ASU where she was also Visiting International Scholar at the Institute of Humanities Research. Lucy is a trustee of the Autism Research Trust which supports the work of Cambridge neuroscientist Simon Baron Cohen and his team, investigating the causes of autism. She has many other charitable interests and seeks to support people and their families with autism and Motor Neurone Disease. In 2015, Lucy was made a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in recognition of the work she has done in explaining science to a young audience. In the same year she was awarded the UNSW medal for Science Communication. Lucy won the Sapio Prize for popularising science in 2008.
Lucy is one of few people worldwide whose childhood has been made into an Oscar winning movie. She is played in the film Theory of Everything by young actress Rafaela Chapman. On July 16th 2015, Lucy was awarded an honorary doctorate of sciences by Queen Mary University of London. Dr Lucy Hawking was delighted by the great honour, given to her for her work in making science accessible and entertaining for a young audience.
Advocate for diversity and inclusion in all its forms. Passionate about redressing the gender balance via advisory positions at @BigYGroup, @accelerate-Her and the @girlguiding association. "If we are to thrive in a digital future, we must ensure that we have all of our voices heard when it comes to designing technology. If we do not, we risk creating a world which is for the few and not for the many."
In 2016 she entered the @Computerweekly Hall of Fame after being voted Computer Weekly's Most Influential Woman in IT 2015; she was listed on Debretts 2016 500 People of Influence and named in Europe’s Inspiring Fifty most inspiring female role models for 2017. She was presented with the 2017 Catherine Variety award for Science and Technology and the 2018 Women in Tech Award for Advocate of the Year acknowledging her contribution to diversity. Awarded the Digital and Technology Award at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards in 2019. Listen to her life and music choices on Desert Island Discs podcast March 2019. Jacqueline was awarded CBE for Services to International Trade in Technology in the Queen's New Year Honours list 2018.
She is happily married to Roger Andre.
Listed as one of the UK's Top Most Influential Women in Tech & an international multi-award winner for her services to Diversity & Inclusion in industry, Sheree (@nirushika) is the Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Monzo; Board-Appointed Global Ambassador, Women Who Code; Contributor, Forbes.
Sheree is a global Diversity & Inclusion leader, having worked in many regions providing leadership and training to C-suite/Executive leadership to develop fully formed focused diversity and inclusion strategies. She has created tailored data driven strategies through engaging all employees, including C-suite, which has enabled authentic change. Sheree has what has been described as “infectious confidence with expertise in the diversity and inclusion space”, which leads to the ability to ensure people, of all levels, understand the business benefit of diversity and inclusion whilst becoming champions, in their own roles.
As a passionate advocate for gaining/retaining women in the industry, she launched & led the award-winning U.K. expansion of Women Who Code (womenwhocode.com), since 2013.
As an industry leader, she has spoken at many global events, conferences and leadership sessions and is regularly profiled for her work. Sheree & her work have been featured in many publications, such as Forbes, FastCompany, Evening Standard, HuffPost, Business Post, Marie Claire, Wired, ComputerWeekly, The Guardian, Sunday Telegraph, Newsletter & many more. Links are provided below.
The aim of her career is ensuring people are aware of the fantastic opportunities the industry has to offer & make certain that all humans are able to benefit from these & reach their full career potential.
Kriti has experience managing global Machine Learning and Digital products in regulated industries and has been leading chatbot projects for various social causes, from productivity to inequality to domestic abuse, in over 25 countries. Included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 for advancements in AI and the Recode 100 List of Key Influencers in Technology in 2017, Kriti was also invited as a Civic Leader to the Obama Foundation Summit for her work in ethical technology. She recently gave expert testimony on AI Policy to the UK Parliament in the House of Lords.
Prior to founding AI for Good, Kriti was the VP of Artificial Intelligence at FTSE 100 companies including Barclays and Sage. Kriti was also appointed a United Nations Young Leader at the General Assembly in 2018 and is an adviser to the UN Technology Innovation Labs.
While much of Silicon Valley worry about doomsday scenarios where AI will take over human civilization, Kriti Sharma has a different kind of concern: What happens if disadvantaged groups don’t have a say in the technology we’re creating?
Debbie Forster MBE is an award-winning figure in the areas of diversity, tech and education.She is a coach, portfolio consultant and CEO for the Tech Talent Charter, an industry collective driving greater inclusion and diversity in the UK tech workforce. Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) named her Woman of the Year for 2016 and she was awarded an MBE in 2017 for “Services to Digital Technology and Tech Development”. She was awarded Women in IT Awards Diversity Leader of the Year 2019 and Computer Weekly also named her Most Influential Woman in UK IT for 2019.
Sara Murray (MA Oxon) is a serial technology entrepreneur, having founded Ninah Consulting, which she sold to French Communications Group – Publicis and Inspop, which owns the brand Confused.com – now a multi-billion pound UK listed business.
Sara then founded and runs Buddi, the first wearable-as-a-service company, which operates in health and criminal justice markets, delivering to Government customers on five continents. Sara was a UK Entrepreneur of the Year winner, a governing board member of Innovate UK (the UK Government’s Innovation Agency) and a development council member of the National Portrait Gallery.
She is currently the Senior Independent Director of Boohoo.com plc, the multi-billion pound online fast fashion group, and sits on the Council of Imperial College London. She was awarded an OBE for services to Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours 2012 and is a qualified helicopter pilot.
Anne Marie has been Chief Operating Officer at Ocado Technology since 2014, looking after Infrastructure and Operations, organisational development, and general management. She joined the organisation in 2001, and became Head of Ocado Technology Poland in 2012. That gave her the opportunity to set up our first development office from scratch outside the UK. Before joining Ocado, Anne Marie worked in Boston, US as a Software Development Manager for Staples Inc.
Justine Roberts CBE is Founder and CEO of Mumsnet, one of the UK’s largest and most influential online communities sharing advice, support and product recommendations with over 10 million unique users per month.
Justine is a non-executive director of FTSE100 insurance firm Admiral and of the Open Data Institute founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. She is also a member of the Government’s Rose Review Board.
In 2011, Justine launched Gransnet, a website for the original baby boomer generation. She is a mother of four (and two dogs) and was appointed CBE in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to the economy.
As a leader in the Chief Technology Office for investment banking, Rini has been responsible for delivering many innovative technology programmes including Cloud, artificial intelligence and biometric authentication. A founding member of the UBS BAME employee network, she has helped to increase the network’s membership to nearly 1,000, and manages all external networking and engagements to actively promote BAME representation in the organisation. She is a board member for BritBangla and is credited for her contribution on diversity as part of the newly-launched Good Work Standard by the London Mayor’s office. Rini represents UBS at the Lord Mayor’s Appeal for City corporations chaired by Dame Fiona Woolf, and is one of the top 100 Muslim women ‘changing the script’ under Baroness Uddin’s initiative to promote Muslim women in the UK.
Charlene has been a software developer for over 10 years in a range of languages and technologies. She is the founder of Coding Black Females, a non profit to inspire, provide opportunities, and showcase the talents of black women in tech. She is also the co-founder of Meet Up and Code, a community to bring developers together and code together. Charlene is passionate about increasing diversity in tech.
Sharon Moore MBE was appointed IBM UK CTO for Public Sector in January 2019. She marries the needs of industry with the potential of technology and breadth of IBM, to transform technical capability into real business results. You will often find her on stage discussing the impact and value of technological advancements such as AI, IOT and Blockchain on industry. Sharon has moved into this role following success in IBM’s outsourcing, consulting and sales organisations, building a career as a technical architect with a focus on integration and enterprise architecture.
Sharon is also a board member of the CENSIS Innovation Centre. She was honoured with an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours 2018 for services to women in technology based industries, and presented with the 'Inspirational Women in Leadership' award at the inaugural Scotland Women in Technology Awards 2017. She is Deputy Chair of BCSWomen, leads BCSWomen activity in Scotland, and is a board member of Scotland Women in Technology.
Anne Boden, MBE, is a most unusual banker. After a distinguished career working in senior leadership at some of the world’s best-known financial heavyweights, among them Allied Irish Banks, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, she set out to build her own mobile-only bank from scratch in 2014. She raised $70 million of funding and obtained a full banking licence in 2016, launching Starling’s first account in 2017. Since then, the bank has completed more successful funding rounds. It now operates current accounts for individuals and small businesses and expects to have opened one million accounts by the end of 2019. The Starling Marketplace, Europe’s first fully integrated financial marketplace, provides the bank's current account customers with access to third-party financial services in a compelling example of Open Banking in action. Starling’s Banking Services B2B division makes the bank’s proprietary best-in-class banking and payments infrastructure (“Banking-as-a-Service”) available to third parties.
Karina is the Director of Diversity for Google’s EMEA region, enabling an environment of belonging for over 18,000 Googlers in 36 countries.
Prior to joining Google, Karina was the Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Vodafone, creating and overseeing the diversity initiatives for over 100,000 people. Central to her role was creating an inclusive culture, driving Vodafone’s ambition to be the best company for women by 2025, and maintain a focus on LGBT+ inclusion, with Vodafone being recognised as a Top global employer for LGBT in 2019.
Previously Karina spent 10 years at Gallup as a successful consultant advising organisations, facilitating thought provoking sessions to executive teams. Karina’s career started with 7 years on the Graduate Scheme at Kingfisher. Karina has a BA Hons in Social and Political Science from Cambridge University and a post graduate Business Diploma from Oxford University.
In 2017, Karina was awarded the Power of Women award for Diversity & Inclusion and in 2014, Karina was the winner of the Asian Woman of Achievement Award for Business. Karina is married with now 2 children, aged 15 and 9 years old.
Georgie Barrat is a technology journalist, broadcaster and presenter. At the beginning of 2017 she joined The Gadget Show’s new presenting line-up and has spent the past two years testing and reporting on the latest consumer technology. Alongside her work as part of the Gadget Show team,ITVTonight, Good Morning Britain, ITV Weekend and is a regular on The Jeremy Vine Show and James Martin Saturday Morning. She often comments on breaking tech stories for the likes of Channel 5 News, BBC Radio 5 live, talk radio & BBC Radio 2. Away from reviewing the latest apps and devices sheTheMirror, Tech City News, The Guardian, Marie Claire & The Metro. Georgie is passionate about women working in technology and devotes time to encouraging more girls to be involved in STEM subjects. She works alongside Girls in ICT, the IET and UK Electronics Skills Foundation striving to make technology and the digital world as exciting, relevant and inclusive as possible.
She currently hosts two podcasts; “The Tech Disruption Series” that sees her interview various start-ups that are disrupting industries and another on sleep, a subject that she has great interest in. Not one to shy away from a challenge she has a world record for the longest time anyone has been in VR, has run the London Marathon and completed Tough Mudder. Georgie brings a genuine interest and warmth to everything that she does. Her intelligence, humour and journalistic background means audiences are quick to like her and interviewees disarmed.
Claire is CEO of notonthehighstreet, the leading curated modern marketplace connecting the best small creative businesses with the world. Claire joined the company in August 2019 and brings an extensive background of successfully scaling businesses and disrupting markets.
Claire Davenport was previously CEO of HelloFresh UK, the country's largest recipe box company where she oversaw a signficant expansion of the customer offering - launching rapid, family friendly and healthy options - and improvements in operational capability to grow the top and bottom line. Since stepping down from Hello Fresh at the end of 2018, Claire has advised a number of VC and private equity backed companies on scaling their businesses following funding rounds or acquisitions.
Claire started her career in investment banking and has held senior-level strategic and executive roles in companies including Skype, RTL Group and vouchercodes.co.uk. In her spare time, Claire is a “Resident Expert” at Oxford University’s tech accelerator and a panellist and speaker on the University’s business school programmes. She also founded and runs WITs END (witsendnetwork.com), an organisation supporting women in tech.
Claire has an undergraduate degree from Cambridge University and an MBA from INSEAD. She is a passionate runner and is currently running – virtually – from Aberdeen to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She runs 500 miles a year, is currently "in" Bulgaria, and hopes to complete the run in 2029.
Deborah is a Director within the Deloitte Digital London practice. She has over 20 years’ experience in successfully leading the development of Omni-channel, Data-driven Customer Programs for some of the world’s leading brands: Ralph Lauren, Anheuser-Busch (nee SABMiller), Sony and Kimberly-Clark. Deborah uses a mix of data and creative thinking to solve core challenges facing businesses today – that is, how to drive growth using insights to humanise the customer experience at every interaction. Deborah has built a programme of marketing mentorship, working closely with Marketing Executives and Directors to help them maximise their personal and professional success.
Liz is the Development Lead for IT’s Her Future which is KPMG’s programme to tackle gender diversity in their technology departments. She is looking at how best to support women in the profession from attraction, recruitment, engagement promotion and retention within KPMG and their clients. She is also the Co-Chair of the KPMG Workability Network and is focusing on reverse mentoring and anxiety amongst Disabled Students applying to the professional services. She has 7 years’ experience in finance and is a CA with ICAS.
Lisa has 20 years in the IT industry and is a Global Inclusion and Diversity Lead and Business Operations Manager.
A keen advocate for Inclusion, Diversity and Equality, Lisa is passionate in cultivating and mentoring female talent in the technology industry.
Lisa holds an MBA and is certified ‘Leader of Impact’ for Women in Global Organisations with the American Chamber of Commerce.
Lisa is winner of the inaugural Global HPE’s Women’s Excellence Award and in 2019, a finalist for ‘Business Role Model of the Year’ in the Global Women in IT Awards and ‘Hero of the Year’ in the 2019 European Diversity Awards.
Caroline is the Chief Executive of the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), having previously been the Partnerships and Commissioning Director. She is responsible for leading the organisation through its transition year as it develops an ambitious new National Strategy and Corporate Strategy.
Caroline joined from the Money Advice Service, where she was Head of UK Debt Advice, responsible for developing the sector’s target operating model and building industry partnerships to support the development of the debt advice quality frameworks and standard financial statement.
Previously, Caroline was the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Money Advisers and has a wealth of commissioning experience.
Tom is a Managing Director in Accenture’s UK Banking practice, responsible for consulting work and Accenture’s relationships with Fintechs in the UK. He also sponsors the Fintech Innovation Labs in London, a 3 month accelerator that has focused this year on supporting Female CEOs.
Rahma is the Director of Engineering for the Restaurants group at Deliveroo. She focusses on helping Deliveroo becoming the best partner for its restaurants and driving growth and profitability for restaurants. Prior to this, Rahma was a senior engineering leader at Wealthfront where she led the financial services area.
Sharon is a Director in Google’s EMEA Partnerships Solutions team, leading Data Trust. She joined Google in May 2011 to lead the DoubleClick Rich Media Services team, and has had multiple roles at Google leading both Client facing Technical Services and Program Management teams in Strategy Operations. Prior to joining Google, Sharon was at Yahoo! for 11 years, working predominantly in Advertising Operations and from 2007-2011 was Yahoo!’s EMEA Director of Advertising Operations. Sharon graduated with a degree in German and French from Leeds University and spent 7 years living and working in Paris. She is a passionate advocate for Diversity Inclusion and a Trustee of Graeae, a Deaf/Disabled theatre company. Sharon lives in London with her husband and 3 children.
Mary Hamilton is director of international operations at Audible, where they work in global expansion. They joined from the BBC, where they led operations for the iPlayer and BBC Sounds technology teams. Previously they were the Guardian's executive editor for audience, pioneering the news organisation's approach to audience development, community management and participatory journalism in London, Sydney and New York. They began their career in print journalism in Norfolk, and have also founded a tabletop games studio with four successful releases and a fifth in progress. They are on Twitter as @newsmary.
Catherine Wallwork is the head of innovation engagement and mindset in Deloitte Ventures. She specialises in using social movement thinking and storytelling to mobilise people around new initiatives that can shift organisational narratives when it matters most. Her work involves facilitating mindset breakthroughs in teams and individuals, and creating new platforms for open innovation to thrive. Catherine is also a social enterprise founder, education governor and passionate about experiments in lifestyle design.
Sonya is a lifelong traveler who lived in the Middle-East, North Africa and Asia and is always looking for new challenges. She has made a career switch from International Business Consultant in Saudi Arabia and Singapore to Full Stack Software Engineer in South Korea to Lead Security Engineer at Photobox Group. Before coming to the UK, she was based in South Korea for 6 years where she learnt Korean and worked for several Korean companies.
Sonya is a Tech Advocate and a public speaker in the UK tech scene. She is also a mentor for women in tech, a cybersecurity writer for FreeCodeCamp publications and an active member of the tech community in London.
Her motto is #GetSecure, #BeSecure & #StaySecure
Joanne is Centrica’s Head of Mobile User Computing. She has 20+ years experiencing of working with Centrica’s field users, ensuring they have the most up to date technology to enable them to best serve Centrica’s customers. She’s also an active campaigner for gender diversity in her organisation and an energetic member of the Centrica Women’s Network. Joanne is passionate about development and has launched two mentoring programmes in Centrica. Her passion empowers her and drives her actions to make the workplace better for current and future generations. Joanne has set up a subgroup with in the Centrica Women’s Network, specifically for male allies.
Sope is a husband, father, public speaker and leadership coach who helps leaders nurture winning relationships personally and professionally.
He has spent over 15 years working in multiple organisations, leading cross generational high performing teams and understands the pressures and challenges that come with operating in a complex, fast-paced and ever-changing work environment.
He is on a mission to help leaders develop the right qualities required to lead themselves and others better, ensuring they grow both personally and professionally.
Charlotte Crosswell is the CEO of Innovate Finance, the industry body representing the UK FinTech sector. Prior to joining Innovate Finance, she spent the majority of her financial services career in market infrastructure roles. Charlotte has held a number of management positions at Nasdaq and London Stock Exchange across international capital markets, equities, fixed income, OTC derivatives trading and clearing.
In addition to her work with Innovate Finance, Charlotte is on the board of UK Finance, and also advises and sits on the boards of Government FinTech advisory groups, technology companies and FinTech startups. Charlotte holds a BA (Hons.) in French from the Southampton University. She has been included in the list of top 100 Women in Finance over many years.
Sharon is a member of the executive leadership team and has global responsibility for making Finastra an inclusive employer in the Fintech industry. She is committed and focused on empowering people to create a culture that attracts and inspires people within the Financial Services industry.
A passionate champion for diversity and inclusion at all levels, Sharon joined Finastra from Vodafone, where she held the position of Global Organization and People Development Director. Before joining Finastra Sharon instrumental in the award-winning diversity and digital work in Vodafone that transformed the culture and company. Sharon is a strong ally to the LGBTQ community and a proud receiver of an OUTstanding 2018 Ally Executives award.
Fiona is a Partner at Addleshaw Goddard specialising in complex Commercial, Technology, Payment and FinTech arrangements. Her practice focuses on guiding clients through large scale disruption, business transformation and strategic risk management in the intersection between regulation and technology. Fiona is one of The Lawyer's 2020 Hot 100 recognising her contribution in these fields. Fiona sits on the Lexis Nexis Consulting Editorial Board for Commercial Law and the editorial board of the journal, Payments & FinTech Lawyer. She is listed in Who’s Who Legal (2019) as a Global Thought Leader in Fintech Law, Innovate Finance's Women in FinTech Powerlist 2018 and as a leading Commercial, Payments & FinTech lawyer in both Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 (2019). Fiona heads Addleshaw Goddard's FinTech Group, acting for financial institutions and FinTechs in bringing new payment solutions, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay, to market.
Jenny is part of the global Process Innovation and Advanced Operations team at Universal Music. This team works across the business standing up new ways for consumers to find and access Universal’s music and improving the way music is created, distributed and preserved. Jenny is currently helping to shape and implement a major transformation of the ways creative metadata is captured, stored and shared in Universal Music’s systems and how it is then synchronised across the industry to make sure that when you play a song, the right people are identified and paid.
Janie is a Product Director at Trainline, where she has built and leads teams focussed on making train and bus travel easier through creating great customer experiences together with her partners in Design and Technology.
She has been lucky throughout her career to work with entrepreneurs in the tech and e-commerce world who have fuelled her passion for building products that really help improve peoples' day to day lives by making their digital experiences simple, frictionless and delightful.
Janie believes in empowering her teams to lead and innovate, and in encouraging diversity to ensure inclusivity for all audiences. In an often male dominated sector, she seeks to lead projects where at least 50 per cent of the team are women, and always a good mix of nationalities and cultures.
Rachel has been a Release Train Engineer and Agile Coach at Dyson since 2017, responsible for leading globally located agile teams, optimising working practices to maximise the value they deliver. Rachel started her career as a developer at Legal & General, subsequently moving to the Havas Global Media agency as a Tech Lead. She progressed through that organisation into the role of Business Group Director before becoming Client Services Director. Prior to joining Dyson, she spent 10 years freelancing for a number of enterprise organisations including Global Radio and Everything Everywhere.
While doing her Biomedical Engineering in Mumbai, Darshana realised her inclination to technology and joined Atos Origin as a Software Developer right after university. After some great projects in Atos, she spent almost a decade at JP Morgan designing and building complex mission critical applications in Corporate & Investment Banking and Asset Management. From being a Java developer in large Waterfall delivery models, to leading the way piloting CI/CD, TDD in major Agile transformation - she has had the opportunity to enjoy it all.
During her 14 years in the industry, she realised technology problems cannot be solved in isolation as they are almost always linked to larger business and organization complications. With this drive, she joined Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Platinion in 2018 as a Chief IT Architect, focusing on helping clients solve real life large scale problems with a great combination of digital skills and human centric mindset.
Apart from work, Darshana is involved in Women in Technology initiatives at work and outside, and enjoys doing her bit in mentoring the next generation of women technologist.
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is a global expert on all things gender balance. She is the CEO of 20-first, a global consulting firm working with companies interested in capturing the competitive advantage of gender, nationality, and generational balance. Her ground-breaking thought leadership is accessible through several seminal books and regular contributions to Harvard Business Review and Forbes. She’s done several TEDx talks, has been recognised by ELLE Magazine as one of the Top 40 Women Leading Change and was recently celebrated by PWN Global with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Gender Balanced Leadership. Her book, Why Women Mean Business, was awarded the MANPOWER Best Book of the Year Prize.
Emma began her career writing enterprise C# and C++, before moving into mobile and specialising in Android development. After joining Monzo in 2016, she has worked across many areas: from building brilliant new product features in the app to running the Android hiring process. She now runs Monzo's Mobile Platform squad as well as owning the Android discipline.
Tessa is Co-Founder & CEO of OLIO, a free app tackling the problem of food waste in the home by connecting users who have food they don’t want or need, with neighbours living nearby who would like it. Since launching 3 years ago, 1.5 million people have joined OLIO and together shared over 2.5 million portions of food. OLIO also publishes ZeroWasteWeekly.com, a website and newsletter that aggregates all the best zero waste news from around the world. Tessa is passionate about the sharing economy as a solution for a sustainable world.
Regina is Founder of Mainstream, a growing and international community of millennial women that are looking to share career hacks, collaborative ideas and their own personal networks.
Regina specialises in digital strategy, delivery and change management in Central Government and International Development. Regina has designed complex technology policy for UK and international governments, she has led and delivered large digital programmes across government; and she has designed architectural solutions for large decommissioning programmes in the private sector.
Regina is driven by seeing women of diverse ethnicities being leaders and role models in different industries and her work with various charities such as TalentRISE encourage young girls, especially those of African or Caribbean descent to be paired with such role models. Regina volunteers in schools mentoring girls and running workshops on confidence, life aspirations and STEM education.
Jo is responsible for developing, growing and scaling the Skyscanner brand to inspire travellers worldwide. Her responsibilities include building and leading teams across key brand capabilities such as operations, partnerships, PR and social media. J o has nearly a decade of experience working in senior brand roles, most recently as Brand Director at Moonpig where she delivered double digit growth with a new brand purpose media, campaign and creative strategies. She is also a mum of two.
Sharon Kits Kimathi is Editor of Fintech Futures and Banking Technology since May 2019, having been Deputy Editor at the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) and a capital markets Reporter at mtn-i and Global Capital.
Having obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Sussex, Sharon graduated from her Legal Practitioner’s Course (LPC) as President of the Law Society at City Law School and Winner of the Young Legal Minds Award, 2012.
This was then followed by permanent positions as a Paralegal for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Legal Compliance Associate for Goldman Sachs; and Paralegal at Reed Smith LLP. It was conducting legal research for fintech clients at the latter which prompted a shift in career trajectory, away from the legal profession and towards specialist research and journalism from September 2016.
Eva has been with Sky’s Startup Investments & Partnerships as a Senior Investment Manager since January 2019. Before, Eva was part of the Episode 1 Ventures team focusing on early-stage deep tech investments. From 2014, she was an Investment Director at Day One Capital, a Budapest based early-stage tech investor, until she left for pursuing an MBA in London in 2017. She sat on the Advisory Board of AImotive, a leading self-driving car startup with a full-stack software solution.
Kate currently leads the Azure Architecture team for Telco, Media and Professional Services, who working with key customers to enable them to leverage the power of cloud. Prior to this role, she led the Data and AI Cloud Solution Architecture team for Financial Serviceshelping organizations shape their data strategies in a scalable and responsible way. Her main focus lies in the intersection between technology and business, and how new technologies can shape organizations as they evolve. Prior to joining Microsoft, she worked at start-ups where she focused on leveraging big data and behaviour analytics to augment decision making.
Kate is a scientific researcher by training, specializing in neurobiological genetic engineering. During her research, she studied the influence of genetics on behaviour and survival mechanisms. She holds a MSc in Molecular Biology from Bar Ilan University and a MBA from Tel Aviv University.
Kate currently leads the Azure Architecture team for Telco, Media and Professional Services, who working with key customers to enable them to leverage the power of cloud. Prior to this role, she led the Data and AI Cloud Solution Architecture team for Financial Services helping organizations shape their data strategies in a scalable and responsible way. Her main focus lies in the intersection between technology and business, and how new technologies can shape organizations as they evolve. Prior to joining Microsoft, she worked at start-ups where she focused on leveraging big data and behaviour analytics to augment decision making.
Kate is a scientific researcher by training, specializing in neurobiological genetic engineering. During her research, she studied the influence of genetics on behaviour and survival mechanisms. She holds a MSc in Molecular Biology from Bar Ilan University and a MBA from Tel Aviv University.
Tom is director of engineering at Deliveroo, leading teams responsible for getting food from A-to-B quickly, efficiently and reliably; creating financial levers and incentives to dynamically price across all 3 sides of the marketplace; and personalisation, ranking and relevance on the Consumer site.
Before joining Deliveroo, Tom was variously a senior engineering manager at Twitter, head of development at the Press Association, and senior development manager at the BBC World Service.
Ivana Bartoletti is Technical Director, privacy, at Deloitte and supports businesses in their privacy by design programmes, especially in relation to new technologies.
Ivana was awarded ‘Woman of the Year’ (2019) in the Cyber Security Awards in recognition to her growing reputation as an advocate of equality, privacy and ethics at the heart of tech and AI.
She is a sought after commentator for the BBC, Sky and other major broadcasters and news outlets (Guardian, Telegraph) on headline stories where the tech economy intersects with privacy and data law and politics.
Ivana launched the Women Leading in AI Network in May 2018, a thriving international group of scientists, industry leaders and policy experts advocating for responsible AI. Their 2018 report made waves among tech leaders, international institutions and the media, who backed many of its recommendations.
Bartoletti is Co-editor of the Fintech Circle’s AI Book, their first major publication focused on how AI is reshaping financial services.
Ivana's first book will be released in 2020 by Indigo Press: https://www.waterstones.com/book/an-artificial-revolution/ivana-bartoletti/9781911648116
Gill Cooke is the founder of #STEMConnext, a networking community based in the Thames Valley area and growing....
#STEMConnext's vision is to connect people and businesses outside of London and drive the future pipeline. #STEMConnext collaborates with local businesses, schools and the community to promote diversity, inclusion and equality.
Gill is also Head of Digital Planning & Delivery at Three UK and leads the Women in Tech Group at Three. As a STEM Champion, she is on the Advisory Board for Learning People, a Tech Education platform and is an Enterprise Advisor to a local school as part of the Thames Valley Berkshire LEP. She is passionate about equality, justice and making the workplace a better place for everyone. Gill is married and has 2 equally passionate daughters.
Liz is Head of Technology Delivery at Holiday Extras - responsible for the output, performance and personal development of a team of over 100. She has 7+ years experience in people management and leadership, focusing on developing high performance and supporting the changing needs of a growing team in a competitive industry. She prides herself on her ability to coach others to be the best version of themselves, having an engaged and empowered team and always being proactive.
Sam Shaw leads the technical support team for Blue Prism’s customers based across Europe, Middle East and Africa. Having left school at seventeen years, she gained her education from the school of hard knocks and with real-world experience, working in technical support for both computer hardware and software throughout her career. In 2013, Sam joined a small start-up to create their Customer Support organisation from scratch. Today, that global organization provides support to more than 2000 customers in over 6 languages across all time zones and in addition to leading the EMEA Support operation directly, Sam continues to represent the support organization on global projects.
Namrata Sarmah started her career as a software engineer in Bangalore (India) more than 12 years ago. She developed her career internationally and moved into Product Management after finishing her Masters at Manchester Business School in 2012. Throughout her career, she has worked in a variety of sectors like IT, FMCG, Telecom, Media Production, Healthcare, Beauty, and Broadcast. She's currently a Senior Director of Product at Viacom. She is an Advisor at start-up incubators like Antler and Virgin StartUp. Namrata also sits on the board of the Middlesex Learning Trust and few other organisations as a Non-Executive Director. She is the founder of two popular networking groups - The Career Mums Club and The BAME Leaders Network. She is an alumna of the University of Cambridge and Manchester Business School.
Recently, she has been listed in the FT Top 100 Most Influential Leaders in UK Tech.
Andreia has over 10 years of experience working on complex data science projects. She joined Ocado Technology in 2015 and has had significant impact on enhancing customer experience and driving operational efficiencies for retailers. In particular, Andreia has been instrumental in modelling customer preferences and product recommendations, as well as devising strategies for forecasting demand for Ocado's 58,000 products. In her current role, Andreia leads a diverse data science team and continues working on exciting and impactful machine learning projects. She is passionate about data, machine learning, and bringing the best out of people. Andreia holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Lisbon in the area of data mining.
Currently UK Head of Insight and Strategy at Aviva Digital, Rhea previously spent 4 years as Insight Director at eBay. She’s worked across FMCG, communications, financial services, media and retail in her 20 year insight career and is an experienced speaker and awards judge.
After growing up in Kenya, Anisha, moved to the UK and study her masters in Bioengineering from Imperial College London. Her all-round performance at Imperial made her a finalist for female undergraduate of the year and subsequently landed her internships at Rolls Royce UK and as a Developer for MPesa, Safaricom in Kenya. She’s now a full-stack developer within IBM’s consulting division, with expertise in Blockchain. Anisha recently won IBM iX graduate of the year as a commendation for her passion for getting more women into technology.
A young woman with an ambition for our sector to recognise the importance of women in our industry. I am currently working for BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT in our policy department developing ideas and turning them into reality for the tech sector in the UK. As an organisation our three main focuses are Diversity and Inclusion, public digital literacy and ethics, which all feed into my strong beliefs of why we need more women in tech. I have previously worked for BCS in operations and for a large FMCG company in sales. I attended Winchester university to study business management, graduating with a 2:1.
Daniel is responsible for coaching and leading a team of technical cloud transformation architects who will help customers accelerate their migration to the cloud. One of the main priorities of the role is to create a customer-centric culture, completely focused on helping our customers achieve their goals.
Aarthi Raju is a Principal Architect at Amazon Web Services who is passionate about Cloud Computing. She loves building things, so it’s perfect that her role helps partners build their businesses on Amazon Web Services. She is responsible for helping strategic partners and customers build solutions that are well architected and optimized. Prior to this, she worked as a Sr. Technical Account Manager supporting AWS enterprise customers acting as their advocate within AWS, helping them build ground breaking technologies. She holds a Master’s degree in Computer Networking from Wichita State University, Kansas.
Julia Barbosa is development and effectiveness specialist, with a consistent track-record of leading people and organisations through change, equipping others with tools and skills to thrive. She works as a facilitator and strategist, leading global strategic projects focusing on improving personal and business capability. Julia speaks and writes about personal development, the power of failure in learning and happiness in the workplace.
Daphne is a Software Engineer at Zuhlke Engineering UK. She completed an undergraduate degree in Engineering for the Life Sciences at Cambridge, and after moving to London and joining Zuhlke for a few years, she took a sabbatical to do a Master’s in Machine Learning at UCL. At Zuhlke, she has worked as a Software Engineer, Technical Business Analyst and Scrum Master. Her main interests include machine learning, data science and cloud architecture, and particularly their application in the medical space.
This year, she is participating in the organisation of the SPA Software In Practice conference, as part of the committee. She is also one of the organisers for Pint of Science, a worldwide science festival, which aims to inform the general public about new scientific discoveries. In her free time, she is a keen athlete, competing in athletics, horse-riding, boxing and long-distance trail running over the years, and finishing as the first woman in the Gobi Desert Ultramarathon in 2015. Having been raised in a trilingual environment, she is also an avid language-learner.
Pauliina Jamsa is an engaging motivational speaker, life coach, stand-up comedian and responsible at Siemens for global enablement across 90 countries providing digital advice, leading agile projects and encouraging a fail-safe culture. She has lived in 5 countries, speaks 7 languages and has worked in agencies, start-ups and blue chips like SAP and Microsoft.
Having developed a method to overcome her social anxiety and fear of public speaking, her story from a bullied small-town girl to a global manager has been inspiring people around the world. She’s a keynote speaker, panellist and chairwoman in conferences in over 14 different countries from New York to London.
In B2B Marketing Magazine’s Top 10 list of women making the biggest impact in tech in 2019. Author of a free e-book: From anxious to unstoppable: how to be more confident at work.
Tanya is MD and Editor-in-Chief of FinTech Futures. She joined the company in early 2016, overseeing the its digital and print publishing operations and strategy. With over 12 years of experience in the industry, she has extensive understanding and knowledge of the banking/financial services technology sector and its participants, as well as of the B2B publishing business.
Cait O’Riordan is the FT’s Chief Product and Information Officer (CPIO). She is responsible for platform and product strategy, development and operations across the FT Group, working in close partnership with editorial and commercial teams. She is on the FT executive board, which is responsible for the company’s global strategy and performance.
Before joining the FT in February 2016 Cait led the BBC’s digital product development for the London 2012 Olympics and played a central role in the user and revenue growth of music app company Shazam.
Maxine Nwaneri is an executive coach, and the Founder of The Future is Greater. She is passionate about helping women end the struggle to find work life balance, so that they thrive in both their professional and personal lives. She has helped clients on 5 continents so far achieve extraordinary results, using the tips, tools and techniques she developed over two decades.
Prior to setting up her practice, Maxine obtained her MBA from Cambridge University, and acquired over 10 years’ experience in the Technology Financing industry. Her work has been featured in HuffPost, Success Magazine, Thrive Global, and other publications.
Nadjia is a core member of the Technology Advantage practice at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and co-leads Financial Institutions for the UK. Her work focuses on helping banks, payments providers and insurers fundamentally change their technology systems, organisational structures and digital customer experiences. She is also the Diversity & Inclusion lead in the UK, overseeing all diversity networks and activity as well as heading up Women@BCG. A passionate advocate for empowering individuals – and technology – in the workplace, she has been recognised for her work within BCG and beyond, having placed on the HERoes 100 Women Execs List 2019.
Dr Loubna Bouarfa is a machine learning scientist turned entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of OKRA Technologies - an artificial intelligence data analytics company for healthcare. OKRA allows healthcare professionals to combine all their data in one place and generate evidence-based insights in real time, to save and improve human lives. Loubna is currently a member of the European Union High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, where she is particularly focused on healthcare and achieving competitive business impact with AI. She was named an MIT Technology Review Top Innovator Under 35, a Forbes 50 Top Women In Tech, and recently won the prize for Best Female-Led Startup at the StartUp Europe Awards. On a personal level, she is a strong advocate for diversity, women and challenging the status quo.
Anna is a strategic financial services marketer, tech enthusiast and advocate for diversity and inclusion.
As Head of Growth and Communications at Qadre, a fintech company which enables businesses to cryptographically manage trust and accountability with blockchain technology, Anna is driving the vision of a financial world that is more accessible, reliable and seamless.
Anna is heading partnerships at Women in Tech Revolution, a community working towards gender parity in Industry 4.0, and has been recognised as a Rising Star on the Women in Fintech Powerlist 2018 by Innovate Finance for leading the change in the fintech ecosystem.
Before taking the leap into fintech, Anna spent five years in institutional banking. Responsible for Fixed Income & Currencies marketing at Commerzbank globally, she established the digital content strategy for the investment bank and sat on the Diversity & Inclusion committee. Prior to that, she held roles at BNP Paribas in Paris and London, where she co-headed the CSR social impact working group. Anna graduated with a BSc in Business and Psychology and holds an MSc in Management from EM Lyon Business School.
Polina Frolova Montano is a Co-Founder and Head of Global PR and Brand Marketing at Job Today, Europe's leading mobile hiring app that helps businesses find staff in 24 hours. Since launch in 2015, company's apps delivered over 200 million candidate applications. The company has attracted over four hundred thousand businesses to the platform as well as VC funding from the world-class investors such as Accel.
Polina has succeeded where most have failed in reinventing of a 400 USD billion recruitment industry. As a co-founder of Job Today she's been tenacious in uncovering customer needs and bringing a team together that created pioneering mobile recruitment products. Polina holds a Masters degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the University of Luxembourg and a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from High Economical School of Amsterdam.
Polina speaks fluently Dutch, English, French, Russian ( her mother tongue), Spanish and Italian. As a serial entrepreneur, a working mother of two girls, a world-traveler fluent in six languages, Polina inspires so many people around her.
Polina is an accomplished and passionate public speaker and has represented her own story and that of Job Today in TV interviews and at international events and conferences including WebSummit, NOAH Conference, Pioneer's Festival, ICMA 2018, and more.
Rebecca is Head of the Process Automation Service in Expleo Group where she is responsible for the development and delivery of Expleo' s process automation capabilities, which support clients in the deployment of automation solutions within their organisations.
For Expleo, she has built a Global Service Offering by developing a Methodology and Best Practice Approach to implementing and deploying automation solutions. She runs the Expleo Process Automation Global Centre of Excellence, supporting the roll out of the service globally. The Service utilises a range of technologies, including RPA, OCR, workflow management, forms management, machine learning and artificial intelligence to create these solutions.
Patrick is one of the Founders of Maddox Events, the company behind The Women in Tech World Series. Maddox Events was created with the single ambition of driving equality for women in the tech realm and Patrick as a white male, has played a dedicated and passionate part in the creation and development of the business. He puts his passion down to a process of self-education that he went through in his twenties and also the inspiration he has received from the amazing women he has worked with and seen on stage at The Women in Tech World Series.
Patrick believes that men have two roles to play in driving gender equality; first to educate and support other men in terms of understanding their male privilege and how traditional masculinity can be toxic. Furthermore, Patrick believes in challenging the narrative and status quo when it comes to gender. Second, Patrick believes that men have a crucial role to play in mentoring and inspiring women to show them that anything a man can do, a woman can do just as well, if not better. Patrick leads a large sales team that is mainly comprised of women some of whom are just starting their careers; through his coaching and support the entire team is delivering amazing results in an inclusive, supportive and meritocratic environment.
Dr. Christine Bailey is Chief Marketing Officer of Valitor, an international payment solutions company. She has spent her career doing B2B marketing in technology/payments, including leading European marketing functions for Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems.
A respected thought leader and public speaker with a TEDx Talk ‘Unconventional Career Advice’ (105k views), Christine was recently voted #1 Woman in Tech by B2B Marketing, #3 female influencer in UK B2B Marketing by Onalytica and in the top 20 women leading the charge in revolutionary SaaS marketing by SaaStock.
Passionate about inclusion and diversity, Christine led Connected Women globally for Cisco and is an advisor for the European Women in Payments Network (EWPN).
Christine is also a Senior Fellow of The Conference Board. She has a doctorate (DBA) in customer insight from Cranfield School of Management and is currently writing a book on how to apply customer insight strategies to understand your audience and create remarkable marketing.
Known as “the Go-to Person for China”, Ting Zhang has 25+ years’ experience of UK-China international business, trade and investment. She first came to the UK to study at the University of Cambridge before pursuing a career in investment banking in the City of London. In 2001, foreseeing the growing business opportunities between the UK and China, Ting set up her own consultancy, building it into one of the most reputable China specialist firms in Europe. She has personally coached many leading British entrepreneurs, guiding them through the complexities and culture of doing business with China. She has provided strategic input to both UK and European government agencies on their China strategies and been a China Venture Partner for leading European VC firm, Prime Ventures, as well as an advisor to Lord Wei of Shoreditch.
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