Wo+Men’s Leadership Conference 2019

Fine jeweller and trained gemmologist, Nadine Aysoy has made a formidable impression since launching her eponymous brand in London 2017. Born into a family of diamantaires in Antwerp, Belgium, her fine jewellery effortlessly blends traditional concepts of luxury with contemporary extravagance and nuanced design details. Inspired by her grandfather, P.N.Ferstenberg honoured by the Belgian government with the title of “Dean of the Diamond Industry”, Nadine persistently strives for excellence.

A BA in economics from HSG St Gallen Switzerland, a Marketing MA from Duke University and a gemmology degree from Gem-A/IFAGE Geneva, Nadine has seen a varied career. After moving to Switzerland at 14 she has continued to travel the world. From a trainee at Merrill Lynch Geneva, to financial consultant at Citicorp and Prudential Securities Century City, Nadine has spent most her life in finance. She worked as Investment Relations Manager at California Federal Bank LA then Credit Suisse Private Banking, Zurich before finishing at Lombard Odier. Nadine persistently fed her creative appetite through bespoke, private production but finally made a career change into jewellery design upon her settlement in London.

Nadine Aysoy jewellery is wearable, transformable and playful, with a balance of entry-level and statement high jewellery pieces that can be worn in myriad ways. Her signature aesthetic and meticulous attention-to-detail has made the brand one-to-watch in key markets across the globe. For Nadine herself, each piece of jewellery she designs is an intricate reflection of her personality and lifelong passion for fine jewellery and is meant for every woman, who wears and understands fine jewellery but is looking for something more unique. As well as securing high-profile stockists in the UK and Europe, the brand has collaborated with New York-based distributors to tackle the US market and influencers in Beirut to break into the Middle East. At this 2017’s International Jewellery London (IJL) trade show, Nadine Aysoy was named the winner of the IJL Editors’ Choice Award in the Show Stopper category. The brand has also gone on to be named UK Retail Jeweller “Best New Designer” of the Year 2018 and is a Member of the National Association of Jewellers.  Similarly, the brand has made its mark with consumer media, including features in Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Tatler and Financial Times‘ How to Spend It magazine.

Professor Dame Carol Black DBE, FRCP, FMedSci was appointed Principal of Newnham in September 2012. She is a past-President of the Royal College of Physicians, of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, and of the British Lung Foundation, and has chaired the UK Health Honours Committee. The Centre she established at the Royal Free Hospital in London is internationally renowned for research and treatment of connective tissue diseases such as scleroderma.

Dame Carol was National Director for Health and Work from 2006 to 2012, and completed two independent reviews for the Government, the first in 2008 on the health of the UK working population, the second in 2011 (as co-chair) on sickness absence in Britain. The recommendations of the second report are now being put into place, with for example a national Fit for Work Service. She is Expert Adviser on Health and Work to the Department of Health and Public Health England, and in 2015 she was asked by the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, to undertake a third independent review, on ways of encouraging back into work adults with long-term but treatable conditions such as addiction to alcohol or drugs, or obesity.

She has long been involved in encouraging women to aspire to positions of leadership, in the professions, academia and public life. She is now a member of the University’s Equality and Diversity Committee, and of the organising committee for the annual Women of the World Festival in Cambridge. She chairs the board of Think Ahead, a not-for-profit organisation that encourages graduates into mental health social work. As Principal she regularly gives talks to schools, at home and abroad, often through such organisations as Inspiring the Future and Speakers for Schools, encouraging girls to apply for leading universities and aim for high-level careers fulfilling their potential.

In July 2016, Dame Carol stepped down after ten years as Chairman of the Nuffield Trust for health policy. She is a member of the Welsh Government’s Bevan Commission on health in Wales, Chair of the RSSB’s Health and Wellbeing Policy Group, a non-executive director of UKActive and a member of PwC’s Health Industries Oversight Board. She is a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, The Work Foundation and of Uppingham School. In November 2013 she was named one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK in the BBC Woman’s Hour list.

Dame Carol was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in February 2016 and in May 2016 she gave a special Tanner Lecture in Tokyo – the first time the prestigious lecture series was held in Japan.

An independent review, written by Dame Carol, which analysed the impact on employment prospects for people who have battled drug or alcohol addiction, was published by the Government in December 2016.

Dame Carol was asked to recommend ways people addicted to drugs and alcohol can be helped to find work. She also explored the effect of obesity on unemployment but found no clear link.

Carolyn Bradley holds a number of business advisory roles including as Senior Independent Director at Marston’s, Senior Independent Director at SSP Group and Non-Executive Director at B&M Value Retail.

Prior to Carolyn’s current portfolio of directorships, her executive career (from 1986-2013) was with Tesco Stores, where her positions included Group Brand Director, UK Marketing Director, Commercial Director, and Chief Operating Officer Tesco.com. Amongst other projects she led the launch of the Tesco Clubcard, the Every Little Helps service campaign, and the development of the grocery home shopping business.

Carolyn is Trustee and Deputy Chair of the Fundraising and Marketing Committee of Cancer Research UK, and Non-Executive Director of the Mentoring Foundation.

Dr Jenny Chu is an Associate Professor at Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Her main research interests include earnings quality, capital market reactions to financial reporting, as well as management incentives and corporate governance. She is also passionate about research on how gender and diversity issues are linked to corporate governance and firm performance. Her research has been published in top academic journals such as Management Science, as well as covered by the popular press such as the Financial Times, the New York Times, Reuters, The Times (UK), and the Wall Street Journal.

Jenny combines teaching and research with a background in investment banking and portfolio management. She worked on corporate finance and M&A transactions for technology companies at Credit Suisse in Silicon Valley. She later transitioned into a portfolio management role at the hedge fund division of Barclays Global Investors (now Blackrock). Jenny holds MBA and PhD degrees from the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.

View Jenny’s profile

Colin Fitzgerald leads Invesco’s Distribution business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), a role he has held since March 2019.

Prior to this role, Mr Fitzgerald led Invesco’s Institutional business in EMEA. Before joining Invesco, Mr Fitzgerald led Fidelity International’s institutional business. Previously, he served as Head of International Institutional Distribution for Pyramis, a Fidelity Investments company. From 2003 to 2012, Mr Fitzgerald worked at Robeco Group in distribution management roles, including Global Gead of Key Accounts and Consultant Relations, and Head of International Distribution for its US businesses. Prior to Robeco Group, he served in a number of investment management and distribution leadership positions at capital management firms, both in the US and Asia Pacific. He began his career in 1992.

Mr Fitzgerald earned a BS degree in economics from Illinois Wesleyan University.

Cath Kidston is known the world over as “The Queen of Print”. From a background in interior design and styling, she founded her eponymous brand in 1993. Its unique confection of colourful print and product made Cath’s business one of the few truly original and influential brands to emerge from the nineties.

Cath can be credited with kick-starting the trend for modern vintage. A visionary, Cath has consistently been ahead of her time. She unquestionably paved the way for huge lifestyle trends such as glamping, by creating a cult range of printed tents emblazoned with her designs. She was first to transform tech into decorative objects by applying her iconic patterns to mobile phones with mass appeal. Cath also led the sewing, making and craft renaissance not only in the UK but across the globe, where in Japan her products and personality reached cult status.

Starting with one small shop in 1993, Cath built Cath Kidston Ltd into the global brand that it is today, with some 170 stores and a multi-channel business worldwide.

A year after stepping down from the Cath Kidston Group when it had a market value of £250 million, Cath founded a new solo venture, Joy of Print, a creative design studio, in 2017. She is a trustee of the charity Fine Cell Work and is involved with a number of small startup businesses.

Latifa is a philanthropist working in diverse areas such as education, women, children, and the arts. She has been on the Dean’s Council for the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University for some 35 years. She is a founding member and president of the Federation of International Women’s Associations in London (FIWAL), an umbrella organisation that brings together a large number of women’s associations and clubs to share their diverse cultures and events.

Latifa was on the committee of the Arab Women’s Council (AWC) which did work with Save the Children and other Middle Eastern charities in London. For seven years after the Bosnian war, she worked for the Slovenian Fund for Refugees to help rebuild the schools and libraries devastated by the Bosnian war.

Music, theatre and the arts are also Latifa’s favourite areas to support. She believes that music can heal the soul and brings much happiness. One of her favourite projects is organising semi-annual fundraising opera events to benefit the organisation Children with Cancer at Syon Park. She also worked with Aneera, a music programme to help Palestinian children to learn music in the West Bank.

Latifa started her philanthropic career as a twelve year-old, volunteering to work with blind children and in old people’s homes in Lebanon. It quickly developed into a lifetime passion. Her overriding belief is that philanthropy is about giving time, effort and dedication. Of course, raising funds for charitable causes is just as important, especially when done wisely to maximise impact.

Professor Christoph H Loch is the Director (Dean) of Cambridge Judge Business School (CJBS). Since 2011, Cambridge Judge has progressed as one of the top 20 business schools in the world, with a high evaluation of its research by the UK government (REF) and with research centres that successfully combine the creation of research output of the highest academic quality with a tangible impact on business practice and society.

CJBS actively supports the Cambridge Cluster, helping entrepreneurial talent development and commercialisation of new ideas; enhancing management development, enabling growth, and sharing thought-leadership.

Professor Loch’s research focuses on the management of innovation processes, and project management more broadly; including innovation strategy; projects under high uncertainty; the emotional aspect to the motivation of professional project workers, and project supervision and governance.

Before coming to CJBS in 2011, Professor Loch was Chaired Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD, where he also served as Dean of the PhD program and as the director of the INSEAD Israel Research Center. He served as department editor and Associate Editor of Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management and Production and Operations Management, and as chair of the Behavioral Operations Section of INFORMS.

Professor Loch holds a PhD from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, an MBA from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and a Diplom-Wirtschaftsingenieur degree from the Darmstadt Institute of Technology in Germany.

In 2012, Professor Loch was identified in a benchmarking study as one of the top ten innovation researchers world-wide. He serves on the supervisory board of an educational software start-up company and is a member of the Cambridge United Football Club board of directors.

Dr Vanessa Marcié is the CEO & founder of Leading with Humour, an innovative international change management consultancy that inspires leaders to unleash the power of humour to make positive change in the world and achieve business objectives.

She is also a seasoned management professional with two decades’ communications, marketing and business development experience, including Vice President, Business Development for London and Partners, the Mayor of London’s promotional agency. As lecturer and researcher she is an expert in business communication, marketing, humour and leadership.

Vanessa is a skillful standup comedian who has used her comedy muscle for as long as she can remember.

Vanessa holds a PhD in Business Communications from the University of Côte d’Azur and a MBA from the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.

She has recently been nominated for a fellowship at the Institute of Innovation and Knowledge Exchange (IKE Institute) in recognition of her innovation achievements with Leading With Humour.

Majella Murphy Altschuler was educated in Ireland, Paris and London and has lived in Ireland, Japan, Netherlands and the UK since mid-2013. Majella qualified and worked as a Project Manager in the Construction Industry in Ireland & UK.

From 1991 to 1997; Majella set up and chaired the Japan arm of the philanthropic Ireland Fund which supported a number of Irish and Japanese initiatives. One of their noteworthy projects following the 1995 earthquake in Kobe was to help fund the construction of a “temporary” community centre/church for the Vietnamese refugee community. Everything they owned had been totally destroyed by the quake. The building was designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and built using his innovative and sustainable paper tubes.

In 1998 Majella set up Temple Kids Educational Foundation (TFEK) in Kathmandu, Nepal, for the purpose of assisting a group of destitute families living on the outskirts of Kathmandu. TKEF’s mission has been to give a full and rounded education and healthcare to the children. They run literacy programmes and a micro-finance scheme to assist the mothers in the group. So far, TFEK have educated 110 children, some who have now completed university and have gainful employment in Nepal or abroad. TKEF has organised and run dental & medical programmes for over 2,000 children at local government schools. The Foundation is registered in the Netherlands and is managed and administered by Majella (who travels two to three times a year to Kathmandu), with the help of a local manager. In conjunction with her charitable work in Nepal, Majella set up a business designing, manufacturing and distributing fine cashmere shawls.

Majella’s interests include; contemporary dance as a Patron of Sadlers Wells, and previously a member of the fundraising committee; theatre as a Patron of The Royal Court and sat on the Development Board; and contemporary art as a member of a weekly gallery tour group. Majella has completed many challenges in cycling, ski touring & hiking.

Lionel Paolella is a Professor of Social Sciences and Organisation
at Cambridge Judge Business School, and an Affiliated Faculty at Harvard Law School (Center on Legal Profession). He graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan (ENS) in France, after which he took a MA in Sociology at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), a MS in Management and Organization Science (University Paris X), and a PhD in Strategy (HEC Paris).

Before joining the University of Cambridge, he was a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago (Booth Graduate School of Business) in 2011, and a Chazen visiting scholar at Columbia University (Graduate School of Business) between September 2012 and December 2013.

His research lies at the intersection of economic sociology, organisation theory and social psychology. He is studying market categorisations and how they affect social evaluation and performance of organisations, specifically in international legal services. His work has appeared in Academy of Management Journal, and Journal of Management Studies. He received the Cambridge Judge Teaching Award in 2017, the MBA Faculty of the Year Award in 2018, and he has been listed among the Best 40 under 40 Professors by Poets and Quants in 2019.

In his free time, Lionel’s interests centre around photography and the art of watch making.

Deepthi Ravula is the CEO of Women Entrepreneurs HUB (WE HUB), a Government of Telangana initiative for promoting and fostering women’s entrepreneurship in Telangana and across India. An electronics engineer by profession and passion, she has 15 years of experience working in the USA with Palm, Nokia, Atheros, Qualcomm, LitePoint and Teradyne among others in radio frequency (RF) communication roles. She joined the Government of Telangana as a Joint Director for Electronics in 2016 and has been appointed as CEO of WE HUB since its inception in 2017. She is working towards creating a work environment that is gender diverse and on constructing economic independence mechanisms as a tool for women’s empowerment. She is a strong proponent of Girls in STE(A)M, empowerment through economic enablement, women in leadership roles and women in decision-making spaces.

Prior to starting an academic career, Thomas worked in Debt Capital Markets on a trading floor in London, and for the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) in Paris.

Thomas is currently a research fellow at the Center for Professional Service Firms, University of Oxford and a faculty affiliate at the Center for Society & Organizations (SnO) at HEC Paris.

His research focuses on negative social evaluations (stigma, disapproval) and their antecedents (misconducts, scandals). His work has appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review and Academy of Management Annals. He also published in practitioner outlets such as Harvard Business Review and has been featured in media outlets such as the Washington Post, Le Monde and BBC Radio London.

He is currently the co-editor in chief of M@n@gement – the first open access journal in the field of management, supported by the French National Science Foundation and the French Academy of Strategic Management. He is also on the editorial board of Work Employment & Society, the journal of the British Sociological Association.

Hilary is KPMG’s Chief Medical Adviser and a member of the Global Centre of Excellence in Healthcare and Life Sciences. Hilary works closely with many of the global big pharma companies and has led on approaches to care pathway redesign and defining value in therapeutic areas including oncology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular and immunology. She was a trustee of Breakthrough Breast Cancer and co-led the merger with Breast Cancer Campaign creating Breast Cancer Now. Her passion is working at the interface of health and life sciences to redefine approaches and business models in a world of greater patient empowerment. Prior to KPMG, Hilary spent 23 years in the NHS including as Professor of Oncology at the University of Surrey, Medical Director of the Royal Surrey County Hospital.

Diana Verde Nieto is the Co-founder and CEO of Positive Luxury, the company behind the Butterfly Mark; a unique interactive trust mark awarded to luxury lifestyle brands in recognition of their commitment to having a positive impact on people and the planet, providing wordless reassurance that a brand can be trusted.

Positive Luxury was founded in partnership with Karen Hanton MBE, founder of toptable. The two trailblazing entrepreneurs combined their experience and knowledge to use technology to demystify sustainability and positively communicate a brands’ action directly to the consumer.

Diana’s entrepreneurial spirit has driven innovations in the way that brands communicate on their commitment to social good and environmental responsibility, with companies seeing the true benefit of investing and incorporating responsible business practices into the companies’ DNA. This began with founding a sustainability communications consultancy, Clownfish, in 2002 which Diana built to international success, with a presence in five markets including China and USA at the time of exiting the business in 2008.

Diana holds a degree in global leadership and public policy for the 21st Century from Harvard Kennedy School. A programme designed for members of the community of Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. Diana is a spokesperson for sustainability either in conference or on TV, including BBC, World Economic Forum – Davos, TEDx, Cannes Lion, Walpole Luxury Think Tank, Bloomberg Live, just to name a few.

Diana is a globally recognised figure in the sustainability field, having been trained by Al Gore at the Alliance of Climate Change and subsequently being honoured by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2011. Diana is an advisor to the Sustainable Development Goals Council, a member of the British Fashion Council and has recently been named an honorary professor of the Glasgow Caledonian University.

Saadia Bhatty is an attorney admitted to the New York bar and an Avocat au Barreau de Paris. She is counsel in the International Dispute Resolution (IDR) team of Gide’s London office and advises and represents States and private entities on a wide range of contentious and non-contentious international dispute resolution law matters, in particular in international commercial and investment arbitrations and other public international law matters (including advice on treaty and legislation drafting).

Saadia has acted as counsel in investment and commercial arbitration proceedings conducted under the rules of various institutions (including those of the ICC, ICSID, LCIA, SCC, the Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa (OHADA), HKIAC, VIAC and CAS) as well as ad hoc arbitrations (UNCITRAL), dealing with the laws of both civil and common-law jurisdictions. Saadia has specific experience in the energy, oil & gas and construction sectors, especially in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Prior to working for Gide in London, she worked for Gide in Paris and global law firms’ international arbitration and public international law practices in London and New York.

Saadia sits on the Board and is part of the Executive Committee of a number of professional organisations, including the European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration (EFILA), Africa International Legal Awareness (AILA), the Pakistan Centre for Law and Society (PCLS), ArbitralWomen, and she is the President of the Harvard Women in Defense, Diplomacy and Development (Harvard W3D London Chapter).

A graduate from Harvard Law School, the Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris, and the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Saadia regularly writes articles, lectures in top universities, trains private practitioners and government officials, and speaks at conferences in international arbitration across the globe.

Sally is International Head of Human Capital Management (HCM), overseeing the HCM businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Bengaluru and Asia Pacific. She is also responsible for employee relations globally. Sally is a director of Goldman Sachs International, a member of the European Management Committee, Firmwide Conduct and Operational Risk Committee, EMEA Culture and Conduct Risk Committee and the Global Business and Operational Resilience Committee. She is also co-head of the EMEA Inclusion and Diversity Committee, a member of the Global Diversity Committee and co-sponsor of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Network in EMEA.

Sally joined Goldman Sachs in 1999 as an executive director and counsel in the legal department within the support division in London. She became senior counsel in 2001, and in 2003, she was appointed global co-head of the Employment Law Group. Sally moved to HCM in 2008. She was named managing director in 2003 and partner in 2010.

Prior to joining the firm, Sally was a partner at Mills & Reeve Solicitors. Before that, she was a solicitor with Simmons & Simmons.

Sally is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales and is a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. She is also a member of the Council at The Cheltenham Ladies’ College and a non-executive director of the Royal Air Force.

Sally earned an MA in Law from Cambridge University in 1983.

Mark Buswell is the VP of Research Solutions in R&D Tech, GSK. He has accountability for all pre-clinical IT solutions supporting R&D from target sciences through discovery and development, and finally to clinical trial supply. He joined GSK in 2002 and has held roles in R&D and manufacturing in process development and engineering, innovation and sustainability, and more recently moved into the R&D Tech function.

He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Cranfield University. His interests include R&D IT technology, advanced automation and manufacturing technologies. He is a chartered Chemical Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineering, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Board Director of the Pistoia Alliance.

Virginia currently works as HR Director EMEA at Netflix. She holds a degree in law from the University of Naples (Italy), integrated with studies at the University of Gent (Belgium), the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) and the University of Cambridge. Prior to Netflix, Virginia worked for Anthos as Global Head of HR and as Director of IR/ER & Supply Chain Benelux at Unilever where she was responsible for the relationship with the unions and for the HR strategy in the factories. Prior to Unilever, Virginia worked as Senior HR Director International at Belkin, being strategically responsible for HR in EMEA and APAC. Virginia started her business career at Transcom where she spent 10 years in different international HR positions. Before joining Transcom she lectured for four years at Hogeschool of Groningen (the Netherlands).

Director of Corporate Communications and Marketing Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Director of the Wo+Men’s Leadership Centre
Tracey is passionate about improving gender diversity, through dialogue and action, and is a founding member of Cambridge Judge Business School’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee.

Tracey is a member of the senior leadership team, with responsibility for overseeing
externally facing communications and corporate marketing. She is also a member of the European
Foundation for Management Steering Committee and a mentor to students at her alma mater, the University of St. Andrews. Tracey’s background is in outreach, engagement, and PR.

In her early career, she project-managed the creation, operational running and marketing of museums, including the Museum of Rugby and Twickenham Experience Tours at England Rugby, Twickenham. She developed engagement and
partnership programmes as Director of Outreach for the NASA Specialised Center of Research and Training in the Research Triangle, North Carolina and for ScottishTelecom, in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Tracey holds degrees from the University of St Andrews and the University of Aberdeen, has
completed the Executive Education Cambridge General Management Programme, at Cambridge Judge, and is now embarking on an Executive MBA at the Business School. In her spare time, she runs marathons.

Annamaria’s career in wealth management spans over 25 years including senior roles at Schroders, Cazenove Capital Management, Merrill Lynch and latterly C Hoare & Co. In 2017 Annamaria, who headed the wealth management business of C Hoare & Co, oversaw the completion of the sale of its wealth management business to Cazenove Capital following which she joined Owl Private Office, a strategic wealth advisory business as a founding partner.

Aside from her main executive role at Owl Private Office, Annamaria is a Commissioner of The Jersey Financial Services Commission and a non-executive director of Schroder & Co. Amongst other roles, Annamaria is a Fellow Commoner of Queens’ College Cambridge and serves on the College’s investment committee. She is also a trustee of the choral Charity, ORA. Annamaria has an MA in modern languages from the University of Cambridge and speaks Italian, German and French and is a Chartered Wealth Manager.

Annamaria has received recognition for leadership and business growth in financial services as well as for her public service, being named ‘Woman of the year’ by Citywealth in 2013, 2016 and 2019.

In her spare time, Annamaria is a member of a number of angel syndicates and her focus is on supporting businesses where at least one of the founders is a woman. She has a keen personal interest in promoting financial education for women and young people.

An accomplished entrepreneur, Mike has built venture-backed companies towards growth and liquidity as a founder, executive, board member, advisor and investor. He is currently CEO of Currencycloud one of the founding firms of the London ‘fintech revolution’ that is leading the digital transformation of the finance industry. Mike has led Currencycloud from initial funding in 2012 to over 200 employees and processing over $1 billion per month in international payments.

Over three decades, he has led many technology firms in London and Silicon Valley including CEO Infinity Financial Technology (Silicon Valley, IPO acquired by SunGard), CEO Cohera (Silicon Valley, acquired by PeopleSoft/Oracle), Board Member/COO Traiana (London/Tel Aviv, acquired by ICAP/NEX). He has been a Board Member at many early and growth-stage tech firms in London, Paris, Brussels, Tel Aviv, Lisbon, Dublin and New York.

Mike is on the board of RxArt, a New York non-profit that places works by contemporary artists to improve the environment of children’s hospitals. He started his career with the United Nations working in disaster recovery operations in India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines.

Mike has a bachelors in anthropology from Wesleyan University and advanced degrees from Harvard in education and the School for International Training in international affairs.

Agnieszka leads the Wear OS Release and Telemetry Infrastructure team in the London Google office. She has over seven years of industry experience focusing on mobile and wearable development – launching and landing quality software, data analysis, UI/UX, staffing and structuring engineering teams and long-term projects. She holds a first-class masters degree in Computer Science, with distinction, from Imperial College London. She is passionate about outreach and STEM education, engaging in many speaking opportunities, such as DroidCon London, Google I/O, Google DevBytes and Grace Hopper Celebrations. At present she also leads the GoogleUK & GirlGuiding UK partnership. Originally from Warsaw, she moved to London to study. Before Wear OS she worked on Google Maps for Mobile and Google Arts and Culture.

Adrian is responsible for the operational management of the BBC in England, which encompasses major broadcast bases outside of London, including Salford, Birmingham and Bristol, along with local radio and television stations across the country.

Adrian began his career at the BBC, directing and producing programmes for children, including The Really Wild Show, Record Breakers and Play School. In 1991 he relocated to Toronto, Canada as Head of Children’s & Education for TVOntario. He subsequently became Head of Children’s, Youth and Daytime for CBC Television, Managing Director of CBC’s online service and Executive Director of Programming for CBC Radio.

Adrian returned to London in 2004 and became Chief Executive of LGT, a new media production company contracted by the UK Department for Education to create interactive teaching and learning resources for gifted children.

Adrian returned to the BBC in 2009 as Chief Adviser, BBC Children’s & Learning, responsible for strategy, education policy and governance. He moved to the North West in 2011 and became Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Chief Adviser to the founding Director of BBC North. In 2014 he became General Manager of BBC North and was made Director of Business & Operations for England in 2019.

Adrian has led and participated in a wide range of large-scale change projects in Canada and the UK. He likes to keep in touch with his creative roots and was recently Executive Producer of the new series of Teletubbies for CBeebies.

Adrian has bachelors and masters degrees in education and child psychology. He is a voting member of BAFTA, an International Emmy Award winner, Chair of the World Summit on Media for Children Foundation, and a governor of The Manchester College. He holds dual British and Canadian citizenship.

Sucheta’s primary research interests include strategic leadership with a special focus on female rise to corporate boards and executive leadership positions. She has published extensively in leading academic journals in management. She is an associate editor of Academy of Management Journal and Journal of Management. She also sits on the editorial of four other leading academic journals.

She has worked on research projects and grants with companies such as Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, Newton Asset Management, BNY Mellon and 30% club. Her research on female rise to boardrooms has been featured in global media outlets including New York Times, Forbes, CNBC, Huffington Post, Reuters, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Scotsman, Economic Times, Times of India, Herald Tribune, Borsen, O Globo, The Times (Kuwait), Business Standard and Folha De Sao Paulo.

Laurel Powers-Freeling started her career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company after gaining degrees at Columbia (Economics and Physics) and MIT (Applied Economics and Finance). She then moved to Morgan Stanley, focusing on investment banking in the European insurance sector. Laurel was invited by one of her clients, the Prudential, to join them as Director of Corporate Strategy & Planning, where she helped shift the Group’s focus to Asia. She was then appointed Group CFO of Lloyd Abbey Life, where she was the second woman to serve as a CFO of a FTSE 100 company. After the acquisition of LAL by Lloyds Bank Group, she first served as Retail Finance Director, and was then made Managing Director of Lloyds Bank’s Wealth Management Division, which generated over 25 per cent of the total profits of the Group. She moved to Marks & Spencer to once again serve on a FTSE 100 board, where she set up M&S Bank and was responsible for the early development of marksandspencer.com. Laurel’s final full-time role was at American Express Europe, where she was an Executive Director. Laurel has been both a Non-Executive Director of the Bank of England and a Senior BOE Advisor, and has served on a total of fourteen company boards as a non-executive director, including nine years as an non-executive director of the Royal Academy of Music.

She currently chairs Uber UK, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp EMEA, Cambridge University Health Partners and the NHS National Joint Registry. She is also on the boards of Atom Bank and Majid Al Futtaim Ventures. She and her husband, Dr Anthony Freeling (the President of Hughes Hall, Cambridge), have been married thirty years and have two daughters, one working as a Kubernetes Software Engineer at Google Cloud in Silicon Valley and the other translating between business and tech at a London fintech. Laurel’s non-business interests include cooking, wine, Baroque and Renaissance music, and all things Italian.

Rupert is an English Barrister and an Avocat à la Cour. He specialises in international arbitration and dispute resolution proceedings relating to joint ventures, construction, distribution and international sale of goods.

Having started his career as a Barrister in London in 1992, he joined Gide Loyrette Nouel in Paris in 1995 and became a partner in the Arbitration team in 2001. He relocated to the Gide office in London in 2012 where he is Managing Partner of the office and Head of the International Dispute Resolution team.

Gide’s gender diversity policy aims to enhance the visibility and influence of promising female lawyers and to make gender balance amongst partners one of the Firm’s strengths. Gide currently has equal numbers of male and female associates and the proportion of female partners is increasing all the time. The firm has agreed on a target of 30 per cent female partners by 2025.

In 2017, Gide London won the inaugural Prix Champagne Louis Roederer, which is a prize jointly created by the Franco British Lawyers Society and the Champagne Louis Roederer and which is awarded to an organisation, law firm, in-house legal department, charitable organisation or individual that has demonstrated an outstanding contribution to helping French women lawyers practice in London. Gide London now sits on the judging panel for this prize.

Rupert also has a personal vested interest in helping to create a world in which men and women work together with equality of opportunity as he has five children, one son and four daughters.

Basia is a technology leader with experience building and growing global teams, products, strategic relationships and operational processes. She is passionate about digital media, technology, connecting people, experiencing culture through travel, and finding balance in work and life. Over the last seven years, she has been involved in building and developing tools for content creators and brands to manage their intellectual property at scale in the digital world, and empowering people and teams at Facebook to grow and innovate technical solutions in operations.

Basia received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Texas in Austin, before jumping into the start-up world with a focus on international travel, immigration, and business development. With the growth of social media, Basia moved into the tech sector and earned her Masters in Business Administration in digital media management from St. Edward’s University, where she spent time cultivating appreciation for digital advertising and copyright law. She has more than seventeen years of experience spanning diverse sectors that, combined, enable innovation and understanding in an ever-evolving digital and tech world.

Martha (Marty) S. Wikstrom is a seasoned brand and retail executive with over 30 years’ experience in global executive roles. She is a founding partner of Atelier Fund, specialising in the acquisition and development of luxury brands.

Ms. Wikstrom sits as a Board Director of Fortnum & Mason, the 300-year old quintessential English purveyor of food, drinks and gifts, Johnstons of Elgin, which has been making Scottish cashmere, tweed and woollens since 1797 and Farrow & Ball, a global leader in high quality paint and wallpaper. She is also a Board Director of The Rug Company, purveyors of handmade, designer rugs and Cath Kidston, the home of modern vintage.

As Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Wikstrom led the Fashion and Accessories brands of Compagnie Financière Richemont SA. She also served as both a Non-Executive and then Executive Director of the Board.

Ms. Wikstrom served as Managing Director of Harrods, Ltd. She was a Board Director of Harrods Holdings Ltd, Harrods Estates and Kurt Geiger, Ltd where she was also the interim Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining Harrods, Ms. Wikstrom spent 19 years at Nordstrom, where she rose from a part-time sales assistant to President of the Full Line Stores Group.

In 2017, Ms. Wikstrom was inducted into the World Retail Congress Hall of Fame. In 2018, Ms. Wikstrom was appointed as a Fellow of the Wo+Men’s Leadership Centre at Cambridge Judge Business School and the Board of the World Wide Web Foundation.