Wo+Men’s Leadership Conference 2024: Gender Equity: Creating the Future of Work

Evani is an AI enthusiast and seasoned serial entrepreneur with a strong track record of launching and scaling innovative ventures. Over 24 years, she has founded and exited multiple startups, focusing on the intersection of emerging technologies and business.

Passionate about AI’s transformative potential, Evani leverages machine learning, automation, and data-driven strategies to create disruptive solutions across industries. From improving operational efficiency to enhancing customer experiences, she excels at applying cutting-edge technologies to solve real-world problems.

As an active thought leader, Evani contributes to the AI and tech community through industry talks, mentoring, and promoting ethical AI development. She prioritise(s) ensuring that technology drives both business growth and positive societal impact.

With a combination of technical expertise and visionary leadership, Evani is committed to inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs and pushing the boundaries of innovation.

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.

Khayala Eylazova (EMBA 2014) has made a career transition from technology to professional services by joining PwC after nine years at Microsoft.

“I was appointed as a Senior Manager within PwC’s financial services department. Working closely with the industry leadership team and senior clients, I am responsible for developing consulting, insurance and investment management propositions across all service areas. I am also leading the firm’s ‘Women in Insurance Tech’ initiative, which aims to empower the next generation of female leadership by providing mentorship, coaching and support.”

Originally from Baku, Azerbaijan, Khayala had previously worked for Microsoft since 2008, developing her career across a variety of global roles involving business development, consulting and sales. Despite her successes, Khayala had wanted to take her career in a different direction by the time she joined the Cambridge Executive MBA programme.

“I wanted to make changes, intellectually challenge myself and get out my comfort zone. I had two aims going into the programme: first, establish my own start-up; second, join one the most prestigious consulting and professional services firms, PwC. I’m delighted that Cambridge’s EMBA programme enabled me to achieve both.”

Khayala’s experience on the EMBA allowed her to manage an industry sector change after graduating, as well as explore her entrepreneurial ambitions. “I loved that the EMBA is designed for executives with different backgrounds and experiences. It helped me enhance my leadership abilities, acquire new skills and motivate me in moving to the next level in my career.” Khayala joined forces with fellow EMBA alumna Angela Single (EMBA 2013) in proposing a bracelet for epileptic suffers, which was awarded “Best Start-Up” at a Venture Creation Weekend at Cambridge Judge Business School in 2016.

#Googler working with our strategic enterprise customers and partners to drive digital transformation. Sarah has worked, travelled, and studied in 60+ countries.

She has a zest for combining diverse minds to solve big problems, 10X thinking, creating a culture for innovation, and the power of Gen/AI and Cloud to drive business outcomes.

Sarah loves the fact that the world is ever changing due to digital disruptions and shifting consumer demands, and she enjoys helping clients navigate through this ambiguity.

Sonia Boije is the Chief Data Officer at NBN – a role that is central to the company’s transformation to a truly data-driven organisation. The position entails responsibility for setting the overall data strategy for the company and ensuring data usage supports that strategy.

Sonia is driven by the belief that data is a transformative medium; that, when properly governed, understood and made available can be an enabler of unprecedented opportunities to benefit people, business, and society.

Angela Single is an experienced executive and non-executive director, she has over 30 years of experience in digital transformation and a deep understanding of how technology can deliver transformational change in healthcare.

A clinician by background, she is passionate about the difference technology makes to clinicians and patients’ lives and its positive impact on health, wellness, and patient outcomes.

She has been a Senior Director for a number of leading technology companies, including Global Director for BT Health. She is currently the Director, Business Development for Novari Health UK & Ireland,  leading Novari’s market entry strategy.

She has been a digital advisor and non-executive director for Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust and has been chair of a local Cambridge Charity Romsey Mill for the last 7 years. Angela has an executive MBA from Judge Business School, Cambridge.

Daniela Florea is a trailblazing entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Image Ability. With over 30 years of experience, she specialises in leadership development, image consulting, and strategic image management. Daniela has founded 2 successful startups and chaired an international group of stakeholders to design a digital transformation programme across over 100 European cities.
Her mission is to drive sustainable change and cultivate leadership excellence, particularly for women aspiring to C-Suite and Board positions. Daniela addresses the challenges of invisibility for women who continue to grow and wish to do so beyond their mid-career, into fulfilling roles. Her approach is built on the values of proportionality; she designs and delivers programmes, director-level coaching, and transformative image workshops, all aimed at enhancing executive presence, soft power and cultural intelligence.
Daniela’s leadership philosophy is human-centric, prioritising well-being, development, and inclusivity. Her integrative approach combines psychology, pedagogy, aesthetics, and image management as intrinsic elements of leadership.

Dr Trevor Cates is author of the bestselling books Clean Skin From Within and Natural Beauty Reset and is the founder of The Spa Dr She was the first woman licensed as a naturopathic doctor in the state of California and was the doctor in several world-renown spas in Park City, Utah.

She has been featured on various TV shows, including The Doctors and Extra TV. Dr Cates is host of the Hormones, Health & Harmony Docuseries, The Woman’s Doctor Podcast, and the PBS show, Younger Skin From Within.

For the past 34 years Dr Monica Wirz has had an international career in strategy development, marketing and management consulting, where she is a partner at ClueTrain Consulting.

Her initial interest in leadership and governance has evolved into the more focused attention into the field of gender and diversity. Leadership and Gender have, since her MBA in 1995, been the main topic of her academic research and the focus of her PhD at the University of Cambridge. Her current research on Graduate Management Education has started in 2013.

I support you to get recognised for your unique brilliance without having to sacrifice who you are.

I am also Senior Leader at GSK and have 25+ years experience as a woman in science.

Beyond the career I am a mum to 2 girls, a loyal friend, a wife, a bereaved daughter, an annoying big sister, a slightly obsessed runner and the list goes on.

You may choose to approach me as a Life Coach, an Executive Coach, a Career Coach a Leadership Coach or another type of coach.

How ever you approach me I will work with you as an equal, a meeting of perfectly imperfect humans. With this approach the changes you experience will be transformational, impacting every area of your life.

My research interests include strategic interactions between stakeholders in supply chains and socially responsible operations. I’m a strong proponent of practice-based research and through collaborations with Intel Corporation, Stanford University Medical Center and others, I’ve combined my academic interests with firms’ needs to deliver insights for both communities.

I’m a member of the Operations and Technology Management subject group at Cambridge Judge Business School, which focuses on practice-based research through partner organisations to address a wide spectrum of management challenges.

UK tech entrepreneur Tamara Lohan MBE is the CEO and co-founder of Mr & Mrs Smith, a boutique hotel booking specialist launched in 2003. Tamara played a pivotal role in transforming the company from a publishing house into a global online travel agent, spearheading the development of its in-house booking engine and expanding into markets across Australia, the US, and Singapore.

Under her leadership, the company achieved notable milestones, including pioneering the first travel bond and securing one of the fastest raises on Crowdcube. With over 2 million members and partnerships with leading brands like British Airways, Mr & Mrs Smith became a certified B Corp in 2022 and was acquired by Hyatt in 2023.

Tamara, awarded an MBE for services to the British travel industry, is also a mentor and investor in startups, a non-executive director at Fortnum & Mason, and co-founder of the WITSEND women’s leadership network.

My research interests include entrepreneurship, lean startup and pivoting, gender, application of sociological approaches to broaden our understanding of entrepreneurial activity, and entrepreneurial strategy.

I’m passionate about understanding how research can improve the delivery and impact of entrepreneurship education to educate the next generation of entrepreneurs. 

Mandy has more than 35 years’ experience working in Life Sciences and Healthcare sector. She held a series of senior roles at AstraZeneca leading major transformation projects including IT implementations, establishing new global supply chain processes and securing investments to support pharmaceutical operations and manufacturing.

She is currently interim chair of Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and on the board of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult as well as an advisory board member at CJBS. She has previously served on the boards of The Guinness Partnership and Wulvern Housing in the Social Housing and Care sector.

She has a keen sports person. Her love of rowing began in Cambridge and she is a keen if now slow hill runner. She was the Race Director of The Macclesfield Running Festival for 13 years and is currently Deputy Chair of Henley Women’s Regatta.

My research interests include prosocial decisions, managerial and consumer behavioural decision making, pricing, experimental economics, and game theory.

I’m interested in how people and firms make decisions as they interact with each other, and what economic and psychological factors influence those decisions.

My research interests include psychometrics, psychology, decision-making, and social networks. I use big data to understand psychology, and I also do consultancy on the topics of psychometrics, and people analytics. My research has been cited by many governments’ national data protection regulators worldwide.

I’m a member of the Organisational Behaviour subject group at Cambridge Judge Business School, which aspires to promote our understanding of behaviour within organisations and translate our scientific research into practical applications.