Shortlist 2020

Kristina is a talented classical and opera vocalist, born in Chennai, India. She has been named Best Performer for three consecutive years and has performed all over the world. In 2020 she  completed her course at Middlesex University London with First Class Honours. She is set to reach the highest levels of the classical music and opera world, and be a role model for all.

Mya-Rose is a British–Bangladeshi naturalist, committed to protecting our planet and people. When she was just 13 years old she organised nature camps for BAME teenagers. She is the Founder of Black2Nature, an organisation that runs camps and conferences and campaigns for equal access to nature. In 2020 she became the youngest person to be awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Bristol in recognition of her diversity campaigning.

Lowena is one of the UK's top 10 ‘inspiring juniors’ for girls in technology. Scientist, chemist, mathematician, physicist and speaker, she has been invited to speak on the impact of AI on the future of work at the World AI Summit in Amsterdam and has won numerous competitions including being invited to San Francisco to run a ‘hackathon’ event for teenage girls interested in tech. She is currently studying Physical Natural Sciences at Cambridge.

Niki is a project manager for EyeSee working to establish innovative methods for the design and distribution of glasses in East Africa. She has also recently co-founded the FoodIE app, winning the Gamifying Decarbonisation Challenge. The app is designed to allow users to document their day-to-day behavioural changes in a journey towards living a low-carbon lifestyle. She is determined to become a leader in sustainability.

Scarlett is the youngest person internationally to have an A-level in Government and Politics, which she attained at age 13. She's a climate justice activist and spokesperson at UKSCN and an opinion writer. In addition, Scarlett is a Campaign Coordinator at the Teach the Future campaign. Her goal is to drive the English Climate Emergency Education Act (the first ever student-written bill) and see the Green New Deal passed in the UK

Kat has one of the most challenging roles in the Premier League as Head of Policy and Supporter Relations. She works with football clubs, fan groups, politicians, senior figures across the sport and policing to help deliver the beautiful game and give every fan (regardless or gender, ethnicity, religion or age) the opportunity to enjoy the sport in a safe and secure environment.

Imogen is one of only four lightweight women who make up the lightweight section of the GB squad. Her performance at the highest level in 2018 and 2019 (Olympic qualification and bronze in the LW2x) led to her being awarded GB Rowing’s ‘Female Athlete of the Year’. Imogen has her sights set on the postponed Olympic Games and completing her medical studies at Cambridge.

As the Children, Young People and Families Support Officer for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in Scotland, Rosie supports people with sight loss and their families so that they can reach their aspirations. Rosie supports the LTA and British Blind Sport as an excellent advocate of visually impaired tennis. As a member of the GB Visually Impaired tennis squad, Rosie won a gold medal at last year’s International World Championships.

Nekoda has been an athlete for 21 years, with eight years as an elite athlete. In 2014, she became  Commonwealth Champion, marking the start of her senior career. Nekoda is one of the best judo players of all time and one of only 15 athletes to have ever won two world medals. Nekoda hopes to be the first Olympic gold medallist for Great Britain. Nekoda also works for the Mintridge Foundation, mentoring young people. 

Megan’s passion for dodgeball developed at Warwick University, where she played competitively and took on the role of acting Publicity Secretary and later Vice President, championing equality and growing female LGBTQ+ participation. Megan then moved to the sport’s national team, London Storm. In 2019, she joined the England Lions Dodgeball Women’s Senior Squad. Megan seeks to grow the ‘grass-roots’ of the sport, championing kindness and inclusivity. She is also a Senior Analyst at Hall & Partners.

Alongside her role as a quantitative engineer at Facebook London, where Ghida builds data-driven tools and performs in-depth analysis to drive expansion and operation, Ghida has built rafiqi.net, an AI-powered platform that leverages artificial intelligence to connect refugees to opportunities. Her aim is to provide a single platform for democratising refugees' access to opportunities and to leverage machine learning to connect them with lifelong employment.

Aged 11, Anne-Marie passed computing A-Level. By 20, she was one of the youngest to receive a Masters in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford. A thought-leader in tech, she has an MBE for her work as a champion for women in STEM. She is the Co-founder of Stemettes, a social initiative dedicated to inspiring and promoting young women in the STEM sectors.

Namrata is the Chief Product Officer at iPlato Healthcare. where she partners with NHS Digital to roll out the myGP app across all GP clinics and trusts. Namrata has been a product and technology champion for more than a decade, launching numerous digital products across a variety of sectors like IT, FMCG, telecom, healthcare, wellness, media and broadcast.

Layla is the COO of Little Bridge, an immersive games-based children’s learning and media company. Layla has also been a long-time consultant to and supporter of UNICEF’s programmes and innovation work. She spearheaded UNICEF’s Next Generation London, managed and delivered nine consulting projects and raised £4m for the organisation. Layla advises on refugee integration and entrepreneurial projects.

Sophie makes an outstanding contribution to the male-dominated tech and gaming industry. She is Global Brand Director at King, where she has revolutionised brand marketing and developed strategies that blend art and science to deliver a ROI-positive approach. She has launched many successful campaigns at King including eight new games and leads strategic partnerships with the likes of Google, Apple, and Instagram.

Emma is a Royal Society Research Fellow in astrophysics at Imperial College London, investigating the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR), the birth of the first stars. The successful detection of the EoR will be a field-changing achievement and Emma’s work is making this possible. Emma’s scientific achievements have occurred besides her achievements promoting gender equality within academia.

Emily is a conservation biologist with six years of experience researching plastic pollution in aquatic environments. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Exeter, investigating the impact of current levels of plastic pollution and the effect they are having on marine ecosystems and threatened species including marine turtles.

Nuria is an international expert in bioadhesives and their interactions with tissues, as well as in nanotechnologies for cancer treatment and wound healing. She has published 14 peer-reviewed publications and has filed five patents. Her PhD work on bioadhesives at MIT led to a spin-off company, Biodevek, currently undergoing preclinical trials in the United States. Nuria is establishing an independent research group in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London.

Hannah is a planetary scientist working in lunar resources and space exploration at the Open University. She is focused on producing water from lunar rocks so as to one day support crewed missions to the moon’s surface. Hannah has a passion for science communication and inspiring the next generation of space scientists, often speaking at schools and conferences.

Leor is a Fellow and Director of Studies for the Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Tripos at Churchill College, Cambridge. Her contributions to science and society are reflected in her work building the new scientific discipline of political neuroscience, combining cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology, and genetics to examine why some people are vulnerable (or resistant) to extreme ideologies.

Bridget is Head of KPMG’s Climate Risk and Decarbonisation Strategy team, and a passionate advocate for action on decarbonisation. She has dedicated her career to driving forward the low carbon agenda and is inspired by the opportunity and challenge to change the commercial face of business.

Parisa is a Senior Associate at Reed Smith in the Banking and Finance team. She has developed a key specialism in funds finance law. Parisa is the Co-chair of the Multi-Cultural Network (MCN) – the London diversity committee for Reed Smith – with a strong desire to overcome racial inequality in the legal industry. She leads mentoring schemes where junior BAME individuals are paired with senior non-BAME staff.

Amelia is a Systems Engineer at Atkins, where she supports business development activity in relation to the Ministry of Defence Engineering Delivery Partnership contract. She is passionate about helping others achieve their ambitions, particularly developing careers in STEM and actively seeking opportunities where she can apply her systems engineering knowledge to broader challenges.

Meenakshi is a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine and the Clinical Lead for the Charing Cross Neurological Rehabilitation Unit. She has won many regional and national prizes and leads an award-winning, innovative rehabilitation service. She is passionate about improving patient outcomes through strong team collaboration, research and clinical leadership.

Emily heads-up the Colleague Development team for the Chief Controls Office at Barclays, leading the training strategy for 800 people globally. She is leading tailored career pathways for colleagues, building libraries around the neuroscience of learning, focusing on holistic colleague development and driving the future of work-life integration.

Ozak is the Smart Buildings Lead at BRE. She is an award-winning chartered electronic and electrical engineer with academic research experience in embedded technology and advanced signal processing. She has over six years of experience working in building services engineering consulting and in strategic research and development in cyber-physical systems for the built environment.

Sarah is the Founder of the Land Collective, a commercial awareness and career development platform centering on the built environment. Her aim is to engage and educate more young people and open doors of opportunity for those who want to pursue a profession in this sector. She is currently developing a virtual internship programme which has had over 300 pre-registrations.

From pioneering change at university as President of the Property Society to creating an enabling environment for others at Cushman & Wakefield, with the CREation Property Network, Rosanna is determined to support and inspire the youngest generation of property professionals. She is currently Global Brand and Strategic Partnerships Director at Project Etopia.

Sophie is an award-winning Chartered Civil Engineer, who has delivered major infrastructure projects and has progressed rapidly to lead a successful team as a regional manager. She is currently Practice Manager for Bridges, Civils and Geomatics at Atkins. Sophie is a strong advocate for staff development and an outstanding role model for young people.

Priya founded BAME in Property in 2017 with the aim of creating an organisation for underrepresented ethnic minority professionals in the built environment sector so as to drive a more inclusive industry. She is a Communications Consultant at Grayling and an Ambassador for Binti Period, a charity aiming to end period poverty. She also serves as a diversity advisor for the Royal Town Planning Institute and others.

Kate has an extensive history of mentorship; she was an ambassador whilst at the University of Bath, led her department’s buddy scheme at Deloitte and established a mentoring scheme at Whitbread PLC. She is a mentor for scholarship students at the University of Bath and currently serves as Strategy & Insights Manager at the England & Wales Cricket Board.

Rosie commands the squadron charged with being the first footprint for medical support on the ground in the event of a worldwide incident; be it military operations or assistance with humanitarian support. Rosie joined the RAF's operational medical wing a short time before the onset of the global pandemic. She is a trailblazer who repeatedly demonstrates that women have an important role to play in this male-dominated environment.

Antonis is the Director of England and Wales at the Mental Health Foundation. He is an experienced public health professional, academic and thought-leader on mental health, with a focus on developing co-produced innovation, real world research and fair policies towards influencing better health and better lives for all. He is a dedicated mentor to young professionals in public health.

Ravin is one of the youngest senior news editors in BBC News and Current Affairs. In his current role he is an Executive Editor on major podcast series. Previously, he was the lead proponent of the BBC’s youth audience strategy in terms of current affairs and longform journalism. A celebrated mentor at the BBC, Creative Access and the MAMA Youth Project, Ravin has a successful track record of transforming BBC News departments in terms of representation across gender, ethnicity and class.

A Senior Director within KPMG, Rachel leads large scale transformation programmes, heads up a 140-strong team and is known for her investment in coaching and mentoring female colleagues. She is sought after as a manager and mentor, taking personal pride in coaching others to progress their careers.

Emilie believes that everyone has the right to experience, learn and play music. She has over 13 years of marketing experience with UK, international and global companies. A recognised expert in her field, she is now Head of Marketing Channel Strategy for Yamaha Music Europe. Emilie is the first European woman on Yamaha’s Global Brand Team and represents Europe in the Global Diversity and Inclusion Group.

Lizzy established Survivor Stories, a unique journalistic platform featuring interviews with survivors of sexual violence in their own words. She's provided a safe space for complex stories, in the hope of empowering interviewees and supporting survivors around the world. Lizzy is also a journalist for titles including The Guardian, Grazia and Marie Claire as well as Vice Chair of a local rape crisis centre.

Zara is a freelance multi-hyphen journalist, presenter, producer, filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer for BAFTA, NTA and RTS award-winning shows. She believes storytelling can connect, unite and change the world. Zara splits her operations between fee-paying work and philanthropic projects with the aim of promoting inclusivity with BAME, disabled and LGBTQ+ talent.

Lara leads 50:50 The Equality Project, the BBC’s largest collective action campaign to increase representation of underserved audiences, inspiring organisations around the globe to create media content that fairly represents our world. Lara joined the BBC in 2009 and was recently Output Editor of BBC Africa's first-ever youth programme.

Charlotte has built strong foundations as a communications expert, beginning her career at two leading PR agencies before obtaining her current in-house role where she leads the global communications for Pernod Ricard’s international gin brands for corporate, consumer and trade audiences.

At the age of 18, Chelsey was a Small Business Accountant at the same time as completing her AAT qualification, giving birth to her daughter and raising her as a single mum. In 2015 Chelsey completed her ACA studies and graduated as a Chartered Accountant. She later joined Terberg, an international vehicle manufacturer and has completed an MBA at Warwick Business School.

Aliya recently graduated from Oxford's Saïd Business School. Alongside her MBA, she has competed for the British National Fencing Team and has her sights set on the Olympics. Aliya previously worked on Wall Street and graduated from Harvard University. Passionate about female empowerment, Aliya is a champion for fellow women, whether on the fencing piste, on the trading floor, or in the halls of universities. 

Natalia’s greatest accomplishment to date is leading the creation of the first and only public policy for youth in Paraguay, working with the Minister of Youth and leading workshops with 1441 young people across the country. Natalia is currently a consultant at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, working on the creation of a baseline of circular economy activity and policy in Latin American countries.

Whilst undertaking an MBA at Imperial College Business School and working full-time, Alice launched RISE coffee subscription box, showcasing sustainable coffee brands. Alice previously led a team to raise £100K for a health tech start-up and she thrives in the London start-up community. Alice works at a digital agency and is a Prince’s Trust Mentor. She was awarded a BIMA 2020 for influence in the digital industry.

A gender diversity champion, Srishti has led the agenda at both her ex-workplace, Barclays, and the University of Cambridge. She led the United Nations' HeForShe gender parity agenda for Barclays Pune, steering initiatives to formulate gender-centric policies to attract, retain and develop women in the workforce. She has also served as Co-chair of the Wo+Men’s Leadership Centre. Her goal is to further her career in the FinTech sector.

Natasha works with female entrepreneurs across 48 countries around the world. She is the pioneer of Success Imprinting™, a unique multi-dimensional approach to transformation that creates rapid and unrivalled results for her clients, in their business and personal lives. She has grown her company significantly in a short time, and now employs an in-house team of five.

Caroline co-founded Ammonite Wealth with the aim of making high quality and personal pension and investment advice affordable for the.'advice gap' in the UK – a gap where people with under £100,000 to invest cannot affordably access financial advice. Caroline wants to modernise financial planning by promoting inclusiveness and equality.

Liberty founded DynamX Medical, a pioneering software company that develops novel technology to streamline disease diagnosis and improve efficiency in the medical industry. Liberty’s ambition is to dramatically increase the speed and reliability of disease detection and diagnosis, and reduce the strain on overburdened healthcare systems. Under her leadership, the company has run three clinical trials in the space of just four years.

Chloé is the Founder and Director of Chloé Nelkin Consulting (CNC), a firm specialising in PR, marketing, events and consultancy with a dedicated focus on visual arts, theatre, circus and opera. Prior to establishing CNC, Chloé worked for a diverse range of organisations across public and private sector, including esteemed commercial art galleries in London and a top fashion PR firm.

Zeena is the CEO and Co-founder of Sonantic, a company that is recognised as one of Europe’s hottest AI start-ups, making hyper-realistic artificial voices. Zeena has spent the last seven years working with deep technology, with two other tech start-ups under her belt. She also has nine years of experience teaching speech and language therapy to children with autism spectrum disorder.

Since joining Liverpool Football Club, Sarah has worked tirelessly with local residents and councillors to put the community first and to build a positive relationship with the club. Sarah has pushed for a £60,000 community fund in order to drive change in Anfield. She is now leading a sustainability project, streamlining the club’s principles relating to regional and global communities, and the club's green footprint.

Determined to improve the diversity of London's tech community, Sharla-Jaye founded the Intrapreneurs Club, delivering world-class accelerator programmes and connecting a far-reaching community with jobs. Under her leadership, the Intrapreneurs Club is backed by the Chairman of Barclays; 42% of tech professionals are more likely to be hired within a month and 50% are more likely to be promoted.

Grace is the Founder of DramEd, a creative education company delivering classes, clubs and workshops to advance the education and nurture the development of thousands of young children (creating jobs by taking performers from the stage to the classroom in the process, too). Grace has a background as an actress, performing in theatres all over the UK.

Esther is an author changing the game in the children’s book market – her books empower children to fulfil their dreams regardless of gender, race or religion. She is the Founder of sTandTall, an organisation that provides support to individuals suffering from abuse and bullying. She also serves as the Global Gender Diversity and Inclusion Lead at Unilever.

Toni is the Founder of dressCode, a multi-award winning charity created to help close the gender gap in computing science in Scotland by engaging, inspiring and raising awareness of opportunities in the world of tech. Toni is also the Founder of Turing's Testers, a platform for girls to empower girls by supporting them to create their own national cyber competitions.

Baringa Partners, an advisory consulting firm, was founded in 2000. It prides itself on deep industry content, delivered by highly collaborative teams. Baringa is focused on attracting, retaining and developing talented and capable consultants and corporate members, recognising the value of diversity and playing to the strengths individuals bring rather than asking everyone to fit a preconceived notion of a standard consultant.

The BBC is a public broadcasting service with a mission to create content for everyone. It is committed to representing the UK’s diversity on-and-off-screen. The BBC’s diversity agenda is simple – to ensure it reflects the UK in content and in its workforce. In pursuit of this, over the last year, the BBC has: launched a £100m Creative Diversity Fund; held the world’s first virtual Creative Diversity Experience; expanded the multi-award winning 50:50 Project beyond gender; revamped recruitment so over 75% of jobs are advertised flexibly and implemented 91% of staff recommendations to ensure an inclusive BBC culture.

The philosophy of Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) is ‘Everyone’s Welcome to Be Yourself, Be Valued, Belong’. The CCEP GB business unit has been on a culture change journey to create this inclusive culture. A place where everyone, wherever they work within the business, feels welcome to fully be themselves at work. Alongside this, CCEP has five critical diverse focus areas, these are: culture and heritage, gender, multi-generations, abilities and LGBTI+.

Google’s mission is to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. When Google says it wants to build for everyone, it means everyone. To do that well, Google believes it needs a workforce that’s more representative of the users it serves. Google aims to create a workplace that celebrates the diversity of its workforce, customers, and users. It builds products that work for everyone by including perspectives from backgrounds that vary by race, ethnicity, social background, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, and national origin.

Imperial College London is a university with an international reputation for excellence in teaching and research. It helps realise the talents of younger women through its commitment to developing the next generation of researchers, scientists and academics through collaboration across disciplines. Imperial has an Assistant Provost for EDI, with the EDI strategy that includes integrating equality, diversity and inclusion into all management processes and student experiences.

Rija is an accomplished Fintech leader who has led teams across London, Silicon Valley and Toronto with extensive experience across several domains. Most recently she spent time advising start-ups based in Europe, Toronto and Africa, and in her role at Facebook she leads a team focused on commerce, ensuring data quality for the likes of the recently launched Shops product.

Lynette was born and raised in Uganda where she became the first female aerospace engineer with an MSc after graduating from Imperial College London. She works at Rolls-Royce as a Turbine Aerothermal Engineer and was named one of the UK's Top 20 Women in Data in 2019.

Jillian is an award-winning entrepreneur and the Founder of Safe & the City, a technology and data intelligence platform creating safer and more inclusive spaces. Jillian is a board member, business coach and TEDx speaker. Her passion and unstoppable work ethic inspires others to believe in her vision of change.

Sabeehah escaped an abusive marriage and was forced to rebuild her life. She is committed to supporting other women to do the same. She has published a series of articles to create awareness on narcissistic abuse and violence against women in South Africa and written extensively on oppression against women in Pakistan and the stigma of divorce in Asian and African communities. She is currently studying at University College London.

Hannah is a medical doctor and DPhil candidate in women’s health at the University of Oxford. She is also Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Kalsom Movement, a student-led charity based in Malaysia. Hannah hopes to combine her love of medicine and women’s health with youth education and women’s rights advocacy.

Sarah loves a challenge and embraces the fear of taking risks. She gained her chartered accountancy qualification, joined Aviva and moved from graduate to Head of Department with a global remit – all by the age of 30. She is currently Head of Risk & Governance. A committed mentor, Sarah has been instrumental in shaping the future of Aviva and its many diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Shabina is a lawyer, specialising in international child abduction, forced marriage, and gender-based violence. She is a UN recognised expert of child, early and forced marriage, and has conducted pioneering research on acid violence in Sri Lanka, Cambodia and India. Shabina’s vision is to help end child, early and forced marriage by 2030. She is part the legal team on the Safeguard Futures: End Child Marriage campaign.

Carla served in the Royal Air Force, undertaking three permanent assignments including two overseas tours of duty in just six years. Since leaving the RAF, Carla has led complex business change projects within the defence sector. Currently a Project Management Consultant at Atkins, she has enabled the rapid deployment of new defensive capabilities and has been a key contributor to the growth of cyber services.

Catherine is an award-winning sales and marketing leader with proven success in developing future-focused strategies. In her current role as Senior Marketing Strategy Manager and Chief of Staff in B2B Marketing, Catherine has led the rebuild of the marketing function and headed-up initiatives that support growth. She’s also integrally involved in initiatives to drive gender and racial equality in the workplace.

Swati is a marketing leader and strategic business partner with over ten years of global experience across technology services. She has pioneered new initiatives including SEO optimisation, marketing automation and more. She also founded a public speaking non-profit organisation that has helped over 50 members improve confidence and led many voluntary initiatives to drive education and computer training among underprivileged kids.

Simone is a theatre-maker and mezzo-soprano who is passionate about creating art that is accessible and that empowers others to drive change. She co-founded HERA, celebrating art by women and gender minorities across the UK. An advocate for diversity and inclusion, Simone is a BBC Radio 3 Next Generation Artist.

Sukki has campaigned tirelessly for women's rights in the UK, Singapore and across the globe. Her work has seen burlesque legalised in Singapore. Beyond political activism, Sukki has refined her skills as a performer, and was inducted into the burlesque hall of fame in 2015. Suki is an ambassador for the Sharan Project, a charity safeguarding young South Asian women.

Hannah uses art as a tool for advocacy and to bring the stories of displaced and marginalised people into places of influence in the West. She is currently completing her PhD at the University of Glasgow as a UNESCO ‘Art Lab for Human Rights and Dialogue’ scholar. She has organised art projects in Syrian and Rohingya refugee camps; with Yazidi women who escaped ISIS, and survivors of Boko Haram.

Laura is a playwright, screenwriter and poet, exploring the female experience with a multidisciplinary approach. She has written over 40 plays, produced across China, the UK and Europe. Her first feature film, Lapwing, is in post-production. Laura lectures at the University of Lincoln and recently established Fury Theatre, telling female stories with fire.

Gloria is an award-winning actress and playwright who has produced her own work for over ten years, engaging audiences with social political subject matters. Her recent play, Bullet Hole, earned her a Black British Theatre Award for Best Female Actor. Gloria also works as a Business Analyst on a probation tool to help offenders receive the right