Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE

Chair of Restoration Partners

Chair of the Judging Panel

He was elected as a Fellow of the British Computer Society in 2006. He has considerable public company Board-level experience on both sides of the Atlantic. He is currently a director of Thomson Reuter. He is also on the board of The Institute of Directors as a Non-Executive Director. Ken is a Freeman of the City of London; Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists; a Director of the Thomson Reuters Foundation; Chairman of Thames Reach (for which he received an OBE in 2010); Chairman of Shaw Trust, was an original member of IPSA (Independent Parliamentary Standard Authority) and Founder and Chairman of the Powerlist Foundation. In 2009, he was named the Sunday Times Not for Profit Non-Executive Director of the year.

Ken was voted number one in the Powerlist’s Top 10 most influential British black people in 2016. In 2015 Her Majesty the Queen, appointed him as her Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London. Ken was knighted for services to Business and Philanthropy in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List.

Nic Budden

Chief Executive Officer

Foxtons

Laura Battley

Company Secretary & General Counsel

Watches of Switzerland Group PLC

Laura trained and qualified as a corporate lawyer at Magic Circle law firm Slaughter and May and later spent time at Addleshaw Goddard and KPMG, where she was seconded to New Look before joining on a permanent basis.

Nick Hedley

Partner

Hedley May

Steven Cooper CBE

CEO

Aldermore Bank

Steven sits on a number of advisory boards, including being a commissioner for the social mobility commission. Steven is a NED at Robert Walters PLC and the FSCS and is an Alumni of Harvard Business Schools.

Amanda Mackenzie OBE

Chief Executive

Business in the Community

Formerly, she was a non-executive director of Mothercare Plc. and sat on the audit committee for 6 years. She was on the board of the National Youth Orchestra for 10 years and was a member of Lord Davies’ review to increase the number of women on boards. Amanda is a Life Fellow of the RSA and Fellow and former President of the Marketing Society. Prior to her current role Amanda, on loan from Aviva, helped launch the UN’s Global Goals as executive advisor to Project Everyone – a Richard Curtis co-founded campaign for the UN.

Sarah Whipp

CMO and Head of GTM Strategy

Callsign

Chris Reeve

London Region Chair

PwC

A sponsor of the Female Executive Mentoring programme which provides 1:1 Executive level mentoring to help women from public, private and third sectors to achieve their aspirations and build future Boards and leadership teams that reflect the diverse communities we live in. Chair of the London leadership Board of Business In The Community (BITC) working with 20 senior leaders in tackling some of the biggest challenges in London such as skills development, levelling up and Climate change.

David Carrigan

Group Director of Diversity,
Inclusion and Wellbeing

Sky

Previously he was the Head of Equality Strategy at Citizen’s Advice, headed Legal Affairs at the Commission for Racial Equality, and lead National Policy at the Housing Corporation/Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). David has also held advisory roles to the College of Policing and served as a Board member for a Human Rights Charity.

David was the first member of his family to complete his secondary education and worked as an apprentice Gas Engineer after leaving school. He was fortunate to be able to study at night school before attending the University of Nottingham. He is an alumni of Druids Health and is a proud Brummie. He is married with two daughters and lives in Surrey.

Sandra Wallace CBE

Partner and Joint Managing Director, UK and Europe

DLA Piper

Sandra Wallace, CBE, is a member of the Executive board and acts as joint Managing Director, UK & Europe for the global business law firm, DLA Piper, and remains an active employment law Partner handling many international employment law mandates.

Sandra served as a Social Mobility Commissioner from December 2018 to October 2021, sponsored by the Cabinet Office which monitors progress towards improving social mobility in the UK and promotes social mobility in England, also serving as interim Co-Chair. Sandra also works to drive social mobility within the legal sector and worked on the Firm’s bid to become the lead legal services employer for the Social Mobility Pledge.

Sandra is the Birmingham Chair at TheCityUK, a membership body, lobbying on behalf of the financial and related professional services industry, and was recently appointed as Co-Chair to a Government commissioned taskforce, looking at improving socio-economic diversity at senior levels within UK financial and professional services. She will be leading the industry consultation workstream, which looks at the role of Government, regulators and sector bodies in incentivizing employer action.

Sandra is a mother of three and works flexibly to balance her career and family life.

Grainne Edmonds

Global Relationship Manager

London, UK

Present
Grainne Edmonds joined BNP Paribas Securities Services in June 2020 as a Global Relationship Manager for HSBC Group, to lead our bank and asset manager relationship on a global basis. Subsequently, Grainne’s remit was expanded to UK Head of Sales & Relationship Management Financial Intermediaries for banking groups inclusive of asset management divisions.

Previous
Prior to this, Grainne was with JP Morgan Securities Services for 22 years in a variety of roles and was an Executive Director, particularly in the Sales & Relationship Management functions. Grainne was also a Network Manager for a number of years.
Before Grainne joined JP Morgan in London, she was a Network Manager and Fund Accountant with Brown Brothers Harriman in Boston, MA.

Education
Grainne holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Studies from Trinity College Dublin and is a post-graduate of University College Dublin Business Schools with a Master of Science Degree in International Business Studies.

Alderman Vincent Keaveny

Lord Mayor of the City of London
2021-22

Vincent is a partner in the international business law firm, DLA Piper. He advises on debt capital markets, structured finance and securitisation transactions in the UK and banks, financial institutions and corporate clients in the UK and internationally on banking, finance and capital markets transactions. He is listed as a leading practitioner in his area of practice by all of the principal legal directories and is included in the legal ‘500’ Hall of Fame for securitisation practitioners. Until May 2019 he was International Co-Chair of the Financial Services Sector at DLA Piper. In 2014/15 he served as President of the City of London Law Society.

Vincent is currently a member of the Policy & Resources Committee and the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Sub-committee. He also a Governor of the City of London School and Co-Chair of the HM Treasury & BEIS Socio-Economic Diversity Taskforce.

Wendy Lyons

Director

Human Assets

Wendy has worked with a wide range of organisations in private, public and not for profit sectors. She has successfully led high profile projects in government departments and the private sector where the imperative has been to increase the diversity of applicants and recruits. She has also designed development initiatives to help people from underrepresented groups progress. She has extensive experience designing and delivering bespoke assessment and development initiatives at all levels within the organisation from graduates to Boards of Directors. Wendy co-authored ‘Holding on While Letting Go: A Director’s Guide to Contemporary Talent Management’, 2009 and she has featured in The Times, The Observer and on Sky News commenting on business issues.

Paul Monekosso Cleal OBE

As well as a career in professional services, Paul has worked in both local and central government, been a board member at both the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission and Kingston University and works with a number of London schools, all of which reflects his interest in public services and issues of inequality. He has for many years been involved in diversity and inclusion in business and was recognised for his work in that area in the most recent New Year’s Honours List.

Nan Gibson

HR Board Director

Lidl

Nan joined Lidl GB as Chief Human Resources Officer in 2016. Since then she has helped future-proof the continuing growth of Lidl GB with a focus on talent sourcing and development as well as creating a culture of inclusion and opportunity. Before joining Lidl, she was Senior Vice President, People at Virgin Atlantic. Prior to Virgin Atlantic, Nan worked for American Airlines where she held the position of Director International HR – Europe & Pacific. In her two airline roles she oversaw all aspects of HR across multiple geographies and supported major restructures in both companies.

Nan is a graduate of St Andrews University. She has two grown-up sons and lives in London with her husband.

Michael Zdanowski

Director

Ventures Consulting

He is passionate about the potential of technology to decarbonise the economy and has led international campaigns to convince complex stakeholder audiences of the benefit of that change. He is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in organisations having seen the benefits to businesses of diverse thinking.

Michael has worked for several leading international consultancies and has lived, worked and studied across Europe. He has a PhD in European history from the University of Leeds and a Masters' degree from the College of Europe in Warsaw, Poland.