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.

Catherine Hearn

Director of Talent Acquisition, International Consumer

Amazon

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.

Nick Hedley

Partner

Hedley May

Daniel Gonzalez Fuster

Head of Institutional Investors client line, UK and Middle East

BNP Paribas Securities Services

Daniel has over 20 years experience within BNP Paribas Securities Services and the wider fund industry. His previous role was as head of asset owners client line for the Americas based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. During this time he also had responsibility for asset manager product development and solutions for Latin America.

His experience spans across operational, product and project management roles in Brazil, Spain, Luxembourg, Ireland and France.

Daniel holds a university degree in Economics from Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium and two master's degrees, one in Applied Economic Analysis from Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona and one in Corporate Social Responsibility from Universidad Alcala de Henares, Madrid.

He is fluent in Spanish, French, Portuguese and English.

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.

Sarah Whipp

CMO and Head of GTM Strategy

Callsign

David Fineberg

Deputy CEO

CMC Markets

David joined the Group in November 1997 working on the trading desk and developed the Group's multi-asset CFD and spread bet dealing desk. As a senior dealer he was responsible for managing the UK and US equity books. Between April 2007 and September 2012, he was the Group's Western Head of Trading, covering all asset classes for the western region.

In September 2012, David was appointed to the role of Group Head of Trading and in January 2014 was appointed as the Group Director of Trading with overall responsibility for the trading and pricing strategies across the Group. In June 2017, his role further expanded when he became Group Commercial Director and then in April 2019, he was promoted to the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer.

Carla Stockton-Jones

UK Managing Director

Stagecoach

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.

Amanda Mackenzie OBE

Previously Amanda was a member of Aviva's Group Executive Committee for 8 years as CCMO and has 25 years’ experience working in large companies at Director level.
She was a trustee of the National Youth Orchestra for 10 years and a member of Lord Davies Review steering group to increase the number of women on boards.
Amanda is a Fellow and Past President of the Marketing Society. She received an LVO in the New Year’s Honours 2023, OBE in 2014 and holds two Honorary Doctorates

Nic Budden

Nic has a genuine passion for diversity, inclusion and social mobility which is rooted in his working-class background and developed further during a decade of working overseas with large multicultural workforces to deliver complex business transformation projects in USA, Asia, Caribbean and Latin America.

In 2019 Nic was ranked by Glassdoor as a UK Top 50 CEO and in 2020, his work at Foxtons won an award for diversity and inclusion at the Business Culture Awards.

Alderman Vincent Keaveny

Lord Mayor of the City of London
2021-22

In 2014/15 he served as President of the City of London Law Society. He is a graduate of University College Dublin (BCL) and Trinity College, Dublin (MLitt), holds a Doctorate of Science (honoris causa) from City, University of London and is an Honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn.

Vincent’s Mayoral theme - People and Purpose - championed a purpose led and people focused UK FPS sector. He co-chaired the Socio-Economic Diversity Taskforce and currently chairs Progress Together, the financial services membership body promoting greater socio-economic diversity in the industry.

He is the senior independent trustee of the Sir John Soane's Museum, chairs the board of the vocal ensemble, Exaudi, and is a director of Actors Touring Company.

Wendy Lyons

Director

Human Assets

Wendy has worked with a wide range of organisations in private, public and not for profit sectors and has 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’ and enjoys contributing to public debate on business issues, her comments have featured in The Times, The Observer, Sky News as well as various industry publications.”

Sarah David

Founder & Managing Director

Thrive Consulting Collaborative

Sarah's early career as a lawyer culminated in COO and CEO roles, and she was closely involved in a number of merger and acquisition events.

Ten years ago when she was widowed with two young sons, Sarah established Thrive, a leadership consulting and executive coaching business where she has worked primarily with professional services or PE backed businesses. Her masters level coaching research focused on the mental fitness of executive leaders.

Sarah's life experience also includes adoption and neurodivergence.

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.

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.

Geoffrey Williams

Vice President / Global Head Diversity Equity & Inclusion

Burberry

Geoffrey has had a diverse career journey starting his working life in the entertainment industry then moving into health care, rail and media for the last 20 years. He has worked in Human Resources for the last 10 years of his career and has experience in Recruitment, Talent Management, learning and development, Orgnatsaional Design and Diversity and Inclusion.

He was the fromer Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Thomson Reuters , where he worked on strategy, culture and implimentation of a D&I agenda and globally launched Thomson Reuters Diversity and Inclusion index, was award EY’s National Equality Standard. As well as create programs that supported diverse communites within the Thomson Reuters business. He has been featured in the Financial Times Top 100 ethnic minority role models and DIMA 50 male advocates for equality in marketing and media for 2018.

Geoffrey is also the co-founder of RockingUrTeens.com a social enterprise that introduces young people to the real world of work & aims to connect the teens to a positive and vibrant futures. As well as sitting on the board of film production company oneumbrellaproductions.com.

Geoffrey is committed to working to change the world of work so all people feel connected and business have high performing teams that trust and listen to each other.

Nicole Dorskind

Chief of Staff, CEO

Capita plc

Nicole was previously the founder and Managing Director of ThirtyThree USA, an employment marketing and communications agency, for 10 years based in New York City

Karen Blackett OBE

UK Country Manager, UK CEO

WPP, GroupM

As WPP U.K. Country Manager, Karen is responsible for driving growth in WPP’s second largest market of 10,000 people, through connecting operating companies to work together as integrated teams, ensuring product innovation and services development, developing, and delivering the WPP Campus strategy, developing our WPP data and technology platform to deliver client competitive advantage and growth.

Having taken on the GroupM U.K. CEO role in April 2020, Karen managed the business at a critical time during the COVID global pandemic and the subsequent impact of the killing of George Floyd. Through careful mitigating and permanent actions that put people first whilst helping clients to navigate the pandemic.

In June 2014, Karen received an OBE in the Queen's Birthday honours and topped the Power List, being the first woman to come in at number 1. In November 2018 Karen won the Inspirational Leader category at the Ethnicity Awards and was appointed Race Equality Business Champion by the U.K. Prime Minister. In 2019 Karen was appointed a Non-Executive Director of the U.K. Cabinet Office, and in June 2022 Karen will commence her Non-Executive Director position for Diageo.