Holly Mather | Engineering Manager | Enable
Holly completed a Master Degree in Materials Engineering at Swansea University and started her career as a research engineer in the field of metrology.
After progressing her career technically, she took a sideways steps into people management and leadership, managing a team of research engineers specializing in data engineering, data science and software engineering.
She then took an opportunity at ASOS as an Engineering Manager, managing teams of software engineers and QA engineers in the fintech space. Following her time at ASOS she has joined SaaS startup, Enable as an Engineering Manager and is paving the way internally for female engineers.
Since joining Enable Holly has been focusing on building and driving forward a DEI strategy within the Engineering department. She has created and influenced a more accessible and diversity-centric approach to their engineering recruitment and onboarding processes.
Holly is empowering and connecting with the Enable’s female engineers, building a community for these engineers to come together across the globe, creating opportunities for them to share challenges and solutions, exploring mentoring opportunities and focusing on building empowerment from within.
Holly is also a voice of diversity and leadership outside of Enable, speaking on podcasts, writing blog posts, delivering talks at events, supporting and celebrating other women within tech through mentoring, and as a UN Women UK delegate.
Maddie Laidlaw | Commodity Financing Analyst | Macquarie
I grew up internationally in Argentina, Kazakhstan, and Thailand before doing my undergraduate degree in the UK and masters in USA.
My background is primarily in geophysics where I interned at a couple private equity firms specializing in developing mineral exploration projects through my undergraduate degree. While I wanted to stay embedded in commodities, I became more and more interested in the financing of these projects and so joined an institution that works with clients in the energy space to manage their working capital, logistics, and risk management needs.
Liz Burlon | Senior Manager - Resources and Sustainability | Accenture
I am originally from Boston, (Massachusetts, USA) but have lived in Maastricht, NL and Cape Town, South Africa before coming to London in 2010 to complete a Masters of Science in Water: Science and Governance at Kings College London.
Since joining Accenture in 2012, I have gained 10+ years of experience in water utility and cross-industry sustainability and transformation, including working with the World Economic Forum WEF on accelerating Net Zero through the transition to a net zero grid and net zero carbon cities. I have experience in asset management, operations and customer service digital transformation for water and electricity utilities, specialising in complex programme management, process design and improvement and stakeholder management. My passion is water sustainability and resilience, and the practical implications for the electricity system, extractive industries and water supply companies of the water-energy nexus. I serve as a global cross-industry water sustainability SME for Accenture. Outside of Accenture I keep in touch with my colleagues in academia, and I have 4 publications on transboundary water management, virtual water management and the water-energy-food-nexus. I am on the Steering Board for British Expertise International`s Water Resilience Working Group. Last but not least I am Mum to two little boys!
Jacqueline Mathieson | Contract Manager | SSEN Transmission
I started out as a Trainee Quantity Surveyor with a Civil Engineering Contractor in 2013 whilst studying for a BSc in Surveying on a part time basis.
After gaining my degree, I progressed to a Quantity Surveyor role, mainly focussed on large building projects within the North East of Scotland which supported my professional development in terms of Technical & Management experience.
Having been enthused by the ’Pathway to 2030’ transition to Net Zero programme, and having gained significant delivery experience with a Contractor, I decided to take a leap into the unknown and join SSEN Transmission. I was delighted to be offered a Contract Manager role, specifically recruited for the procurement and delivery of Ofgem’s Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment (ASTI) framework.
Since joining SSEN-T I have been involved in the ASTI (HVDC - Offshore) Procurement event which has included significant supplier engagement, Framework award & Contract negotiations. Next is the exciting part!
As we move into the Early Contractor Involvement phase & delivery beyond that, I can`t wait to contribute to such an exciting time in terms of Energy Transmission in the UK.
Bring it on!
Dominika Chrastilova | Project Analyst | NatWest
I was born in Czechia and since young age trained to be a professional violinist; this led me to earning my first degree in violin performance.
I left that path and decided to go chase my dreams in the UK. I graduated in Sociology and then MSc in International HRM. I became interested in technology and data, and during the lockdowns learned some coding and FinTech fundamentals. I decided to apply for the NatWest CBS graduate scheme as it takes you through four different areas of the bank and covers a wide variety of work. I wanted to keep learning fast after my formal studies and I knew this will be a way how to continue learning while honing my professional skills. Before that I completed internships at the UNICEF, UN Global Compact, and finally at the Glasgow City Council Health and Social Care Partnership. Apart from that I took on many volunteering roles as a TEDx conference co-founder and co-organiser; HR Lead for the Glasgow Economic Conference, and President of the UNICEF at Glasgow University, amongst others. These experiences allowed me to start building professional skills. After joining NatWest I worked on the bank's Climate Hub, a new colleague journey through our agile framework and currently in the Bank of APIs working on the VRPs. Apart from that, I consulted a FinTech start-up in the NatWest Accelerator to help them change the way people donate to charities around the world. I am a mentor at Yoda Mentorship.
Kristina Tarkhanyan | Global Markets Management Lead | The Bank of New York Mellon
As someone who is passionate about and inspired by my interactions with people and by helping them towards successful outcomes, it will come as no surprise that most of my career to date I have spent in network and relationship management.
I have 15 years of network and relationship management experience in the securities industry. I previously worked in Deutsche Bank’s Investor Services (both in Moscow and London) and Renaissance Capital's team in London, where I worked closely with existing sub-custodians, clients and counterparts and supported them on various securities products. These included UK and CEE custody market products and another tailor made custody product, which provided clients with access to multiple other securities markets via a single window. Not only did the role enable me to work with sub-custodians, clients and help them towards successful outcomes for their specific challenges, it also allowed me to serve them as leading migration manager to the European Central Bank’s TARGET2-Securities (T2S) settlement platform for Eurozone securities.
Hena Naranbhai | Director Strategic Development | Barclays
Hena is Director of Strategic Development within Barclays, driving strategy and transformation for one of the UK’s largest providers of financial services, which has 48 million customers worldwide.
Being the first girl in her family to go to University, Hena graduated from University with a BA in Finance and Business and qualified as an Accountant in 2005.
Hena found her calling in Financial Services and has spent the last 13 years at Barclays, taking every opportunity to develop her skills and grow with the business, whilst having two children during this time.
In 2016, Hena was promoted to Vice President and in 2017 become Group Finance Testing lead on Structural Reform, writing and executing a risk based test strategy, for a regulatory requirement where all UK retail banks had to separate from the investment bank and other operations.
In 2020, Hena took on her most challenging role, home schooling two children, whilst being redeployed to run one of the Bank’s most critical programmes, Capital Outlook and Liquidity Transformation.
Hena is currently leading a Big Data Programme, phase one successfully implemented for 2022 Year End Reporting, and recently promoted to Director for Strategic Development, fulfilling her ambition to be more than a traditional Asian girl from a small town.
Passionate about Diversity, Inclusion and Equity for all, Hena leads on the strategy and engagement for Barclays Women in Tech. She is also the Wellbeing lead for employee engagement, creating a safe culture for colleagues.
Maria Rosa Torres Sejin | Culture, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Programme Manager | Bank of England
Maria is a strategic, innovative, and performance-driven Business Manager excelling in managing and implementing programmes globally.
Born and raised in Colombia, she has spent more than 11 years living and working overseas.
Currently works in Culture, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Bank of England leading the delivery and implementation of one of the Bank’s Strategic priorities for 2024 - Building a diverse and inclusive Bank by creating frameworks and delivering initiatives including the monitoring and evaluation of the Court Review of Ethnic Diversity and Inclusion plan.
Prior to working at the Bank of England, worked at AIG. Started in Latin America, moved to Europe to be responsible for driving migration programmes, process improvement initiatives and strategic shared services transformations across the globe. Promoted to be the Strategy Programme Management Office Head for Europe Middle East and Africa, supporting the planning and execution of the service strategy, footprint, and scale rationalisation of European operations.
Became a mum in 2018 and during this time she founded a project called -Zinu- inspired by her son and memories of her homeland. She launched a line of artisanal bar soaps where 50% of the revenue supported different charities in the UK.
Also have been involved in proving professional services at no cost, to Rent Start a charity helping local people in Elmbridge who are homeless or vulnerably housed and to the Brussels Childbirth Trust a network for expectant parents and families in Belgium.
Maria is constantly striving to learn and help others along her journey.
Amber Sidney | Vice President, eFX Distribution | Morgan Stanley
North London born and raised, innately ambitious, perfectionist and a dangerous love of shopping - at least half the recipe of your typical Banking candidate.
Like many, I grafted my way into the Finance world through the classic concoction of an Economics-based degree, a Sales & Trading Summer Internship and various industry work experience. Combined with a focus on networking, hard work and a little helping of luck, 5 years later I now sit on the electronic FX Distribution team as a Vice President at Morgan Stanley.
Whilst my route into the industry was conventional, the path to my current role was not - after a spontaneous coffee with a mutual connection at Morgan Stanley and several interviews later, I made the somewhat risky decision to leave my Graduate Scheme at HSBC and undertake a new Sales role in a financial product I had no prior experience with. A steep learning curve initially, I now enjoy my day-to-day, which involves client relationship management and pitching for new business.
As a female in the industry, I feel deeply passionate about ensuring there is a sense of belonging for all individuals. I am an active member of various Diversity and Inclusion initiatives and work hard to challenge the status quo. On the other hand, I also recognise my place of privilege and prioritise working closely with colleagues to give back to external communities in need (most recently fundraising £29,000 for The Felix Project).
My life motto is that tough times don’t last, tough people do.
Anisha Kochar | Leveraged Finance Associate | NatWest
Anisha is a caring, determined, hardworking individual who approaches all aspects of life with enthusiasm and drive and is always seeking out opportunities to help others.
After discovering a love for mathematics at school, Anisha went on to achieve a first-class BSc Hons degree in MORSE (mathematics, operational research, statistics and economics) at the University of Warwick. In her first year of university, she completed a female insight week in Structured Finance at NatWest, leading to her being offered a summer internship with them. After successfully completing the summer internship, Anisha joined NatWest on the Structured Finance graduate scheme where she did 4 rotations in Rating & ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Advisory, CFILM (Corporates, Financial Institutions & Loan Markets), Mid Cap Leveraged Finance and Infrastructure & Project Finance. Anisha completed the graduate scheme in 2022 and joined the Mid Cap Leveraged Finance team as a permanent associate.
Anisha has always been passionate about helping underrepresented groups of people and creating more diversity and inclusion in society. This led her to become a strategy committee member on the Gender Network, leading the 50 Ways to Fight Bias initiative, and joining the People & Inclusion Hub for Corporate Banking & Structure Finance (CBSF) at NatWest.