Ayesha Afzal | Researcher | Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center
Ayesha Afzal is a researcher at Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU), Germany.
She is the recipient of First Place ISC PhD Forum Award 2021 that recognizes the most outstanding PhD work and is named in 100 Future Leaders Role Model List 2022 supported by Yahoo Finance. Her PhD research lies at the crossroads of analytic performance models, performance tools and parallel simulation frameworks in high-performance computing. Ayesha has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications and serves as an active speaker, reviewer, and/or committee member at various international events. She is a passionate advocate for inclusive technology and training new scientists in mentorship. She was named in 100 Future Leaders Role Model List 2022 supported by Yahoo Finance.
Blanca Vázquez de Castro | Associate | Latham & Watkins
Blanca Vázquez de Castro is an associate in Latham & Watkins’ Tax Practice, based in Madrid.
She represents large Spanish corporates and global private equity firms in strategic cross-border tax matters related to M&A, finance, and restructuring deals. She is a member of Latham’s Diversity Leadership Committee, an inaugural global leader of the Hispanic and Latin American Lawyers Group, and former local leader of the firm’s Women Lawyer’s Group, where she’s developed various initiatives to support the recruitment, retention, and promotion of individuals with a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives.
Donna Fisher | Founder and Director | Smile Box
Donna Fisher is a entrepreneur based in Worcestershire and launched Smile Box, a corporate wellbeing solution in 2021.
As the founder and CEO of ‘Smile Box’, she understands the importance of building a strong people culture and supporting our people in the workplace. Donna and her team can create fully branded wellbeing gift boxes, packed full of products to build emotional resilience and support mental health.
Our lives have got much more stressful in the last decade as the world we now live in is far more hectic than ever before. We are working longer hours, juggling social media pressures and using other technological advancements, meaning that we now have less ‘down-time’ for our busy minds. This has taken its toll on our mental health and it’s thought at least 1 in 4 of us now experience poor mental health with anxiety and depression being the most common conditions.
Donna has used her experience from the corporate sector in senior management roles, as well as her coaching expertise to address some of these issues through Smile Boxes unique offering. She was also recently diagnosed with ADHD so has been managing the challenges of Neuro-diversity while scaling up her fledgling business.
From a personal point of view, Donna lives at home in Worcestershire with her teenage son and crazy border collie dog. In her spare time, she enjoys photography, road trips, music and spending time with friends and family.
Dr Pearl Jarrett | CEO | Veranda Connect Ltd
Dr Pearl Jarrett is a multi-award winning Disruptive Changemaker who is devoted to impacting the world.
Consequently, as the Founder and CEO of The Jarrett Foundation and Veranda Connect Ltd, she is at the forefront of philanthropy and sustainable innovation. Pearl is also a “serial reinventor” of herself so her career has not been a straight path in tech. She is multi-talented, consequently she is an entrepreneur, doctor, actor, singer, public speaker for conferences and podcasts, musical theatre producer, playwright, and mentor as “Aunty Pearl” to numerous young people around the world. Her biggest achievement however, is that she is a wife and mother of 3 phenomenal kids and has been married for 33 years to her best friend and hero, Dr Errord Jarrett.
Dr Laura David | CEO and founder Smart About Health | Smart About Health
I am an NHS GP by background, previously a surgeon, channeling all my clinical expertise and that of my now team of over 100 doctors in Smart About Health, into providing bespoke, evidence-backed, professionally-led workplace wellbeing programmes and trainings.
I am also an NHS England Clinical Entrepreneur.
I am also a mother of two young girls (now aged 8 and 5) and am bringing them up to be strong young women, knowing there are no limitations to their paths in life.
I suffered with post-natal depression after the birth of my second daughter and channeled my loss of identity, and need for discovery into creating Smart About Health - a purpose driven business enabling companies to truly support good health and wellbeing of it's staff, in a non-one size fits all approach. We focus on prevention, being proactive and understanding intersectional aspects of health, to empower people to prioritise their health and wellbeing.
I feel fortunate that we can connect clinical experts to workplaces to help everyone to be smarter about health.
Laura Jardine Paterson | CEO & Founder | CONCAT Tech LTD
Laura is on a mission to code a more inclusive tech sector, one that encourages more refugees and women to join the sector to find long-term, sustainable employment.
An experienced Communications and Partnerships expert and having worked at WPP in the UK, in 2020, Laura founded CONCAT - the first web development agency to be led by marginalised communities. CONCAT works with international corporates and SME's looking for high quality yet affordable websites, and connects them to the talented CONCAT team from the Middle East who need employment.
Evelin Sanderson-Nichols | Sustainability Assistant | University of Warwick
Evelin Sanderson-Nichols is a first-class University of Warwick graduate who is currently working as a Sustainability Assistant as part of the Energy & Sustainability team at Warwick.
Since Evelin joined the Sustainability team she has placed community engagement at the heart of her work. Building on her extensive volunteering experience with Students Organising for Sustainability and The Climate Coalition, one of her main foci is to engage student societies and departments that are not traditionally associated with sustainability in order to i) build awareness of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, ii) share experience and knowledge within and across the Warwick community, and iii) promote the university’s Way to Sustainable strategy.
Her commitment and enthusiasm to her current role has been recognised throughout her employment, and she was recently longlisted in the Sustainability category and shortlisted in the Community Engagement category of the University of Warwick's Estates Awards in 2023.
She is also a Committee Member at IEMA’s Midlands Steering Group.
Georgina Durrant | Founder | Cheshire SEN Tutor LTD
Georgina Durrant is a former teacher/Special Educational Needs Coordinator and founder of Cheshire SEN Tutor LTD.
She founded the award-winning SEN Resources Blog www.senresourcesblog.com to share activities, advice and recommendations for parents and teachers of children with Special Educational Needs and disabilities. She wrote a monthly column for Nursery World Magazine and hosts Twinkl Resources' Special Educational Needs Podcast 'SEND in the experts with Georgina Durrant'. Her parenting and education advice has been featured in the Independent, Guardian and Telegraph. Her first book 100 Ways Your Child Can Learn Through Play was published in 2021.Her second book ‘How to Boost Reading & Writing Through Play’ was published in 2022 and she is currently writing her third book to support children with SEND which is due to be published by Bloomsbury in 2024.
Parm Plummer | Assistant Headteacher | Victoria College Jersey
A teacher for over 25 years, I have worked in London, Devon and the Channel Islands in a range of roles.
At present, I am an Assistant Headteacher at Victoria College Jersey, where I lead on staffing and wellbeing. I established WomenEd Jersey in April 2019, and became a Global Strategic Leader for WomenEd in 2020. I am now a trustee of the charity and support networks in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Guernsey and Wales. I believe passionately in a more equitable society and have worked with the Government of Jersey on DEI matters. I recently completed my Masters and am in the final stages of my NPQH.
Samantha Haigh | Software Engineering Coach | Multiverse
Growing up in a working-class family in one of the least educated areas of the country, the odds were stacked against me.
Despite this, I had the drive to succeed and was always intrigued by the tech industry. Pursuing this passion, I studied Software Engineering at university and started my career as a software developer for a small company, churning out code, fixing bugs and wondering how I could use my programming powers for good. The transition to my integration developer position at the Sheffield College provided me with the job satisfaction I craved. In this role, I continued to write code, but now it was to support the learning of young people. My start at Sheffield College was quickly followed by the pandemic which gave me the opportunity to modernise the way our courses were delivered, implementing online learning tools that enabled teaching staff to create interactive and effective online classes. I thoroughly enjoyed this role, and it was difficult to leave when the position of Software Engineering coach at Multiverse opened up. Nonetheless, joining Multiverse gave me the chance to utilise my software engineering expertise to support more people than I ever imagined. As a Software Engineering Coach, I help apprentices build their technical knowledge while navigating the complexities of the working world. I support them through their ups and downs, and it fills me with pride to watch them begin their careers as fully-fledged software engineers.