Jo Sweetland ǀ Green Park Interim & Executive Resourcing
I can't tell you that I deserve to be shortlisted for this award and the outcome is not for me to decide, but what I can tell you is what I have learnt and how I try to pass on these lessons to the people I meet.
It's never sat comfortably with me being labelled, for example I've been called an entrepreneur, a strategist, a leader of people. My father was an entrepreneur and I saw the risks and tribulations he had to go through to grow his business and the difficult times he experienced. His journey in the business world taught me a lot and helped me build a really deep respect for business people as individuals as opposed to their title and the roles that they play.
I always try to be true to myself and live through my values and beliefs in all circumstances.
As a mother of two young children, having to juggle a highly pressurised, demanding career while maintaining a consistent and supportive home life for my family, I have developed a great respect for all working mothers. This by far has been my greatest challenge to date!
Through consulting with organisations in helping them acquire the kind of talent that will drive their businesses forward, I have learnt that agility and flexibility throughout the partnership is essential for achieving long term outcomes. As a female who aspires to lead in a male dominated industry, my core values of customer centricity, inclusion, good manners and hard graft are central to not just how I work, but how I motivate others around me to work. More than anything, I believe humility is one of the key factors to success within the industry. Through my experience, it is the more challenging of customers that I have had to consult with who have demonstrated consistency and loyalty, and in some cases even becoming friends, as a result of using my softer skills of influencing and helping them come to decisions which are beneficial for their business.
As a Managing Partner and one of the original members of Green Park Interim & Executive Search, I head up the HR Practice consulting with a range of businesses across the Private sector helping them solve some of their most challenging people problems. Being seen as a trusted advisor to my clients is paramount to mine and Green Park's HR brand.
Layla Mullins | HSBC
Using my skills in organisation and Global Event Management gained from a 14 year career as a PA, I was promoted to a business analyst role in January 2014. In my current role, I have identified and networked together 1,200 people globally to standardise tools and methods used within their roles - and launched a solid community to promote working together as a team, career development and mobility across business areas. I keep in touch with the 1,200 employees with regular comms and monthly global networking events in APAC, NY, Dubai and the UK where ideas are shared and taken back to the central team with the aim to make improvements to the way we work at HSBC.
Alongside my ‘day job’, I volunteered as an Events Organiser for the HSBC Gender Diversity employee resource group called Balance at the mid-2013. In November 2014 I was elected as the UK Chair. I am passionate about gender diversity and have driven a committee of volunteers to increase UK membership by over 500 to 2,500. I have spent a lot of time networking with senior leaders to get Balance more recognised as a key part of the HR process, improving transparency of initiatives to benefit gender diversity. I am not afraid to challenge when I believe the business is not considering the impact of decisions and have driven events for the members which genuinely engage across the business, linking senior leaders to women with aspirations. During my tenure, Balance has launched a global committee to add some governance around the 25 (and growing) branches that we have worldwide. Specifically in the UK, I have appointed committees to run Balance North (incorporating 8 branches) and Balance Scotland (3 branches) to bring he organization closer together and open opportunities for all. Together, we deliver country-wide events and work towards impacting change on the organization.
Naomi Bowman ǀ HSBC
Naomi leads Governance & Operations within HSBC’s Monitor Liaison Office. She is responsible for maintaining an efficient and effective interface at all times between HSBC and the Monitor.
Prior to commencing this role in June 2014, Naomi was Head of Business Management & Strategy for the Global Standards Programme where she successfully designed and built the function responsible for financial management, vendor management and resourcing strategy.
Before joining HSBC in January 2013, Naomi was Senior Manager at EY specialising in operations and regulatory advisory and has achieved notable career success to date having worked on some of the most prominent banking administrations, integrations and mandatory regulatory changes during the past decade.
Naomi holds an ACA (ICAEW) and is currently studying for the ICA’s Postgraduate Diploma in Governance Risk and Compliance.
Outside the office, Naomi is Governor for Tonbridge Federation and delivers a number of speeches to students throughout the South East. An active diversity champion and public speaker, Naomi was key note speaker at the ICAEW’s prize giving ceremony 2015 and gave a TEDx talk at Imperial College in June 2015 on career acceleration.
In June 2014, Naomi was announced as the national Women in the City's "Future Leaders Award" winner
Joanna Williams | Reed Smith LLP
I was recently promoted to Of Counsel in the financial markets and regulatory group at Reed Smith, specialising in wholesale financial and commodities regulation. I am a recognised expert on European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and the Regulation on Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (REMIT) implementation issues, for example, through my work for the European Federation of Energy Traders.
I started life as a qualified lawyer at Slaughter and May 14 years ago as a corporate finance associate. Just over 5 years on, I was seconded to Shell Treasury and joined Shell full time at the end of 2006. From there I moved to Shell Trading. During my 6 years at Shell, my practice covered derivatives, corporate finance, energy commodities trading and regulation. My love of financial markets regulation brought me to Reed Smith at the beginning of 2014.
Since then, I’ve spent my time helping a huge variety of clients to negotiate and respond to the unprecedented scale, pace and complexity of the regulatory changes that are affecting financial and commodities markets. I enjoy the constant challenge of applying my hands-on experience of in-house practice to identify what’s important to clients in a sea of regulatory reform and help them respond and plan accordingly. At a high level, this involves spotting trends and themes in regulation and the differing approaches of various regulators. At the same time, it involves being able to communicate complicated, dense and highly technical regulatory requirements in a way that’s easy to digest, practical and commercial.
I also really enjoy the opportunities being back in private practice has given me to work with and help to develop junior lawyers, as a trainee and intern supervisor, a mentor and through my work on the trainee and vacation scheme assessment panel.
Lucy Brooker | RBS
Lucy has specialised in change management over her 13 year career at RBS, leading industry wide strategic programmes. With a passion for talent management, Lucy has recently turned her attention to driving Cultural Change, and is developing creative and inspiring training solutions for the Investment Banking business (Corporate and Institutional Banking) and generating an environment for continual professional development across all global regions (UK, US, EMEA and APAC).
Lucy is a passionate champion of Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace, and holds the voluntary role of Global Personal Development Manager for the RBS Focused Women’s Network (c.8k members globally), responsible for the attraction, development and retention of the female talent pipeline. She has been invited to speak as an expert on Employee Led Networks at Parliament, assisting in the creation of their gender network and has also supported other organisations including Santander, Equiniti and Societe General.
Lucy established the partnership with everywoman to launch the everywomanNetwork to the UK Focused Women member to provide online flexible development, and also designed and delivered a Personal Brand- Image and Impact lecture to Senior Investment Bankers.
Lucy was nominated for the 30 Brummell Ones to Watch 2015
In her spare time she continues her passion to develop others, through being mentor within work, through the Princes Trust and also teaching Maths GCSE in her spare time.
Ashley Smith | British Gas Venture Capital
Ashley has spent more than a decade in technology, most recently co-founding and running British Gas Venture Capital (BGVC).
At BGVC, Ashley focuses on investing in start-ups active in areas of future growth for British Gas, particularly along the technology themes of internet-of-things, data analytics, and energy efficiency. She sets BGVC's strategy, and oversees all aspects of the investment process, from origination and transaction execution to portfolio management and exit. She has had numerous board roles with her investments and most recently exited leading internet-of-things provider AlertMe.com for $100m earlier this year.
Prior to co-founding BGVC, Ashley invested in technology companies ranging from gas turbine efficiency to solar to power electronics at CT Investment Partners. Earlier in her career, Ashley worked for Franklin Templeton Investments and the Environmental Protection Agency. She has an MBA from Wharton Business School, and a BSc from McGill University.
Ashley informally mentors investing and technology professionals in career development, informally advises new start-ups, and is regularly invited to speak at events. Outside of work, Ashley spends as much time as possible outdoors, and loves cycling and hiking.
Donna Evans | Barclays
Donna has been an assistant with Barclays for 21 years, joining the Structured Finance Team in 1994 where she worked for the departmental head. Following a nine-year period with the Structured Trade and Export Finance team, Donna was approached to work for the Head of Global Loans. During this time, she also worked closely with the team’s COO and managed a team of seven other assistants. For the past six years, Donna has been working in Leveraged Loans - a move she made with her manager when he was promoted to Head of Leveraged Finance EMEA.
Donna has been actively involved with the Barclays Women’s Network (WiN) for the past four years and was approached this year by a senior sponsor of the network to form an Assistants Forum in London. Donna is now Co-chair of the Barclays WIN Assistants Forum and successfully launched the network in March 2015. The launch was followed by a “Power of Profile” networking event in June and there are many such inspirational events and initiatives planned for the rest of the year.
Prior to joining Barclays, Donna worked at two other Banks; Heritable and General Investment Bank and ANZ, and also spent time working in a summer camp in America. Donna has a passion for art and during her spare time she volunteers as a Guide at the Tate Modern and Tate Britain. She is currently half way through her OU History of Art Degree. In addition, Donna sits on the committee for the Assistants Support Group in Banking, through which she helps organise a number of fundraising initiatives and philanthropy days. Donna is active in the voluntary sector, having spent two years volunteering on a Learning Partner scheme – helping children improve their numeracy and literacy skills with George Green School on the Isle of Dogs.
Emma Couper | Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Emma Couper is the EMEA Risk Regional Business Manager, within the Chief Risk Officers, Chief Operating Officer’s team. She is based in London.
Emma joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch in May 2010 as part of the Business Management team supporting the Head of EMEA Technology Infrastructure. She moved into her current role in August 2011 and was promoted to Director in December 2014. Emma has won two Global Diversity and Inclusion Awards (2012 and 2013) and was nominated again in 2014.
Prior to joining the firm, Emma was a Commissioned Officer in the British Army, where she reached the rank of Major. Emma was a logistician by trade but during her last few years became a humanitarian specialist and led on the interface between the military and civilian communities. During her service she was posted in Germany, UK and Canada and deployed on operations to Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
"My time at Bank of America Merrill Lynch is where I have transitioned from a Military Officer to a civilian and I have been very privileged to undertake this in such a supportive environment - it has been truly intellectually demanding and ultimately rewarding. For me our people/team mates/ employees are all important so I am very grateful that I have been able to create, drive and empower a number of initiatives within EMEA Risk and the wider firm to support their personal & professional growth.
I am a great believer in the benefits of stepping out of your comfort zone both in and out of work, simply to remind myself that ‘to succeed, you have to try'. As such I did my first ever triathlon at Windsor in early June over the Olympic distance. I was the only one of my friends who had not done a triathlon before and was utterly terrified - but I got round and actually rather enjoyed it.
I am now ready for the next challenge which will see me becoming business manager to the Chief Executive Officer at Aviva Investors in September 2015. I feel that my career in the financial sector is just beginning and as such am very grateful for this nomination."
Angela Cooke | PwC
Angela Cooke is an experienced HR professional with specialist expertise in diversity, inclusion and employee wellbeing at PwC. She is a qualified business psychologist having gained a Master’s degree in Occupational Psychology and CIPD qualifications.
As part of her role as a diversity specialist, she is a trusted business advisor who works collaboratively with senior business leaders to help them create inclusive and diverse working environments. She has done this through a number of key initiatives:
She leads PwC’s long term behaviour change campaign, ‘Open Mind’, which focuses on unconscious bias. This campaign has transformed the attitudes and behaviours of partners and staff in PwC. It has also positioned PwC as thought leaders externally in the diversity space and Angela has developed a commercial proposition to sell aspects of the campaign to clients and works with them on their diversity issues. This has represented a significant and unexpected return on investment of £150k for the firm.
See here for details on the campaign
Angela leads the firm’s approach to diverse recruitment, ensuring that it is attracting from as wide a talent pool as possible. For example, she has introduced the innovative new initiative, ‘Back to Business’, a practical and positive way to help senior women return to their careers after a long break. The programme is helping the firm redress its gender balance and achieve its diversity targets.
She presents to students and potential applicants on the importance of diversity. Her presentations have helped attract more women to the firm - feedback received from one participant who attended a recruitment event at which she spoke: ‘I enjoyed the diversity and open minded presentation the most’.
As a result of the leading work she has been involved in Angela is frequently called upon by other organisations to share best practice.
Sarah Brakebill | BNY Mellon
Sarah Brakebill is a Sales Manager in the Global Financial Institutions group at BNY Mellon Investment Management and is responsible for managing sales relationships and distributing funds to complex, cross-border organisations, wealth managers and family offices. BNY Mellon is one of the world’s 10 largest investment managers. Sarah joined the firm in 2010 as an intern in Corporate Trust before moving into a Business Development role in Global Client Management, which focused on growing business with strategic clients across the breadth of the company’s product and service offering.
Sarah is in her second year sitting on the Board of City Women Network as Secretary, contributing to enhancing the Board’s governance and effectiveness. She is an active volunteer with the Junior League of London, an organisation committed to promoting voluntary service, developing the potential of women and improving the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. She has served on a number of different committees in the organisation with the common goal of alleviating poverty in London. Prior to moving to London, Sarah volunteered during her gap year teaching HIV/AIDS classes in a village in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and teaching English in Rayong and Chumphon, Thailand.
She earned an MSc Management degree with Distinction from Cass Business School, City University London and a BSc Psychology degree from Northeastern University in Boston.