Muhtar Kent

1
Chairman and CEO
The Coca-Cola Company

Muhtar is Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company and is responsible for leading a system of more than 750,000 employees in more than 200 countries around the world. The Coca-Cola system’s combined annual revenues are more than $115 billion. Through a number of global industry leadership roles, Muhtar Kent has represented the importance of advancing multicultural interests in business. He is or has been Chairman of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, a Co-Chair of The Consumer Goods Forum, a past Chairman of the U.S.-China Business Council, a Chairman of the U.S. ASEAN Business Council, a member of the Eminent Persons Group for ASEAN, appointed by President Obama and former Secretary of State Clinton, a director of Special Olympics International, Ronald McDonald House Charities and Catalyst. Kent has been a champion for advancing the multicultural nature of Coca-Cola’s business through the launch of an initiative to economically empower 5 million women in the Coca-Cola supply chain by 2020 (5 by 20), the launch of the Women’s Leadership Council to increase female representation among the company’s top leaders and led a refreshment of the company’s Board of Directors to increase diversity. During his tenure, Kent has championed a mission of value creation to make the company better and more valuable to the stakeholders it serves. Kent also has been a champion for advancing the multicultural nature of Coca-Cola’s business through the launch of an initiative to economically empower 5 million women in the Coca-Cola supply chain by 2020 (5 by 20), the launch of the Women’s Leadership Council to increase female representation among the company’s top leaders and led a refreshment of the company’s Board of Directors to increase diversity.

Manjit Wolstenholme

2
Chairman
Provident Financial plc

Manjit Wolstenholme is the Chairman of Provident Financial plc and is the only female BAME Chair of a FTSE 100 company. Manjit has worked on establishing Provident Financial Group as a leader in the field of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). The starting point for this work revolved around ensuring that the business met the recommendations made in the Lord Davies review for female board representation to increase to 25%. Manjit extended this commitment and set a target of having 25% of women within the wider senior management group by 2015 – this was surpassed and the figure now stands at 30%. Building on this, Manjit recognised that there was more that could be done to improve performance across the EDI agenda. Manjit championed diversity measurement across the Group and was a strong lead in the decision for PFG to adopt the National Equality Standard (NES). The NES has been developed by Ernst & Young with 18 other UK and global organisations. It is supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Home Office and the CBI as the first business-led equality and diversity initiative to tackle inequality and promote inclusion in the workplace. Manjit has been at the forefront of the company’s initiative to achieve the NES standard and strongly believes UK businesses should integrate equality, diversity and inclusion considerations into everyday business practice.

Albert Cheng

3
COO
Amazon Studios

As Chief Operating Officer of Amazon Studios, Albert Cheng currently oversees the studio’s global business operations. He leads a team responsible for business affairs, production, research, product management, programming and release schedules, digital product and technology, as well as content planning for Prime Video content. For over sixteen years Albert served on various diversity organizations. In addition to supporting diversity initiatives at Amazon, he was on the Board of NAMIC (National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications) for nine years (2000 – 2009) and served as Treasurer for two of those years (http://www.namic.com/index.php). He was most recently a founding board member of Digital Diversity Network and now an Advisory Board member. He currently serves on the Board of The Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE). Each of these 501c3 organizations advocate for diversity and inclusion as well as offer programs to develop executives of colour in executive leadership.

Tunji Akintokun

4
Director- Global Virtual Sales
Cisco

Tunji is a Director and senior leader within Cisco covering the Middle East, Africa, Russia and CIS. With over 180 staff operating from offices in Moscow, Cairo, South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Turkey he oversees a leadership team that engages with Cisco’s customer and partners to build successful business solution and outcomes. In addition, Tunji’s organisation also has responsibility for the Early In Career sales talent pipeline for Cisco and he oversees a Graduate Sales Academy based in Amsterdam which recruits approximately 25 graduates per year who receive one year of intensive training before returning to their countries across the Middle East, Africa, Russia and CIS. In 2010 Tunji co-founded the Europe, Middle & Africa chapter of Cisco’s Connected Black Professionals (CBP) Employee Organisation from his belief that diversity matters. The vision was to “impact Cisco’s culture such that the highest levels of business excellence and employee satisfaction are achieved”. CBP is one of Cisco’s employee affinity groups, which focuses on promoting inclusive leadership, inspiring and empowering its members to achieve their potential. Tunji has made a powerful impact to Cisco, his staff/members and the communities CBP have served.

Ruby McGregor

5
Chief Executive
Mitie Group Plc

Ruby is the Chief Executive of Mitie Group plc and is one of only a few BAME women leading companies in the FTSE indexes. Ruby has overseen the growth Mitie from £0.5bn to over £2.2bn, resulting in its entry into the FTSE250 during that time. She has also grown its employee base from 23,000 people to c65,000 currently – making Mitie one of the UK’s largest private sector employers. Since joining and running Mitie, Ruby has personally championed the diversity agenda across the group. She established a Diversity Steering Group, a team of senior managers from across the business, chaired by an independent expert Anne Watts CBE. They regularly undertake external benchmarking exercises to reflect best practice in the diversity and inclusion agenda, and review policies to ensure Mitie is fulfilling its aspirations to provide opportunities and development to people from all backgrounds. She also appointed a team of Diversity Champions across the business who are accountable for delivering business-specific diversity initiatives at every level of the organisation and have all completed the ILM level 4 qualification in Equality and Diversity. Ruby’s passion for providing opportunities to people of all backgrounds has also seen her engage in regular speaking engagements from schools to clients to business associations, speaking on how to foster entrepreneurialism in the UK, how to embrace diversity, and sharing her advice on how to successfully grow a business.

Minouche Shafik

6
Deputy Governor, Markets and Banking
Bank of England

Minouche Shafik became Deputy Governor of the Bank of England on 1 August 2014 and is responsible for almost 500 people in Markets and Banking. She is jointly responsible for the Bank's international surveillance, analysis and engagement. An internal BAME review, sponsored by Minouche, was launched in December 2014 by the Bank of England’s Chief Economist and the then Chief Information Officer. Some of the outcomes of the BAME review in the 12 months include the introduction of ‘Unconscious bias’ training for all line managers within the Bank that manage three or more people, and the introduction of a reciprocal mentoring scheme called ‘Building Bridges’ which launched in October 2015 to offer all BAME staff with a Head of Department sponsor with the intention of raising BAME awareness and increasing BAME opportunity across the Bank. Previously, Minouche has sat on the Board for the Minority Ethnic Talent Association and acted as a mentor to the organisation which supports under-represented groups to advance to senior positions in the civil service. She continues to be highly visible externally to The Bank and is a regular speaker and panellist at industry events.

Ajay Banga

7
President and Chief Executive Officer at MasterCard
MasterCard

Ajay has been president and CEO of MasterCard since July 2010. As of December 31, 2015, MasterCard had 11,300 employees, of whom approximately 6,200 were employed outside of the United States. MasterCard is a Fortune 500 company with a market cap of $104 billion. Throughout his career, Ajay has had the ability and the pleasure of serving on a number of boards that help to create a positive environment for businesses and individuals to grow and prosper, including the U.S.-India Business Council, the U.S.-China Business Council and the National Urban League. Additionally, he regularly takes time during his travels to either speak at graduate schools or meet with students and entrepreneurs in more informal settings. These allow him to share his personal insights, anecdotes and perspectives that he hopes are used to inspire others to find their own pathways and reach for their aspirations.

Stacy Brown-Philpot

8
CEO
TaskRabbit

Stacy is the CEO of TaskRabbit and oversees the entire company and directly manages 3 people. She is one of very few black, female CEOs in tech and beyond. At TaskRabbit, Stacy has initiated flexible weekly office hours, mentors multiple minorities within the team and has launched a partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus to focus our recruiting and retention efforts on African Americans and other underrepresented groups. Launching the partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus is a major accomplishment that’s taking TaskRabbit’s diversity efforts to the next level. Stacy is on the board of HP and also for Black Girls Code which launched a partnership at TaskRabbit with Code2040 (creates access, awareness, and opportunities for top Black and Latino/a engineering talent to ensure their leadership in tech), and just launched a partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus to increase diversity within the tech industry. She also recently served on a panel for the PUSH Tech 2020 Summit (focused on increasing diversity within tech). Previously she founded the Black Google Network, an employee resource group of Googlers with a mission to cultivate Black leaders at Google.

Karen Blackett

9
Chairwoman
MediaCom

Karen is currently the Chairwoman of MediaCom, the largest media agency in the UK with billings of over £1 billion. Prior to this promotion Karen was CEO for 5 years where she managed over 1,150 people in 5 offices across the UK. In her new role as Chairwoman one of her many focuses is to support these regional offices. During the five years Karen was CEO, the agency's staff evolved from 11% to 19% people of colour -- black, Asian and other ethnicities -- and women make up 31% of the top two tiers of management. Karen says, "It's no coincidence". In 2012, Karen launched an innovative apprenticeship program for 18-to-24-year-olds at MediaCom, working with Tim Campbell, MBE and The National Apprenticeship Service. In March 2016, Karen then alsobecame President of NABS, the advertising industry charity which focuses on health and wellbeing in the workplace and presents the business case for Diversity. She is also an Advisory Board member for Shine Media.

Bill Kornegay

10
SVP, Supply Management
Hilton Worldwide

As Senior Vice President of Hilton Supply Management, LLC., Bill is the senior executive of Hilton’s wholly owned procurement company and their most senior African American executive. His role positions him in Hilton’s Senior Leadership Group, the top 75 business executives within Hilton’s $25 billion global enterprise. He manages over 150 Team Members globally. Serving on the Executive Board of Directors for the National Minority Supplier Development Council, and previously holding board roles with the National Urban League and United Way, Bill has engrossed himself within the diverse community in order to lend his years of expertise to growing WMBE suppliers. He was recognized in 2015 by Minority Business News USA for “Best of the Decade” with a focus on leadership and inclusion. His other recent achievements include being named in “Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America” in 2012/2014/2015, being a recipient of the 2015 Corporate Procurement Leadership Award by the USPAACC as well as recognition by Black Enterprise and also being recently quoted in Fortune Magazine as a leading voice for Supplier Diversity. Under his leadership, Hilton Worldwide has been recognized as a “Top 10 companies for Supplier Diversity” by Diversity, Inc. in 2013, 2014, & 2015.

Ken Olisa

11
Non-Executive Director
Restoration Partners

Ken is the first British-born black director of a FTSE100 company (Reuters). As a role model he willingly encourages the telling of his journey (single parent, back streets of Nottingham, Cambridge, IBM, USA, Queen’s Lord-Lieutenant ) to show that anything is possible even for those born without a silver spoon in their mouths. Ken has spoken to numerous business conferences on the theory and practice of inclusion and serves on the Parker Committee (successor to the Davies Committee) examining how to increase the number of BAME directors on FTSE 100 Boards. He also designed and led the creation of the IoD’s Good Governance Index which has changed the UK’s discussion about how companies should be run and in 2016 he was re-elected to the Board of Thomson Reuters for the 9th year running. Ken Led the AUDACity Talent Rising Conference for Lord Mayor, Fiona Woolf bringing together the City’s many affinity groups to design a unified manifesto promoting the interests of ¬all talented people irrespective of their particular lack of privilege. He has also mentored dozens of young BAME people to enhance their life chances and has adopted a pro-active approach as a role model within the various organisations with which I am associated.

Chris Carr

12
EVP Licensed Stores U.S. & Americas
Starbucks

Chris is responsible for the development of the long-term strategies, annual operations, marketing planning and sales & profit for the 2nd largest business within Starbucks, generating system-wide sales in excess of $3 billion. He provides retail consultation for 6,500 retail stores with over 300 licensee partnerships that are responsible to deliver the Starbucks experience. Since moving to Seattle, Chris has been a member of and the executive sponsor for Starbucks Black Partner Network. This platform in addition to visiting several of the major markets (New York, Oakland and Los Angeles) with the CEO to discuss race relations within Starbucks and America has afforded Chris the opportunity to share, learn and grow in an area that, as a nation, isn’t discussed effectively. Additionally Chris was appointment as an executive sponsor for Starbucks Global Inclusion Council and will use this as a greater platform to share experiences, insights and recommendations on how the whole company can work together to create a more inclusive organization.

Ime Archibong

13
Director, Strategic Partnerships
Facebook

Ime is director-level with a global scope at Facebook. Since joining Facebook in 2010, Ime has spent countless hours focused on ensuring that it was the best company for him to work for - which includes building a culture that is inclusive of everyone. Specifically, he has been working on a number of projects including participating in the early strategy discussions about diversity as business strength, officially launching the Black Employee Resource Group at Facebook, helping to hire a few key people who now official lead Facebook’s global diversity efforts and as the company grows, being intentional about building programs and creating space to ensure there is a strong black community at Facebook. Ime is currently excited about the good work that has been done through the Internet.org initiative to help close the connectivity gap around the world. From his point of view, the work being done to connect the historically unconnected will have a non-trivial impact on the lives of BAME people. To date, Facebook’s Free Basics App, which is part of the broader Internet.org efforts, has launched in over three dozen countries around the world and brought 25M people online, who, from estimates, otherwise would not have been online. The regions of the world where the 4.1B people who haven’t used the internet before are located, mainly consist of BAME people, giving many access to information and learning tools that will enable them to improve their lives and the live of their community.

Harish Sodha

14
Executive Chairman
Diversity Travel

Harish is the Executive Chairman, majority shareholder and one of three founders of Diversity Travel. This means he is ultimately responsible for all of Diversity Travel’s 125 employees and all final decisions lie with him. In 2013, under Harish’s guidance, Diversity Travel was the only company in the industry, handpicked by the UK Government, to join Accelerate 250, a group of 250 high-growth companies bucking the trend of the recession to become significant contributors to UK job creation. Difference is celebrated at Diversity Travel because Harish believes all minorities should be championed and encouraged whether this relates to gender, ethnicity or religion. This is represented across the business - staff speak over 20 languages, come from 15 nationalities and there is a 45:55 male to female gender split. Different sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs are represented at all levels of the organisation and the Board is 40% BAME, 20% female and 40% LGBT. They also have a Diversity Policy, as well as an Equal Opportunities Policy, because they are committed to leveraging the diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives of our people to provide excellent customer service to an equally diverse community of clients. Diversity Travel has won numerous awards including Best Travel Management Company 2014 at The Business Travel Awards and Kenya Airways’ Charity Agency of the Year Award 2015. The company has an exclusive partnership with Raptim, the world’s largest provider of humanitarian travel, as a result of Harish’s relationships within the sector.

Torrence Boone

15
VP - Global Agency Sales and Services
Google

As a VP at Google, Torrence is the senior most business leader of their agency sales channel. There are only 50 VPs in the 16K person global business organization at Google and is directly responsible for 200 professionals and dotted line responsible for 450 professionals around the globe. Executive sponsor for the Black Googlers Network (BGN), an Employee Resources Group (ERG), focused on community building, outreach, recruiting and retention of black staff. Related, active mentorship of diverse minority staff. NY Board President for Citizen Schools, a national education reform organization focused on reimagining the school day for inner city middle schools students by exposing them to professionals through handson apprenticeships. Over 750 Google team members have taught apprenticeships ranging from robotics to app design to ad campaign development, among many others. Citizens Schools is the #1 volunteerism organization at Google.

Timothy Wilkins

16
Partner
Freshfields

Timothy is a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He has been practicing law for 23 years and has been a partner for the last 14. He is proud to be the first US-qualified African American partner in the history of the firm. He joined Freshfields as an associate in the Tokyo office and was elected to the partnership in 2002. Timothy served as the Co-Head of the Corporate Practice in Tokyo and he returned to the New York office in 2006. Timothy lectures widely on issues of international law and social justice at universities and conferences. He has guest lectured at Harvard Law School and Yale Law School. Last year he was appointed as an Adjunct Professor of International Law at Hunter College, where he teaches a course in the political science department on public international law. Timothy has undertaken significant efforts to increase diversity in the legal profession. He served on the New York City Bar Association’s Diversity Committee, where he co-chaired a sub-committee on expanding minority lawyer opportunities at global firms. His efforts have been recognized by the Council of Urban Professionals, the leading organization promoting diversity in New York, which selected him as a ‘Change Catalyst in Law’. He was also honoured by Legal Outreach as an ‘Elder of the Village’ for his promotion of the Legal Outreach program at law firms throughout the city. Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York City, also recognized Timothy last year by appointing him to be the President of NYC Global Partners and serve as a Director of the NYC Economic Development Corporation.

Nathaniel Peat

17
Co-Founder and CEO
Gennex

Nathaniel is the CEO and Co-founder of Gennex and has made huge waves in the social enterprise space. Gennex is now registered in four countries. To date, they have trained 46 people. He is also a trustee at Ernst & Young EY Foundation, which focuses on positively impacting the lives of disadvantaged youth. He is committed to the mission of the organization which includes empowering young people across the UK to become the very best they can be as entrepreneurs, employees and in higher education. This prestigious organization looks to Nathaniel and the other trustees to continue their support of the mission and to make significant contributions to the further development of opportunities for young people from all walks of life. Nathaniel spends a great deal of time meeting with and consulting with you g people who may be considered disadvantaged in some way. He assists young people in identifying the ways in which their career paths can drive social mobility. Nathaniel assists young people in identifying career opportunities that can help them move beyond the limitations that may exist in their lives. In 2015 Nathaniel was the only UK entrepreneur selected by Virgin Unite to attend a week long leadership gathering on Necker Island with Sir Richard Branson for his company Gennex. Nathaniel was honoured in June 2015 by Kings House, Jamaica, where he received the Governor General Award for Excellence from Sir Patrick Allen ON, GCMG, CD, and K.St.J. He is an international professional and has attended global meetings around both G20 & EU.

Hani Kablawi

18
Executive Vice President and CEO of EMEA Asset Servicing
BNY Mellon

Hani is Executive Vice President and CEO of EMEA Asset Servicing at BNY Mellon, providing global custody and fund services to financial institutions and asset owners across Europe, Middle East and Africa. There are 540 employees within EMEA Asset Servicing with many more in supporting roles. Hani is a member of the corporate Operating Committee and the EMEA Chairman’s Forum, Chief Executive of BNY Mellon (International) Limited in the UK, and Director of BNY Mellon SA/NV, the company’s Brussels based European bank. Hani also Co Chairs the company’s Sovereign Advisory Board, and the Middle East and Africa Management Committee. Hani is a Board member of the International Securities Services Association and the Arab Bankers Association. He actively mentors throughout the company, believing strongly that diversity and inclusion is about hiring, developing and promoting the best person for the role but also that a 'portfolio approach' to management necessarily results in teams that are highly diverse and representative of the community outside.

Funke Abimbola

19
General Counsel & Company Secretary
Roche UK

As the most senior black lawyer working within the UK pharmaceutical industry, Funke is a highly visible and senior BAME leader and a role model for BAME employees not only within Roche UK but within the UK business community as a whole. Within Roche UK, she mentors BAME colleagues extensively and is also the Diversity Champion for the Roche UK organisation. Funke supports the Roche UK General Manager in achieving his personal diversity goals, having successfully established a summer placement scheme for students within her legal team (now in its 5th year), and created an annual, 12 month internship for school leavers, she is currently assisting and advising the company on an entry-level initiative to engage millennials, including those from the BAME community and other under-represented groups. Funke is leading on the D&I content for Roche’s first ever sustainability report called “Roche in the UK” which will become an annual publication highlighting the impact that Roche has made in the UK and is also leading on all internal and external D&I messaging, a core component of which is around contributions made by their BAME employees and BAME talent that they are currently developing.

Leena Nair

20
Chief HR Officer
Unilever

Leena is the Chief Human Resources Officer and sits on the Executive Committee, the senior most decision making team reporting to Paul Polman, the CEO. While there are 2575 employees in the HR function, Leena bears overall responsibility for the hiring, training, rewards and remuneration of all Unilever employees worldwide. She also oversees the Diversity and Inclusion agenda for the organisation and has the mandate to shape initiatives and processes that enable the workforce to be truly diverse and inclusive. Leena is the first female and youngest ever CHRO of Unilever. She spearheaded the creation of a world-class leadership centre in Singapore and led the launch of key technology innovations. Prior to this, she undertook a wide range of HR roles in India, and as VP HR South Asia, she led the talent and organisation strategy that was a significant enabler in helping the business deliver its vision. She brought in a number of innovations, including the Career by Choice programme, which helps women who have fallen off the career ladder to re-join the workforce. Since 1992, when she joined Unilever as a trainee, Leena has had many firsts to her credit, from being one of the first women managers to opt for a factory stint to becoming the first woman on HUL’s management committee and its youngest executive director.

Shriti Vadera

21
Chairwoman
Santander UK

Shriti is Chairman of Santander UK, a significant UK retail bank, Senior Independent Director of BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, and Non-Executive Director of Astra Zeneca, a leading global pharmaceutical company. She is the first minority ethnic and first female chairman of a major UK high street bank and one of the most senior BAME FTSE 100 directors. Santander actively promotes a diverse workforce through policies to improve the number of people of BAME origin progressing to more senior roles in the business. These include (but are not limited to) appointing a dedicated Executive Committee member responsible for improving BAME diversity, “reverse mentoring” of the Executive Committee so that they can hear directly from BAME employees about the challenges that they face, training solutions to tackle “unconscious bias” as part of Santander’s Leadership Programme and in some specific business areas and the establishment of a cultural awareness network for employees. Her other boards, BHP Billiton and AstraZeneca, also implement strong BAME policies.

Tony Chanmugam

22
Group Finance Director
BT plc.

As CFO, Tony has been instrumental in setting the direction for BT, particularly over the last six years as he has worked to transform our cost base. He is a member of the BT Board and reports directly to the Group CEO. Despite the enormous scope of his day job, Tony consistently commits time and energy to improving BT’s position. Recently, this has included; sponsoring BT’s Ethnic Minority network, developing a specific mentoring programme for BAME employees, reviewing recruitment and mentoring within his business area and kicking off a detailed review of all of BT’s development and leadership options with a view to accelerating BAME development across BT. Tony is a strong and visible leader on BAME diversity in BT. He uses the influence he has across the business to close engagement and progression gaps for our BAME employees – whether through structural programmes, or via the personal sponsorship and mentoring he offers to senior BAME individuals.

Sophie Chandauka

23
Executive Director
Morgan Stanley

Sophie joined Morgan Stanley this year in January 2016 and has recently been confirmed as leading the charge for D&I for the Legal and Compliance Division in EMEA (in addition to her “day” job). She will be reviewing the strategy and has begun to mentor two BAME rising stars internally. She is one of the highest ranking senior Executive Directors in Morgan Stanley's Legal and Compliance Division (LCD) with significant delegated authorities for LCD operational matters as the Chief Administrative Officer of EMEA. She supervises a core team of six direct reports and co-manages 25 others and has served on the Board of Trustees of Sentebale and Protimos. Sentebale was founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso, and provides psycho-social supports for children infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa. Protimos is an associate member of the Clinton Global Initiative which provides access to law and legal education for indigenous and marginalised communities in resource rich emerging economies, with a specific emphasis on Southern Africa.

Paul Monekosso Cleal

24
Partner
PwC

Paul has been with PwC for 20 years and partner for the last 15 and is among the top 10% most senior partners in the UK firm having held a number of leadership roles. Over the years Paul has mentored many BAME staff and partners and in 2013 Business in the Community’s Race for Opportunity campaign chose him as their first Diversity Champion at their annual awards and asked him to join their advisory board. Paul was also chosen by the Powerlist Foundation as one of the top 100 black/afro-Caribbean role models in the last two years. Alongside his client facing responsibilities at PwC Paul has worked on diversity issues with particular emphasis on ethnicity. In 2003 he became the first chair of the firm’s Ethnic Minorities Forum and raised the issue of ethnic inequality with the PwC Board. Since the number of BAME partners has grown from less than ten to nearly fifty. In 2006 Paul became the firm’s first (and still only) BAME Board member (the firm is equivalent in scale to a FTSE-100 company). Among other things he sponsored detailed analysis of recruitment, retention and progression issues leading to actions including bias awareness training.

Fama Francisco

25
President, Global Feminine Care
Procter and Gamble

Fama was recently accredited as Deloitte and Touche highest ranked “Wise Women” and is first Asian female President in P&G. As President for Global Feminine Care, Fama is responsible for leading over 5500 employees in over 115 countries. Since being in post, Fama has developed structural interventions to enable more opportunities for success for Asians & Asian-Americans within the company. This includes relentless recruiting focuses, Leadership Development programs, Reverse Mentoring with Asian employees and Vice Presidents & Presidents and Asian Heritage Month awareness. She also led P&G’s Asia Pacific American Diversity Program for 5 years, serving over 1,000 Asians & Asian-Americans, improving representation from 7.2% to 8.7% across all levels and improving total promotions of Asians & Asian-Americans by +80% and +70% vs. 1 year ago among Senior Manager and Associate Director levels. As a result, employee survey results among Asians & Asian Americans were ahead of total company, and the highest among all diversity groups. Fama has constantly utilised her workplace as a platform for good including the championing and global expansion of Always #LikeAGirl campaign, which supports girls’ confidence at puberty. The campaign has been recognized globally with over 130 industry awards for all aspects of Brand Building including an award from the United Nations and the inaugural Cannes Glass Lion which recognises work that addresses gender inequality or prejudice.

Netsai Mangwende

26
Head of Finance Business Partnering for UK and Europe
AIG

Netsai is an experienced Finance professional, with 11 years’ experience in the London Insurance Market. She has strong commercial acumen and an in depth understanding of the critical success factors that formulate business strategies and drive performance. Her insight has informed the development of new tools and ideas transforming Finance from a support function to one that genuinely leads the Business. She is an Instrumental member of the UK Executive Committee at AIG and a Valued Member of the Senior Management Team for AIG Europe Limited. She manages the insurance group’s Europe portfolio and is responsible for the management results control framework, reporting, accounting, financial planning and analysis as well as strategic business partnering. Netsai Led the set-up of the first African and Caribbean employee resource group in EMEA, called the ACIG & Allies ERG at AIG who have achieved great progress in the areas of developing talent, attracting talent, cultural awareness and community.

Richard Mark

27
President
Ameren Illinois Companies

Richard is the President of Ameren Illinois Companies and has 3,200 employees. He was responsible for the formation of ANME (Ameren Network of Minority Employees). As their executive sponsor, this group grew and thrived helping minorities network and providing practical skills and knowledge to help minority employees achieve their personal business goals. He was instrumental in getting Ameren to sponsor minority hiring events, develop educational programs to help minorities prepare for the rigors of our testing requirements, partner with minority organizations to increase candidate pools and encouraged the use of mentors to increase interest in the utility industry. Richard has worked with strategic sourcing to increase the number of diversity suppliers used and to help facilitate the vendor requirements/process to increase minority spend and has developed a scholarship program for diverse business owners at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire. Richard also serves on the Board of the Illinois Utilities Business Diversity Council. This council is designed to grow business opportunities for diverse suppliers through closer collaboration, technical development and sharing of best practices.

Tom Shropshire

28
Partner- Co-Head Operational Intelligence Group
Linklaters

Tom joined Linklaters in 1998 and was the first person of Black-African heritage to be elected as a US partner within Linklaters and the first Black-African partner to be elected as a member of the firm’s International Board (on which he sat from 2011-2014). As a member of the International Board, Tom was one of 14 partners responsible for the firm’s strategy and performance, out of 400+ partners. Tom has been co-chair of the Linklaters’ Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Network since 2009. The network aims to encourage and influence attraction, recruitment, retention and promotion of people from black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds at all levels within Linklaters, both lawyers and business services staff. In 2013, Tom was jointly responsible for the BAME Network’s launch of the firm’s “Inspired to Succeed” series which focuses on “soft-skill” development, career flexibility and networking. The sessions are delivered by external experts. Tom recognised a serious issue within Linklaters’ own diversity statistics (in 2013 just 1% of junior associates were black, while 16% were of Asian origin) and is passionate about addressing this to ensure that more lawyers of black heritage join Linklaters and make it to partnership in the future.

Daryl Scales

29
Vice President of Finance for Europe
Enterprise Rent-A-Car

As Vice President of Finance for Europe, Daryl is the most senior finance officer for Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s European operations. He has been with the business for over 30 years and oversees more than 400 employees with a further 600 having a dotted line into him. Daryl is the senior level advocate leading initiatives to support ethnic diversity at the Enterprise senior leadership board. Under Daryl’s leadership the plan outlines policies, activities and communications to drive ethnic diversity at Enterprise. At 29% BAME employees across the UK and 48% in London & South East, the Enterprise workforce is currently far more diverse in its ethnicity than the population of the UK. Under Daryl’s stewardship, Enterprise became one of the founding members of Minority Supplier Development UK (MSDUK), was part of the BITC Race At Work report and in June 2015, Daryl personally was appointed to the Race Equality Leadership Board of the Business in the Community Race for Opportunity campaign, which it also co-sponsored. One to one, Daryl also continues to mentor BAME employees across the business.

Sandie Okoro

30
General Counsel at HSBC Global Asset Management
HSBC

Sandie is Global General Counsel (GCC) and lead legal advisor to the HSBC Global Asset Management Business and sits on the Executive Committee. She is also a Deputy General Counsel for Retail Banking & Wealth Management. Sandie is the most senior lawyer within the AMG business and one of the few black British female Global General Counsels in a heavily male dominated field. Within the British legal profession, as a whole, she is one of the most senior and high profile black female lawyers. In 2015 Sandie was named in Brummell Magazine as one of the top Inspirational Women in the City who are Champions of Diversity. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law by City University, the Chambers Europe Award for Excellence and was named by the Guardian Newspaper as one of the 10 women who are changing the face of the City. Sandie is a sponsor and active member of HSBC’s BAME Network for which she gives regular talks, hosts events and mentors BAME employees and BAME graduates. She is also a rigorous mentor and internal and external spokesperson on diversity at HSBC.

Dipan Shah

31
Partner- Private Business tax practice
PwC

Dipan joined PwC in 2002 to train as a Chartered Accountant and by 2014 had progressed to partner. Dipan advises privately owned businesses, families and entrepreneurs with UK and international interests. He leads PwC’s Private Business and Private Client tax practice in London. Dipan was recently recognised as a leading professional in the Tax Journal’s independently evaluated ‘40 under 40’ awards. As an Indian born and raised in Africa and now living in the UK, Dipan is a senior champion of the BAME agenda. He is the co-founder of PwC’s Asian Business Forum, sponsor of the PwC Multicultural Business Network and a member of its Africa Business Group. Through his networks, client work and leadership roles, he strongly encourages the mobility of talent and doing business internationally, most notably with Africa and the Indian sub-continent. Dipan mentors BAME children in the UK and abroad, and devotes his spare time and energy to support charities helping children in Africa and India.

Kashif Zafar

32
Co-Head of Macro, Co-Head of Distribution
Barclays Investment Bank

Kashif Zafar is Co-Head of Global Distribution and Co-Head of Macro Products within the Investment Bank at Barclays leading a team of nearly 900 people. Kashif has inspired tangible change across the BAME agenda at Barclays, from his active leadership of the multicultural ‘Embrace’ network, to his authentic personal role-modelling. Through outreach activities, platform events and mentoring, Kashif has inspired people from a range of multicultural backgrounds to bring their talent to Barclays. As a result, Barclays has significantly improved the diversity of those applying to and joining the bank. Thanks to Kashif’s leadership, Barclays is now recognised by SEO as leading the banks recruiter league table and currently hire 50% more BAME interns than the next best competitor, Goldman Sachs. Following these achievements, the make up of the Investment Bank front office intern class has changed over the past 5 years, for example from 25% in 2011 to 45% this year in BAME candidates in the Markets business. In the UK he sits on the boards of British Pakistan Foundation (BPF), the American School in London (Board Diversity and Admission committee) and the Advisory Board for SEO (Sponsors for Educational Opportunity). In the US Kashif sits on the boards of International House and American Pakistan Foundation and supports SAYA (South Asian Youth Action) and is a member of Global Advisory Councils of Developments in Literacy. He is also an Associate Partner of Acumen (a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of poverty)

Byron Spruell

33
Vice Chairman, Central Region and Chicago Managing Principal
Deloitte

Byron is Vice Chairman, Central Region and Chicago Managing Principal. In this role he has oversight for the 4,300-person Deloitte Chicago practice, which is the largest Big Four professional services firm in the area. He is responsible for driving revenue and talent growth for Deloitte’s Central region practice, which comprises 30 offices and 15,000 partners and professionals. Byron uses his personal and professional experiences to help build a stronger economy and society, to work with non-profit organizations to address educational inequalities and to inspire leadership in others. Among a number of professional and philanthropic relationships, he currently serves on the boards of Metropolitan Family Services, Chicago Urban League, Big Shoulders Fund in Chicago, and the Jackie Robinson Foundation in New York. The mission of these affiliations is to provide at-risk youth with better access to quality educations. Through these organizations, and through Bryon’s mentorship of young professionals at Deloitte and in the community, he hopes to create positive change for BAME people. He has also been involved in meaningful partnerships with The Black Corporate Directors Conference and Executive Leadership Council to focus on bringing emerging leaders into programs that focus on changing the face of composition at the C-suite and board levels.

Shaheen Talia Sayed

34
Managing Director
Accenture

Shaheen has multiple roles at Accenture which involve diverse reporting and stakeholder groups. She sits on Accenture’s UKI Executive Leadership Team, comprising of seventeen senior representatives who determine the strategic goals of the UKI business. Shaheen represents the interests of Accenture’s Analyst Consulting Group at board level. Since 2014 Shaheen has been the lead of Accenture’s Analyst Consulting Group, and accountable for the personal and professional development of over 1000 new graduates. Shaheen works extensively with Accenture’s African-Caribbean Network where she leads the development of a signature two day classroom-based Leadership Development course for forty attendees. She has also established a mentoring circle for BAME colleagues at manager and senior manager level whom she personally mentors on issues of gender and race. Three of the women Shaheen has mentored are in the process of being promoted to Managing Director level. In addition to this, Shaheen is a personal mentor a number of non-BAME senior Managing Directors on understanding how to leverage the diverse talent in their business areas.

Samir Pandiri

35
Executive Vice President and CEO of Asset Servicing
BNY Mellon

Samir is an Executive Vice President of BNY Mellon and Global CEO of Asset Servicing, BNY Mellon's largest business in terms of employees and revenue. Samir’s management oversight encompasses business groups and functions that generate more than one-third of the firm’s aggregate revenues in 2015 (over US$5 billion). Through his IMPACT leadership role, position on the Global Diversity & Inclusion Council and C-suite platform, Samir builds an inclusive culture by providing employees a chance to build skills outside of their daily responsibilities, raise their visibility with executive leadership and gain access to networking, professional development, mentoring/reverse mentoring, career sponsorship and client engagement opportunities. Samir acts as a role model for BAMEs who aspire to career advancement, and is a mentor for a number of internal multicultural professionals, within and outside of his business line. Samir leverages his position of influence to reach multicultural students, professionals, peers and leaders. He has spoken at more than 20 domestic and international events in 2015, sharing stories about his ascent to the C-suite.

Nora Wu

36
Vice Chairwoman, Global Human Capital Leader
PwC

Nora is a member of the most senior governance body, ‘The Network Executive Team’, of PwC’s global Network, initiating and affecting change across the firm’s offices in 157 countries representing over 208,000 people. Nora is an active mentor to many professionals at varying points in their careers, both within and external to PwC. She hosts informal networking events for Asian mentees to help them broaden their community in the US and develop their confidence and networking style. Besides overseeing PwC’s Global Human Capital Strategy, Nora has chaired the Culture and Corporate Responsibility Committee for the China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore firms and served as a council member on the PwC Global Gender Advisory Council. She also initiated the annual PwC Business Women Leadership Roundtable, which encourages women from all over the world to support and mentor each other. In addition to this, Nora helped create TEDx Shanghai Women, an annual talk with the aim of inspiring women in Mainland China. Last year Nora was invited to speak at the annual TEDx Shanghai Women event

Nina Bhatia

37
MD, Commercial & Connected Homes
Centrica plc

Nina is a senior executive in Centrica plc and sits within the top 50 employees of the company with a global team of c.400 staff. In her current role as MD, Centrica Connected Home, she has direct responsibility for one of Centrica’s 2 growth businesses. Nina’s approach to diversity and inclusion is that it cannot be a ‘stand-alone’ initiative – to add value it needs to be an integral part of how we get things done and an output of how we behave. Through her sponsorship of internal employee networks Nina acts as a role model for BAME employees and provides leadership on gender and BAME initiatives. Nina promotes diversity within Centrica from the top down and believes that diversity within a workforce leads to a successful organisation. She is therefore keen to ensure Centrica’s culture and working practices are fit for purpose to attract, retain and develop the best talent – with a specific focus on BAME talent. Earlier in her career, Nina was among the first BAME partners in McKinsey, London.

Andrew Pearce

38
Managing Director, Operations
Accenture

Andrew has recently begun a new role working as Managing Director within the Financial Services Operations arm of Accenture and is responsible for working across diverse client teams to drive operational excellence. In addition, Andrew is a global Cross-Cultural lead and Executive Sponsor of Accenture’s award-winning African-Caribbean Network. Globally Andrew is one of 45 Cross-Cultural leads drawn from Accenture’s 300,000 employees and has been involved in driving Accenture’s Inclusion and Diversity initiatives since joining eight years ago and supports the I&D initiatives within Accenture’s UKI Operations business, one of the most ethnically diverse parts of Accenture with 1,600 employees. He builds awareness and drives positive change around key issues impacting BAME colleagues including key issues around gender, LGBT+ and family awareness. Within the UK and Ireland, he is the Executive Sponsor and African-Caribbean network lead, and won “Outstanding Employee Network” of the Year at the European Diversity Awards in 2015. Andrew also mentors several individuals within the BAME network.

James Taylor

39
CEO Healthcare
Sodexo UK & Ireland

James Taylor is CEO of Healthcare for Sodexo UK & Ireland leading 7,000 employees at 100 NHS and private healthcare sites. He is ultimately responsible for NHS and private clients in the healthcare sector, in addition to running the Tillery Valley Foods manufacturing site in Wales and Home Service, a meals-on-wheels service in London and the South East. James is a founding member of Sodexo’s Diversity Leadership Council, which heavily contributed to Sodexo being ranked #1 or #2 with DiversityInc for the past four consecutive years, and receiving the top diversity award from Catalyst. He is a trusted advisor on Diversity and Inclusion at the highest levels within Sodexo. In March 2005, working with the Office of the President, he directed the response to a class action lawsuit. Charged with fulfilling obligations on behalf of class members, he assisted in creating a Diversity Scorecard to measure how the company hires, promotes and retains diversity. James was the Chair of the African American Leadership Forum (AALF) ERG that focuses on providing growth and development opportunities for African American managers across the organization.

Sara Mathew

40
Non-Executive Director
Shire Plc

Ms Mathew is a Retired Chair, CEO and Portfolio Board Member, including; board member - Dun and Bradstreet, board member and Chair of the Audit Committee - The Campbell Soup Company, board member - Freddie Mac, board member - Shire, board member – Avon, and a Member International Advisory Council Zurich Insurance. Sara actively participates at events focused on furthering the interests of the Asian American Community. She has been a frequent speaker at numerous events hosted by the Asia Society, SAWLF, and Most Powerful Women in India and other female focused events at the Boards she currently serves on. During her tenure as both CFO and Chair & CEO at Dun & Bradstreet, and during her time at P&G, she was a dedicated and active mentor to dozens of women and men.

Suresh Raj

41
Managing Director, Global Business Development
Ogilvy PR

Suresh sits on the Ogilvy Public Relations Global Board as well as an officer within the Global Executive Committee, the highest level of leadership within the company. In his position, Suresh drives new business growth, whilst crafting and and bringing together the pitch and account servicing teams across all 2,300 employees. As a leader within the Global Board of Ogilvy Public Relations, he drives the company's global business development efforts across all the major regions. In and outside of Ogilvy, Suresh is actively involved in a myriad of mentoring programmes. This includes programmes for employees within the group across multiple countries, externally with promising academic students in North America, EMEA and APAC, as well as aspiring business development executives within all these regions. The mentoring programmes includes members in and outside the BAME community. Suresh is also personal mentor to several students of Black and Latino backgrounds. By creating bespoke Key Performance Indicators (KPI document), which was circulated to the student’s parents as well as teachers within the school, the students moved from being average achievers to becoming Honour Role & highly commended students.

Vimi Grewal-Carr

42
Managing Partner - Innovation
Deloitte

Vimi sits on Deloitte’s executive committee as managing partner for innovation and is their most senior BAME partner. She is driving the firm to have a more innovative approach to disruption, a role that is highly visible to all of Deloitte’s 15,000 people and, increasingly, in the market. She is an established BAME role model through her leadership of Deloitte’s multicultural and Sikh network. Throughout her time in business Vimi has also been one of the founders of the 30% club, a founding board member of the London Women’s Forum and established Deloitte’s Women in Technology network 19years ago. Vimi is an active mentor and an advocate of BAME issues on Deloitte’s executive and she is heavily involved with Deloitte’s multi-cultural network which connects people who share affinity through race. The network was named ‘Employee Network of the Year’ at the Business in the Community’s (BITC) Race for Opportunity awards and Vimi hosted network members at the award ceremony.

Paula Boggs

43
Member Board of Directors
Avid Technology

Paula serves on the board of Avid Technology, Inc and launched Boggs Media LLC in 2013. She also fronts a band, Paula Boggs Band, breaking stereotypes of what a band fronted by a boomer African-American female should be. Paula has served on the board of Johns Hopkins University for 18 years, including stints on the nominating committee and now as chair of the student life committee. It has been her cause to increase the numbers of board members, students and faculty of color at Johns Hopkins, retain then and help them flourish. Seventeen years ago Paula created the Nathaniel Boggs Jr. Memorial Scholarship at Johns Hopkins to help increase the numbers of African-American PhD scientists in the US. Paula has been involved with activity designed to achieve positive change for BAME people, including; the Law & Government cluster leader for the Greater Seattle YMCA Black Achievers, a leader in the American Bar Association, honored by the American Bar Association, the Washington State Bar Association and many others for this work. In addition, Paula serve s on the President's Committee for the Arts and the Humanities one of who's signature programs is TurnAround Arts, marrying artists with some of her nation's lowest performing public schools, whose students are disproportionately of color, with resulting higher test scores, better attendance and higher self-esteem.

Manik (Nik) Jhangiani

44
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
The Coca-Cola Company

Manik is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Coca-Cola Enterprises. He is part of their Executive Leadership Team. Having worked at other bottlers as well as in the Coca-Cola Company, Manik has an influence that goes beyond CCE. Under his leadership, D&I has been taken to another level within Coca-Cola enterprises Finance organization: the number of women in Finance, the female representation within Finance remained at an average of 57%. As well as establishing a Finance Diversity and Inclusion Council, Finance has started to pilot a company-wide mentoring program, something Manik was particularly keen on as his team of 704 Finance professionals is spread out across Europe, including Sofia, Bulgaria. Besides championing the overall D&I agenda for the Finance function, Manik has also played a key role championing the Cultural Diversity agenda at CCE, for example by participating at the kick-off of their Cultural Diversity Awareness day in Great Britain.

Scott Taylor

45
EVP and General Counsel
Symantec

Scott is Symantec's Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. In addition to serving on the executive team and managing Symantec's global legal function, he manages Symantec's government affairs, public policy, corporate responsibility, philanthropy, diversity and inclusion, and ethics and compliance functions, and leads a global team of 147 professionals. Scott also serves as a Director on the corporate board of Piper Jaffray, and is a national advisory board member of the Stanford University Center for Comparative Studies on Race and Ethnicity. Scott is a member of Symantec’s executive leadership team, allowing him to be an effective voice for championing a diverse and inclusive workplace with my fellow leaders. Over the course of the past year, Symantec has launched Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) focused on veterans and black employees; expanded their ERG focused on LGBTQ employees; and continued to provide support to our Hispanic and women employees’ ERGs. Scott is the executive sponsor of SyBER, Symantec’s Black Employee Resource Group. SyBER is focused on developing career advancement and mentorship opportunities, recruiting tactics, and community building to attract and retain Black talent.

Miranda Brawn

46
Director of Legal and Transaction Management
Daiwa

Miranda is the most senior black person at Daiwa and is responsible for managing the company’s legal risk across EMEA for their derivatives, regulatory and securities financing business. Miranda was Chair of the Black Networking Group at JPMorgan Chase Bank, and launched a Mentoring and Professional Development programme to help with the progression of the black employees. Further to this, Miranda was the brainchild behind the new initiative called “Black Cultural Archives in the City”, launched the Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation, teamed up with The Prince’s Trust to help increase race diversity by offering one of her race diversity leadership scholarships to a BAME person from an disadvantaged background who has completed the Trust programme. She is Co-Founder of Color In Tech, an organization to help increase race diversity in Technology, and is the only black person who sits on the City Women Network’s Committee Board among senior businesswomen in the UK to help increase not only gender but race diversity within the Corporate space.

Derica Rice

47
Executive Vice President of Global Services and CFO
Eli Lily

As the Executive Vice President of Global Services and Chief Financial Officer at Eli Lilly and Company, Derica sits on the executive committee. There are approximately 4,000 employees in his organization, with a P&L of approximately $20 billion (USD). Derica serves as an executive sponsor for Eli Lilly’s Organization of Latinos at Lilly (OLA), an employee resource group that supports the strengths and needs of Latino employees at Lilly. He also mentors minority Lilly colleagues at all levels of the organization and across all businesses. Derica is on the Board of Directors for the Center for Leadership Development in Indianapolis, Indiana – an organization that prepares minority youth for academic and career success. This center helps minority students transition from high school to college, with the goal of completing college. He also started a college scholarship program in his home state of Alabama, each year awarding college scholarship to two minority students.

Sanjay Bhandari

48
Partner
EY

Sanjay is Senior Partner at EY. As a member of the 100-strong Extended Leadership team for the UK firm (750 partners and 17,000 employees) he has an influential and outspoken voice on the commercial and business strategy of this part of the firm as they work to achieve an extremely ambitious 2020 growth plan. As Head of Markets for the Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services (FIDS) group at EY in the UKI, Sanjay directly support a business with a P&L c£93m employing c450 people. As a vocal D&I Partner sponsor he influences the BME and wider D&I, agenda both within and beyond the UK firm; representing EY at speaking events, discussion forums and awards ceremonies. Sanjay is Partner Sponsor for BME strategy within EY’s overall D&I strategy for the UK firm. Over the past 5 years, they have increased BME representation in their partnership from 3% to 7%; BME representation in the UK firm has increased to 22% of their workforce and has targets for recruitment and promotions of their BME talent. He is also coach and mentor to many mentees and contributed to the design of a 2 day assessment centre for all UK&I Partner candidates, with a specific focus on removing any potential unconscious cultural bias.

Ritu Mohanka

49
Pillar Leader, Workforce Science, Europe
IBM Europe

As a senior executive Ritu is the Pillar Leader, Europe for Workforce Sciences, part of IBM Smarter Workforce, she heads a multi-disciplinary team of over 500 people across Europe, building out the business across existing and new markets, offering leading-edge solutions in the Human Capital Management (HCM) software and consulting space. Smarter Workforce was formerly Kenexa Inc. and was acquired by IBM in 2012 for over $2bn because it was the Global leader in Human Capital workforce analysis and performance transformation. Ritu is responsible for IBM Smarter Workforce’s enterprise Diversity solutions, and is extremely intimate with BAME and other diversity goals. She has been a speaker at several global client conferences, with senior executives, including leading speaker panels on diversity. Though her association with the Asian Women in Business Awards (former finalist) Ritu has been given the opportunity to role-model and speak at their A-Level students / school leavers events and participated in a mentoring programme.

Ron Kalifa

50
Vice Chairman
World Pay

Ron is Vice Chairman and Executive Board Director of Worldpay Group plc and also sits on the boards of Visa Europe, QIWI plc, and UK Cards Association Ltd. Ron is credited with being the strategic architect behind the success of Worldpay, one of the world’s largest payments companies, which last year became the UK’s most significant fintech IPO when it listed on the London Stock Exchange (current valuation: £5.2bn ($7.6bn). With over 15 years’ experience within the global payments industry and an expertise in M&A and corporate strategy, Ron holds responsibility for the strategic direction of this FTSE 100 business which employs over 5,000 employees across 25 offices in 13 countries. One of Worldpay’s core corporate sustainability objectives as a leader in modern money is to act as a progressive and inclusive employer. Our aim is to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of our global customer base. The Group has a long standing commitment to bringing out the best in people and fostering a sense of community and belonging. We operate various colleague networks and working groups as well as external support programmes and policies to help address issues that are essential to building a fairer society and more sustainable future.

Amee Chande

51
Managing Director- UK
Ali Baba

Amee started working for Alibaba’s in 2015 and is their first UK CEO/MD of a consumer services business. Amee has specific expertise in strategy, customer insight, format and brand development, multichannel and multi-site management and organic or M&A/partnership driven expansion. Her experience spans from extremely large organizations to small start-ups. She has led functions from marketing and retail operations to commercial and private label development and has also managed a large property portfolio and run store and web operations for multichannel retailers. Described by Asian Voice as a “true global citizen”, Amee believes that being a great leader is about seeing issues from new perspectives. Her experience is international and wide ranging, including stints at Tesco, Walmart and McKinsey. She started working in London for Alibaba in 2015. Amee has run a mentorship programme with World Association and UPS where global leaders are partnered with emerging leaders from around the world and is a board member of World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and a member of the Young Presidents’ Organisation.

Bridget Lea

52
General Manager
Telefónica O2

For the last two years Bridget has been General Manager of Stores for Telephonic UK. Whilst managing such a high number of employees has its challenges, it is a role that she absolutely loves and she relishes the opportunity it gives her to help others and promote the BAME community. Bridget openly encourages diversity throughout the Stores team and has been recognised by Telefónica UK’s CEO and other board members for her work in this space. Since becoming General Manager (GM) of Stores Bridget has set up a programme called Inspirational Women. This is for women in the Stores who have overcome adversity, many of whom are from the BAME community. As the only White and Black African person in Telefónica UK’s 50-strong senior leadership team, Bridget will work not only continue to make the Stores teams a more welcoming and inclusive place, but also the rest of the business. As a result of her dedication, the Stores team now have a significantly higher BAME representation than the rest of Telefónica UK (as of January 2016 it was 21% in Stores versus 14% in Telefónica UK).

Gary Elden

53
CEO
SThree

Gary is the CEO of SThree and drives the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme from the top; he is actively and personally involved at all levels. The company’s CSR programme has a vision of ‘Transforming Lives through Skills and Work’ and positively impacts a significant number of BAME people. Gary sits on the Group CSR and Diversity and Inclusion Committees and attends both on a quarterly basis, ensuring that issues are regularly discussed at the Board and Executive Committees. Gary has sponsored and led initiatives with various community partners such as: SOS Children’s Villages, The Powerlist Foundation, UpRising, the Mitie Foundation, City Gateway, House of St Barnabas, The Challenge, Circle Collective, Youth Futures, Caius House, St Gabriel’s College and Chelsea Academy. He regularly gives motivational talks to young people from underprivileged backgrounds and unemployed jobseekers to share his personal tips for success, the groups he addresses always have BAME representation. He plays an important part in the company’s long-term partnership with SOS Children’s Villages and went to visit projects in Zambia and Malawi during 2013. Since then he has led the company in setting ambitious fundraising targets, currently SThree is on track to reach £1m by the 10 year partnership anniversary in December 2018.

Jamere Jackson

54
CFO
Nielsen

Jamere is the Chief Financial Officer of Nielsen Holdings and has provided leadership that helped achieve record revenue, earnings and free cash flow in 2015. He is an Executive Champion for multiple Nielsen Employee resource groups focused on diversity and inclusion in the workplace and is the Leader of Nielsen’s External Advisory Council focused on diversity and inclusion of minority groups in Market Research. Jamere is Executive Champion for Nielsen’s Diverse Leadership Network focused on the retention, development and promotion of diverse leaders across the business and the Executive Champion for Nielsen’s Minority Supplier Development initiatives. He is a frequent guest speaker and supporter of minority organizations across the US focused on education, economic empowerment, diversity and inclusion.

Sarah Lee

55
Partner- Dispute Resolution
Slaughter and May

Sarah has been a Dispute Resolution partner at Slaughter and May for 17 years and has wide experience in the field. She was the lead Diversity and Inclusion partner at the firm from 2007-2012 and was responsible for defining and driving the D&I strategy within the firm. Sarah was the first partner to take up this role and was successful in raising partners’ awareness on D&I issues, including issues relating to BME lawyers. She introduced training on and awareness of D&I issues at all levels of the firm and was instrumental in the setup of the firm’s, now thriving, eight employee networks, including the BME network. During this time she also took on the role of graduate recruitment lead partner for the firm, which included developing and expanding the relationship with RARE, a specialised graduate recruitment agency that finds the most talented BME students. To find a solution to the joint challenges of BME and social mobility in the sphere of graduate recruitment, Sarah was a founding member of the RARE contextual graduate recruitment working group that has led to the design of software for graduate recruiters to identity outstanding students who come from non-traditional backgrounds. Slaughter and May were one of the first firms to adopt this software which has now been implemented by many of the magic circle firms and blue chip companies.

Rakesh Sharma

56
CEO
Ultra Electronics Holdings plc.

Rakesh is the executive director in charge of the entire company with approximately 5,500 people in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, India and China. He has promoted on merit, resulting in the first Asian M&A Director, the first black company President, the first Hispanic COO and the first black female VP being appointed under his leadership. Ultra operates in four markets; Defence & Aerospace, Cyber Security & Surveillance, Transport and Energy. Ultra has grown up during Rakesh’s tenure and some years ago he discussed Ultra with Lord Mandelson, when he was UK Trade Secretary, who commented ‘Ultra are the best British engineering company that I have never heard of’. When Rakesh became Chief Executive he was determined to make Ultra more visible within Government. He can now say that now not only does he engage with the Government and the Opposition in the UK but that he is also known on Capitol Hill in the US and by the Australian Government and South Australia State Government. So much so, that Ultra have participated in a No. 10 commission on nuclear degree apprenticeships and have people embedded in UKTI and DECC.

Soumen Das

57
MD & CFO
Capco Plc

Soumen is a Main Board Director and is a pivotal part of the Executive team that drives the business. He leads on financial strategy and has investment responsibility for the Covent Garden Estate. He works closely with the Chief Executive and as such, touches all aspects of the business. Capco’s prudent and innovative financial strategy, as designed by Soumen, underpins the outstanding success of the company since 2010. As a member of the Executive team, Soumen is a key speaker at all staff presentations and induction programmes. He is a keen advocate for the Capco Corporate Responsibility programmes, many of which have centred on working with local schools where the BAME community has a significant presence. Soumen was the youngest CFO of a FTSE 250 company and his career is characterised by innovation and intellectual rigour. Through Soumen’s leadership of financial strategy, he has created an outstanding capital structure at Capco, which provides a platform for continued growth. He has been responsible for raising almost £2 billion of funding over the past 2 years.

Daniel Wong

58
Senior Managing Director, Head of Europe
Macquarie Group

Dan is Head of Macquarie Capital Europe and a member of the Macquarie (EMEA) Management Committee. Macquarie Capital is the financial advisory, capital markets and principal investing division of Macquarie Group. As a Senior Executive, Dan is involved in diversity and inclusion in a number of ways; he is Macquarie’s Executive Sponsor for the Pride (LGBT) network, helping to expand its community of allies and drive a culture of inclusion, resulting in Macquarie’s being recognised as a Top 100 Employer in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index (2016). In the absence of a formal BAME network, Dan has used this role to draw parallels with his minority ethnic background speaking about the power of inclusion on a number of occasions. He has worked alongside the network to broaden awareness and support of the inclusion agenda at Executive Management Committee level. He has done this by visibly role modelling at events, recruiting and addressing allies, as well as supporting internal communications initiatives.

Hesham Mekawi

59
Regional President North Africa
BP

Hesham is a Senior Executive at BP and, in his capacity as Regional President for North Africa, reports into the Chief Operating Officer, Upstream Strategy & Regions, who reports into the Chief Executive Officer, Upstream. In his 25 years with BP, Hesham has consistently demonstrated outstanding results. From his early days as a commercial analyst, through 13 years leading BP’s business in Egypt, and now in his current role as the head of BP’s North Africa business he has always ensured delivery against ambitious objectives, both on a personal level and within his teams. Hesham has had great success in empowering local talent within the global corporation. Under his leadership, the North Africa leadership team, based in Egypt, is now made up of 90% Egyptian nationals. This is a major change from my early days in the business, when only a few Egyptians – including him– were on the leadership team. In addition, Egyptians now constitute around 85% of the workforce in Egypt, compared to around 35% when he first became Regional President.

Michael Sherman

60
Partner & Managing Director
Boston Consulting Group

The current leader of BCG’s ethnic diversity network focused on improving diversity and inclusion for the world wide Black and North American Hispanic staff. As the leader of this team, Michael focused on programs to increase opportunities for Black students to and staff to succeed at BCG, e.g., implementing BCG’s first sophomore internship and scholarship program targeting Blacks, adding a senior officer mentor network for all Black staff, establishing a new online community to connect Black alumni with their Black staff. In addition, Michael has also focused on efforts to evangelize the importance of ethnic diversity within BCG and establish repeatable programs to improve inclusion, e.g., implementing training at all levels focused on diversity and unconscious bias. He has also focused on establishing a local office coordinators program focused on empowering local leaders with the tools and budget to help build local office affiliation. The nodes program focuses on ensuring that BCG’s Black staff has the opportunity to connect with leaders, identify opportunities for career growth, and have opportunities to network with leadership both inside the Black network and outside. Michael also established a “Bridge to Consulting” program to help Black and Hispanic students who are early in their college careers learn more about consulting and gain important business and professional-social skills needed to succeed at BCG.

Morteza Mahjour

61
Group Chief Information Officer
Lloyds Banking Group

Morteza is the Group Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Lloyds Banking Group, where he is responsible for leading the IT strategy and the day to day activities of the Group IT. Morteza sits on the Group Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) Operating Committee which is the official governance and decision making committee in Lloyds Banking Group. In addition, he chairs the Group IT I&D Committee, who’s work centres around four key workstreams BAME, LGBT, Disability and Gender. The BAME workstream sponsors group activities and has a specific calendar of events targeted specifically at Group IT colleagues. The four key priorities for action for the group are: unlocking potential; diverse senior hiring; minority visibility and unconscious bias training. In March 2016 Morteza oversaw an initiative to gather BAME data on HR systems to drive visibility on BAME colleagues, to ensure there is transparency on performance management, career progression and low BAME attrition.

Roselinde Torres

62
Senior Partner & MD
Boston Consulting Group

Roselinde has held various topic and regional leadership roles within BCG involving mobilizing a group of Partners (in a firm that is a private partnership). This has required strong influenced based leadership. The ideas that she has pioneered around adaptive, 21st century leadership were inspired by experiences from leaders who were not “the majority” and often brought new ways of thinking and being that positively transformed institutions and nations. As she works with CEOs and senior leaders to make their organizations more adaptive, the culture of these institutions is more valuing of diverse racial and ethnic groups. Roselinde has spent over 20 years developing leaders across the private, public and social sectors to achieve their full potential. One of her guiding principles has been to ensure organizations are placing diverse individuals in key leadership roles. Roselinde is also a mentor for groups across BCG’s diversity cohorts: women, race & ethnicity and LGBT and use her influence as a Senior Partner to recommend changes to their practices.

Rakesh Kapoor

63
CEO
Reckitt Benckiser

Rakesh is the CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, a £10 billion company and global leader in consumer health and hygiene. Reckitt Benckiser employs 37.000 people worldwide and manages a portfolio of category leading brands such as Dettol, Nurofen, Durex, Vanish and Strepsils. These brands are available in nearly 200 countries. It is the distinct culture that Rakesh has enabled that allows entrepreneurial spirit to be part of the business and allows those who posses it to make their mark, grow to outperform and feel included. He aspired for a culture is all about the people who make RB what it is, regardless of gender, race, age and that is exactly what he has delivered. Being one of just two Asian CEO’s of FTSE 100 companies Rakesh is trying to be a role model for BAME people whenever and wherever he can. In 2015 he took his Board to visit India, a key growth market for the company. The Board members met government ministers and were given the opportunity to immerse themselves into the Indian business environment thereby enhancing their knowledge thereof.

Tamara Franklin

64
Executive Vice President of Digital
Scripps Networks

Tamara oversees SNI’s digital operations, and reports directly to the COO of SNI, an international company with $3 billion in annual revenue. In this capacity she is responsible for nearly 25 products and services across seven consumer brands. Tamara is the most senior African-American at SNI and therefore make every effort to be a sponsor and/or active participant in all high-profile company initiatives, such as the company’s employee development program, Leading at SNI; the company’s annual internal technology conference, Techtoberfest; and its mentorship program, Mentoring Experience; so that BAME employees can both be inspired to continue contributing at higher levels and can also feel good about having a voice or representation at the senior most levels of the organization. She serves as a mentor (defined as being available for advice and counselling any time, but meeting regularly at least twice a year) to over a dozen BAME individuals at SNI, the majority of whom I have been mentoring for more than three years.

Ukonwa Ojo

65
Senior Director, Global Marketing for Knorr Masterbrand
Unilever

Ukonwa is the Senior Global Director for the Knorr Masterbrand at Unilever. Throughout her career, she has played an active role in identifying, recruiting, attracting and retaining BAME talent both formally and informally. She is also a seasoned external speaker and BAME advocate and mentor. Ukonwa is passionate marketer and proven business leader with over 18 years of experience. She was recently named by Marketing Magazine’s Power 100 list of the most influential, inspiring and innovative marketers and Black Enterprise’s list of one of the top women in advertising and marketing. During her tenure at Knorr, she has been part of a team that has delivered the strongest brand performance in recent history, in addition to the vast majority of our markets globally maintaining or growing brand equity. Before joining Reckitt Benckiser, Ukonwa worked at General Mills, where she successfully led iconic brands such as Betty Crocker, Progresso, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Cascadian Farm Organic.

Linda Clement-Holmes

66
Chief Information Officer
Procter and Gamble

Linda is Chief Information Officer for P&G. In this expansive role, she is responsible for building the capability of the Company’s Information Technology (IT) function as well as providing IT governance oversight. Linda is a member of P&G’s Global Leadership Council. In 2010, while serving as Senior Vice President for Global Business Services, Linda also was named P&G Chief Diversity Officer. In that capacity, she crafted the first company-wide diversity and inclusion strategy and established P&G’s first ever Global Inclusion & Diversity Council, significantly elevating P&G’s Diversity Inc. and Working Mother Magazine rankings. She continues to speak across the company and around the world in her travels about the power of diversity in building a stronger work force and the importance that everyone “bring their full-selves” to work.

Yin Luo

67
Managing Director & Global Head of Quantitative Strategy
Deutsche Bank

Within Deutsche Bank, Yin is a Managing Director and Global Head of Quantitative Strategy. He is a member of the bank’s global equity research executive committee and has 23 direct reports in his team. His group provides research and services to over 2000 of the world’s largest asset managers, mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds. They advise asset managers on global macro investment strategies, asset allocation, and help them build better stock selection models and also work closely with asset owners (e.g., pensions/endowments/sovereign wealth funds) to design cutting edge strategic and tactical asset allocation models. Within his direct team, they have achieved a great balance, with 50% of the team members belong to the BAME group. Yin also represents minority people at the bank’s senior management team. For example, he is a member of the bank’s global equity research executive committee, being the only minority of the six people. Within Deutsche Bank, Yin is a Managing Director and Global Head of Quantitative Strategy. He is a member of the bank’s global equity research executive committee and has 23 direct reports in his team. His group provides research and services to over 2000 of the world’s largest asset managers, mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds. They advise asset managers on global macro investment strategies, asset allocation, and help them build better stock selection models and also work closely with asset owners (e.g., pensions/endowments/sovereign wealth funds) to design cutting edge strategic and tactical asset allocation models. Within his direct team, they have achieved a great balance, with 50% of the team members belong to the BAME group. Yin also represents minority people at the bank’s senior management team. For example, he is a member of the bank’s global equity research executive committee, being the only minority of the six people.

Harbhajan Brar

68
HR director, Sodexo Corporate Services
Sodexo

In his current position, Harbhajan is the HR Director responsible for Sodexo UK & Ireland Corporate Services, which includes more than 10,000 employees delivering facilities management services for 271 clients. Harbhajan is a member of the D&I council and workstream leader for Culture and Origins, one of the six focus areas within the D&I Strategy. In this role he has worked with the D&I team to set aspirational demographics targets for management population in regards to BAME representation and is working with the recruitment team to ensure best practices are implemented. Harbhajan has also assisted the development of dashboards identifying adverse impact within the HR lifecycle and was a key panellist at launch of the ‘Origins’, employee network which aims to encourage inclusivity and cohesion by celebrating the diversity of culture, heritage and beliefs amongst Sodexo’s people and by promoting equal opportunities for all. On a global basis, Harbhajan has been involved in reviewing a course designed to assist senior leaders with navigating different cultures as part of Sodexo’s global transformation and closer to home has influenced the delivery of unconscious bias training to both the UKI Executive Team and the CS leadership teams. He has had a long-standing commitment to mentoring recognising the positive impact this can have on mentees, many of whom have been from BAME backgrounds and a number of whom are now undertaking Director level roles. He has recorded a role model podcast as part of Origins network discussing his career history, lessons learnt and advice to others which is accessible to all network members.

Jatin Patel

69
Product Director
TSB Bank

Jatin is Products Director for TSB and sits on the Bank’s Executive Committee as well as other key sub-committees that shape the overall direction of the Bank. He is responsible for delivering the key commercial objectives for the Bank by being accountable for market share, P&L & balance sheet objectives for TSB, new products/initiatives to differentiate the business and developing and defending our commercial strategy. In 2015, Jatin helped set-up TSB’s first ethnicity network by becoming the network’s executive sponsor. His role as Executive Sponsor for the ethnicity network is to strategically drive the network at a national level, push its progress at all levels of the organisation (from local events to the boardroom) and represent the network externally. Though the ethnicity network is new, Jatin has already represented it at an event with Deloitte, hosted by Trevor Phillips. At the event, he spoke on TSB’s role as a challenger bank, explained how our approach to diversity and inclusion helps us meet our business objectives, and shared personal perspectives on why diversity is important. The event was well attended and was given positive reviews.

Fumbi Chima

70
Chief Information Officer
Burberry

Fumbi is an inspiration woman in technology. She is a member of the 2014 Hall of Fame for STEM, a 2015 FACE List Awards Trailblazer. She is a versatile and resilient transformational leader who delivers operational discipline and breakthrough results, experienced in turnaround and high-growth environments As Burberry’s current CIO and former CIO for Walmart Asia, she provides vision and leadership for developing and implementing information technology initiatives that align with their objectives. She leverages enterprise wide information to reengineer IT Infrastructure and team strategy into efficient alignment with core business priorities. She leads IT strategic and operational planning to achieve Burberry’s goals by fostering innovation, prioritising IT initiatives and coordinating the evaluation, deployment, and management of current and future IT systems across the organization. Fumbi is an internal and external spokesperson for women and BAME and is a frequent writer and speaker for organisations focused on the progression and inclusion of women all over the world.

Jonathan Mildenhall

71
CMO
Airbnb

When Jonathan moved to San Franciso, he realized there was a need to support and recruit diverse talent in Silicon Valley. To make Airbnb a part of the solution to this problem, he became a founding member and the executive sponsor of Black@, an employee resource group that aims to build a community of Black professionals within Airbnb and to drive understanding and acceptance around the value of diversity. Since being founded in 2015, Black@ has partnered with organizations such as the Digital Diversity Network, San Francisco Education Fund, and DevColor to recognize and support leaders from diverse backgrounds in the innovation economy. They have also hosted speakers such as Spike Lee & Angela Fisher at Airbnb HQ. Recently, Jonathan was as a part of the judge’s panel for the “Great British Diversity Experiment”, which brought together twenty diverse teams – from different races, sexes, age groups and Socioeconomic backgrounds – to prove the positive impact of diversity in creative teams.

Kalpana Shah

72
Chief Actuary and Partner
Hiscox

During her time at Hiscox, Kalpana has established the group actuarial function and led the implementation of the Solvency 2 programme. She advises boards and senior executives on reserving, risk, business plans, underwriting policy and the appropriateness of reinsurance arrangements. Kalpana Chairs the Actuarial Network Forum at Hiscox which comprises of circa 100 employees globally. The issue of diversity is close to her heart too. Kalpana was a member of the Lloyd's working group organising the first Diversity & Inclusion Festival for the Insurance Market and is a member of organisations including the Worshipful Company of Insurers and the Inspiring Women Campaign. She visits local schools to talk about her experiences and promote visibility of successful individuals from diverse backgrounds to encourage the spirit of ambition. Kalpana is a founding member of the Hiscox Women in Leadership steering Committee and leverages of this position and her position as a Hiscox Partner and Head of the Actuarial Function at Hiscox to achieve positive change for BAME people. In addition to her role at Hiscox, Kalpana has recently joined the board of Riverstone, a Fairfax Company, as an independent Non-Executive Director.

Nilufer von Bismarck

73
Head of Equity Capital Markets and of Financial Institutions Group
Slaughter and May

Nilufer is Head of the Equity Capital Markets practice at Slaughter and May across the world and has been a corporate partner at the firm since 1994. She is also Head of the firm’s Financial Institutions Group. Her practice includes private and public mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, IPOs and other UKLA work, financings, equity and debt capital markets transactions and corporate governance. Nilufer is a visible and high profile role model internally and externally. She was named as one of two women in the The City A.M./CityJet Power Hundred List in 2011, a list of the most influential people in the City, and was shortlisted for the Asian Women of Achievement Awards in 2011. Nilufer was awarded 'Best in capital markets – equity' by Euromoney Legal Media Group’s Europe Women in Business Law Awards in 2013 and 2014. Nilufer has been profiled in the Black Letter Law, a directory that showcases achievement of BME lawyers since it began in 2006. Nilufer also acts as a mentor both formally and informally. She is also a supporter and mentor in Slaughter and May’s new cross company BME mentoring programme which aims to retain talented BME lawyers and provide them with impartial career advice from a FTSE 100 senior business leader, and an internal partner mentor.

Orlando A. Alvares

74
President & CEO
BP

As Regional Business Leader, President and CEO of North America, Orlando is directly responsible for all of the natural gas and liquids, power, and derivatives trading and marketing activities across all of North America and now moving into South and Latin America. In the last few years as a senior executive at BP, Orlando has taken the opportunity to really focus on helping the company make a difference in the area of diversity and inclusion and believes that authenticity is the only way you can get people to listen and hopefully make a change. Over the last four years he has been the Executive Sponsor for BP Pride in North America, but more importantly a strong ally who can proudly say has made a difference in the acceptance culture, both inside and outside of the company. Orlando is also a regular mentor to many employees with a variety of backgrounds, disciplines and aspirations. Outside of work, Orlando is actively involved in university recruiting, most recently becoming the BP global executive sponsor at University of Michigan and Michigan State, as it gives an opportunity to build relationships with and gets BP out in front of the new generation of oil and gas employees. He is also constantly on the road speaking at various industry forums, or meeting with regulators or politicians.

Patricia Menendez-Cambo

75
Chair Global Practice Group
Greenberg Traurig LLP

Since joining Greenberg Traurig in 2002, Patricia Menéndez-Cambó has risen to top leadership positions and is currently Vice President, and serves as Chair of the firm’s Corporate & Securities Practice, Chair of the firm’s Global Practice, Co-Chair of the Global Energy & Infrastructure Practice, and is a member of the firm's Executive Committee. Within the global practice, Patricia oversees the operations of nine international offices, and more than 300 attorneys. Within the Corporate & Securities practice, Patricia oversees more than 500 attorneys. Patricia is involved with several legal and community organizations and associations, and is a leader in these groups, including: Council of Americas, member of the Board of Directors; World Economic Forum, member of the Global Gender Parity Group and Young Global Leader Alumnus; Hispanic National Bar Association, Latina Commissioner; International Bar Association, Treasurer, Women’s Interest Group; and National Association of Women Lawyers. Most recently, Patricia participated as a speaker at an event, hosted by the National Business Association of Colombia, where she discussed why Greenberg Traurig is considered one of the leading firms in the implementation of policies that drive diversity and inclusion in the profession.

Shanika Amarasekara

76
General Counsel
British Business Bank

Shanika is the General Counsel and Company Secretary to the plc Board and General Counsel to British Business Bank. She is responsible for ensuring that the legal interests of the bank and its stakeholders are protected and ensuring that the governance aspects of the institution function smoothly. Shanika acts as the legal and business advisor to the CEO, members of the Board, senior management team and British Business Bank as a whole. As the first BAME person on the senior management team Shanika has played an important role in setting the culture of the organisation and ensuring representation at the senior level of people from diverse backgrounds. The senior team at the bank is comprised of 50% women and 25% BAME. As part of their CSR initiative British Business Bank have been working with inner city schools in London and Sheffield to encourage teenagers from BAME backgrounds to engage in entrepreneurial activities and to participate in debate about the economy and the importance of the activities of small and medium businesses in contributing to the economy.

Anit Chandarana

77
Finance Director, Infrastructure Projects
Network Rail

Anit is the Finance Director for Network Rail. As part of his role, Anit oversees a business function of circa 4 thousand employees delivering railway infrastructure projects to the value of £5 billion per annum. The division delivers some of the most iconic and socially important projects in the UK. He is part of both the senior divisional management team and the senior finance team as well. Anit has been in Network rail for 11 years in total, during that time he has run the finance senior talent pool which has enabled the company to effectively source internally and allowed individuals to better realise their potential earlier. He has also been the division executive sponsor for the BAME support team and co-authored the Hendy Report that Network Rail published in late 2015. Within Network Rail, Anit volunteered for the role of Infrastructure Projects Sponsor for the BAME staff network (Cultural Fusion). In the role he helped the volunteer leaders develop a vision for what they wanted to achieve and gave them the confidence and energy to deliver on that vision. Anit has also spoken at Black History month events to raise awareness of the contribution of BAMEs to the organisation.

Mo Haghbin

78
Director, Global Markets & Investments
BlackRock

Mo Haghbin, CFA, CAIA, Director, is the Head of Business Management for the US Fundamental Fixed Income teams within BlackRock's Global Fixed Income (GFI) group. He manages a team of 6 direct reports that are responsible for the business management of Blackrock's Global Fixed Income platform. In his role, he oversees the business strategy, the business development, and the operations and administration of over 300 employees who manage more than $1.4 trillion in global fixed income assets. Mr. Haghbin serves as the Chair of the New York People Committee within Global Fixed Income. The objective of the committee is to enrich Blackrock's office culture and support inclusion and diversity across 300+ employees. Mr. Haghbin is also an active participant in MCN, a global network that aims to attract, engage, and develop a culturally inclusive workforce that ultimately strengthens BlackRock's position in the global economy. In 2015, Mr. Haghbin moderated a panel on diversity in the workforce and interviewed Reggie Brown, Senior Managing Director and Head of ETF Trading at Cantor Fitzgerald on his personal experience in the industry. The event was broadcast live across all BlackRock offices available for 10,000+ employees.

Sadiq Gillani

79
Senior Vice President
Lufthansa Group

After 5 years as Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President, Sadiq was asked by the CEO to be the Chief Planning Officer of Eurowings, the fast growing low cost airline subsidiary of the Group which is the most important strategic topic for the CEO. He now manages a P&L of EUR 3 B, with a team of 20 employees. Sadiq is part of the Group Leadership Team, and sits on the Boards of Lufthansa Consulting, Sun Express Airlines and Lufthansa Innovation Hub. When Sadiq joined Lufthansa in 2011, it was a traditional German company where 47 of 50 of the other top executives were white German men, over the age of 50 (the other 2 being female), as the only BAME member of the Group Leadership Team, he provided a visible role model from my first day there. One of his first actions was to setup an International lunch. This created a small network of non German employees that could regularly meet and share experiences. Sadiq sponsored their first ever annual International Day, where a fair was setup in the head office with different stands showcasing different countries which are represented in the company. He has also been an advocate for ethnic diversity in Lufthansa, and successfully persuaded HR to adapt their recruitment process, including ethnic diversity as one short listing criteria, ensuring that 1 of 3 shortlisted candidates from all positions in management & administration come from a diverse background.

Yogesh Sabnis

80
Vice President, Supply Chain
Campbell Soup Company

As Vice President, Supply Chain, Yogesh has a total of 700 employees under his leadership. His employees are located at multiple facilities: Ferndale, Taylor, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, Everett, Washington, and Camden, New Jersey. Previously, he was the Director of Supply Chain and North American Strategy at Campbell beginning in August 2012. Yogesh has worked tirelessly to ensure a diverse pipeline by coordinating recruiting at conferences for minority engineers including National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). He attended and recruited students at the latter of the two conferences. Yogesh is passionate about mentoring and understands the importance of role modelling and advocacy for professionals of colour and has been active in mentoring several high performing team members. In his current role at Garden Fresh Gourmet, a recent Campbell acquisition, Yogesh worked with his Human Resources team to ensure that the organization recognized the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a paid holiday to ensure inclusivity, alignment with Campbell culture and recognition of one of America’s most revered civil rights activists.

Annette Byron

81
Partner for Social Mobility
Freshfields

Elected as a partner to the real estate sector group in 2000, Annette is also the partner sponsor for social mobility at Freshfields. Freshfields has approximately 5000 employees and partners worldwide and improving diversity is a key strategic priority for the firm. In October 2015, alongside Black History Month activities, Annette co-led the relaunch of Freshfields’ global Black Affinity Network by bringing together nearly thirty lawyers of black African and black Afro-Caribbean heritage from across the firm. The group aims to increase collaboration across offices, share experiences and develop regional office diversity activities and awareness. Annette is also is one of the drivers behind the Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship, which is a unique social mobility initiative. The Scholarship seeks to address the under-representation of black and mixed-race men from low-income backgrounds, and the lack of direct role models, in large commercial law firms. So far, the program has helped more than 170 individuals prepare for a career in law, and Annette looks forward to the program helping many more in future.

Dominic Mignon

82
Chief of Staff, Office of the CEO
Aon

Dominic recently took on the role of Chief of Staff to Greg Case, CEO of Aon plc. Dominic supports the CEO and Aon Executive Committee in driving the short and long term objectives of the firm, to advance strategic priorities and empower results for clients, colleagues and communities. He is also a member of the Aon UK community affairs committee, which drives Aon’s Corporate Social Responsibility agenda forward, and in 2016 was also invited to join the Finance Committee of the Insurance Institute of London. Dominic is an Executive sponsor for the Aon UK Multicultural group; he also acts as a hands-on mentor and sounding board for the committee to drive forward our agenda. He formally and informally mentors a number of BAME colleagues at Aon and looks to advise them through his experiences and skills. In 2015, Dominic sponsored and presented the committee’s program of changing the way Aon recruit into early careers roles in the UK. This initiative secured funding in 2015 and put in place 4 partnerships with external organisations (SEO, Spiral, The Brokerage and E-Act), resulting in a significantly improved way of attracting a more diverse workforce at both apprentice, A-level and graduate scheme stages.

Donna Herdsman

83
Director
Hewlett Packard

As a Director at Hewlett Packard, Donna’s influence has ranged from managing a UK focused transformation programme to leading implementation of organisational change including impact on people. Donna has been a Risk Partner with delegated business approval; responsible for all work based in India providing to public sector clients and negotiating/renegotiating all multi £m deals (£10m+). Donna has spoken at a number of events; Treasury Women and BAME network; Lead like a woman; BT; Accenture ; Kensington and Chelsea networks to showcase career opportunities value add that BAME’s bring to the workplace. Formerly when at IBM, Donna was the Ethnicity Diversity sponsor, and created a programme for BAME’s to be coached by executives who in turn have helped to create a more inclusive workplace. The programme was commended by Race for Opportunity. In addition to this, Donna has ‘Reverse mentored’ two board members of the UK country leadership team so they could begin to drive changes in their respective parts of the business.

Lance Kawaguchi

84
Managing Director & Global Sector Head Resources and Energy Group
HSBC

Lance is Managing Director and Global Head for Resources and Energy within the Payments and Cash Management Division of HSBC. His team is a significant contributor to total divisional profits and a focus for the overall Payments and Cash Management franchise, which is a $6.5 billion revenue business. He is one of the few Bankers who have worked in Iraq (as country head for 2 years) and across 4 regions (North America, Europe, Middle East/Africa, and Asia Pacific). Additionally he started the ANZ Global Oil & Gas Global Banking team, and the Global Resources and Energy Group for Transaction Banking at HSBC. Over his 20 year banking career Lance has strived to hire and mentor a diverse team across multiple minorities to deliver what he believes to be the best results possible. Lance is also a highly visible role model and author.

Pam Kaur

85
Group Head of Internal Audit and Group Managing Director
HSBC

Pam is a Group Managing Director at HSBC, with approximately 950 employees reporting into her within Global Internal Audit, that covers all HSBC businesses, functions and locations globally. She is a member of the HSBC Group Management Board, and attends a number of key group committees, including the Group Audit Committee, Group Risk Committee, Financial Services Vulnerability Committee and Culture & Values Committee. Pam actively promotes enhanced diversity in hiring and, with a view to promoting equality for all, created greater transparency in promotion, performance management and reward processes within her function. In addition, recognising that many of HSBC’s BAME staff work in some of the smaller audit locations, with more limited career progression opportunities, she has promoted both short and longer-term staff exchanges between teams/locations to enable staff to develop and grow in their careers. Pam has hosted a series of events for senior women in Audit which has included BAME women, and has spoken at HSBC’s customer-facing events and internal events to celebrate the cultural diversity of the BAME community. She leads the Audit function to enable her senior management team to promote diversity and inclusion through appointment of Champions. This group have hosted events in all regions and have arranged inspirational speakers from BAME backgrounds.

Rajesh Gupta

86
General Manager Home Delivery Experience
Home Retail Group

As General Manager Home Delivery Customer Experience, Argos, Rajesh is responsible for the customer experience for the home delivery business, including the new Argos flagship market leading and Retail Week award winning same day delivery proposition ‘Fast Track Delivery’. The above has been internationally recognised and was shortlisted for the ‘Best Cross Channel Consumer Experience’ award at the World Retail Awards held in Dubai earlier this month – joint entry between eBay and Argos Rajesh is a fully trained and experienced mentor and is actively mentoring colleagues from a BAME background. At Home Retail Group the Senior Manager population has a low representation from BAME groups; Rajesh initiated seeking support to set up a BAME employee forum. This forum is now in the process of being established and is aiming to raise awareness of BAME issues and opportunities within Argos and will consider this from the perspective of all 30,000 Argos colleagues across the country in all locations and roles.

Syed Raza

87
Managing Director, Global Banking and Credit Solutions Group
Barclays

As Managing Director, Global Banking and Credit Solutions Group, at Wealth and Investment Management division of Barclays, Syed is accountable for the banking and credit proposition and products, managing assets of £13.5bn and deposits of £29.7bn. His group employs 70 people from diverse backgrounds and ethnicity. His focus has been on redefining the propositional strategy for banking and credit within Wealth and Investment Management, by setting out both the propositional growth agenda and excellence in risk management. Syed actively mentors individuals within Barclays and is a member of both Embrace and Spectrum in Barclays, networks dealing with multicultural agenda and LGBT agenda within the firm. He is Mentor and Ambassador of the Camden Society, a human rights campaigning organisation promoting the rights of people with disabilities.

Trisch L Smith

88
EVP & Managing Director of Diversity and Inclusion
Edelman

Trisch is currently Executive Vice President and the first Managing Director of Diversity & Inclusion within Edelman. As Edelman’s Managing Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Smith works in collaboration with the recently formed Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Team to drive diversity and inclusion within the company. She works to build awareness and understanding of diversity & inclusion companywide and to cultivate relationships with external partners, thought leaders, educational institutions and other public and private organizations. This includes creating and cultivating internal employee networks designed to serve specific groups within the firm including women, Black/African-American employees and LGBT employees, with additional networks to be added in the coming months. In addition, she is leading efforts to revamp Edelman’s D&I training to further educate its employees about the importance of and their role in creating an environment that is inclusive of all employees. Trisch also serves as a Board Member for ColorComm – an organization for women of colour in the communications industry. Through her active role on the Board, Edelman has served as a sponsor for the organization’s annual conference since its inception. In addition to ColorComm, Trisch led efforts for Edelman to participate in and sponsor the AdColor and 3% Conference, among other things.

Val McGary

89
EVP, Sustainable Process Solutions
US Bank

Val McGary is EVP, Sustainable Process Solutions at US Bank and successfully ran the Regulatory Compliance function at US Bank through a turbulent regulatory environment. She dealt with numerous significant issues through strong commitment to operational excellence and solid relationships with various regulators resulting in US Bank being named one of the world’s Most Ethical Companies. Val was then promoted to build an enterprise function focused on continuous improvement and skills enhancement for all 67000 employees, including measurable 10%+ improvements in productivity, quality and customer satisfaction. Val regularly participates in recruiting and employee engagement activities, such as Team Member Resource Groups (TMRG) focused on inclusion of minority employees. She has active engagement with the Black/ African American TMRG and the corporate Diversity Council. In addition, she acts as a mentor to employees throughout the bank, but especially in Technology, Operations and Compliance, where she has had leadership roles, to help team members gain exposure, visibility and confidence with the leadership team. Val also participates in and donates to United Negro College Fund events to help recruitment and successful graduation of African American students through college and in Executive Leadership Council events that honour individuals and corporations for their support of diversity.

Simon Dowson-Collins

90
General Counsel
Harper Collins Publishers

Simon is a director of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, one of the longest-standing members on the company’s Executive Committee and a pension trustee. Simon and his team are responsible for pre and post publication advice, defamation, mergers and acquisitions, the handling of all litigation and advice to HarperCollins’ distribution business. He is jointly responsible for delivery of P&L of the entire business. Simon is an advocate of the company’s strategy on diversity and inclusion, and is dedicated to establishing a more diverse workplace. As a fierce champion of his team, Simon has promoted internally to fill senior anti-bribery and data protection positions, including a BAME member of his team who Simon mentored from a personal assistant through to the company’s global anti-piracy manager. Simon was also a founding member of a cross-organisational programme called Venture, which encouraged entrepreneurship and creative ideas from all levels of the company. From this programme grew HarperCollins’ partnership with City Gateway, an apprenticeship charity helping young people to gain employment by improving their interview skills and bolstering their confidence in a corporate environment.

Bansi Nagji

91
EVP, Corporate Strategy and Business Development
McKesson

In February 2015, Bansi joined McKesson Corporation as Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy & Business Development. In addition to this role, he is also a member of the Executive Committee and a corporate officer. Bansi and his team are responsible for all of the company’s strategic planning activities globally, and also for all of the company’s mergers and acquisitions. Bansi has overseen a large number of acquisitions for the company and announced transactions that will deploy $4 billion of capital. Bansi is the most senior BAME executive at McKesson, and a core member of McKesson’s Chairman’s Diversity Council, which is responsible for the enterprise’s diversity strategy. He makes himself available as a mentor to all employees, particularly BAME people and women, to help them understand the myriad, often opaque, ways in which their careers can be more challenging to navigate than others. Another way in which he helps BAME colleagues in the workplace is to go out of his way to make them aware of career opportunities, as his experience is that minorities are often less broadly networked in the workplace, and therefore less aware of potential new opportunities.

Fenil Khiroya

92
Human Resources Director
UBS

As Human Resources Director for UBS, Fenil led a global initiative to change the way advisory is carried out across HR globally. She leads a team of 14 advisors who provide HR advice to all line managers across all business divisions for UBS in the UK. She has the largest number of direct reports in HR in London, dealing with managers at all seniority levels and across all the divisions of the bank. An critical part of her role is educating managers on diversity and discrimination awareness. This is done by ensuring her team are fully trained on both diversity and discrimination, including unconscious bias within the workplace. Coaching and mentoring managers, her areas of expertise include education on discriminatory practices or stereotypes as well as encouraging a workplace which embraces diversity and inclusion. She has also been a mentor for BAME employees joining the organisation to provide them with guidance and advices on how to progress their careers within the organisation and these relationships have continued even after some have left the organisations to progress their careers further.

Mia Mends

93
CEO, Benefits & Rewards
Sodexo

As CEO of Sodexo Benefits and Rewards Services, USA, Mia leads the strategic evolution and growth of the business, with a focus on delivering outcome-based employee engagement solutions through recognition and well-being programmes and platforms. She also serves on Sodexo’s North America Regional Committee, where she has brought emphasis to corporate synergies initiatives by identifying ways to more cohesively integrate Sodexo’s various client solutions. Mia has been a long-time champion of minorities and has used her influence in several ways to both nurture and highlight their contributions. While at Harvard Business School, she spoke out about the lack of ethnic and gender diversity among case study protagonists in the curriculum, and decided to address it by partnering with a professor and Oprah Winfrey to co-author a ground-breaking business case on her life and business. In her current role, Mia has been able to define and articulate a vision around which the organization is inspired to act and she is proud of her ability to marshal the resources and assets that will lead to future growth. The human aspect of her role is fundamental and by being authentic and compassionate, she has promoted an environment where others act similarly, which enables productivity and organizational engagement.

Michael Lopez

94
Director, Global Inclusion & Diversity
Alcoa INC

As Director of Global Inclusion and Diversity at Alcoa, Michael is responsible for creating and executing the company’s global inclusion and diversity strategy. In addition to overseeing a range of internal programs to support the needs of the business and attract and engage employees worldwide, he directs Alcoa’s involvement in key external engagements such as the World Economic Forum, where Alcoa is a Strategic Partner, and Out Leadership, where Alcoa is also a member. He also helps to shape and promote the company's position on local, state and federal legislative issues that could have an impact on equal rights in and outside of the workplace. In addition to publishing relevant opinion pieces, Michael oversees the Company’s thought leadership platform on behalf of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, with a particular focus on important social issues that are critical to the business. He also leads Alcoa’s efforts to increase the representation and further strengthen the engagement of BAME employees. Together with peers in Human Resources, he ensures that inclusion and diversity goals are fully integrated throughout the talent management process, from recruitment and on-boarding, to learning and development.

Heather Melville

95
Director, Strategic Partnerships
Royal Bank of Scotland

As Director of Strategic Partnerships & Head of Business Inclusion Initiatives, Commercial & Private Bank at the Royal Bank of Scotland, Heather works through a number of key strategic partnerships such as UKFT, CBI, The Voice Newspaper, UKTI, Walpole and the Latvian Chamber of Commerce to deliver a number of business initiatives across the division of 16,000 employees to address their internal aspiration to bridge the gender gap of 50% gender targets by 2020 and to include the BAME population of both employees and clients. In 2013, she organised the first ever BAME event held in RBS to celebrate Black History month, which attracted over 300 attendees, including business partners, employees, charities and MPs. This event went out to be the launch pad for the newly formed internal RBS Multicultural Network, which she continues to support in an advisory capacity. In 2014, she sponsored the first Evolve programme (Black Women Mean Business, Workshops), which focused on BAME start ups. Heather also mentors BAME businesses and in 2015 was highly commended as the diversity champion for private sector at the National Diversity Awards.

Robert A Marchman

96
EVP, Legal Section of the Market Regulation Department
Finra

As Executive Vice President at FINRA, a regulatory organization with over 3,500 employees, Robert manages the Legal (Enforcement) Group in the Market Regulation Department. He is also an active member on a number of non-profit organisations involved with developing policies designed to open doors of opportunity. Robert spearheaded the diversity and inclusion initiative at the New York Stock Exchange and provides significant leadership and direction on D&I management process at FINRA and various financial service industry committees (i.e., SIFMA D&I Committee). Robert has been named Savoy Magazine’s 2016 List of Top 100 African-Americans in Corporate America and is a recipient of the Rainbow PUSH/Wall Street Project 2016 Financial Service Industry Diversity Champion Award.

Sonia Sng

97
Senior Director, Global Data Security & Third Party Risk
Visa

As Senior Director, Global Data Security & Third Party Risk at Visa, Sonia leads a global team responsible for development of payment security standards and third party risk policies and elevating Risk as a value creation function. Besides her proven track record of leading globally diverse teams to drive execution of risk policies, she has also recently championed a diversity inclusion initiative within the Visa Risk Organization called “Know and Grow” with a co-worker This is a 6-month, team-based program that provides an opportunity for Risk employees, especially the underrepresented, to interact with the Risk Leadership Team and other Risk colleagues, and learn outside their core work area. The overarching goal of the program is to promote and facilitate cross-pollination, connections and collaborations to build an inclusive Risk organization, and most importantly, to counter potential biases and perceptions. Sonia is also a mentor for a number of people outside of the US including one Macedonian, now based in Dubai, and 2 Asians from Singapore. Her true passion lies in teaching, elevating people (from any background), and rolling up her sleeves to make a difference and to change the game.

Denny Tu

98
Head of Strategy & Planning
Sky

As Head of Strategy & Planning at Sky, Denny sits of the creative leadership team with responsibility for Sky Creative, Europe’s largest broadcaster in-house ad agency. He is also responsible for advertising & marketing strategy for Sky Entertainment channels, Sky Movies & the Sky Sports portfolio for the #1 advertiser in the UK. Denny supports the development of Sky’s initial BAME representation pledge, covering on-screen portrayal (20% of significant on screen roles), Production (BAME background in at least one senior production role), Writing (BAME targets on writing talent), and commissioning targets. He is regularly selected to deliver Sky’s Senior Leader Welcome, including highlighting Sky’s commitment to diversity to new joiners. He also actively champions a culture within Sky that celebrates openness, inclusiveness, and authenticity as a diversity leader. Denny continues to be a visible role model and diversity champion through active participation in industry bodies including the Royal Television Society as well as being a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences.

Dorothy Burwell

99
Partner, Head of Natural Resources
Finsbury

Dorothy recently became Partner at Finsbury where she is also the Sector Head for the Natural Resources division and is also the internal Finsbury brand guardian. She is currently a member of Finsbury’s global diversity committee. Since joining the committee, she has worked to help initiate programmes, such as unconscious bias training, to encourage a more inclusive work environment. Through Finsbury she also supports the Taylor Bennett Foundation, which provides training and internship opportunities for BAME graduates in public relations firms. Dorothy is also involved with an informal group of women (Nations Ladies of London) who identify projects specifically in the BAME community to support. Projects/organisations identified to support during 2016 include Arrival Education, a youth education organisation that nurtures the potential of kids from some of the most challenging communities in London, and Girls Network where they have committed to mentoring school-aged girls.

Edson Hato

100
Vice President Recruitment
AstraZeneca

Edson is Vice President, Human Resources Recruitment at AstraZeneca overseeing a team across three major hubs in the United Kingdom, Sweden and the United States and has additional functional accountability for the recruitment function in AstraZeneca globally. He has been a member of the internal diversity councils of several of his former employers not only representing Black, Asian and Minority talent but also the LGBT+ community. Prior to moving to the UK in April 2015, Edson was an active member of ING’s global diversity council and a Board member of ING’s Cross Cultural Network promoting understanding, collaboration, business endeavours between white allies and ethnic minority talents within ING. He was also a member of ING’s Gay and Lesbian Association – which achieved the first time corporate sponsorship of the Amsterdam Gay Pride.