Judging Panel

CEO, Barclays UK

Barclays

Ashok Vaswani is the CEO for Barclays UK, covering Personal Banking, Wealth, Entrepreneurs and Business Banking and Barclaycard UK. Ashok joined Barclays in 2010, managing the credit card business across the UK, Europe and the Nordics, becoming chairman of Entercard. He went on to manage Barclays in Africa, Barclays Retail Business Bank globally and Barclays Personal and Corporate Banking. Ashok represents Barclays as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Barclays Africa Group Limited and is a member of the Board of Directors, Telenor ASA and a member of the Trustee Board at Citizens Advice.

Managing Partner

McKinsey

Vivian Hunt is the Managing Partner for McKinsey & Company’s United Kingdom and Ireland offices. Vivian advises leading companies on a broad range of strategy topics, with a particular focus on performance transformation and organisational development.  She also provides strategic advice to leading British firms in the private, public and third sectors. Vivian is a leader within the firm on leadership and diversity. She frequently speaks on McKinsey & Company’s flagship research and co-authored publications such as: Women Matter, Diversity Matters, The Power of Parity: How advancing women’s equality can add $12 trillion to global growth. She was previously named ‘the most influential black woman in Britain’ by the Powerlist Foundation and The Financial Times identified her as one of the ‘European Women to Watch’ and most recently as the 30th most influential person in the City of London.  

Unilever

Paul Polman is the former Chief Executive Officer at Unilever. Under his leadership Unilever set out an ambitious vision to decouple growth from its environmental footprint while increasing its positive social impact. Paul is Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce, The B Team and Vice-Chair of the U.N. Global Compact. Paul has been closely involved in global discussions on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and action to tackle climate change. In 2016, Paul was asked by the UN Secretary-General to join the SDG Advocacy Group, tasked with promoting action on the 2030 Agenda. Prior to this, Paul served on the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, presenting recommendations on the SDGs on behalf of the private sector. He is also a member of the newly formed Business and Sustainable Development Commission and served on the International Council of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, under former Mexican President, Felipe Calderon.

Global economist, broadcaster and author

Oxford University

Dr. Linda Yueh is an economist, broadcaster, and author. She is Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford and Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School. Dr. Yueh is Co-Chair of the Global Cities Business Alliance, Visiting Senior Fellow at IDEAS, the foreign policy think tank at the London School of Economics, and serves as a non-executive director on a number of boards. She is also a TV and radio presenter, and was formerly BBC Chief Business Correspondent and ex-Economics Editor for Bloomberg TV. She is a widely published author and a former lawyer.

Chairman & CEO

Pinnacle Group

Nina Vaca is Chairman and CEO of the Pinnacle group, and has spent the last 20 years  building the company's reputation for inclusion. An entrepreneur, civic leader and philanthropist, Nina also holds positions as a Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Council Chair of the Million Women Mentor Initiative, and  founded At The Table: Women in Business and Leadership, an initiative created to empower Hispanic women in business. For the past nine years, Nina has also been named one of the 101 Most Influential Latinos in America.

WPP UK Country Manager and Chairwoman Mediacom UK & Ireland

WPP & MediaCom

Karen is a proven business leader with a track record in creating vibrant cultures, energising teams and consistently delivering business growth and success. She is the UK country manager for WPP, the world’s largest marketing services group, and recently announced her additional role as incoming UK CEO at GroupM. In June 2014, Karen received an OBE in the Queen's Birthday honours and in November 2018 Karen won the Inspirational Leader category at the Ethnicity Awards. Karen was appointed Race Equality Business Champion by the UK Prime Minister in 2018, and most recently as a Trustee of the new Sussex Royal Foundation.

Head of Yahoo Finance UK

Yahoo Finance UK

Lianna Brinded oversees all editorial operations at Yahoo Finance UK, from breaking news and analysis, to exclusive journalism and original programming. Prior to working at Yahoo, she led the newsroom at Business Insider UK, was a Europe editor for Quartz, a TV producer at CNBC, and has worked at a range of titles for Dow Jones and Incisive Media, among others. Lianna hosts the “Global Change Agents” premium video series for Yahoo Finance and contributes to the media outlet’s US live news programming. Lianna is also a regular guest on the BBC and TalkRadio and participates in a number of speaking events across Europe.

Founder & CEO

INvolve

As one of the UK’s leading specialists in diversity and inclusion for over 14 years, Suki has been a game changer in this field. He founded membership initiatives OUTstanding in 2013, and EMpower and HERoes in 2017 to diversify boardrooms, create more inclusive cultures and champion role models. In 2018, Suki launched INvolve, a motherbrand sitting above these three initiatives, working holistically across LGBT+, gender and ethnic minority inclusion. Both Audeliss and INvolve are committed to creating inclusive working environments for all.