In addition, she led APA's first Global Mentoring Program launched for employees of Asian descent and allies to promote career development, cross-geographical and cross-cultural mentoring with a customized curriculum. In 2020, Radhika co-led the partnership with North-South Foundation to raise funds for underprivileged kids in US, and in 2021, partnered with UNHCR to help global refugees impacted by the pandemic. She led multiple cultural / STEM events at local schools to promote cultural/STEM awareness in communities.

3) Walter Diaz, Project Leader, Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Walter is currently a senior Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group where his projects range from strategic and digital transformations across retail/technology and other sectors to diversity and equity-focused partnerships. He has also led the BCG Spark Program since 2018. This volunteer-driven program provides consulting services to minority- and women-owned businesses (M/WBEs) in support of community development through entrepreneurship.

Over the past four years, Walter has led the program's growth from Boston to 12 cities nationwide, 350+ BCG volunteers, supporting 40+ M/WBEs and their communities, and engaging multiple external partners. Walter's dedication to develop and broaden Spark has allowed BCGers to actively engage in this work throughout the company and in their communities. It has been a source of empowerment and belonging for employees ready to take action. He also invests in mentorship in his office and BCG’s diversity groups as an advisor to BCGers on their careers and beyond.

4) Omar Ahmed, Technical Project Manager, GSK

As the founder, Omar has overseen the growth of GSK’s EMBRACE ERG into a global ERG with chapters and membership across multiple geographies, in addition to being acknowledged as an organisational thought partner on race and ethnicity. Alongside the EMBRACE leadership team and GSK’s Global Ethnicity council, Omar has influenced numerous initiatives to embed the I&D strategy in the organisation, focusing on areas like inclusive culture, data, communication, and leadership.

His ongoing collaboration with the Board, Executive Team, and HR has led to the setting and publishing of aspirational targets at senior levels of the organisation, review of the recruitment and selection process with clear recommendations, the rollout of a global development programme, mandatory inclusion training, refreshed leadership training and implementation of policy changes, along with supporting the creation of the DEI strategy, for Haleon, centring on amplifying belonging, improving ethnicity and gender diversity, and driving societal change.

5) Laura Wheeler, Investment Operations - Specialist, Capital Group

In addition to being the Founder and leader of LEAP Europe, a community that leads and engages Asian professionals, Laura has invested her time in promoting more inclusive work practices, particularly in the recruitment sector. As a specialist in Investment Operations at Capital Group, she increased the percentage of ethnically diverse employees and those with non-traditional backgrounds.

Laura is also co-founder and co-lead of the disability and neurodiversity Network (Capital Abilities Network - Europe) and foundational member of the Mental Health Community. Since 2020, she has been a panel speaker for Black History Month on diversity in children's books and regularly posts on LinkedIn about diversity and inclusion, always receiving thousands of views. Her strong interest in D&I sees her involved with schools, charities, and the Asian community to promote, increase and support D&I.

6) Selina Lau, Senior Associate, Clifford Chance

Selina has advised and collaborated with the inclusion team and ethnicity network at Clifford Chance by putting together an East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) resource pack to educate staff on the ESEA experience in the UK, providing feedback on subconscious bias interview training to ensure a fairer hiring process inclusive of all ethnic minorities, taking part in reverse mentoring and arranging presentations with senior management to raise awareness of discrimination faced by ESEA colleagues in the workplace.

She is also a co-founder of Voice ESEA, an organization for eliminating racial discrimination against East and South East Asians in the UK through education and building bridges with different communities. Voice ESEA undertakes research into the rates of hate crimes, produces materials to educate others on the ESEA experience and gives presentations to companies to raise awareness of ESEA discrimination in the corporate sphere.

7) Deon Pillay, Head of Marketing Operations, Legal and General Investments

Deon’s work on numerous D&I initiatives at Legal and General Investments has increased awareness, improved internal policy and created more opportunities for ethnic minority groups. Alongside mentoring junior ethnic minority employees and reverse mentoring senior colleagues, Deon has been holding candid conversations with LGIM leadership which have resulted in the development of a Global D&I Council and a commitment from senior leaders to drive change.

Deon also worked with HR to ensure company policies supported all marginalized communities and contained inclusive language, and in 2020 he ran a ‘Racial Equality’ social media campaign. Another initiative Deon played a key role in developing was ‘Follow the Money’, a scheme designed to give children from ethnic minority or poor socio-economic backgrounds the opportunity to explore asset management. This initiative has now been rolled out by LGIM’s Socio-Economic Committee and will continue on an annual basis in the future.

8) Anthony "Tony" Mayo, Managing Director and CIO of BNY Mellon Asset Management Technology Global Distribution and Marketing, BNY Mellon

As the present co-Chair of BNY Mellon’s Black Leadership Forum and formerly a Mellon Diversity Board member and Chair of the Dreyfus Diversity Council, Anthony continuously demonstrates an ability to embrace approaches that create a far more inclusive environment. He is actively engaged with BNY Mellon's E/BRGs beyond the multicultural resource group, including PRISM, the LGBTQ+ resource group, HEART, the diverse abilities group, and GENEDGE, the intergenerational resource group.

Additionally, he represents the firm's DEI initiatives by being a BNY Mellon Ambassador at various forums and venues. At his company, his focus has been on building a pipeline that provides opportunity and access for underrepresented emerging talent and senior leaders across the organization and to leverage opportunities to embrace a diversity of experience and promote a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment. Anthony also serves as a Board Member for Blacks on Wall Street, a Not-for-Profit catering to the advancement of young black and brown students in the New York Tri-State area.

9) Ayomide Akin, Growth Strategy Manager, Accenture

As Growth Strategy Manager at Accenture, Ayomide is committed to driving the company's Black talent agenda from the front. She has led several large teams to create tangible products that make a real difference in society and transformed how people within Accenture and beyond discuss the topic of race. Since 2019, she co-leads the Accenture African and Caribbean Network (AACN), by providing a safe space for London's Black community, supervising the business in how it recruits, retains, and progresses Black talent, and pushing Accenture to make significant impact across society.

Furthermore, Ayomide launched a platform called MOBOLISE for the MOBO Awards that drives systemic change for racial equality across the creative and tech sectors. Since 2021, she has been an Advisory Board Member for Black Representation in Marketing to drive inclusivity across the marketing industry by shaping actionable advice to BRiM's audience of marketers.

10) Emily Mathews, Managing Director, Legal & Compliance, Blackstone

Emily has been actively engaged in several DEI and other employee engagement activities, serving as co-chair of the Diverse Professionals Network (DPN) Task Force, leading the Education & Programming sub-committee. She also serves as the co-chair of the Blackstone Alternative Asset Management (BAAM) Racial Equity & Inclusion Task Force.

Emily has led the collaborative development and facilitation of BAAM's Courageous Conversations (following the murder of George Floyd in 2020) and the similarly designed focus group discussions around violence against the AAPI community for the DPN. She is actively involved in the BAAM Charitable Committee, the BAAM Women's Initiative, the Legal & Compliance Collaboration and Development Committee, and the numerous Pro Bono activities they engage in. Outside of Blackstone, Emily sits on the board of the Asian American Federation.

11) Shruti Bahadur, Global Program Leader, Dow, Inc.

In her current role, Shruti advances Dow’s People and Culture strategy by championing enterprise-wide priorities and provides oversight to over 600 ERG chapters globally. Under her leadership, ERG participation grew to 52.4% redefining best-in-class participation. ERG participants reported average 9% higher satisfaction with Dow than non-ERG participants.

As North America (NA) Chair for Asian Diversity Network (ADN), Shruti organized listening session in 2021 to hear racial injustice stories from Asian descent employees. These stories informed Dow's strategy to fight racism against Asian descent employees. Under Shruti’s leadership, ADN championed new leadership development program for NA Asian-heritage employees aimed to accelerate their careers by partnering them with senior leaders serving as sponsors.

In 2020, Shruti received ERG Leadership Award from Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE). At SASE, she helped organize and co-hosted AAPI Women’s Leadership Conference in 2021 and 2022 attended by approximately 400 participants from about 70 companies.

12) Paul A Morrison, Primary and Secondary Education Lead UK&I, Zoom

Paul is a recognised leader in Education Technology and a promoter of inclusion and diversity. He serves as the Zoom UK&I lead for Primary and Secondary Education and the interim co-chair of Zoom Soul UK Employee Resource Group. This has led Paul to oversee many initiatives such as Zoom's UK Black History Month events, including an engaging fireside chat with The Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, Sir Kenneth Olisa OBE, who is Her Majesty The Queen’s representative in Greater London to a global Zoom internal audience.

In 2022, marking Paul’s first year at Zoom, he was awarded Zoom UK Most Valuable Player for Public Sector as a great testament of Paul's ongoing outstanding contributions to the team.

Paul has also won a global recognition award which was presented to him by Rev Jesse Jackson. This is evident of Paul's tireless works championing many initiatives to raise the aspirations of under-represented young people mainly from ethnic minority and socially and economically deprived backgrounds. Paul's activities has included arranging for a group of boys from a school in London to tour the Houses of Lords and also sponsoring the UK's largest annual anti-bullying conferences in Portsmouth.

13) Ronier Cladel Deumeni, Electrical Engineer, Jacobs

Ronier is a Jacobs Harambee member/ambassador and has played a pivotal role in promoting ethnically diverse individuals' inclusion internally. His efforts have resulted in the creation of Jacobs' Action Plan for Advancing Justice and Equality. Ronier received an 'Outstanding Contribution to Widening Participation, Diversity and Inclusion in STEM' award from the House of Lords for inspiring young people to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Moreover, he founded African Challenge Scotland (ACS) in 2013 to provide opportunities for the black, minority ethnic communities in Glasgow.

Ronier played a vital role in the innovative work placement program within ACS and North Glasgow Housing Association, designed and developed to support young people from the African Community. This program was built to enhance their confidence, develop communication skills and problem-solving skills, and increase their knowledge and awareness of the world of work and career opportunities.

14) Aisling McCaffrey, Associate Director - Sustainability & Financial Services Advisory, Grant Thornton

For the last eight years, Aisling has been a mentor with Grant Thornton as part of the Trinity Access Program to create pathways into the professional world of work for young adults from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds who are often ethnically diverse. In the last 12 months, she has contributed to the redesign of the Grant Thornton D&I Strategy to place a greater focus on the Ethnicity Pillar and promote a more inclusive workplace for Grant Thornton’s increasingly diverse workforce.

She is now the co-lead of the Employee Resource group, actively involved with the overall re-development of the D&I strategy. Since 2022, Aisling has also been a community mentor for the African Professional Network of Ireland, providing free career guidance & advice to ethnically diverse individuals in Ireland.

15) Javad Mushtaq, Deputy CEO - EAT Foundation, Managing Partner - JM Ventures, CEO - MAK, Co-Founder, CEO Commitment

Javad is a recognized winning impact leader diversity pioneer social entrepreneur and impact investor on a mission to democratize access to opportunities and capital. Javad is the Founder and CEO of MAK a multi-award winning systems change organization on DEI in Nordics empowering talents upskilling organizations and challenging policymakers. In 2021 he co-founded the Nordic CEO Commitment a pioneering initiative between two organizations to accelerate gender and ethnic minority inclusion with 60+ CEOs signing.

He is also Founder and CEO of JM Ventures Norway's first advisory and impact investment firm with the core thesis that diversity is profitable. With focus on ethnicity and people-of-color JM Ventures has in the last 12 months advised and mentored over 200 underrepresented founders joined as advisor of more than 10 diversity-founded startups invested and set up the first diverse-led investor syndicate through co-founding WE& Capital. Javad is also the Deputy CEO of EAT Foundation.

16) Annie Xiao, Go-to-Market Manager, Equilibrium AI, Part of FiscalNote

As a founding member of FiscalNote’s DEIBA Task Force, Annie helped publish their inaugural DEI report and launched the Asian and Asian American Pacific Islander interest group and French Club to promote diversity and inclusion within the global technology company. In addition to her efforts at FiscalNote, Annie is an active member of the Women in Government Relations’ DEI Committee, where she continues to highlight DEI issues facing Government Affairs professionals today.

As a Board Member of VIDA Fitness' Diversity & Inclusion Board, Annie helped launch VIDA’s Personal Training Scholarship program this year, an initiative to increase diversity in the fitness industry by supporting local minority residents with a demonstrated interest in becoming personal trainers. Annie is also a Co-Chair of the 10,000 Degrees Young Professionals Council, a diverse group of young business leaders that support students from low-income backgrounds in pursuit of their higher education and career goals.

17) Danish Qureshi, Head of International Subsidiary Banking, Hong Kong, HSBC

Co-chair of the Hong Kong chapter of Embrace, an ERG at HSBC focused on ethnic and cultural diversity; Danish has been raising the awareness of issues that people of color face both in HSBC and in the broader Hong Kong community. He also collaborated with other team members in the organization of a series of events celebrating the diversity in HSBC Hong Kong (cultural and religious events) as well as Hong Kong culture.

In addition, under his leadership, Embrace, and the Amber Foundation arranged sessions for ethnic minority women at universities in Hong Kong to help them develop good interview skills and resume writing. He is also a member of the fundraising committee for Zubin Foundation, Hong Kong's preeminent charity focused on ethnic minorities.

18) Nabeela Butt, Operations Director, GlaxoSmithKline

In her current role as Operations Director Development, and during her previous roles at GSK, Nabeela continually advises and contributes to a variety of company and ERG led initiatives. These include the global mandatory inclusion and diversity training and the race ally toolkit for ERG members. The toolkit contributed to development of the Company Global I&D ally toolkit. She also set up the governance and operating model for GSK’s Global race ERG -EMBRACE.

Nabeela also acts in an Internal Consultant capacity to various local race and ethnicity ERGs/groups in the company assisting with strategic and operational development. She supports the annual delivery of events from EMBRACE and led a project team to successfully execute and deliver the first-ever UK race and ethnicity awards which included participation from senior leaders across the highest levels of the Company. These first of a kind awards led to one of Nabeela’s proudest ERG moments.

19) Donnica Hawes-Saunders, Manager Transformation Projects, Philip Morris International

Donnica founded, co-chairs and manages Philip Morris International's (PMI) largest U.S. employee resource group - Multi-Cultural Organization Supporting an Inclusive Culture (MOSAIC).This group promotes diversity, culture, and inclusion for PMI's multicultural employees and their allies, focusing on race and ethnicity. MOSAIC partners with third parties to improve how PMI is perceived in diverse spaces, works with internal stakeholders to ensure PMI considers diverse perspectives and promotes visibility and career mobility for team members of all backgrounds and ethnicities.

In addition, for more than 50 employees in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and the U.K., Donnica provided leadership development training for corporate employees of color through MOSAIC's partnership with the Executive Leadership Council, an organization that champions the development of Black executives to impact business and communities positively.

20) Barbara Cuitino, Sales Director, Accenture

Since 2021, Barbara has been the Co-Lead of Hola Accenture, the Latin/Hispanic ERG within Accenture ASG. She has built a strategy that supports community members in adapting to the German, Austrian or Swiss culture by guiding them from an intercultural perspective and reinforcing their self-esteem and the value of their culture for their jobs.

In addition, Barbara and her ERG have participated in all diversity-awareness events to help Accenture become a more inclusive and diverse workplace. She also seeks the involvement of senior management to improve the visibility of the Latin/Hispanic community within the company and enables sessions to discuss DEI for new colleagues openly.

Amjad Khan, Vice President, HSBC

In 2020, Amjad co-founded and chaired the Stretch45 program, which helps Black and ethnically diverse colleagues springboard their careers through learning, growth, and sponsorship. The first cohort of this program completed its run in December 2021, with a number of colleagues successfully moving their careers forward.

Amjad also took on the role as co-chair for a second initiative called Step Forward, which looks at building talent pipelines of Black and ethnically diverse talent right from grassroots and junior positions. In its first cohort, this initiative had over 200 delegates & sponsors, and has gone on to win two external awards - the Best Talent Development Programme at PIMFA and Team of the Year at the Diversity Awards in 2021. Amjad is also on the Board of Directors at the Customer Institute and a member of the Awards International Judges Steering Council.

Coleen Mensa, Lawyer, EY

Coleen is the Founder of Black Connection, a community for EY’s Black colleagues globally to build meaningful connections. The community has over 200 members and is now run by a committee of 5.

At the height of the BLM protests in 2020, Coleen also partnered with the Race and Ethnicity Network (EY REN) to deliver a talk to over 1,000 colleagues called "Breaking the Silence'' (attended by the Chairman), on micro-aggressions, mistaken identity, building authentic allyship and stereotypes. This was the first time a Black colleague had addressed racism in a direct way to a huge audience within the firm and the impact was massive. Following the talk, leadership committed to making changes like eradicating the use of the term ‘BAME’ when publishing reports.

Coleen has also been listed by UK Diversity Legal Awards as a Rising Star in Law, DOC as Legal professional of the year and a Rising Star by WATC. Outside of EY, Coleen founded the Law Masterclass Series: a mentoring program for aspiring lawyers from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Vincent Egunlae, Strategic Leadership Team, Grant Thornton UK LLP

Vincent co-founded Grant Thornton's (GT) UK-wide Ethnicity Network, which facilitates numerous workshops, safe spaces and holds senior leadership to account. He commissioned Cranfield Business School & Delta Alpha Psi, to perform a 'deep dive' into the GT’ structural barriers, creating an action plan which aims to reduce the ethnicity pay gap, increase representation and be the best firm for valuing diversity through inclusion by 2025. He established an Ethnicity Network Leadership team that runs an inclusion survey, a quarterly newsletter, a leadership outreach program, and a community outreach program.

Vincent won the GTGO award as 'Emerging Leader' for his work. Furthermore, he is the co-founder of The Open Private School, a charity connecting highly experienced mentors with state-school educated students across a comprehensive six-month program. Vincent is also a NED at Capital City College Group, London’s largest further education provider and a governor at Crowland’s Primary School.

Sharlene Chan, Associate Director, Business Management, Fidelity International

Sharlene has been the Global Cultural Diversity strand co-lead at Fidelity International since 2020. She helped define and implement the firm's Cultural Diversity vision, goals, and plan to ensure Fidelity is an inclusive environment where employees of all backgrounds can thrive. Working with employees to drive cultural awareness and HR on talent development and acquisition initiatives. She also spearheaded a successful 12-part series, "Fidelity Diverse Leaders" featuring Fidelity’s leaders’ in a honest and open conversation with emerging talent.

Sharlene played a leading role in developing Fidelity's response to the Black Lives Matter Movement by running focus groups with Black and passionate colleagues on topics of race, incorporating the responses and commitments in Fidelity’s Cultural Diversity Action Plan. She is a dedicated advocate for strengthening Asian voices within the organization and is passionate about giving back to young talent, through engagements with university students about being an Asian woman in Finance

Ajay Mistry, Head of Digital Sales & Marketing, Clear Insurance Management

Ajay is the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of iCAN, the Insurance Cultural Awareness Network, an industry-wide network with over 2,500 members and sponsored by more than 20 companies across the insurance industry.

Throughout lockdown, Ajay has driven colleagues in his industry to continue to attend events and network – including launching a new virtual forum for insurance industry Employee Network’s Leadership teams called iCANConnect. With his committee, he also continued to develop a self-service mentoring platform to connect more ethnic minority employees with mentors from across the industry.

Ajay also sits on the CII Board of the Society of Insurance Broking as well as the Shadow Board of Inclusion@Lloyds and was recently named in the Global 100 list by Insurance Business.

Shakira Sebastian, Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer - Corporate Staff, BNY Mellon

In addition to being a Global Leadership Team member of IMPACT, BNY Mellon's multicultural resource group since 2011, Shakira is also co-chair of the Black Leadership Forum, which comprises 40 senior Black Leaders across the firm. Her mission is to promote opportunities for Black employees and foster an environment that positions BNY Mellon as the preeminent employer of choice for Black talent. BLF members act as ambassadors and trusted advisors and help execute enterprise DEI strategy and goals.

Her plan includes Courageous Conversations on race and racial injustice in society and the workplace, the history of racism and the Black experience in America; Black Health & Wellness; and discussions with Black corporate board members on career journeys and overcoming barriers to success. She also partnered with DEI to deliver Black Excellence@BNY Mellon, a safe space forum and peer support network for Black employees to learn, share and advocate for one another.

Tieran Bhuhi, Corporate Communications Manager, IHG Hotels & Resorts

In 2020, Tieran supported the creation of and now co-leads IHG's ethnic diversity employee network, Embrace. Her responsibilities include governance for ensuring the delivery of the network’s goals in the areas of opportunity and equity, voice and education, and employee experience - all in support of the company’s DE&I commitments. As a result, Tieran leads workstreams that organise events to foster education around race, ethnicity and belonging; facilitated sessions for safe employee feedback and networking opportunities with executives.

Tieran is also a member of IHG's Europe DE&I board, and a working group for UK ethnic representation. She represents diverse views, counsels senior leaders, provides quality communications advice; sponsors workstreams for the enactment of inclusive practices and greater representation. Additionally, since becoming an Advisory Board member to WiHTL – Diversity in Hospitality, Travel & Leisure – she has helped guide the organisation’s gender and ethnicity agendas, and represents at events for its members.

Lynn Cinelli, Executive Director, Vaccines Value Chain, Merck

Lynn is a member, supporter, and mentor of the Asia Pacific Association and Merck Women's Network. She initiated an early talent program for Global Policy with the first cohort in 2020 and continues to recruit high-performing, diverse talent globally. Lynn encourages and sponsors talent to take global D&I leadership roles as reflected by her directs which include the global leader for Merck's Next Gen Network; Allyship lead for Merck's LEAD (League of Employees of African Descent) and the prior Global Women's Network Lead.

In addition, she is supporting a US Chamber of Commerce program "Hiring our Heroes" to integrate Military Alums into civilian roles. She is on the Cornell Engineering Alumni Association board of Cornell University, her alma mater. Lynn builds community for women and diverse students through this role and influences the curriculum and engagement.

Ama Ankobia, Finance Analyst, GSK

Ama reverse mentors and influences the CFO of GSK by providing a cultural, racial, and generational perspective to promote and implement inclusion.

In 2020, Ama and other members founded GSK's global finance I&D team to drive collaboration with a subset of GSK's finance leadership team to align on strategies to drive I&D initiatives across all business units. She has also facilitated a 6-month diverse reverse mentoring program for a cohort of 80 senior leaders and employees, delivered a series of inclusion dialogues & now developing a global network of finance champions to equip and empower colleagues to propel the D&I agenda beyond the UK.

Furthermore, Ama has educated the graduate network as a panelist on GSK's' Intersectionality: Encouraging Change' event to encourage young talent to become inclusive leaders and recognize the benefit of diversity.

Iman Taha, Project Manager, Jacobs

In 2020, Iman initiated a Harambee (Jacobs' Black Employee Network) chapter in the Middle East to empower and engage Black talent in the region. She held Courageous Conversations as an opportunity for employees to share the obstacles and issues they face regularly.

Iman also created initiatives focused on connecting the Company's diverse talent with global network members to develop their careers within the Company and encourage employee retention. She managed a regional collaboration with other networks to firmly embed the Jacobs TogetherBeyond Action Plan across all employee networks.

In the past year, Iman joined the UAE Black Professional Network Steering Committee created for Black professionals across all industries to empower them and help develop their careers and provide employees with networking opportunities. Iman's work both within Jacobs and externally, mirror her commitment to create an inclusive environment where every voice is heard and valued.

Marina Ebrubah, Head of Client Due Diligence, Man Group

Marina is one of the founding members of Man Group's Black Employees and Allies network, BEAM. Last year, Marina was appointed to Man Group's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (‘DE&I’) Steering Committee and has been involved in setting the DE&I strategy for the firm as well as overseeing initiatives. She has led the organisation of internal events such as a Lunch and Learn with Wes Moore for US Black History Month, a Lunch and Learn with Michael Barrington-Hibbert for UK Black History Month, and a Lunch and Learn with Nicolas Hamilton for International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

She is a passionate advocate of Man's grassroots initiatives and is currently working with a group of South Asian employees to help launch a network for the firm. She contributes her passion to the broader asset management industry, through her contribution as a Diversity Project ambassador and #talkaboutblack’s EnCircle committee member.

Elaine McKay, Director - International Affairs, JAPAN TOBACCO INC.

From 2019 to 2021, Elaine was Founder and Chair of TOGETHER - an ERG aimed at gender diversity and in 2019 created the environment for JTI’s newest ERG, EmbRACE, aimed at ethnic and racial diversity. Over the last two years, she has actively created a sense of belonging for a group of gender and ethnically diverse employees.

As one of the most senior woman of color in the company, she has advocated for the creation of a safe space for people to share experiences, learn and grow, and she has raised her concerns to senior management whenever incidents of systemic racism have occurred. In addition, Elaine has formed a network of change agents and ambassadors at all levels of the company that has created psychological safety and took every opportunity of panels speaking to advocate for gender and ethnic diversity.

Kuldeep Mehmi, Associate Director, Savills

Kuldeep is a leading changemaker for diversity and inclusion in the communications industry. He is Vice-Chair of The Taylor Bennett Foundation, founding member of the PRCA Equity & Inclusion Advisory Council and lead for the Social Mobility Group. He is a reverse mentor to Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Culture, and works closely with industry bodies PRCA and CIPR on diversity reports and initiatives looking at the lived experience of professionals from underrepresented backgrounds and how organisations can be more inclusive.

Throughout his career he has mentored and supported numerous junior and entry level graduates, conducts inspirational speeches at schools and organises insightful panel discussions highlighting the barriers faced by those from underrepresented backgrounds.

At Savills, Kuldeep is a Savills ethnicity group committee member, creating the cultural celebration calendar, bringing to life how individuals celebrate certain festivals in the year, and supporting the launch of Savills Ethnicity Pay Gap Report.

Nikeisha Beckford, Group Director of Client Engagement, VMLY&R

Felix Wong, Executive Assistant to Chief Operating Officer, Allianz

Felix Wong is recognised for his integral part in the delivery team which responded to Allianz’s Race at Work survey (which he co-authored in 2021). Those actions include developing a race awareness programme for all employees, plus additional training on inclusive leadership for all managers.

As a lead for the UK and global multicultural employee networks, he led activity celebrating the diversity of languages spoken across Allianz, assisted the formation of local networks in other countries and speaks regularly to employees across Allianz globally on race equality.

As a steerco member of the Insurance Cultural Awareness Network, Felix leads the iCANApply initiative which connects multicultural talent with vacancies in the industry and he regularly speaks at university and Chartered Institute of Insurance events, supporting new and potential entrants into insurance. In November 2021 he hosted an interfaith panel event, which explored the experiences of LGBTQ+ people within their faith communities.

Dipti Kulkarni, Senior Vice President, Senior Business Support Manager, Bank of America

Dipti Kulkarni is a business support manager for a global technology team at Bank of America. An advocate for diversity and inclusion for almost a decade, she was the recipient of Bank of America’s Global Diversity and Inclusion award in 2019 and 2021.

She put her passion for inspiring and mentoring women to work in 2021 through her active support and participation in several events such as the "Innovation Challenge" to promote innovation, as a panelist for the "Diversity Series" in celebration of Women's History month, as a speaker at LEAD's (Leadership, Education, Advocacy and Development for Women) "The Power of Your Authentic Voice" event, and as one of the organizers of an enterprise event, "Courageous Conversation: Coming together against racism," in partnership with the Asian Leadership Network, Black Professional Group and Hispanic/Latino Organization for Leadership and Advancement.

She also mentored young professional women to help them advance in their careers.

Shelley Bishton, Head of Creative Diversity, News UK

Head of Creative Diversity for News UK, Shelley launched News UK's first network for Black and Asian employees, the Cultural Diversity Network, in 2019. This forum's purpose is to debate D&I issues and challenge perceived wisdom.

She also forged partnerships with Black-owned businesses that helped to drive News UK's creative diversity. These businesses help increase the profile of Black entrepreneurs in coverage and promote the product to a more diverse audience, develop a media planning tool for News UK's clients, and increase the findings' reach by sharing them in the company's titles.

Shelley also created a research-based Common Sense Guide to Language, offering staff the latest thinking on language on diversity, race, gender, and disability. Furthermore, she built an algorithm to review the sentiment of coverage of minorities and produced an in-depth report investigating the perceptions and sentiment toward the Media from underrepresented communities.

Shannon Nelson, Vice President, Investment Stewardship, BlackRock

For two years, Shannon has served as co-chair of BlackRock's Black Professional Network (BPN) in the Americas. She has connected and mobilized the global BPN community through the challenges of the pandemic with a focus on racial injustice.

Shannon leads efforts to maximize the BPN community's impact through mentorship, professional development, and philanthropy. In 2021, Shannon helped provide a BPN network grant to external community stakeholders. Partnering with BlackRock’s Women’s Network, the selected grant provided hundreds of black women in need with access to mental health services.

As a member of BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship team since 2019, she engages with US and Canadian technology companies to promote enhanced corporate governance standards– including greater diversity at corporate boards and workforces – that are consistent with the long-term profitability BlackRock’s clients rely on to meet their financial goals.

Mayur Gupta, CEO at Career Accelerator, Career Accelerator

As a CEO at Career Accelerator, Mayur provides mentoring to pupils from working-class backgrounds to prepare for careers in the modern economy. He has spearheaded a first-of-its-kind BAME work experience program collaborating with Centrica and Just Eat Takeaway and ethnically diverse students across several schools.

Since 2020, Mayur has organized quarterly Race and Ethnicity ERG Roundtables with other Race and Ethnicity ERGs from companies such as LinkedIn, Salesforce, Vodafone, Cisco, and Snapchat to connect them with their counterparts share good practices and explore collaboration opportunities. Additionally, he has arranged Black Heritage Youth Mentoring between 25 Black students and 25 mentors from Cisco to help these pupils prepare for careers in the modern economy through business mentoring.

Mayur also been Chair of Trustees at the Year Here Foundation since 2021 and has helped fund unrepresented young people to participate in the Year Here Fellowship, the UK's leading social innovation postgraduate.

Teik Tan, Procurement & Supply Chain Manager, Costain Group PLC

Having noticed a lack of representation in his sector, Teik has taken a leading role in driving outcomes-focussed discussion around inclusion through several high profile industry events including UKCW 2022 and the London Build Expo 2021 where his the core focus of his work has been fast - forwarding to a future diverse industry and fostering supplier diversity with a set of practical recommendations.

At his former workplace, Teik chaired the Multi-Cultural & Allies Network for 4 - years, whilst also acting as a D&I Representative on the working groups for Site-Culture, Procurement, Finance, Hiring Manager Capability and the Overarching D&I working group. He has reverse-mentored a Managing Director and has spoken on D&I for events including a company-wide ‘Let’s Talk about Race’ webinar attended by 440 people and three workshops aimed at the Executive Leadership Teams.

As an ethnic minority professional with a disability, Teik also hopes to represent intersectionality, and founded Construct-Ability, an industry-leading collaboration between contractors, consultants and institutions, to focus on creating a positive narrative around disabilities within the Construction Sector

Rutendo Chigora, Investment Associate, Bridgewater Associates

Rutendo plays a central role as an Investment Associate within Bridgewater’s Investment Engine, conducting and leading investment research projects for Bridgewater’s global clients. In addition, Rutendo works to diversify the firm’s investment talent by championing efforts to recruit, advance, and mentor minority talent.

She regularly represents Bridgewater on panels focused on developing minority talent in the investment industry (including the Harlem Children Zone’s Careers Exposure Panel, Bridgewater Black Network Recruiting Events, and Bridgewater’s Immersion and Rising Fellows Programs) where she speaks to minority students about pathways into the industry.

Before joining Bridgewater in 2017, Rutendo graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and was a Rhodes Scholar. While at Oxford she led efforts to diversify the pool of applicants to the university and expand funding for Rhodes and university-wide scholarships for African students. She volunteers with initiatives focused on expanding educational and entrepreneurial opportunities in Africa that catalyze economic growth.

Manjit Kang, Senior Relationship Manager, NatWest

As Senior Relationship Manager, Manjit has played a significant role in building NatWest's profile in the West Midlands, particularly of women in the business sector, as well as strengthening links with the Asian business community. In 2020, she helped the firm to be recognised as a charity partner for Birmingham's response to COVID19.

Manjit is also the Founder of the South Asian Heritage Awards, which recognises colleagues' outstanding contributions who help create an open, inclusive, and purpose-led Bank. Additionally, she was co-chair of the NatWest Sikh Network for two years, promoting religious diversity in the workplace, and creating safe spaces where colleagues are understood, recognized, and respected. Manjit has supported many colleagues from the Black Asian Ethnic Minority communities to achieve new skills and experience to help with their career progression.

Rabya Akhtar, Workplace Relationship Manager, Phoenix Group

As founding co-chair of Mosaic, Phoenix Group’s BAME network, Rabya leads a diverse committee to actively drive D&I initiatives, delivering impact for colleagues, her business and local communities. She’s hosted leading academics and thought-leaders to discuss Black Lives Matter and systemic racism – which have directly impacted the company’s response to these issues.

Rabya is instrumental in driving social/cultural awareness – organising a program of events/communications to encourage colleagues to learn about steps they can take to support BAME colleagues. Throughout 2020 she worked closely with Parliament to produce the ‘Young Women Lead Report’ on the education-employment transition for young BAME women.

Rabya received the 'Unsung Hero' award at the Scottish Financial Enterprise Awards 2021 for making an impact in people's lives within her organisation and the wider community. Acknowledging her efforts, she was invited to the “Celebrating the Best of Scotland” reception at 10 Downing Street hosted by the Prime Minister.

Maya Welford, Behavioural Finance Specialist, Barclays

Maya is a founding member of Barclays' D&I resource group, Inspire, focused on socioeconomic inclusion. She leads Internal and External Engagement, which has included collaborating with the Black Professionals group on events focusing on the intersection between social mobility and ethnicity. Maya contributes to a more inclusive workplace by raising awareness of social mobility and its links with ethnically diverse individuals, as well as other dimensions of diversity.

In 2019, Maya founded the Charity Mentoring Programme. It connects Barclays colleagues with employees at charities dedicated to different D&I agendas, including ethnic diversity, gender equity, LGBT+ rights, and socio-economic inclusion. Maya mentors young people, particularly those from lower socio-economic backgrounds and of color, to help raise their aspirations in navigating education and their early career.

Outside work, Maya hosts podcast, That’s My Name, featuring individuals globally from ethnically diverse backgrounds to share their experiences with their names, or cultural naming traditions.

Natasha Persad, Vice President Client Services, State Street Bank and Trust

Natasha is part of the State Street 10 Step RAAMI initiative, focused on increasing representation of Ethnic Minorities in Financial Services. This involves partnering with Industry Associations on speaking and thought leadership engagements, job board creations and raising awareness on inequalities and disparities and finding solutions to address these.

Natasha is on the State Street Global Inclusion and Diversity Council and co-chairs the DDE that collaborates with PRIDE, PWN, and other networks to raise awareness on LGBTQ, Gender, Race and Ethnicity and other equality issues.

She is also a mentor in the UCC Disability Support Services and the NEIC Transition year Flash mentoring programs. She will complete her EMBA at Trinity College Dublin in 2022, a program strongly focused on Sustainability and Ethics and the work of social enterprises. This will create a stronger foundation for her to continue working with and finding resolutions to Diversity and Inclusion issues.

Aaron Thompson, Audit Trainee, BDO

Aaron is the Co-Founder and Chair of South East BAME/CEDAR Network and ran the South East Black History Month Campaign in 2020 to spread awareness of Black inspirational people and culture. Since 2020, Aaron has worked with colleagues to create a sense of community for people of colour in the South East.

After the murder of George Floyd, he raised his concerns about the firm’s stance and practices with Partners, with the firm later standing in solidarity with the BLM Movement. Aaron was featured in an internal video campaign about racism in 2020, talking about allyship to aid inclusion in the workplace.

He is a member of the Black Lives Working Group which successfully worked with senior management to agree a target of having 10% of partners from an ethnically diverse background, with 10% being from Black heritage by 2026 and this is something Aaron intends to hold the firm to account on. Aaron has also been working on the ESG Executive since 2021, recommending and influencing the direction of the Social Impact strategy for the firm, including EDI, CSR and social mobility initiatives.

Moussa Thiam, Head of Cross-Border, Beazley PLC

As Vice-chair of the Race Culture and Ethnicity Network at Beazley, Moussa organized many cultural events. Promoting inclusion and diversity in alternative ways is Moussa's passion and this led to the creation of the first Beazley RACE podcast, which he hosts.

In addition, Moussa was a panel member for the inaugural Black History Month carnival attended by 40% of the organization, including Beazley executives, and led and presented Beazley's first Ramadan celebration.

Moussa has also created the RACE@Beazley coaching scheme, which is launching this summer and looks to provide members of the network with guidance and support for their careers. The success of these events has led him to gain exposure, reaching many employees, and as a result, the engagement in the network increased yearly with a 30% gain from the starting point. Furthermore, encouraging allies to support the network has created a more significant impact on the company's executive committee to bring about change.

Malaika Jawed, Associate Solicitor, BLM

Malaika started out as a CSR representative and after noticing a lack of representation of BAME causes, and a lack of contributions to CSR events from ethnic minority colleagues, she set about finding ways to improve ED&I at the firm.

Malaika started out leading projects with local charities in Manchester, supporting ethnic minority members of the community and raising awareness of diversity. Eventually, BLM set up an EDI group and Malaika was named an ambassador. Malaika created and now leads the Multicultural Network at BLM.

In these roles Malaika has set up mentoring schemes, attended panel discussions for universities, worked on events and publications, reviewed office policies to ensure they reflect the objectives of the Network, including recommending the use of blind CVs to ensure people are assessed on their key skills and talents. Malaika also mentors law students for external organisations.

Shabion Postlethwaite, Manager Intellectual Property, Fidelity International

Shabion is the Chair of the Fidelity For Everyone Committee and Sustainability Ambassador for the Bermuda office, a member of the Fidelity Wellness Committee, and co-chair of the Cultural Diversity Strand Black Professionals Network, for which she organized events for Cultural Diversity Day.

Among the activities, there was a food festival with dishes from around the world, Zoom cooking lessons, traditional Bermuda recipe pages, and a Gombey tradition history session that incorporated the making of the traditional Gombey Hats. This celebratory day has had a huge impact on foreigners in Bermuda, giving them a chance to learn about Bermuda Heritage and incorporate Bermuda Dishes, and for Bermudians as they have an opportunity to learn about different dishes for the multicultural office.

Moreover, since 2020 Shabion has served on The Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee for International Companies in Bermuda and served on the panel for a Black Lives Matter Fidelity via webinar within the same year.

Sui-Jim Ho, Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

As Chair of the BAME Working Group since 2017, Jim has worked tirelessly to advance diversity and inclusion by cultivating a culture that focuses on providing equitable development for Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP lawyers and professional staff. He believes that focusing on equity in addition to diversity and inclusion will produce meaningful and lasting change at Cleary.

As Chair, Jim has been facilitating conversations among key stakeholders to address DEI challenges in the last two years. Under his leadership, the Working Group and office have worked to embed Cleary's values into the organization's systems to ensure accountability, has leveraged data and best practices to evaluate progress and set goals for improving DEI initiatives, identified opportunities to improve the work experiences of underrepresented attorneys through talent management and staffing structure and has been also broadening the firm's DEI education to help all employees build core anti-racism, inclusion, and allyship skills.

Furthermore, as a member of the Recruitment Committee, Jim oversaw the implementation of the Race Contextual Recruitment System, which resulted in a more diverse intake.

Ona Odili, Lawyer, Clifford Chance

A year after being featured on the Empower Future Leaders Role Model List, Ona remains committed to diversity and inclusion. This is demonstrated by her continued participation in several pro bono initiatives (REACH, SMF, ACCESS and Raising Aspirations) offered by Clifford Chance LLP.

In addition, as founder of Q-Leap (a self-funded non-profit organisation), Ona continues to mentor young people (Q-Leapers) and drive initiatives that support Q-Leapers' personal, academic, and professional growth. Through the success of the Q-Leap program, Q-Leapers have won the UN Affiliate UPF Award, the Commonwealth Award, secured apprenticeships, and internships.

Richard Odufisan, Manager, Deloitte

Richard has been actively promoting, supporting, and facilitating inclusion and diversity at Deloitte in the last two years. He achieved this by creating and implementing the Deloitte Black Action Plan in 2020, which included promoting the first Black Equity Partner within the business and the organization and the direction of consulting-wide listening sessions on the Black Experience to enable broader conversations.

In 2020, Richard founded and co-chaired the Deloitte UK Black Network, shortlisted for Best Diversity Network at the Women in Tech Awards in 2022. As co-chair of the Black Network, he actively engaged with other diversity network leads to ensure representation of Black and other ethnically diverse talent on major diversity days. As a Chief of Staff, his focus to diversify the awareness days recognized within the business enabled greater understanding of cultures.

Marsha Guerrier, Senior Test Engineer, IHS Markit

Marsha advocates for all women to receive equal career progression opportunities within business. For this reason, she founded HerSuiteSpot, a digital platform and private network for women of color advancing as leaders and entrepreneurs. She helps women advance their economic success by providing a community, coaching, and capital. Her network creates a space for women to connect and provides the opportunity to win a microgrant to help grow their businesses.

She is also the Founder of the HerRise STEM Squad, a program offering spring and fall activities and a 6-week summer career employment curriculum as part of an intensive, multi-session program intended to build upon career exploration for young girls in underserved and underrepresented communities on Long Island.

Additionally, Marsha is a TedX speaker and has moderated the IHS's Black Business Impact Panel for Black History Month hosted by Engage and has interviewed the firm's Chief Diversity Officer for a fireside chat at the HerRise Conference hosted by HerSuiteSpot.

Mahari Hay, Communications Lead, Lloyds Banking Group

Mahari is the co-chair of the internal Black network within Lloyds Banking Group - BOLD established in 2019. Through the Group's public Race Action Plan target, the network aims to ensure the increase from 0.6% to 3% of Black and Ethnic Minority colleagues in senior leadership positions across the Group.

In addition, Mahari has been given ownership of the Group's Black History Month celebrations to educate, celebrate and raise awareness among employees. Mahari has also developed an impactful internal Anti-Racism campaign called #StandingTogether, which was rolled out across the Retail Transformation team in December 2021.

Additionally, Mahari has organized The BOLD network monthly events to promote Black and Ethnic minority colleagues, giving them visibility and raising awareness of opportunities across the Group. Speaker at many universities and schools, he also won awards such as Lloyds Banking Group Internal I&D Champion of the Year 2020.

Josephine Okonkwo, Group Policy Framework Senior Risk Manager,London Stock Exchange Group

Josephine is one of the leadership team members responsible for setting up the global network for Black employees in the UK. She directed the initiatives and events designed to educate and influence change in the organizations for the black employees, ranging from one-off meetings and events to specific programs. She also created newsletters, podcasts, interviews, and panel discussions for BHM in the UK for the last two years.

Additionally, Josephine is an advocate for the Disability Network and actively champions courageous conversations about ethnic minorities with disabilities to speak up about their disability and get assistance. She also works with Employee Relations to rewrite people's policies, making them more favorable to and, therefore less biased toward people of color and those with disabilities.

SueSan Chen, Principal, Brand Environments, United Airlines

In their time on the aircraft product team at United Airlines, SueSan saw an opportunity to remove bias from seat design practices and improve ergonomics and launched a cushion redesign program to improve comfort for a broader range of body types.

Since recently becoming Manager overseeing brand environments, they also have been instrumental in redefining the company's brand environment standards to prioritize accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability, and have led the effort to feature work from local, artists from underrepresented groups.

SueSan is currently working on redesigning the airport environmental communications strategy to be more inclusive of passengers with diverse abilities, languages, nationalities, and travel experiences. Furthermore, they initiated a policy change to make menstrual product dispensers more widely available, including men's restrooms in new facilities. Passionate about creating space, opportunities, and awareness for people of color and other minorities, SueSan embodies all the characteristics of an inspiring role model.

Samir Manek, Solicitor, Mishcon de Reya

Shaping attitudes and structures that promote psychological safety, inclusion and diversity for ethnically and other diverse individuals is a passion that runs alongside Samir's career as a regulatory legal adviser.

At Rare, Allen & Overy, the Financial Conduct Authority and now Mishcon de Reya, Samir has been a thought leader on progressive approaches to recruitment, retention and progression. He has constructively challenged existing approaches, helped implement new processes and acted as a role model by mentoring senior leaders and junior employees.

At Mishcon de Reya, he sits on the Race Equity and Social Mobility Committees. In 2021, the firm was ranked in the Social Mobility Foundation Index and 58% of its trainee solicitors came from diverse backgrounds. Additionally, Samir sits on the Advisory Board for the HM Treasury and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy commissioned taskforce to boost socio-economic diversity in UK financial and professional services.

Imran Khan, Business Development Manager, Phoenix Group

Not only has Imran provided reverse mentoring to Phoenix Group's CEO on racial diversity but, since 2017, has been one of the founding co-chairs and leaders of Mosaic, the organization's BAME colleague network. Imran also led the growth, from ideation to implementation, of a successful new diversity data application 'Who We Are' - which achieved a completion rate of over 75% (within only eight weeks) and has transformed the organisational approach to DEI.

Passionate about cricket, Imran is a member of the 'Running Out Racism' campaign to eradicate institutional racism from Scottish Cricket and has also been working with the East of Scotland Cricket Association to advise on setting up their DEI strategy and policies.

In 2022, Imran was invited to a private roundtable with the First Minister of Scotland and the Lord Mayor of the City of London to discuss strategic issues pertaining to diversity/socio-economic mobility in financial services.

Obakeng Makapane, Economist, IHS Markit

As one of the Founding Members and now Vice Chairperson of Ubuntu (I am, because we are), Obakeng aims to address issues around diversity, equity, and inclusion and has assisted with internal mobility and early career development for young people of color.

Obakeng has also brought forward solutions around women's leadership and successfully assisted in positioning two women site leaders in each South African office. She is also part of the Global Shapers community, a world economic forum aimed at bringing talented individuals together to solve some of the most pressing issues in Johannesburg's communities. For this reason, Obakeng helped raise sanitary towels in her community through fitness and provided sports resources for young boys and girls of disadvantaged communities.

Sara Abbasi, Associate, S&P Global

Sara was the co-chair of IHS Markit’s diversity network ‘Empower’ from 2021-2022. She led a range of initiatives at the company to promote a sense of belonging in the workplace. In 2021, she started a half-day fast initiative at the company for non-Muslim colleagues to highlight the spirit of Ramadan.

During the Covid surge in India, Sara organised a well-being programme called ‘Virtual Chai’, connecting employees in global offices with colleagues in India over a cup of tea. To mark Black History Month 2021, Sara organized a session on the topic of equitable investing.

When IHS Markit merged with S&P Global in 2022, Sara was in the leadership team that helped to establish Empower as a new People Resource Group at S&P Global. She is also one of the founders of the charity 'Bridging the Future', which aims to support disadvantaged young people from minority backgrounds with their career aspirations.

Elisha St Hilaire, Early Careers Development Manager, Aon

Elisha has driven the conversation at Aon around race and ethnicity in the workplace, serving as Co-Chair of both the Multicultural Network and D&I Data Task Force, as well as participating in the Diversity Council and UK Inclusive Leadership Council. The listening sessions she arranged following George Floyd's murder continued throughout 2021 as a platform for Black colleagues to share their lived experiences with senior leaders to improve their cultural competence and awareness.

Another initiative Elisha is supporting this year will be the outreach skills workshops Aon are organizing for ethnic minority community leaders seeking to provide necessary skills, training on a variety of topics so we can better understand how to support the Black community. Elisha has gained recognition both internally and externally for her work in D&I at Aon and the insurance sector, including winning a We Are the City ‘Rising Star in Diversity’ Award in 2016.

Toks Sotande-Peters, Global Relationship Director - Consumer, Retail and Healthcare, Barclays

Toks is a Global Relationship Director for Barclays focusing on Healthcare and Consumer Retail clients. Toks is also a Co-Chair of Barclays Black Professionals Resource Group (BPRG) in the Americas where we works to support the attraction, retention, development, and engagement of Black professionals at Barclays.

In 2020, Toks, and the BPRG Leadership, helped the bank respond to colleagues, clients, and communities looking for Barclays to take action on DEI with the production of a research paper titled "Path Forward" that laid a clear plan of action. The document eventually became the company's Global Race at Work Agenda, recognized in the Barclays annual Citizenship & Diversity Awards in 2021.

Committed to taking DEI externally, Toks, regularly supports the bank in engaging with local communities to support high school students with access to advice, mentors, and opportunities at Barclays. Toks has also led, as an ambassador, the Race at Work Client Engagement workstream, where Barclays collaborates and partners with clients to share best practices and ideas on D&I engagement.

Eileen Lewis, Performance and Development Manager, Capita Consulting

Eileen is the Founder and lead of RISE which aids Capita to readdress the balance of inequality by building a sustainable career pathway that ensures a fair representation of ethnic diversity at all levels of the business. She specifically designed, delivered, and curated RISE to equip ethnically diverse colleagues with leadership tools and techniques to enhance confidence, skills, and competencies through upskilling and reskilling to help them progress into more senior roles.

She is a group leader of the Black Lives Matter Advisory Group, an active member of Capita's Black Employee and Embrace Networks. She continually promotes diversity and inclusion by liaising with the CEO, Chief People Officer, D&I Director, and senior leaders via internal activities to ensure the company has an inclusive culture, fair BAME representation, education, awareness, and engagement.

Isaiah Wellington-Lynn, Founding Faculty, Lead of Academic Integration and Coaching, London Interdisciplinary School

Isaiah is a Founding member of the Admissions Decisions Committee at the London Interdisciplinary School, a new university for those who want to shape the world and not just fit in. He uses his anthropology background to help make holistic, intersectional decisions on an applicant's potential. He has helped build one of the most forward-thinking contextual recruiting tools that attracts students from ethnically and neurodiverse backgrounds.

Isaiah is also a member of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and designs the School's internal workshops on belonging. He is on a mission to create more moments for people to experience shared compassion. Isaiah also leads the School's pioneering stance on Student-Centred Design, curating empowering and diverse curricula.

Additionally, Isaiah is an Anthropology PhD candidate at Oxford, an Anthropologist-in-Residence at TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, and an Associate Expert at the Creative Mentor Network. He focuses on building communities where underrepresented groups can belong.

Jaspal Thandi, Product Executive, Marsh

Since 2020, Jaspal launched and developed the Multicultural CRG, which has grown to over 500 members to create an inclusive and diverse working environment. He is also growing partnerships with charities Career Ready and ReachOut to give back to the communities within which Marsh works and improve social mobility amongst young people.

Jaspal has engaged with the UK&I and global CEOs to raise awareness of issues colleagues from ethnically diverse backgrounds face and leverage their support to break down barriers. Additionally, he has been working with Talent Acquisition and HR to improve the diversity of the talent pipeline entering the organization and review HR policies to create a more inclusive workplace for ethnically diverse colleagues.

Jaspal has collaborated with resource groups across Marsh to improve intersectionality and create inclusivity for colleagues through all lenses of D&I. To showcase Marsh’s diversity, Jaspal launched a Cookbook to unite people through food with colleague contributions.

Shareeka Meadows, Vice President, Divisional Merchandising Manager, Apparel, Dollar General Corporation

Shareeka is the current president of DG's African-American ERG (AAERG), launched on the guiding principle that inclusion enhances DG's culture, enables growth, and is critical to the Company’s continued success.

As President, Shareeka oversees AAERG's Lunch & Learn sessions focused on enhancing leadership skills, and career and personal growth, AAERG Days of Service where they engage with the community and service events and AAERG Gala, the annual company celebration of Black History Month.

Under her leadership, DG introduced a virtual Black History Month Celebration, bringing employees together during the pandemic to celebrate diversity and inclusion. Shareeka is also a member of DG's Diversity and Inclusion Council, responsible for ensuring the company invests in its diverse teams through development, empowerment, and inclusion.

Wayne Shand, Relationship Manager Private Banking, HSBC UK Bank Plc

Wayne, Relationship Manager at HSBC UK Private Banking, is a keen advocate and representative of their Embrace Committee - winners of the Best Network Group at the 2021 Ethnicity Awards. Co-chair of the HSBC UK Private Banking Ethnicity Advocates Group, he is also a member of their Step Forward Working Group, voted the United Health Group Diversity Team of the Year at the 2021 European Diversity Awards.

A mentor spanning Global Private banking, Wayne is also a wellbeing lead, D&I champion and influencer. So, it comes as no surprise that he was recognised as the winner of the Championing Inclusivity Award at the 2021 HSBC UK Private Banking Awards.

Karim Chowdhury, Wealth Manager, Schroders Personal Wealth

Karim is the founding member and deputy chair of the Unity network, promoting D&I at Schroders Personal Wealth. He promoted over 10 events, celebrating and educating others on different cultures and religions, including Eid, Chinese New Year, Ramadan and St Patrick's Day. He also pursued and approved the critical goal of getting SPW to conduct and produce an ethnicity pay gap review to put a plan in place and set targets.

Karim is a member of the overall diversity network steering group and an ally of the Woman's, Disability and LBGT+ networks. He has made it his mission to seek out and help others who don't have suitable, inspiring role models and guidance to fulfill their potential. His next key aim is to increase the diversity of the senior leadership team at SPW.

Henrique dos Santos, Support Consultant, SAP

In 2018, Henrique helped in the foundation of the first Black Employee Chapter in Brazil. At the SAP Labs, Henrique and his colleagues had the privilege of hosting numerous events and opportunities to develop and increase internal awareness about the African culture and the African Brazilian's needs and challenges. The team held trainings focused on structural racism and events such as the "International Afro-Latin America, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women's Day" where four marvelous Black women from SAP came to share their thoughts and challenges with the entire organization based on their personal experiences.

In order to have an impact on external individuals, Henrique and his team created the Black Attraction program in partnership with the Black Employee Network and the Talent Attraction team to create a pipeline of Black candidates looking to become a part of the SAP family and increase the global diversity impact of SAP.

Marcus-Alexander Neilm, Senior Sustainability Business Development Advisor, Aviation Shell

Marcus-Alexander is the Chairperson of Shell's Black employee network in the UK. He is also a member of Shell's Global Employee Advisory Board (EAB), which supports Shell's D&I Council for Race. The Council takes steps to improve the inclusion and experience of Black employees and other under-represented racial and ethnic groups. The EAB supports the Council by acting as a sounding board, influencing, and testing strategy, advocating throughout the organization, and delivering complementary programmes which support the Council's aims.

Marcus was instrumental in developing Shell UK's 2020 10-point action plan. The plan introduced recruitment aspirations of 8% representation of Black people in graduate and experienced hires by 2025.

Marcus also embedded changes to recruitment processes, reverse mentoring, enhanced employee mandatory inclusion training and other initiatives in pursuit of fairer representation. Marcus helped shape and deliver the plan and became a trusted advisor to VP UKHR and Country Chair of Shell UK.

Lorna Nsoatabe, Associate, Slaughter and May

Lorna is a lawyer in the firm’s Competition group and has been leading as co-chair, member and mentor of the DIVERSE Network celebrating ethnic, racial, and social diversity. She has helped grow the network from three to over a hundred members.

Lorna organized various events such as the 'Lived Experiences' webinar for Black History Month in 2020 where she was a panelist, Race Equality Week event on privilege and inclusivity, and a Stephen Lawrence Day event with Family Network/Educating Matters on talking about race at home. She has also led training and discussions on allyship and inclusion, engaging senior leaders and allies on their role in fostering inclusivity.

Lorna is a reverse mentor to a Senior Partner within the firm, and has been the only associate on the partner-led recruitment strategy committee, contributing to the firm trainee recruitment strategy, particularly for underrepresented groups.

Saajan Patel, Finance Analyst, Liberty Global

Saajan founded Liberty Global's first employee resource group, REACH (Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Harmony), in 2020 and continued leading the steering committee throughout 2021. The launch of REACH led to five other diversity strands starting additional resource groups.

Saajan has campaigned internally and externally for racial equity and has launched various events to drive this, including organising and hosting an event for global colleagues in support of Show Racism the Red Card's flagship Wear Red Day.

Additionally, he has given talks on his personal and professional journey and is featured in an internal documentary film detailing experiences of racism in the workplace. Since transferring to the US offices, Saajan has been acting as a local representative for the Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer

Sade Oladugbewo, Technical Portfolio Delivery Manager, Vodafone

Sade founded the Vodafone Black Professionals Network and is the founding member and chair of the Multicultural Inclusion Network, driving the ethnicity agenda within the organization at the UK level and globally. She created and guided the Multi-cultural Inclusion Strategy around race and employee engagement, which has led Vodafone to design and develop its REACH strategy on race over the last 18 months.

Sade also supported D&I to gather ethnicity data which led Vodafone publicly announce their ethnicity targets within the UK. She has personally raised awareness of minority groups within Vodafone globally and locally, highlighting the role that senior leaders can play in driving inclusion.

Furthermore, Sade has been mentoring and coaching externally and creating a network where ethnically diverse professionals can be supported in the next steps of their careers.

Karamjot Jaswal, Strategy Consultant, IBM

Within IBM UK's Emb(race), Karamjot led the Talent Attract Workstream that helped attract a more diverse pipeline of talent to IBM by recruiting and supplying IBM Mentors of diverse backgrounds to the award-winning P-Tech Programme, which provides students from low socio-economic backgrounds with extra-curricular subjects and learning opportunities on career paths.

Since September 2021, Karamjot has been tirelessly working to identify ways in which her current project can successfully grow and increase inclusivity and has been also organising and leading Learning Hour sessions for the team, promoting IBM's inclusive initiatives and creating an internal webpage around Diversity and Inclusion resources.

Externally, Karamjot is passionate about raising awareness around mental health and has created a social media platform on Instagram to support those who have experienced trauma and anxiety. Through her efforts and impact on mental health, Karamjot was awarded the 'Wellbeing Award' from IBM's Graduate Programme.

Ayesha Afzal, Researcher, Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU) Germany

Ayesha is a passionate advocate for inclusive technology and training new scientists in mentorship. As a full-time researcher in academia, she has mentored and promoted technical women consistently. Ayesha is the recipient of First Place ISC PhD Forum Award 2021 and has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications. She is an active speaker and reviewer at various international events and conferences. She has made a marked impact in encouraging women to pursue STEM disciplines.

Ayesha serves as a global ambassador, mentor, advisor and member of platforms, catering to women. She actively engages at various meetups, forums and structured programs that reduce barriers, highlights accomplishments and expands career opportunities for women.

Her commitment to promoting women in technology is reflected through her continuous activities.The networking she built by connecting with other renowned women researchers and industry specialists helped create opportunities and guidelines for other talented women.

Andrew O'Flaherty, Sector Strategist - Special Situations Group, Credit Suisse

Andrew is a member of the BAME Network's Talent & Development Working Group at Credit Suisse and was appointed to lead on-campus recruiting and graduate outreach. He organised and participated in numerous diversity-focused campus recruitment events, including Credit Suisse's annual ACS Finance conference and has been a mentor on Credit Suisse's "Steps to Success" diversity program since 2021, in which CS employees form individual mentoring relationships with "Steps Scholars" and gain work experience through the firm.

Andrew was a Keynote speaker at Credit Suisse's "Courageous Conversation – Black Lives Matter" seminar in 2020 and was also Invited to host "Courageous Conversation: George Floyd - One Year On" the following year. In addition, he has been participating in various diversity-focused focus groups, seminars, and discussions, all intending to create safe spaces for honest and productive dialogue around race and representation.

Robert Hewitt, Principal Landscape Architect, AECOM

Robert has worked across AECOM's Europe region to bring together ethnically diverse employees. For this reason, he helped to create the company's first employee resource group (ERG) – the Ethnic Diversity Network. As Chair, he was instrumental in setting the vision and objectives while challenging the business' strategies and decisions. Since then, membership has grown to over 400 members.

With the support of leadership, Robert developed a long-term framework, and short-term goals that drove tangible change. Since 2021, he has been creating opportunities and a safe space for ethnically diverse colleagues to discuss any concerns and delivering six cultural and religious awareness events across Europe.

As a result, Robert was able to challenge the business representation targets for ethnically diverse colleagues and the selection and delivery of AECOM's talent and leadership development programmes. He was also able to influence the Europe Real Estate strategy to ensure inclusion of workplaces.

Sherena Masharani, Trainee Solicitor, Centrica PLC

As Head of Communications and Engagement for the VOICE Network (Ethnicity Network), Sherena led its relaunch, creating a forum for colleagues to support one another with over 300 cross-company members engaged. In addition, she produced 'Amplify' a research bulletin promoting the message of inclusion by raising awareness and focusing on how people can turn awareness and knowledge into practical action and active allyship.

Sherena also coordinated Centrica's Legal (LRECS) diversity and inclusion event that committed fourteen leading law firms to initiatives providing more inclusive workplaces for employees. In addition to this, she has supported Centrica's Access to Law work-experience program, supporting ethnically diverse students entering the legal profession and helped establish a specific LRECS D&I Committee focused on education and promoting diversity within the business function.

Swati Mohan, Senior Analyst, Natwest Group

Swati has always been committed to creating an open, honest, and inclusive workplace for ethnically diverse individuals and in 2021, as part of the bank's Inclusion Week, she conducted the 'Challenging stereotypes and biases' campaign under the Sikh Network to raise awareness of stereotypes based on all strands of diversity, including gender, ethnicity, religion, caste, color and creed, age, ability, and disability. In the same year, Swati led languages awareness campaigns for South Asian Heritage Month and later received an Outstanding Service to Diversity and Inclusion award.

In addition, Swati has also cultivated awareness of the importance of D&I through DGFG Campaigns, Women's Day Celebrations, and the Every Woman network and has been the multi-cultural and D&I ambassador for Natwest by working at a grassroots level to bring out a significant change in the mindsets of people by building valuable relationships.

Xiaoqin (Gigi) Jia, Associate Director, Ernst & Young

Gigi sets out to promote socio-economic diversity. She reached out to the City of London's Socio-Economic Task Force and is currently working with task force members to improve socio-economic diversity at senior levels in financial and professional services across the UK.

Gigi is also actively promoting the "Who Gets Ahead" movement which calls for attention to the "progression gap" of lower socio-economic backgrounds. Gigi joined EY in 2022 and immediately signed up to be a mentor of young women professionals within EY's Women's Network. She ensures regular check-ins and timely guidance and support to the mentees when they encounter challenges.

Akua Opong, Senior Analyst, London Stock Exchange Group

Akua is an active member of the LSEG’s Black Employee Inspired Network Group (BEING), Women’s Inspired Network (WIN) and UK Accessibility Lead. Akua has supported multiple initiatives including speaker events, wellbeing-focused activities and raising awareness of neurodiversity with an intersectional lens.

Akua has participated in the City Hive Cross-Collaboration Mentoring Programme with Talk About Black to increase black representation in senior leadership in the Investment industry and is a Cajigo mentor, upskilling women into the industry and delivering career talks to students UK wide from underrepresented backgrounds.

As part of LSEG’s previous Black History Month campaign, she was a panellist for "What's in the name?" event, where employees discussed and share the origins of their names. She also facilitated a virtual training session with Show Racism the red card.

She has also been featured in Investment Week and most recently featured in the TLA - Black Women in Tech, The Voices in the Shadows 2021 book highlighting black women and their journey into Technology.

Jon Perry, Underwriter - Executive Risk, Beazley

Jon is a member of Beazley’s Global I&D Steering Committee, which is responsible for setting and implementing the diversity strategy at Beazley and monitoring the progress against publicly stated gender and race targets in the business. He also serves as the Vice-Chair of Beazley RACE in the United States, which is the company's employee network focused on race, culture & ethnicity.

One of his areas of focus has been to engage with people of colour in Beazley by hosting small group sessions at least once a month and aggregating the candid feedback to share with leadership. Jon makes a specific effort to connect with young/junior colleagues of colour to ensure their experience at Beazley is welcoming, inclusive, and rewarding.

Jon engages with most of the employee networks at Beazley and is specifically working to improve the underwriting division’s racial diversity and encourage a clearer path to promotion for women.

Susan Richards, Service Delivery Manager, LV=GI

Susan formed and is a sponsor of One Network aimed to discuss race, culture, and religion for positive change. She revolutionized communication strategies to boost open discussion through bi-weekly meetings on race-related matters, cultural funerals, and world wars. The sessions on "Let's Talk About Race" had over 2000 attendees. She also organized Podcasts and Webinars to open the hearts and minds of employees and empower them to 'be the change'.

Susan has been steering all senior-level activities challenging and retuning mindsets to build strong foundations for positive change, including reverse mentoring and meetings with the CEO to foster a safe environment for honest dialogue. She spearheaded strategic workstreams to ensure the right focus was in place to enhance understanding of ethnicity, culture, and religion and has developed and been delivering a bespoke training program to Managers to promote diversity and inclusion across the business.

Rashael Kelly-Jarvis, Associate, Norton Rose Fulbright

Rashael co-led the launch of Norton Rose Fulbright's first Origins Ambassadors Program in 2021 enabling people of color to gain visibility, contribute to decision-making, and have a voice within the firm. She also led a global event on raising Black boys in the UK and US and bystander intervention for teenagers planned in May.

Following the BLM protests and firm’s 2021 Global Charitable Initiative fighting racism and championing social justice, this intersectional event with the Origins and Family Matters networks and US Racial Equity Council will discuss how parents can approach difficult conversations with their children, including police brutality, stop and search powers and intervention when witnessing racial injustice.

Additionally, Rashael has reverse-mentored a Partner and member of the firm’s managing board through the Origins Reverse Mentoring Programme and has been a mentor with Aspiring Solicitors and bp for BAME students covering topics including reading financial papers and commercial awareness.

Michael Jackson, Regional Vice President Franchise Performance Support, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)

As co-chair of IHG's employee resource group for Black colleagues, Michael was instrumental in steering IHG's response to racial justice issues in the US in 2020, contributing to the redesign of IHG's DEI commitments and actions. Since 2019, he has led companywide Black History Month (BHM) events, facilitated Courageous Conversations with Black colleagues, and facilitated listening sessions to share the perspectives of Black colleagues.

Michael has mentored and sponsored colleagues of color, guiding them to achieve career promotions. In addition to his work at IHG, he volunteers with local schools to increase the focus on mentoring and sponsorship for students of color. He has conducted several letter-writing campaigns to national and state officials against laws affecting people of color.

Lekha Giridharan, Senior Lean Consultant, AECOM

Lekha is Vice-Chair of Ethnic Diversity Network (EDN), AECOM's first Employee Resource Group (ERG) in Europe and India launched in 2021. The Network aims to champion an equitable workplace where ethnically diverse employees and future employees have a safe space to learn and grow through access to career progression and personal development opportunities.

Lekha challenges and shapes the strategy and direction to ensure the firm effectively supports the network to build an inclusive culture where diverse talent can thrive. She helped structure EDN with four sub-committees: Careers, Community, Culture, Commerce, ensuring each have diverse teams focused on shaping activities that fulfil the strategic objectives.

EDN's impacts have been successful Europe-wide with Equity, Diversity & Inclusion client collaboration, leading educational, cultural, and religious events such as 2021 Black History Month, South Asian Heritage Month and Ramadan 2022, and partnerships with Professional Bodies like ICE, speaking at schools, universities and more.

Faizal Ansarey, Client Partner, Financial Services & Insurance Sector, Atos Technology

Faizal is the Vice-Chair of the Together Network - the Multicultural Network of Atos, who has launched several initiatives to support Diversity and Inclusion within the firm. Faizal organised a Reverse Mentoring program to empower discussion about culture between senior and junior colleague to further enhance inclusivity within the firm. The network organised the BAME Senior Leadership Program which identified ethnically diverse talent at mid-management, and paired them with the Executive Leadership Team to accelerate their personal development.

In addition, Faizal arranged the Listen and Learn sessions to provide the Executive leadership team with perspectives of Atos' ethnically diverse members, to support shaping future Diversity & Inclusivity strategies.

Furthermore, as part of the BAME Women in Tech Initiative, Faizal worked with a local high school to provide internships to women students from an ethnically diverse background with aim of inspiring them towards a career within the technology sector.

Daniel Clarke, Senior Business Development Manager, Kennedys

Daniel is a Senior Business Development Manager at Kennedys and Chair of the APAC Diversity & Inclusion Committee at the firm. In 2022, he received the award of 'Diversity and Inclusion Champion' issued by Speak In Asia, for his exceptional work in managing multi-cultural and multi-location teams, and working with specialist teams across Asia Pacific.

In 2021, Daniel participated in two panel discussions, one of which he moderated directly and included the former Prime Minister of Denmark at the 2021 Dive In Festival, the international festival for diversity and inclusion in insurance, an initiative of Inclusion@Lloyd's.

Geeta Kana, Vice President, BlackRock

Geeta is the global deputy co-chair of BlackRock’s OUT & Allies network and the philanthropic lead for the EMEA chapter of the network. She is also on the EMEA Diversity Equity and Inclusion Taskforce and leads the internal communications and engagement pillar. As part of her leadership role in the network, she has helped colleagues in smaller satellite offices organize virtual events on diversity and LGBT+ awareness and has promoted various LGBT+ initiatives on BlackRock's social media channels.

Since 2018, Geeta has been working to promote the OUT & Allies network's partner charity Just Like Us, helping train hundreds of LGBT+ young people in public speaking, interview practice and CV building. Geeta currently works in BlackRock’s Sustainable Investing team and one of her main priorities is making the workplace a safe, open and accepting environment for all people, regardless of background.

Jennie Koo, Head of Operations Risk Management, Capital One

Intersectionality is a key focus that Jennie has been driving into conversations since joining Capital One in late 2018. Recognizing that a focus on ethnicity alone will not be enough to address the changes that are required, Jennie has been providing a social mobility lens to the organization’s initiatives. The ‘Privilege Walk’ exercises she organized raised awareness of the different levels of privilege existing within the firm’s own teams, whilst the community engagement workstreams aimed to role model within schools and charities in order to tackle challenges to social mobility.

Along with launching a reciprocal mentoring scheme for Senior Leaders to learn from others, Jennie also established open conversations on the increase in anti-Asian racism to raise awareness and ensuring that the mental health implications were considered as part of return-to-office initiatives. As a Director on the Board of Women in Banking & Finance, Jennie brings ethnicity into focus within the gender conversation.

Higor Borges Lima, Intellectual Property Associate, Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados

Higor has been part of Mattos Filho's racial diversity initiative from its onset. As one of the few ethnically diverse employees at the Sao Paulo office when the firm started its efforts to address the issue, he was invited to participate in discussions that led to the formalization of the company's racial diversity internal group SOMA.

Since then, Higor has been an active member collaborating in planning and executing D&I activities. SOMA's Talentos Trainee Program was launched in 2019 to promote racial diversity at career-entry level talent attraction.

In addition, SOMA has promoted numerous internal and external initiatives on debating and exposing racial issues within the corporate legal scenario. These include, among others, a series of presentations for internal and external parties, race-related debates with prominent public figures, participation in media coverage, and production of materials related to race and the workplace.

Manuel Antonio Soler Suarez, Marketing & Strategy Project Manager, University College Dublin UCD

Antonio Soler, from Bogota, Colombia, is a first-generation high-school graduate. As a senior business development and strategy project manager at University College Dublin, he places equality, diversity, and Iinclusion at the core of his work.

Antonio is part of both the DEI Network and the Multi-Cultural Employee Network at UCD. He is working at the School level on strategies to highlight the impact of both networks and how they can further enhance and promote an environment for DEI in the higher-education spectrum.

Antonio is currently undertaking an MBA at Johns Hopkins University, where he is Carey Business Fellow and a ROMBA Fellow for the Reaching Out MBA. The ROMBA LGBT+ Fellowship is a joint effort between prominent business school programs and Reaching Out to develop LGBT+ and active advocates in business. Antonio represents the best and brightest in future LGBT+ and ethnic minority business leaders.

James Dornor, Electronics Support Engineer - Heritage, Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team

James is one of 25 volunteers’ part of Accelerate 25, the D&I forum within Mercedes AMG F1 Team. His role includes regular meetings to provide his input on specific areas of D&I, suggestions for future focus areas, internal events. He is a member and mentor at the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE).

In his capacity James co-hosted "Make Engineering Hot" in partnership with Mercedes F1 & AFBE. He shared his journey and advised on how to stand out from the crowd. Throughout the year James has assisted students in the STEMettes program, involving aged 16-20yrs writing CV’s. He was interviewed by BBC Radio5LiveF1 for Black History Month, where he discussed the state of diversity in F1 and how the team plans to move forward. James has been leading the process in organising the first motorsport panel with AFBE that’ll include crucial figures of under-represented groups who are the change makers of their time. In his spare time, he volunteers by giving inspiring talks to the next generation that anything is possible.

Tiffany Woo, Executive Director, R&D Operations Business Development, Organon Pharmaceutical / Chemical

Tiffany Woo is Executive Director, R&D Operations Business Development and Global Lead, Asia Pacific Association, Employee Resource Group of Organon, a spinoff of Merck dedicated to Women’s Health. She has worked and published in clinical research for over 20 years and has experience in many therapeutic areas in global clinical and medical affairs lead roles. She is an alumna of both Columbia University and NYU where she received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Biology and Electrophysiology. She is a 2021 Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award recipient from the Asian American Business Development Center and received the 2021 Women of Color in Pharma Trailblazer Award.

Tiffany is also the Vice President of the Columbia University Alumni Club of NY and Chair of the Health and Wellness Committee, Advisor for the Asian Columbia Alumni Association and is an active ally for Asian alumni and colleagues.

Ross Charles, Transformation Project Manager, CityFIbre

Renowned as a Change Maker and Positive Disruptor, Ross dedicates much of his time in and out of work actively removing barriers for ethnically diverse people across the UK and Internationally. His work includes being an active member of D&I Networks where he drives change at strategic level to ensure that minority ethnic colleagues are not being left behind.

Some of the work he has been involved in includes the establishment of a recruitment assurance panel to ensure that internal and external applicants could be assured of a robust and fair interview process, irrespective of their individual characteristics and creation and delivery of the RealTalk mentoring programme for young people and adults.

He also engages in community and charitable work, motivational speaking, mentoring and advocacy. Ross creates safe spaces where employees can speak freely about issues that are usually taboo to encourage open discussion and learning opportunities.

Yaa Ofori-Ansah, Senior Strategy and Policy Advisor, and Founder, Talking Drums Civil Service

Yaa is the Founder of Talking Drums, a sustainable-focused travel platform and marketplace, that aims to promote positive impact and diversity in travel.

From 2018 to 2021, she was a committee member, and later Deputy Chair, of a global Bank's Black Professionals Forum (BPF). Yaa was responsible for leading career development and community engagement initiatives, and co-leading BPF's flagship RISE mentoring program, equipping Black and Ethnic Minority sixth-form students with skills and confidence to achieve their goals; and nurturing talent from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds.

Under her co-leadership, the program expanded its annual intake by 250%, included work experience at the bank's headquarters, a dedicated Insight Programme for Year 10 students, and increased partnerships. Yaa was also part of the Bank's Race at Work Taskforce, helping to embed its commitments to enable tangible and long-term changes across the organisation.

Since 2021, she has been a Business Ambassador for her department's BAME Network, responsible for aligning the ambitions of the network and wider department with the support required for businesses. In 2021, Yaa won the WeAreTheCity Rising Star Award for Banking and Capital Markets.

Francis Carrero-Green, Sr. Talent Manager, VMLY&R

Throughout her career, Francis has been passionate about supporting the growth of talent in the marketing industry. Most recently, she co-created WPP’s NextGen Leaders Series, a global learning experience offering opportunities for early talent to learn, grow and connect with industry experts. The series included 846 international participants, with 55% representing talent from historically underrepresented communities.

In 2021, she designed an e-course for the series and diversified the panelists, giving exposure to internal talent and reaching over 1500 global participants. Francis also managed WPP's Elevate Sponsorship & Leadership Program for Black Women. She supported the U.S. cohort and the program’s expansion into Canada, resulting in more than 50% of participants gaining internal career mobility, client exposure, and promotions.

Francis is now a Sr. Talent Manager at VMLY&R - a WPP agency - where she creates learning experiences to enhance the development of talent with a focus on DE&I and belonging.

Nurlin Salleh, Partner, Senior Consulting Team, Boston Consulting Group

Nurlin is a Partner in the Senior Consulting Team at Boston Consulting Group, the South-East Asia Diversity & Inclusion team, and is involved in driving the women's agenda within South East Asia. Efforts include organizing fireside chats with senior lead women to increase the women's conversation within the firm. She formerly led Women@BCG efforts for the Malaysian office, which include organizing activities and events to encourage continued women's participation in the workforce.

Nurlin also organized Women@BCG TED talk screening events in Malaysia with participants from within BCG and externally. The event focused on networking and discussions about critical women-related topics. In addition to this, she regularly mentors younger BCG women as they progress within BCG and has been the author of multiple articles related to women in the workforce such as "Tackling the mental load of women's second job" published in 2019 on The Edge Markets and "Inspiring women at the heart of developing a nation" issued in 2020 on The Edge.

Kevin Ampeh, Senior Consultant, IQVIA

Kevin founded and globally leads the Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Heritage ERG at IQVIA which aims to create a supportive and collaborative community for IQVIA employees who represent racial, ethnic, and cultural minorities across the globe. He has launched chapters across the UK, North America and Latin America with 500+ members.

Additionally, the ERG executed over 29 events/initiatives over the course of 2021 including an employee mentoring program with teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds, internal/external speaker events, initiatives on topics such as career progression, diversity in the corporate world, skills development, diversity in pharma, networking, community outreach and mock interviews for university students from diverse backgrounds. The REACH ERG has provided a forum for exchanging ideas, opportunities for mentoring and professional development, which fosters the diverse thinking required for innovation.

As a result of Kevin's contributions to Diversity and Inclusion, he was rewarded with an IQVIA Impact award in 2021.

Patricia Soares, Corporate Education Manager, Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados

As Organizational Development Manager at Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados, Patrícia is an active participant in the firm's diversity and inclusion groups. She has been responsible for the career development of the firm's Black Professionals who participate in the Soma Talentos initiative and preparing the leadership team to work with future diverse employees.

With the corporate development team, her primary responsibility is to understand the needs of diverse talent, design pillars of action, and ensure the effectiveness of these actions. Furthermore, Patrícia does individual monitoring and informal mentoring with Mattos Filho's Black employees. This initiative brings essential insights related to the professionals' sense of belonging.