Julia Streets is a champion of fintech and entrepreneurship, innovation, diversity and inclusion. In 2007, she founded Streets Consulting, the business development, marketing and communications consultancy. She and her team advise a wide range of international firms in the field of fintech, capital markets, investment management and payments innovation, as well as specialist offerings including NFTs, digital assets, tokenisation, blockchain, artificial intelligence and more.

Prior to becoming a founder & CEO, Julia was global head of communications at NYSE Technologies, serving on the Executive Committee and European head of marketing and sales development at Instinet Europe. She was head of eCommerce for a City PR agency throughout the dotcom boom and over the past 30+ years she has advised hundreds of startups, scaleups and global banks and financial institutions. A certified transformation leadership coach, she works with senior executives to help them build and lead high performing teams, develop proud and solid growth-minded cultures and outperform as enlightened leaders. Julia is the host of ‘DiverCity Podcast’ talking about diversity, equity and inclusion in financial services. Now in its 15th series, DiverCity Podcast has listeners in >50 countries and is ranked one of the world’s top DE&I podcasts. She is also the host of CityAM’s ESG show "Impact AM Live", Shell’s Energy Podcast and host of ‘Metaverse: What matters?”, recorded in the metaverse, available on You Tube. She is an advisor, mentor and investor and is called upon to chair many of the world’s leading conferences drawing not only on her industry experience, but also on her skills as a speaker, host and sell-out stand up comedian.

Vanessa is one of the UK’s most well-networked women and has provided keynotes on a variety of career related topics for over 500 companies worldwide. Vanessa is also one of the UK’s most prominent figures in gender equality and often provides guidance and consultancy to both government and corporate organisations who are seeking to attract, develop and retain their female talent. Vanessa was awarded her OBE in June 2018 for her services to women and the economy.

At the height of her successful 25 year career in the financial services, Vanessa launched the award winning WeAreTheCity.com in 2008 as a vehicle to help women progress in their careers. WeAreTheCity.com now has over 120,000 members and provides resources/conferences/awards/jobs to women across the UK. Vanessa is the also the -founder of UK wide diversity forum Gender Networks. Gender Networks (formerly The Network of Networks) brings together diversity leaders from 85 cross sector firms to share best practice on a quarterly basis.

Vanessa is also the author of the book “Heels of Steel: Surviving and Thriving in the Corporate World” which tracks her career and shares 13 chapters of tips to succeed in the workplace.

Over the past twelve years, she has accumulated over 20 industry awards, including Women in Banking & Finance’s Champion for Women, Financial News Top 100 Rising Star, The International Alliance for Women Top 100 Women globally & Brummells Top 30 London Entrepreneurs. In 2015 Vanessa was in GQ UK’s Top 100 Connected Women and the Evening Standard’s 1000 Most Influential Londoners.

Vanessa is a regular guest on TV and radio and also sits on the Government Digital Services advisory board.Vanessa is also the Pearly Queen of The City of London, a tradition that has been in her family for over 100 years.

She is an avid charity worker and sits on the board for Cancer Research UK as one of its Women of Influence. Vanessa also sits on the Centenary Action Group founded by Dr Helen Pankhurst CBE.

Lopa works as the Cybersecurity Leader for the EY UK team. Under her tenure, the team has gone from strength to strength and has enjoyed great success over the past two years.Lopa is also the UK&I Women in Technology partner sponsor, supporting women to get involved in STEM and forge exciting careers in digital and cyber.

After beginning her career in the UK Civil Service, Lopa gravitated towards consulting to enjoy greater variety, and to make an impact across multiple agencies and departments within the government and public sector. Lopa’s primary sectors of interest are government and infrastructure, and energy and resource management.

Kanika is the EY EMEIA Financial Services Cybersecurity leader. With over 20 years of experience in technology and cybersecurity, she works closely with regulators to provide thought leadership and market insights to the industry. She has significant experience in working with boards and executive committees, bringing deep experience in understanding evolving cybersecurity expectations. She also leads the EY EMEIA Financial Services third-party risk management (TPRM) practice.

Kanika is the UK financial services consulting diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DE&I) leader at EY and sponsors several women in technology initiatives across the industry. She also works as a trustee with local charities which target the causes of inequality and help people from diverse backgrounds develop their skills and confidence to enhance their employability.

Janet leads the Business activity for London & Partners promoting London as a hub of diversity and a great place to innovate, invest and scale a business. She is passionate about supporting businesses to connect with international markets and has a particular focus on driving economic growth that is sustainable, resilient and inclusive.  Janet has led several Female Founder Trade Missions to Silicon Valley and continues to champion underrepresented entrepreneurs.  She was listed in the Computer Weekly Hall of Fame in 2023 as one of the most influential women in tech and named as one of the UK's 50 Leading Lights in Kindness in Leadership in 2019.  She was previously a diplomat for the UK Government, serving in several posts including San Francisco.  In June 2022 Janet was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s platinum Jubilee honours for services to the economy

Vanessa is one of the UK’s most well-networked women and has provided keynotes on a variety of career related topics for over 500 companies worldwide. Vanessa is also one of the UK’s most prominent figures in gender equality and often provides guidance and consultancy to both government and corporate organisations who are seeking to attract, develop and retain their female talent. Vanessa was awarded her OBE in June 2018 for her services to women and the economy.

At the height of her successful 25 year career in the financial services, Vanessa launched the award winning WeAreTheCity.com in 2008 as a vehicle to help women progress in their careers. WeAreTheCity.com now has over 120,000 members and provides resources/conferences/awards/jobs to women across the UK. Vanessa is the also the -founder of UK wide diversity forum Gender Networks. Gender Networks (formerly The Network of Networks) brings together diversity leaders from 85 cross sector firms to share best practice on a quarterly basis.

Vanessa is also the author of the book “Heels of Steel: Surviving and Thriving in the Corporate World” which tracks her career and shares 13 chapters of tips to succeed in the workplace.

Over the past twelve years, she has accumulated over 20 industry awards, including Women in Banking & Finance’s Champion for Women, Financial News Top 100 Rising Star, The International Alliance for Women Top 100 Women globally & Brummells Top 30 London Entrepreneurs. In 2015 Vanessa was in GQ UK’s Top 100 Connected Women and the Evening Standard’s 1000 Most Influential Londoners.

Vanessa is a regular guest on TV and radio and also sits on the Government Digital Services advisory board.Vanessa is also the Pearly Queen of The City of London, a tradition that has been in her family for over 100 years.

She is an avid charity worker and sits on the board for Cancer Research UK as one of its Women of Influence. Vanessa also sits on the Centenary Action Group founded by Dr Helen Pankhurst CBE.

Board Member at techUK and an experienced Non-Exec Director serving on the boards of plc businesses: RIghtmove PLC, Costain Group PLC, FDM Group PLC and privately held IFS Global Enterprise Software Solution. Hired as a business advisor & executive mentor - A change agent & leader in the digital & tech infrastructure space. Focused on shareholder value and passionate advocate for inclusionBuilding & accelerating the growth of businesses through sales excellence, diversity and optimising 'go to market 'channels. Spotting opportunities and gaps in the market for channel leverage and economies of scale. Speciality is in building teams which can operate under difficult market pressure or where high-paced growth is needed.

Mentoring & empowering teams, focusing on operational excellence, people selection and talent management. Unlocking the potential of individuals through clear goal setting & coaching.

I believe that the UK can sustain its position as a magnet for digital investment and for tech talent. My ambition is for this country to seize its position as a digital nation of significance by leveraging its digital leadership position and growing a diverse and inclusive skills base. Companies are more successful & profitable if they have diversity at the heart of their businesses. Let's inspire kids in to digital, have more young women joining and staying in the tech sector & encourage diversity in the boardroom. Digital nations thrive where there is digital adoption everywhere.

Most Influential Woman in IT 2015 http://www.computerweekly.com/video/Most-influential-woman-in-UK-IT-2015-Jacqueline-de-Rojas

Debretts 500 People of Influence - Digital: 2016: www.debretts.com/people-influence/debretts-500-2016/digital/jacqueline-de-rojas@

Computerweekly Hall of Fame 2016 http://bit.ly/1WHUMGM

Europe's 50 most inspiring female business leaders across Europe http://www.inspiringfifty.com/inspiring-fifty-europe-2017/

Included in World’s 100 most influential people in digital government 2019: Woman of the Year awarded by Women in IT Excellence 2019 |2020 Asian Tech Pioneer | Named in 2021 Connected Britain’s Top 100 Influencers and Stroeous Award Winner: Global Positive Impact Leader of the Year 2021.

Awarded a CBE for services to technology in international trade in the Queen's New Year Honour's list 2018.

Helen Needham is a Managing Principal within the Data Practice at Capco, with 20 years experience of helping clients in financial services to improve data governance, reduce costs, streamline processes and gain new insights. Diagnosed as autistic in 2017, Helen has experience the difference that the right environment, understanding and support can have. A change which has enabled Helen to overcome many challenges which had been holding her back, to becoming a recognised leader at Capco. As the Global Ability and Neurodiversity Network lead, Helen is part of a team working to bring about changes to reduce barriers faced by people with impairments.

Helen is also a trustee of Autism Forward which provides funding for mentoring autistic job seekers, and founded Me.Decoded as a platform for sharing neurodivergent stories and insights.

Julia Streets is a champion of fintech and entrepreneurship, innovation, diversity and inclusion. In 2007, she founded Streets Consulting, the business development, marketing and communications consultancy. She and her team advise a wide range of international firms in the field of fintech, capital markets, investment management and payments innovation, as well as specialist offerings including NFTs, digital assets, tokenisation, blockchain, artificial intelligence and more.

Prior to becoming a founder & CEO, Julia was global head of communications at NYSE Technologies, serving on the Executive Committee and European head of marketing and sales development at Instinet Europe. She was head of eCommerce for a City PR agency throughout the dotcom boom and over the past 30+ years she has advised hundreds of startups, scaleups and global banks and financial institutions. A certified transformation leadership coach, she works with senior executives to help them build and lead high performing teams, develop proud and solid growth-minded cultures and outperform as enlightened leaders. Julia is the host of ‘DiverCity Podcast’ talking about diversity, equity and inclusion in financial services. Now in its 15th series, DiverCity Podcast has listeners in >50 countries and is ranked one of the world’s top DE&I podcasts. She is also the host of CityAM’s ESG show "Impact AM Live", Shell’s Energy Podcast and host of ‘Metaverse: What matters?”, recorded in the metaverse, available on You Tube. She is an advisor, mentor and investor and is called upon to chair many of the world’s leading conferences drawing not only on her industry experience, but also on her skills as a speaker, host and sell-out stand up comedian.

Diane Lightfoot is CEO of Business Disability Forum, a not-for-profit membership organisation that supports businesses to recruit and retain disabled employees and to serve disabled customers. Business Disability Forum’s c.550 members employ over 20% of the UK workforce and range from FTSE 100 companies and central Government departments to technology, transport and construction companies, retailers, higher education providers and public services bodies.

Diane is co-Chair of the Disability Charities Consortium, a group of nine major national disability charities in the UK. She is Vice chair of the Disability Confident Business Leaders’ Group and also sits on the Institute of Coding’s Diversity & Inclusion Board, the Advisory board for the Centre for Neurodiversity Research at Work and the Steering Group for the Global Business Disability Network, hosted by the International Labor Organization. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is part of the Steering Group for the RSA Inclusive Work, Disability and Ageing Network. She is passionate about the role that good work has to play in transforming people’s lives.

An experienced Leader with a career predominately in the Technology sector – Sarah focuses on driving organizational change and performance through the lenses of Talent, Leadership, Inclusion & Diversity and Organizational Culture.

Currently Sarah leads the teams focused on Learning, Leadership, Talent, Culture, Performance and I&D in BT Digital. Previously Sarah spent nearly 8 years at Salesforce; leading the team designing and delivery learning pathways for Global Senior Executives and supporting the Talent Development agenda across EMEA & the UKI. Prior to Salesforce, Sarah was a Talent Development Manager at CA Technologies.

Sarah is a passionate speaker, a lifelong learner and focuses on self-development through supporting and learning alongside those around her.

At home, Sarah and her wife are proud parents to 4 children – she enjoys travelling (always a joy with 4 kids!), cooking and spending time making memories with family and friends.

Alesha is Head of Policy, Research and Advocacy at the Fawcett Society, where she campaigns for gender equality. Prior to joining Fawcett, she worked in the Civil Service for 15 years in economic, regulatory and trade policy, most recently as Deputy Director for Competition Policy. In 2017, Alesha was awarded an MBE for services to the Digital Single Market. Alesha has a BSc in Economics, Politics and International Studies from the University of Warwick, and is an Associate Trustee at the Resolution Foundation.

A proven and experienced business leader whom leverages the power of technology to support business transformation Rashada holds 20years technology sales experience and has a record of accomplishment in delivering growth, supporting innovation and delivering value to global organisations as well as being a keen advocate for inclusion, diversity and equity practice.

In a professional capacity Rashada is an Enterprise Technologist at Amazon Web Services where she seeks to take enterprise Customers on a digital transformation to the cloud. Prior to joining AWS, she held senior roles at organisations including Vodafone Global Enterprise and Cisco.

Whilst at Cisco Rashada, was the only Black female on the highly competitive Sales Academy Programme which spanned across Europe. This experience led her to believe more needed to be done to bring more diverse and underrepresented talent into the organisation and wider industry.

Rashada went on to co-found and launch the award winning Your Future, Your Ambition (YFYA) initiative in 2012 as a vehicle to help organisations and students connect and bridge the diversity gap in STEM. Today Rashada provides advisory expertise to a range of other initiatives including UKBlackTech, Women@AWS UK and the AWS BLACK Council. Rashada presently sits on the board of Trustees at Engineering UK, the African Gifted Foundation and Off TheCurriculum charities.

In acknowledgement for her work in the Technology industry, Rashada Harry has been listed in the Financial Times UK’s 100 Most Influential BAME Leaders in Technology, WeAreTheCity Tech100 Women, EMpower’s Top 100 Ethnic Minority Executive List as well as being acknowledged by ComputerWeekly as a top Female leader in Tech 2023.

In recognition of contributions to the industry and encouraging more diversity in STEM, Rashada was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from her alma mater London Metropolitan University in 2019 and graduated alongside the Schoolof Computing and Digital Media.

Binna is particularly interested in the study of gender bias and unconscious bias in organisations. He is the author of three critically acclaimed books on these subjects – 'The Invention of Difference: The story of gender bias at work', 'The Value of Difference: Eliminating bias in organisations, and 'Racism at Work: The Danger of Indifference'.

His most recent book, 'Free to Soar: Race & Wellbeing in Organisations', which he edited, explores the relationship between race and wellbeing in the workplace.

He is also the co-author of several other management books. One of which, 'Managing the Mosaic', won a Special Commendation at the 1994 Management Book of the Year Awards.

Binna was the first Chair of the Standing Committee for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a member of Sir Robin Butler's Panel of Enquiry into Equal Opportunities in the Senior Civil Service. He has also been a member of the Board of Trustees of the BPS, and in 2002 was elected as Chair of the Division of Occupational Psychology. Additionally, in January 2004, Binna was invited to join the UK Government's National Employment Panel and appointed Chair of the Minority Ethnic Group.

He is currently a visiting Professor at Leeds University Business School and at Aston University Business School. In 2012 the University of Aston awarded him an Honorary DSc. Binna was awarded an OBE in 2008 for his services to Disadvantaged People and Diversity and he is also been on the Asian Power List since 2020.

Julia Streets is a champion of fintech and entrepreneurship, innovation, diversity and inclusion. In 2007, she founded Streets Consulting, the business development, marketing and communications consultancy. She and her team advise a wide range of international firms in the field of fintech, capital markets, investment management and payments innovation, as well as specialist offerings including NFTs, digital assets, tokenisation, blockchain, artificial intelligence and more.

Prior to becoming a founder & CEO, Julia was global head of communications at NYSE Technologies, serving on the Executive Committee and European head of marketing and sales development at Instinet Europe. She was head of eCommerce for a City PR agency throughout the dotcom boom and over the past 30+ years she has advised hundreds of startups, scaleups and global banks and financial institutions. A certified transformation leadership coach, she works with senior executives to help them build and lead high performing teams, develop proud and solid growth-minded cultures and outperform as enlightened leaders. Julia is the host of ‘DiverCity Podcast’ talking about diversity, equity and inclusion in financial services. Now in its 15th series, DiverCity Podcast has listeners in >50 countries and is ranked one of the world’s top DE&I podcasts. She is also the host of CityAM’s ESG show "Impact AM Live", Shell’s Energy Podcast and host of ‘Metaverse: What matters?”, recorded in the metaverse, available on You Tube. She is an advisor, mentor and investor and is called upon to chair many of the world’s leading conferences drawing not only on her industry experience, but also on her skills as a speaker, host and sell-out stand up comedian.

Tunji is a Senior Director at LinkedIn leading the UK and Ireland Enterprise Solutions Group. He has previously held senior leadership positions at PwC and Cisco.

He currently serves as a Senior Independent Director at England Athletics, a patron of the autism charity CASPA, trustee at the Personal Best Foundation and a BTEC Ambassador for Pearson.

Passionate about Diversity, the Arts, Science & Technology, Sport and Social Mobility, Tunji has previously resided on the councils of Grant Thornton, techUK and Teach First.

He mainly supports his passions through his Ilesha Charitable Trust, making impact and long-term donations to these causes.

Tunji was awarded an MBE in the Queen's 2018 New Year's Honours List for services to young people from ethnic minorities in Science & Technology.

Fred is Head of Digital Products for Simmons & Simmons Solutions Ltd – building online products and tools in the legal space. He previously worked in product development for a booking platform, as well as a consultant on digital builds for medtech companies. Outside of tech he has worked in Chinese art auctions and for a financial think tank.

Fred has a Masters from the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing as well as a Bachelors in Law from Reading University and Universiteit Maastricht in the Netherlands. He lived in China for four years and holds an HSK5 in Mandarin.

Jill is a change and Transformation Leader specialising in Life, Pensions, Wealth and GI.

Jill led a financial transformation for a UK insurer, delivering Oracle GL, Tax, Asset register.

She led a client transformation for COO, which provided a blueprint to design a full end to end programme.

Jill has experience in delivering L&P software implementation for insurers on a global scale.J

Jill has led on the delivery of several migration and platform simplification strategies within the insurance sector.

Binna is particularly interested in the study of gender bias and unconscious bias in organisations. He is the author of three critically acclaimed books on these subjects – 'The Invention of Difference: The story of gender bias at work', 'The Value of Difference: Eliminating bias in organisations, and 'Racism at Work: The Danger of Indifference'.

His most recent book, 'Free to Soar: Race & Wellbeing in Organisations', which he edited, explores the relationship between race and wellbeing in the workplace.

He is also the co-author of several other management books. One of which, 'Managing the Mosaic', won a Special Commendation at the 1994 Management Book of the Year Awards.

Binna was the first Chair of the Standing Committee for the Promotion of Equal Opportunities of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a member of Sir Robin Butler's Panel of Enquiry into Equal Opportunities in the Senior Civil Service. He has also been a member of the Board of Trustees of the BPS, and in 2002 was elected as Chair of the Division of Occupational Psychology. Additionally, in January 2004, Binna was invited to join the UK Government's National Employment Panel and appointed Chair of the Minority Ethnic Group.

He is currently a visiting Professor at Leeds University Business School and at Aston University Business School. In 2012 the University of Aston awarded him an Honorary DSc. Binna was awarded an OBE in 2008 for his services to Disadvantaged People and Diversity and he is also been on the Asian Power List since 2020.

The Rt Hon Michelle Donelan MP is the Secretary of State for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) which works to spur stronger growth, create better jobs and unlock bold new discoveries. She returned to this role in July this year after a three-month maternity leave. Michelle was previously appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 6 September 2022 to 7 February 2023 having served in the Department for Education for almost three years - 10 months of which she attended cabinet as the Minister for Higher and Further Education.

Pauline Miller is Chief Equity Officer, EMEA for global advertising agency Dentsu. In this position Pauline is responsible for shaping and leading the DEI strategy and execution across the region, reports to the CEO and is a member of the EMEA Executive committee.

During her previous tenure at Lloyd’s of London, Pauline held the position Head of Culture, with responsibilities spanning organisational culture, diversity and inclusion, employee engagement and talent development. Notable achievements at Lloyd’s includes leading Dive In, the festival for Diversity and Inclusion across the insurance sector globally and spearheading the cultural transformation of the Lloyd’s market, addressing issues such as lack of diverse representation, sexual harassment and bullying.

With more than two decades of experience holding a number of senior positions spanning talent, leadership development, organisational culture, employee development and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Pauline is highly regarded as a change agent and expert in her field. Prior to Lloyd’s, Pauline held a variety of positions at State Street, Barclays Wealth, Barclays Capital and Starcom Mediavest Group. Pauline is an active member of her local community and is passionate about supporting girls and young women at the early stages of their career serving as an active mentor and role model.

Pauline is an emeritus advisory board member for the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up organisation, a grass roots campaign focusing on empowering girl leaders to champion for gender equality as well as board advisor and trustee for the charity Romildamor, a women’s rights organisation. Pauline completed her MSc in Occupational and Business Psychology in 2020, with a research paper titled “The Missing Female CEO”.

With over 20 years’ experience working at strategic board level in Senior Transformation Director/COO roles across large corporate banking institutions and small FinTech start-ups, Gemma is highly accomplished in managing transformational agile change within complex, fast moving and cost constrained environments. She possesses advanced leadership, negotiation and interpersonal skills, and strongly believes a customer-centric, data driven approach is the foundation of any successful strategy.

She is passionate about making a quantifiable and positive difference in people’s lives. At work this means building a diverse, inclusive working environment based on high trust and high standards. Commercially focused with a growth mindset and a deep-rooted, win-win attitude, she’s known for being a positive disruptor; she purposefully challenges the status quo, fostering a culture of creativity and ideation to deliver innovative new solutions for both customer and colleague. Gemma’s transformational work was pivotal in winning NatWest Group Diverse Company of the Year at the 2022 National Diversity Awards and was also awarded the prestigious Tech Champion of the Year 2022 at the Tech Women 100 Awards for her work championing women in technology.

Julia Streets is a champion of fintech and entrepreneurship, innovation, diversity and inclusion. In 2007, she founded Streets Consulting, the business development, marketing and communications consultancy. She and her team advise a wide range of international firms in the field of fintech, capital markets, investment management and payments innovation, as well as specialist offerings including NFTs, digital assets, tokenisation, blockchain, artificial intelligence and more.

Prior to becoming a founder & CEO, Julia was global head of communications at NYSE Technologies, serving on the Executive Committee and European head of marketing and sales development at Instinet Europe. She was head of eCommerce for a City PR agency throughout the dotcom boom and over the past 30+ years she has advised hundreds of startups, scaleups and global banks and financial institutions. A certified transformation leadership coach, she works with senior executives to help them build and lead high performing teams, develop proud and solid growth-minded cultures and outperform as enlightened leaders. Julia is the host of ‘DiverCity Podcast’ talking about diversity, equity and inclusion in financial services. Now in its 15th series, DiverCity Podcast has listeners in >50 countries and is ranked one of the world’s top DE&I podcasts. She is also the host of CityAM’s ESG show "Impact AM Live", Shell’s Energy Podcast and host of ‘Metaverse: What matters?”, recorded in the metaverse, available on You Tube. She is an advisor, mentor and investor and is called upon to chair many of the world’s leading conferences drawing not only on her industry experience, but also on her skills as a speaker, host and sell-out stand up comedian.

Jayne Howson is Senior Vice President of Global Sales Enablement at Salesforce spearheading seller and customer success development globally. Coming into her SVP role after a long tenure as AVP for Salesforce Cloud Sales in the UK, Jayne is passionate about unlocking talent, democratizing access to opportunities, and making the workplace a playground for growth. Jayne is a devoted parent to two amazing girls with her better half, Chris, and a grateful cancer survivor. During downtime, she indulges in a spot of retail therapy, some delightfully questionable TV, and a slew of leadership podcasts.

Nick Atkinson is the Chief Officer of Technology and Operations for Visa in Europe and is also responsible for the development of Visa’s next generation processing platform, Open VisaNet. Nick is a technology leader with over twenty-five years of industry experience and a background in architecture, solution delivery and consultancy with IBM and Accenture.

Responsible for leading Pega’s business in the UKI & Benelux regions. A proven strategist and Innovator she brings a deep understanding of technology and a specialist in the area of data driven transformation and AI. Passionate about customer engagement and helping clients evolve their journey towards the autonomous enterprise.

Over a 25 year career in the software industry Joanne is a trusted advisor in the areas of digital strategy and transformation to C-Level executives in the world’s largest brands. She has been advising and enabling customers to transform their businesses to unlock the value and to become truly customer centric. Having worked across Industries Joanne brings a unique perspective on the challenges that such transformations bring and the solutions to overcome them.

Prior to joining Pega, Joanne led go to market teams for Software AG, Opentext and SAS.

Sharon is responsible for the Technology People Strategy in Sky, the colleague experience, and the overarching Tech D&I agenda. She is passionate about inclusion, curious about people, and champions social mobility.

Sharon is currently a Delegate to the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Rob is the Chief Business Officer for Investment Bank & NCL Technology and is a member of the IB and NCL Tech Management Forum. Rob has been at UBS since 2007 where he has held a number of roles in IB Operations and Group Operations covering service delivery, change and strategy. Rob is passionate about people development and culture and sponsors the UK Black Employee talent management program.

After a diverse career in corporate finance, local government and elite sports, he launched Essentialise in 2020 with a desire to bring a focus on inclusive and accesible wellbeing, which has featured on this years Startups 100 Index. He is the Director of Male Allies UK and is on the board of CMI Women.

Lee is driven by his own journey, learning to walk again after illness in 2014, and the mental impact of scaling a videogame company across Europe in his twenties. He has been named as a Future Leader in Science by the National Academy of Sciences, and was inducted into the Black Cultural Archives for services to Business and Health in 2022.

He has been recognised for his work on allyship and equity by the Rising Stars, Marie Claire and the Northern Power Women Awards, and was featured at the Bloomberg Global Equality Summit. He is the author of the Millennials Guide to Wellness, is a trustee for Age Concern, and a global speaker on male allyship and health inequalities.

Manisha Mehrotra (she/her) is the head of diversity and inclusion (D&I) for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Bloomberg. Manisha leads the D&I strategy across 38 countries and delivers solutions that drive representation, engagement and cultural change across the organization, which align to the global D&I strategy.

Manisha and her team partner with clients and Bloomberg teams to integrate D&I practices into business and workplace standards and improve the representation and advancement of ethnic talent.

Prior to joining Bloomberg, Manisha started her career in communications and marketing at New York Life before moving to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Manisha is on the Catalyst European Advisory Board and Disability:IN Board of Directors, working to advance innovation that brings inclusion to the forefront of business and community.

Julia Streets is a champion of fintech and entrepreneurship, innovation, diversity and inclusion. In 2007, she founded Streets Consulting, the business development, marketing and communications consultancy. She and her team advise a wide range of international firms in the field of fintech, capital markets, investment management and payments innovation, as well as specialist offerings including NFTs, digital assets, tokenisation, blockchain, artificial intelligence and more.

Prior to becoming a founder & CEO, Julia was global head of communications at NYSE Technologies, serving on the Executive Committee and European head of marketing and sales development at Instinet Europe. She was head of eCommerce for a City PR agency throughout the dotcom boom and over the past 30+ years she has advised hundreds of startups, scaleups and global banks and financial institutions. A certified transformation leadership coach, she works with senior executives to help them build and lead high performing teams, develop proud and solid growth-minded cultures and outperform as enlightened leaders. Julia is the host of ‘DiverCity Podcast’ talking about diversity, equity and inclusion in financial services. Now in its 15th series, DiverCity Podcast has listeners in >50 countries and is ranked one of the world’s top DE&I podcasts. She is also the host of CityAM’s ESG show "Impact AM Live", Shell’s Energy Podcast and host of ‘Metaverse: What matters?”, recorded in the metaverse, available on You Tube. She is an advisor, mentor and investor and is called upon to chair many of the world’s leading conferences drawing not only on her industry experience, but also on her skills as a speaker, host and sell-out stand up comedian.

Sandie is currently Technology Chief of Staff reporting to the Chief Information Officer. She is passionate about investing her time and energy in helping the Bank of England develop a highly skilled and motivated workforce, ensuring the right skills for now and the future. Sandie has worked for the Bank for 4.5 years and has spent most of her tenure in Service & Infrastructure accountable for protecting the Banks Critical National Infrastructure and key strategic projects.

She has over 26 years’ experience in Financial Services technology and previously held IT Services Management roles at Readers Digest, HSBC, Aviva Investors, MF Global and Thomson Reuters. She has consistently helped organisations evolve and adapt their technology offering, aligned to business goals.

Sandie is passionate about paying forward and recently trained as an executive coach specialising in mindfulness and transition. She loves people and technology in equal measure and believes in TEAM - Together Everybody Achieves More.

With regards to DE&I I am openly dyslexic and have lent my time experience and expertise to storytelling and sharing my strong view that your start does not have to determine your future.

Laura Atkinson has spent over 28 years in the IT Industry in a variety of Sales and Alliances roles, both as an individual contributor and as a manager. Laura runs the Alliances and Ecosystems business for EY in the UK, responsible for the creation and execution of a strong and impactful Alliances strategy. Laura joined EY from SAP, where she held the position of Chief Partner Officer, leading teams running the Partner ecosystem for SAP UK and Ireland.

Prior to joining SAP, she spent 15 years with Microsoft working in both Customer facing and Partner roles. Her experience includes managing large and complex accounts in Retail Banking and running sales teams focussing on smaller scale customers. She spent 7 years at Microsoft managing ISV, System Integrator and Channel Partnerships.

She is passionate not only about inclusive Leadership, but also about creating and sustaining successful Partnerships, and the value that they can deliver both to end Clients and to the Partners themselves. Laura strongly believes that effective ecosystems should, and can, deliver incredible customer outcomes.

Manisha Mehrotra (she/her) is the head of diversity and inclusion (D&I) for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Bloomberg. Manisha leads the D&I strategy across 38 countries and delivers solutions that drive representation, engagement and cultural change across the organization, which align to the global D&I strategy.

Manisha and her team partner with clients and Bloomberg teams to integrate D&I practices into business and workplace standards and improve the representation and advancement of ethnic talent.

Prior to joining Bloomberg, Manisha started her career in communications and marketing at New York Life before moving to the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Manisha is on the Catalyst European Advisory Board and Disability:IN Board of Directors, working to advance innovation that brings inclusion to the forefront of business and community.

Lopa works as the Cybersecurity Leader for the EY UK team. Under her tenure, the team has gone from strength to strength and has enjoyed great success over the past two years.Lopa is also the UK&I Women in Technology partner sponsor, supporting women to get involved in STEM and forge exciting careers in digital and cyber.

After beginning her career in the UK Civil Service, Lopa gravitated towards consulting to enjoy greater variety, and to make an impact across multiple agencies and departments within the government and public sector. Lopa’s primary sectors of interest are government and infrastructure, and energy and resource management.

Saby Roy is the AI and Cloud partner leader at EY UK's Financial Services business. He is a leading expert in UK in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning and has more than 22 years of experience in building complex expert systems for highly regulated industry domains. Saby is the AI advisor to the Chair of Robotic Surgery at Kings College, London, and has publications on Machine Learning and AI in top scientific journals like the EAU, quoted by Financial Times on AI and a presenter at leading industry platforms like CogX.

Peddanagari is the UK Financial Services Technology Consulting Leader. He has significant experience in helping Financial Services clients to transform their businesses through the implementation of major technology-enabled change programs, with wide ranging expertise of working with Financial Services and Private Equity clients specialising in digital transformation, platform driven business model creation and IPO.

Oana Beattie is a Director in the EY Data and Analytics practice and leads data and digital transformation for the Financial Services sector in the UK. Oana is deeply passionate about leveraging data, AI, technology and human ingenuity to enable clients unlock value, make a positive impact on society and create a better working world. Over the last 20 years Oana has worked with some of the biggest FS brands in the UK Insurance and Banking sectors driving business value through data, AI and innovation.

Kanika is the EY EMEIA Financial Services Cybersecurity leader. With over 20 years of experience in technology and cybersecurity, she works closely with regulators to provide thought leadership and market insights to the industry. She has significant experience in working with boards and executive committees, bringing deep experience in understanding evolving cybersecurity expectations. She also leads the EY EMEIA Financial Services third-party risk management (TPRM) practice.

Kanika is the UK financial services consulting diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DE&I) leader at EY and sponsors several women in technology initiatives across the industry. She also works as a trustee with local charities which target the causes of inequality and help people from diverse backgrounds develop their skills and confidence to enhance their employability.

Tori is EY’s GenAI Enablement Leader in UK & Ireland, previously the lead for EY’s UK&I Neuro-Diverse Centre of Excellence (NCoE) and the co-chair of EY’s Women in Tech Community. With 20+ years of experience in technology at EY, leading on technology delivery, strategy and investment decisions, partnering with our EY Tech teams, Alliance Partners and suppliers to deliver innovative technologies to our people. Now the focus is on enabling our business to deliver on the opportunities of AI and especially GenAI.

Tori brings a unique insight into inclusivity challenges and the value in creating inclusive environments, the benefits to businesses of an inclusive environment, and learnings from EY’s approach to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) and their NCoEs.

Carolyn is a change management professional with over 24+ years of experience, Carolyn has worked in Operations and Technology, leading large scale multi-disciplinary Fraud, Security and Technology teams. Prior to joining Barclays, Carolyn led a number of multi-year, multi-million pound transformative initiatives at Bank of America and Experian. Carolyn has been externally recognised at Cyber Security Awards and Tech Women 100 Awards.

During her time at Barclays Carolyn has:

• Mobilised Barclays first ever Group Technology Employee Value Proposition to deliver positive change for our 24k Technology colleagues globally, and help better position Barclays Technology as an employer of choice.
• Led Global Technology Infrastructure Services (GTIS) Portfolio, Property, Risk and Control teams, and Global Return to Office Technology enablement, ensuring our premises were fully equipped.
• Architected and executed the 3 year Barclays Security Programme (BSP), a Barclays Bank PLC board commitment and the most complex Group-wide security investment in recent Barclays history.Carolyn is the Accountable Executive for the Technology Pioneer Programme and the Radbroke Colleague Council.

Anjali is a Graduate Technology Analyst. She is a member of the Chief Technology Office, Architecture, Practices and Governance Team. Anjali’s role includes project management across Transformation and Change within the Technology Curriculum and Architecture strategies.

Anjali’s wider responsibilities include being the co-chair of the Graduate, Apprentice, Intern Network, holding a leadership position on the Multicultural and Faith Employee Resource Group and being actively involved in the North West Gender Network and Women in Tech EMEA Attract pillar.

Anjali holds a 1st Class BSc Hons Degree in Accountancy from Edge Hill University and is a proud winner of a WeAreTheCity Rising Star Award in Diversity 2023.

Rea is an experienced professional who joined Barclays in May 2023 as a Director with the Threat Intelligence team. Her role revolves around proactive development of intelligence capabilities through collection, coordination and investigation of diverse intelligence sources. With an intelligence career spanning 13 years to date, Rea has honed her expertise in establishing versatile cyber intelligence teams across various sectors, including finance and telecommunications. Her journey into the civilian workforce commenced in 2017, following her tenure with the Royal Navy. In 2021, Rea’s commitment to championing the cause of women in cybersecurity and supporting individuals transitioning from military service earned her recognition in the UK's top 20 “Most Inspiring Women In Cyber”.

Rea’s academic background includes a graduate degree in Intelligence and Security. She has also obtained qualifications in both Cyber Threat Intelligence and Digital Forensics and continues to have a passion in researching and evolving new techniques within the Cyber Threat Intelligence domain.

Pascal is Global Head of FICC Application support (Run-The-Bank / RTB) in charge for the users and system support for Pricing, eTrading, Trade capture and Risk systems, covering the Credit, Rates, Foreign Exchange, Securitized Product and Fixed Income financing business lines, globally. Pascal has over 25y of experience in IT and 20+ years in the financial sector, leading diverse technology teams and projects, from development to support organization.

Pascal holds a PhD in Aerodynamics and Fluid mechanics from University of Poitiers (France).

Pascal has always been a strong Ally for Women in Tech, starting with the first women early careers in RAD trading floor development teams in France. Along his leadership journey, Pascal has always been passionate to have as diverse teams as possible, encouraging women in tech to join the financial IT industry.

Sidney is responsible for the successful delivery of the end-to-end broker journey for our intermediary partners on the Barclays panel.

Sidney joined the Barclays Intermediary Mortgage business in 2015 and has worked tirelessly to transform the client journey for our Mortgage Broker partners. He has represented Barclays Intermediaries on several external panels, judging panels, conferences and has spoken on a number of occasions about the market and future trends at Mortgage Industry events.

Sidney is a multi-disciplined and innovative leader with over 20 years of financial services experience, holding positions in Customer Network, Regional and Head Office departments. He has an extremely strong and proven track record of delivering sustainable business growth and successfully leading motivated and talented teams through organisational change. His exposure to the many different facets of the organisation has ensured his primary customer and client focus is partnered by an extremely strong strategic awareness.

Sidney has previously led the Barclays Embrace Multi Cultural Network and now co–chairs The Black Professional ERG. He was a founder member of the Barclays Race at Work (RaW) Steerco and subsequently went to work on the strategic build of RaW for Barclays UK. His passion and desire to achieve equality and more importantly equity is only marginally superseded by his love for his beloved Man Utd FC!

Hena is a Director Strategic Development in Finance, having led a number of Transformational Programmes to deliver Big Data solutions, General Ledger migration and Target Operating Model design. Hena is a qualified accountant and has spent over 20 years traversing between Technology and Finance. Hena is a member of the Women in Technology committee, leading on various external partnerships as part of the Attract Pillar. The WiT network aim to empower women of all levels and backgrounds to achieve their career aspirations in technology. Hena has also led on various wellbeing initiatives and passionate about DE&I.

Vandhana Srinivas is the Chief Information Officer for Wholesale Lending working in Barclays Global Markets COO and Barclays Group Chief Data Architect. She is also the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion lead for Barclays Northampton Campus. She has held several leadership roles at Barclays, with her previous role being CIO for Consumer Risk, Finance, Treasury and Liquidity technology. Over the last seven years within Risk, Finance and Treasury (RFT) COO, she built a global delivery organization that transformed Consumer Risk, Finance, Treasury and Liquidity Models and Reporting infrastructure in partnership with Consumer Banking and IB Markets areas. She also led the transformation of the credit decisioning estate for Cards and Payments. Prior to joining Barclays in 2006, she was with Citibank. Her career spans Banking and Financial Services technology management and leadership for circa 30 years. She holds a Masters degree in Computer Applications and much of her early career was spent in programming and designing financial applications. Vandhana has successfully driven large scale business/ data / technology transformations that deliver business benefits whilst also reducing the Total Cost of Ownership for her technology area. She has the reputation of building high performing teams. Driving multi-year simplification and modernization agenda is her forte. Vandhana truly believes that the Barclays brand can get ahead of Fintech leaders in this era of ‘Digital Finance’ with astute planning and execution. She is a true ‘Inclusion Activist’, a Spectrum Ally and is committed to supporting our diverse colleagues to achieve their professional goals and sincerely enjoys coaching colleagues who reach out for timely career support/guidance. Vandhana resides with her husband Sri in Northampton. Their daughter visits her over the weekends. Home life is important to Vandhana for maintaining her work/life balance and she utilizes her spare time by keeping in touch with extended family, cooking, reading and listening to different genres of music.

I started my career at a Japanese Investment Management company where technology consisted of a telex and fax machine and a large AS400 sitting in the corner of the room that only the select few were allowed to operate. When I think back to this point in time the evolution in technology in this industry has been immense…

Early Opportunity…After a year or so of providing administrative support for the trading desk it was then that I first dipped into the world of Technology. One of the investment managers had been reading about a software package that would allow him to look at a historical data for financial futures and overlay system generated trading signals to enter and exit the market. The software and hardware arrived and the investment manager handed me the manual and asked me to help him (probably because he had no other option at the time!) He needed someone to translate his trading model ideas and it’s fair to say I was pretty daunted. He convinced an under-confident young girl at the time to ‘give it a go’ and was so supportive and patient. The language was not dissimilar to SQL and I spent countless hours looking up various commands in the manual and testing the models until the fund manager was satisfied with the results. The models were very successful and from this point on I was known as the Technology guru on the desk. Difficult but valuable experience on reflection…After a few years I moved on to ABN AMRO to rollout an electronic trading order book system and had my first encounter with disgruntled users that didn’t welcome this electronic solution being forced upon them. This was a very valuable time in learning how to deal with conflict and resistance to change with the backdrop of having to hit a hard deadline. I also saw for the first time project management in action and witnessed the discipline and framework in rolling out software.

The career break…After ABN I worked at Deutsche Bank as a business analyst in derivatives, I was fast approaching 30 and I was always envious of the people that had a gap year travelling and decided that I wanted to do something with my life before any marriage proposals and/or children came along which was very presumptuous given I was single at the time! Every year I would come back from the group skiing holiday and my school friend and I would fantasize about setting up a ski chalet business, so after years of talk I took the plunge and bought a chalet in the French Alps with a school friend. I moved to France and invested everything I had into this venture. This was both stressful and exhilarating but fundamentally instilled in me the confidence that I could run a business and to take risks. There was no better proof than doing this with my own life savings!

Putting your hand up for opportunities…I re-joined Deutsche Bank where I had an opportunity to be part of a start-up joint venture with a vendor to provide a settlement outsourcing solution. The start-up experience was fantastic and with a small technology team there was exposure to vendor management as well as in-house development and the opportunity to travel and represent the technology offering with prospective clients. After 2 years and my first child being born the start-up folded and I moved back to DB to take on a project management role for a global in-house risk reporting system before joining Barclays Capital in 2006. I’ve been at Barclays 17 years and had many varied roles that have kept me motivated and continually challenged and interested. I joined Barclays as a project manager in Core Frameworks then had my second child before taking on larger transformational programme management roles and heading up the Trade Capture & Risk Technology for Treasury. I then took on a Markets Post Trade Change Lead role followed by Leading the Regulatory Reporting Technology function. My current role is Head of Reference Data Technology and also am the Accountable Executive for Markets Resiliency which is a programme of work in response to the PRA to ensure the most critical applications are cyber resilient by Q1 2025Having 2 children and working full time continues to be a juggling act and at times I’ve had to dig deep to keep all plates spinning, but with flexible and supportive managers over the years I’ve been able put my hand up for new challenges. I thrive on getting to grips with a new business area and delivering transformational changes. There are some key principals that have served me well over the years;

Invest in building relationships. Never underestimate how important this is in the workplace

• Make time to help others
• Keep yourself challenged and don’t slip into a comfort zone
• Seek out interesting and high visibility projects where you truly believe in its merits
• Enjoy what you do, if you stop enjoying it it’s time to move on

Julie is the Director of Security Control Frameworks with responsibility for Barclay’s Group Cyber Security Standards and external security certifications, enabling the banks to achieve an industry recognised level of maturity in their security posture. Julie has over 13 years of experience in information security, across a number of sectors. Leading in the transformation of security services to customers and delivering cyber risk reduction across technology. As an Information Security Leader Julie is skilled in Cyber Risk Management and Security Assurance, she is also a strong advocate of authentic leadership.

Julie is passionate about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and has previously held a DEI lead role within her organisation. She has a focus on intersectionality , with the benefits that this brings to an organisation, as well as the adversity that can be faced as a result. She also actively supports youth and talent progression through mentoring and outreach programmes.

Julie is qualified through a number of globally recognised security industry certifications. CISM, ISO27001 Lead Auditor and COMPTIA Security+

Audrey Adams is Head of Payments and Cards for Business Banking. She joined Barclays in 2008 and has over 20 years’ experience in strategy and development across Financial Services and Consumer Industries. She enjoys influencing teams to design and deliver transformational change with a strong focus on developing customer value propositions in a digital context.

She is passionate about DEI and strives to achieve cultural change through creating safe spaces which encourage dialogue to increase engagement in the workplace and also beyond as a Governor at Wallington County Grammar School. She is also one of the Co-Chairs for the Black Professionals Resource Group UK at Barclays, mum of two children and has a black belt in mixed martial arts.

Nazreen joined Barclays in 2005 as a Relationship Director in the London Industry team, managing a portfolio of clients within the Retail and Wholesale sector. Her current responsibility is to lead a national team of industry specialists, providing banking services to the Charity sector, as part of whole Public Sector team. She has helped to maintain Barclays’ number one position as the most popular Bank used by the top 100 charities, by developing innovative solutions, delivering throught leadership and strengthening industry expertise. Her previous role involved driving delivery of the Citizenship strategy, ensuring execution of the plan and to increase colleague engagement. Her role also involved building relationships and partnerships with clients to drive Citizenship and commercial efforts, strengthening Barclays’ global brand and engaging with external stakeholders to proactively manage their reputation. She increased colleague engagement by 20%, supported the development of products that positively contribute to climate change and delivered Barclays’ first ever conference on Modern Slavery for businesses. Nazreen is a member of the Corporate Banking Diversity Council and the Sustainability Forum.

In 2016, Nazreen was a finalist for the Barclays Woman of the Year Award, shortlisted for an Asian Woman of Achievement Award in 2017, listed in the Financial Times as a top 100 Ethnic Minority Role Model in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and The Guardian’s Investing in Ethnicity Awards. She was also recognised as Brummel Magazine’s top 30 inspirational women in the city and one of Hive Learning’s most influential D&I leaders. Also a highly commended finalist for the British Muslim Awards.

Prior to Barclays Nazreen worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland for three years in their Premier Banking Division.

Nazreen also co-chaired the Embrace Network, responsible for the multicultural diversity agenda. She now deputes for Inspire, focusing on socioeconomic inclusion. She graduated from King’s College, London with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry. She is an accredited Enterprise Mentor for the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs. Nazreen is very passionate about championing and inspiring women. She was the National Council member for the Women’s Activities Portfolio for the Ismaili Council UK. Here she is responsible for enabling access, support and empowerment initiatives and activities for women and their families. She is currently a governor for a Multi Academy Trust and Trustee for King’s College London Student Union.

Sonal Shah is an author, Forbes featured multiple award winning highly accomplished professional. Her awards include being two times winner of We Are The City Rising Stars and Tech100, named as Brummell Magazine’s Inspirational Women 2023 and Computer Weekly’s Most Influential women in 2022 and 2023. She also contributes to media features and champions diversity and is a part of UN Women UK.

Sonal works as a Vice President in Barclays Transformation Remediation projects and her career ranges from BP oil and gas on a companywide Digital Security program through to Telecoms and IT services. She changed careers into tech through taking a year out to do an MSc in Computing and Information Technology and is very passionate about helping women in the industry.

Sonal often found herself as a minority in many rooms and is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion both within the workplace and externally, including the gender imbalance in technology careers. She speaks at conferences and events and delivers impactful talks and provides coaching to support women accelerate their careers, be inspired and elevate themselves.She has been at Barclays over 8 years where she is the deputy co-chair of the Asian Professionals Employee Resource Group (ERG), is the Partnerships Manager for Win the Gender ERG and an active committee member of Barclays Women in Tech ERG. She regularly inputs to and speaks about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

Dom joined Barclays in February 2013 and has held multiple roles across Group, Investment and Retail Banking in Client Relationship Management, Transformation and Service Management. He currently leads the Business Management function for the Customer and Digital business which he began in April 2022.Dom has been a strong advocate on DEI initiatives throughout his time at Barclays, currently holding the role of Co-Chair for Barclays LGBT+ ERG Spectrum. Most recently he launched the BUK Black Talent programme in partnership with the Black Young Professionals group, working to attract diverse external candidates into BUK.

Dom lives in East London with his partner and extremely well-behaved sausage dog Mischief.

Dom is currently studying for an MBA at Warwick Business School.