We are delighted to confirm our list of speakers and panel facilitators for Diversity in Tech 2017. Timings are 10am-4pm, with three panel discussions and lots of time afterwards for carrying on the conversation. Here are the lovely people who are on each of the three panels:
Panel 1. Recruitment
10.20-11.20 Chaired by Helen Woodcock (KETL)
Helen is head of Marketing and Business Development at KETL, and is admin for their community user groups for Talend and Jaspersoft.
Panellists:
Nadia Abouayoub (BCS)
Nadia Abouayoub is a member of the BCS SGAI Committee and BCS Women Group, which she joined, to setup the international network. She has been a committee member for organisations which aimed to empower women in the professional field. She has run as a volunteer workshops on Communication and Networking for young leaders. Her latest projects are being the co-organiser of the AI Accelerator program, and running the Machine Intelligence Competition for the BCS SGAI. She has more than 15 years experience through different roles in the City. She is currently working as a strategist and improvement lead in investment banking. Her academic background is in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Sciences, Mathematics and Security.
Jenny Cowderoy (Jenny Cowderoy Ltd)
Jenny has 20 years experience in the Technology sector; including as Industry Head at Google, Global Director for Digital at GlaxoSmithKline and Managing Director positions for a social network and digital marketing agency. Now based in Bath, she advises and drives growth for a range of technology clients in London and the South West and is also a review board panel member at Set Squared in Bristol, supporting tech start-ups with the first stages of their success.
Ismini Vasilieou (University of Plymouth/BCS)
Ismini is Chair of Equality and Diversity for Plymouth University Faculty of Science and Engineering & Athena Swan Champion. She is also Chair of STEM SIG International Academic Peer Learning Leadership Group, BCS South West Secretary, a BCSWomen Committee Member & BCS Learning and Development Membership Secretary.
Panel 2. Retention
11.45-12.45 Chaired by Marina Traversari (OSCA)
Marina is the Programme Manager for Oracle’s Startup Cloud Accelerator
Panellists:
Jane Ginnever (Shift)
With a leadership career spanning four decades and experience of working within 20+ organisations, Jane founded her consultancy Shift in 2015 and works with organisations to shift their thinking about the way that they work. She’s an expert in organisation design, focusing on particularly on ways of working that provide lots of autonomy for employees and an operational framework that enable the organisation to thrive.
Ric Hill (Ghyston)
Ric is the Managing Director of Softwire Bristol. He’s been part of Softwire for over 12 years, starting as a developer and working his way up through various management and leadership roles. Softwire has been in the top 25 of the Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For list for the last seven years running, and one of Ric’s primary concerns is how to maintain that status as a desirable workplace.
Mike Oram (Mayden Academy)
Mike is a full stack developer with nearly ten years’ experience of working in interface design, front-end and server-side technologies. He now runs Mayden Academy, helping train the next generation of software developers.
Sian Wilmot (SN Systems Ltd)
Sian is HR Manager at SN Systems and a member of the SN management team. Her HR career spans roles in technology companies, manufacturing and the public sector. SN Systems Ltd, as part of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), creates development tools for PlayStation®platforms including PlayStation®4 Pro, PlayStation® VR and PlayStation®Vita. Sian enjoys the variety of HR challenges that come with being part of a company that loves what it does and employs brilliant people. Whilst appreciating the stability that comes from being part of SIE, SN works hard to maintain a culture with the ‘small company’ feel and flexibility that makes SN a dynamic place to work.
Panel 3.Resilience
1.30 – 2.30 Chaired by Dana Bopp (TEDxBristol)
Dana brings her technology project management, energy and expertise in New York City and Silicon Valley to TEDxBristol for Speaker Selection at the upcoming November 2-day event and KETL, a systems integration and data analytics consultancy in Bristol. WTHub is how she was introduced to KETL!
Panellists:
Hayley Barnden (InterEngineering)
Rosie Bennett (ITgirls)
Entrepreneur in Residence at the Bath SETsquared Incubator, Rosie is the founder of ITGirl Collaborative, a network and meetup group that supports women in the tech sector to develop confidence, careers and skills eg in public speaking.
Rabeb Othmani (WomenWhoCode)
Rabeb is a software engineer who is passionate about cutting edge technologies and the impact technology has on people. She also advocates to bring more women into engineering and coding; she believes in the potential of women to deal with the hardest challenges and shine in all fields.
We are also delighted that KETL and fffunction are sponsoring some code club activities and a small creche for 2-8 year olds so that we can offer spaces to parents for free. Please email info@wthub.org if you would like to book a place for your child.