The speakers - Unilever Future of Work

Alan Jope

Chief Executive Officer, Unilever

Alan was appointed Chief Executive Officer in January 2019. As CEO of Unilever, Alan is responsible for leading one of the world’s largest and most geographically diverse consumer goods businesses, with presence in 190 countries, serving 2.5 billion people every day.

Alan joined Unilever in the UK in 1985. Before being appointed as CEO, he served as President of the Beauty & Personal Care Division. He also worked in leadership roles in North America for 14 years and Asia for 13 years. When leading Unilever’s business in China, Alan doubled its size and laid important foundations for future success.

In recent years as CEO, Alan has overseen the unification of Unilever’s legal structure under a single parent company; the acceleration of the company’s Prestige and Functional Nutrition product portfolios; and the launch of Unilever’s Climate Transition Action Plan, put to shareholder vote in 2021. Alan has also consolidated Unilever’s sustainability and business strategies into one – known as the Compass – designed to link Unilever’s leadership in sustainability to the acceleration of business performance.

Alan is Chair of the Board of UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited, Vice co-Chair of the Consumer Goods Forum, and Vice Chair of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Executive Committee.

Alan holds a BA Hons in Commerce from Edinburgh University and graduated from Harvard Business School’s General Management Program in 2001. Recently, he was appointed Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford.

Born and raised in Glasgow, Alan is married and has three adult children.

Leena Nair

Chief Human Resource Officer, Unilever, and member of the Unilever Leadership Executive

Leena Nair is the first female, first Asian and youngest ever CHRO of Unilever and member of the Unilever Leadership Executive (ULE).

Under her leadership Unilever has achieved a 50/50 gender balance across global leadership, led the design and implementation of progressive new working practices and models. She has continued to lead a pioneering agenda, playing an instrumental role in launching Unilever’s new social commitments, including a commitment to pay living wage across its whole value chain.

Leena bears overall responsibility for the 150,000-strong human capital of Unilever, which operates across multiple regulatory and labour environments spread over 190 countries. Her expertise has driven continued growth for Unilever leading to the 50 billion euro business it is today.

Leena began her Unilever career in Hindustan Unilever, where she became the first woman in the Management Committee in 90 years, heading HR. She was also appointed the first woman on the Unilever South Asia Leadership team and was responsible for Unilever’s growth in five markets with a business size of around 6 billion Euros.

She has continued to redefine how big business can contribute to the environment and society and has a reputation for putting the people at the heart of the business, driving growth and taking risks to create better business and a better society.

Recognised by HRH Queen Elizabeth II as one of the accomplished Indian Business Leaders in the UK, Leena is a trustee for the Leverhulme Trust. Her purpose is to “ignite the human spark for a better business and better world”.

Saadia Zahidi

Managing Director, Centre for the New Economy and Society World Economic Forum

Her teams work with leaders from business, government, civil society and academia to understand and shape the new economy, advance competitiveness, drive social mobility and inclusion, close skills gaps, prepare for the future of work and foster gender equality and diversity. Saadia founded and co-authors the Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, Global Gender Gap Report and Human Capital Report. Her book, Fifty Million Rising, charts the rise of working women in the Muslim world and was longlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year 2018. She has been selected as one of BBC’s 100 Women and won the inaugural FT/McKinsey Bracken Bower Prize for prospective authors under 35. She holds a BA in Economics from Smith College, an MPhil in International Economics from the Graduate Institute of Geneva and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. Her interests include the future of work, the impact of technology on employment, education and skills, income inequality and using big data for public good.

Dame Vivian Hunt

Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company

Dame Vivian Hunt is a Senior Partner for McKinsey & Company. Vivian previously served as Managing Partner for the UK and Ireland for seven years and led the Pharmaceutical and Medical Products Practice in EMEA. She advises corporate,

public, and third sector clients on the topics of performance improvement, productivity growth and leadership. She has been named “the most influential black woman in Britain”, “one of the top 25 consultants in the world”, and “one of the 30 most influential people in the City of London”.

Vivian has co-authored some of McKinsey’s most influential publications, including McKinsey’s Solving the United Kingdom’s productivity puzzle in a digital age, showing that both human capital and technology are at the heart of improving productivity. Her pioneering work tying diversity to strong financial performance includes: The Power of Parity (2016), Delivering through Diversity (2018), Diversity Wins: how inclusion matters (2020) and Diversity still matters. More recently, Vivian’s co- authored articles include COVID-19 in the United Kingdom: Assessing Jobs at Risk and the impact on people and places and The case for stakeholder capitalism.

Vivian is on the board of several significant business groups, charitable and education bodies including the Prime Minister’s Build Back Better Council, the Confederation of British Industry, and the Harvard Board of Overseers. Vivian is Chair of Teach First, the UK’s leading education charity, Trustee of The British Museum and sits on the governing board of the Southbank Centre and the US-UK Fulbright Commission.

Vivian is an inspirational speaker and a powerful advocate for non-traditional voices in the corporate world. In October 2020, she delivered a TED Talk on How businesses can serve everyone, not just shareholders.

In 2018, Vivian was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to the economy and women in business. Vivian is an alumna of Harvard College and received her MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dr Eliza Filby

Generations Expert

Dr Eliza Filby is a writer, speaker and consultant who specialises in ‘Generational Intelligence’ helping companies and services understand generational shifts within politics, society and the workplace.

Eliza has worked with a variety of organizations from VICE media to Warner Brothers, from the UK’s Ministry of Defence to the Royal Household, with banks such as HSBC, Barclays, BYMellon in Canada and Macquarie in Australia. She has spoken at the EU’s Human Rights Forum on teenagers and technology; the Financial Times CEO forum on the future of work and to the UK’s House of Lord’s Select Committee on intergenerational unfairness.

She is the author of Fuelling Gender Diversity: Unlocking the Next Generation Workplace and Mind the Gap: Managing a Multi-Generational Workforce in the Post Pandemic Age and recently launched her own podcast, It’s All Relative, in which she interviews famous families on the generation gap. It is available on Spotify and Apple.

Eliza received her PhD from the University of Warwick and subsequently taught at King’s College, London and the University of Renmin in China. Her writing has been published in The Times, Guardian and the Financial Times.

Her writing can be found on her website www.elizafilby.com and you find out more @drelizafilby on Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Mark Read

CEO, WPP

Mark was appointed CEO of WPP in September 2018. Having held multiple leadership positions at WPP since he joined in 1989, Mark has a deep understanding of the industry. As Head of Strategy and then CEO of WPP Digital he was responsible for WPP’s first moves into technology. In 2015, he became Global CEO of Wunderman, which he transformed into one of the world’s leading creative, data and technology agencies.

Earlier in his career, Mark co-founded internet start-up WebRewards and specialised in media and marketing as a principal at consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton. He was voted the industry’s Most Influential Person of 2019 in Econsultancy’s Top 100 Digital Agencies report and was recognised as a HERoes Champion of Women in Business in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. Mark was awarded Fellow of the IPA status for outstanding services to the industry in the IPA’s 2021 New Year’s Honours.

Sharan Burrow

General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation

Sharan Burrow is the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, representing 200 million workers in 163 countries and territories with 332 national affiliates. The ITUC’s primary mission is the promotion and defense of workers’ rights and interests, through international cooperation between trade unions, global campaigning, and advocacy within the major global institutions.

Previously President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) from 2000 – 2010, Sharan is a passionate advocate and campaigner for social justice, women’s rights, the environment, and labour law reforms, and has led union negotiations on major economic reforms and labour rights campaigns in her home country of Australia and globally. She has also served as a member of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation and is represented on a number of international commissions concerning climate action, industrial transition, and economic reform.

Mona Mourshed

Founding CEO, Generation

Mona is the founding CEO of Generation. She previously founded and led McKinsey & Company’s global education practice as well as led McKinsey’s global social responsibility agenda. She was selected as one of Fortune Magazine’s ‘40 under 40’, sits on the boards of New America and Teach for All, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and previously served on the board of Governors of the International Baccalaureate Organization.

Michael Hayman MBE DL

Co-founder, Seven Hills

Michael is an entrepreneur, broadcaster and author. He co-founded the campaigns firm Seven Hills & co-authored Mission (Penguin).

He is Chairman of Entrepreneurs at the private bank and wealth manager Coutts.

Michael is Honorary Professor of the Purpose Economy at the University of London where he also holds an Honorary Doctorate.

He is also an Honorary Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and is an advisory board member of the School of Business & Management, Queen Mary University of London.

Michael hosts the Change Makers podcast and the TV show Capital Conversation, and is an experienced event host. He has interviewed leaders from business, sports, politics the arts and entertainment. Michael is a columnist for CityAM, Country and Town House, and capital markets columnist for the Yorkshire Post.

He co-founded the national campaign for early stage enterprise, StartUp Britain, is an advisory board member of the National Business Awards and serves on the Advisory Council of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Michael was awarded an MBE for services to enterprise promotion, entrepreneurship and education, is a Deputy Lieutenant for Surrey and is a Freeman of the City of London.

Aline Santos

Chief Equity Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Unilever

Ella Robertson

Managing Director, One Young World

Kate Robertson

Co-founder, One Young World

Kate is the co-founder of One Young World – the global forum for young leaders that identifies, promotes and connects the world’s most impactful activists to create a better world, with more responsible and effective leadership.

The annual One Young World Summit convenes the brightest young talent from every country and sector, working to accelerate social impact. Delegates from 190+ countries are counselled by influential political, business and humanitarian leaders such as Justin Trudeau, Paul Polman and Meghan Markle, amongst many other global figures.

Kate was formerly the Global President and UK Group Chairman of Havas Worldwide.

In 2012 she was named Advertising Woman of the Year by Women in Marketing and in 2014 was similarly honoured by Advertising Week Europe. In 2014 she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Lausanne along with Unilever’s Paul Polman.

In 2017, Kate was awarded the Corporate Citizenship Award from British American Business. Kate is also the co-author of How to Make a Difference: The Definitive Guide from the World’s Most Effective Activists – a unique and practical guide to modern day activism which includes advice and experience from some of the world’s leading campaigners.

Kevin Frey

CEO, Generation Unlimited

Kevin has diverse private and public sector experience – as both an entrepreneur and an executive – spanning the education, technology, human capital and international development spheres.

Prior to joining Generation Unlimited as CEO in 2021, Kevin was the CEO of Right To Pay – an international development organisation that works across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia to protect, education, and empower children and youth.

Before Right To Play, Kevin spent 15 years in the international and higher education sectors, most recently leading Canada’s top-ranked MBA program at the University of Toronto as the Managing Director.

At the age of 27, Kevin founded his first company, TeachAway, which has grown to be the world’s leading international job-matching platform for teachers. Driven by a vision to ensure that every student experiences the power of a great teacher, Kevin went on to co-found online tutoring platform Skooti, and online teacher training and certification company Klassroom.

Kevin’s academic background includes an Honours Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction from the University of Toronto, where he majored in Philosophy and History; an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University; and a Doctorate in Business Administration from IE Business School, where his research focused on entrepreneurship.

Will Smith

Managing Partner for People & Purpose, North & South Europe, Deloitte

Will is the Managing Partner for People & Purpose at Deloitte North and South Europe (NSE), responsible for our people agenda and how we make an impact that matters for our clients, people and society.

Following completion of a law degree at Oxford University, Will joined Deloitte’s Manchester office as a graduate 23 years ago. He has spent his career within the audit business, being promoted to partner in 2009 and then went on to lead our audit business in the East Midlands for five years before moving to London in 2016. Throughout his career, Will has specialised in the audit of listed and multinational companies, in a range of sectors covering consumer business, technology, manufacturing and services.

Will is the sponsoring partner for Deloitte UK’s LGBTQ+ network, GLOBE, and has supported the network in developing a number of transformative initiatives across the UK firm, including our Allies Programme. In 2018, Will was externally recognised as one of the Top 100 LGBT Executives in the UK. He is a passionate advocate for inclusion and in 2020 was named Male Diversity Champion of the Year at the UK Women in Accountancy and Finance Awards.

During his time as a partner, Will has held leadership roles across all aspects of our business, including within Clients & Industries and Transformation & Change.

Kalvinder Dhillon

Vice Chair Deloitte UK, North and South Europe Board Member

Kalvinder’s experience over the past 25 years has focused on Consumer Business and Technology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) clients. Previously Kalvinder worked on secondment in the US for seven years, leading the Global Employers Services Practice on the West Coast as well as time in New York. As a tax Partner she leads on our relationships in consumer and TMT.

Her present clients include a number of FTSE 100 consumer and TMT clients, with recent projects including, leading the firm’s global relationship at a consumer business client, global lead on our largest technology client and is Global Lead Client Service Provider (GLCSP) on the largest global immigration client.

Kalvinder plays a significant role for the firm in supporting our Societal vision:

Lead partner supporting the CBI campaign for Change the Race Ratio – a campaign encouraging FTSE 350 companies to be transparent about their targets and commitments for Ethnic leadership at the Executive and Board level. Kalvinder was responsible for Deloitte being one of the first founders.
Lead partner supporting our partnership with Open for Business ensuring we continue to drive global parity and thought leadership around LGBTQ+ participation.
Deloitte partner on the board of City Mental Health Alliance ensuring we continue to focus on positive mental wellbeing.

Rob Burnet

Founder and CEO, Shujaaz Inc

Rob is CEO and founder of Shujaaz Inc, a network of social ventures that engage 9.5 million 15-24-year-olds across East Africa.

Shujaaz Inc’s Emmy-award winning young team produce and run three social ventures; multi-media youth platform Shujaaz – East Africa’s biggest youth brand; Hustla MBA – an innovative peer-to-peer training venture; and MESH, an online community for entrepreneurs in the informal economy.

Before founding Shujaaz in 2009, Rob designed creative impact programmes as The Ford Foundation’s first Programme Officer for Media Arts and Culture in East Africa. Rob has also held the post of Visiting Fellow at the University of Reading, and held senior roles in public-service TV production. Rob is the founder of Nairobi’s contemporary art studio The Kuona Trust, and co-founder of communications consultancy Well Made Strategy.

Will Stronge

Co-director, Autonomy

Will Stronge is co-director of Autonomy, an independent think tank focusing on issues relating to the future of work. He is the co-author, with Helen Hester, of the forthcoming book – Post-Work: what it is, why it matters and how we get there (Bloomsbury, 2022). He holds a PhD in politics and philosophy from the University of Brighton.

Ravi Venkatesan

Special Representative for Young People and Innovation, UNICEF

Ravi is UNICEF’s Special Representative for Young People and Innovation and also the founder of the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) , a multi-stakeholder coalition which aims to create 10m entrepreneurs and 50 million jobs in India by 2030. He is a Director of Hitachi Ltd., a Trustee of Rockefeller Foundation and a partner at impact investor Unitus Ventures.

Ravi has spent three decades leading organizations in the private sector, public sector and social sector, across three continents and multiple industries. He is a former Chairman of the Bank of Baroda; between 2015-18, he led the turnaround of India’s second largest public sector bank. As a board member then Co-Chairman of Infosys Ltd., he helped steer the company through a challenging set of transitions. Between 2004-11, as Chairman & CEO of Microsoft India, Ravi helped build India into Microsoft’s second-largest presence in the world and the most respected multinational company in India. From 1997-2004, Ravi served as the Chairman of Cummins India and led its transformation into India’s leading provider of engines and power generation solutions. Ravi has served on the boards of Harvard Business School, AB Volvo, Strand Lifesciences, JCB, ATREE and Thermax.

Ravi is the founder of Social Venture Partners India, a pan-India network of philanthropists. He was instrumental in creating Microsoft India’s Project Shiksha, the world’s largest computer literacy program and also helped establish the Cummins College of Engineering, India’s first engineering college for women, in Pune.

Ravi has a BTech from IIT Bombay, an MS from Purdue University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar. He is a recipient of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay’s Distinguished Alumnus Award and Purdue University’s Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award. He is the author of an acclaimed book “Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere” published by Harvard Business Review. His next book “What the Heck Do with My Life?” will be released in Dec 2021. Ravi was voted as one of India’s best management thinkers by Thinkers50 and is one of LinkedIn’s Global Influencers. He was voted Microsoft’s AlumniHERO 2020.

Lorraine Stomski

Senior Vice President of Enterprise Leadership and Learning, Walmart

Lorraine Stomski is the Senior Vice President of Enterprise Leadership and Learning for Walmart. Lorraine has over 25 years of experience in talent management. She joined Walmart 3½ years ago and is responsible for succession, selection, leadership and learning for the Enterprise.

Before joining Walmart, she was the Global Practice Leader for Assessment and Leadership at Aon Hewitt. In that role, she has worked with several large employers in the Fortune 500. Lorraine’s experience includes developing global high potential programs, assessment/development centers, talent strategy, executive assessment, and succession planning. Her specialties include leadership development, retention and development of top talent, top team effectiveness, executive coaching, and increasing women’s presence at the top.

Dr. Stomski received her Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Stevens Institute of Technology. She is a member of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology and (SIOP) and the American Psychological Association (APA). Dr. Stomski is a frequent speaker on the topic of best-in-class practices within the field of leadership globally. She is one of the authors in the books Strategy Driven Talent Management: A Leadership Imperative (2010), Advancing Executive Coaching: Setting the Course for Successful Leadership Coaching (2011), Advancing Human Resource Project Management (2014) and The Handbook of Strategic 360 Feedback (2019).

She has also been featured in Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, The New York Times, HR Executive, BBC and Women 2.0.

I have worked in senior HR and HR Consulting roles for 30 years, living in the Middle East and Europe and working with global organisations on strategic HR and people programme design. I hold Masters Degrees in Psychology and Business Research and I am a Fellow of The Pensions Management Institute, previously an author of their International Diploma syllabus. I am a Director in the creative arts education sector and am trained in advanced design thinking methodology.

Morag Lynagh

Future of Work Director, Unilever

Morag Lynagh is Future of Work Director at Unilever. She has a BCom in Business Studies from Edinburgh University and first joined Unilever in 1994. During her time in Unilever she has worked in HR business partnering, recruitment and reward spent more than a decade as Unilever’s UK Employment Policy & Law expert leading teams in this area. As well as her time in Unilever she has worked in the travel, property and conference industries. Morag is one of the co-creators of U-Work, a new employment model that is redefining how people relate to the world of work. Morag has a passion for photography and drawing and enjoys long walks in nature.

Yvonne Sonsino

Partner, Global Co-Leader of ‘Next Stage’

My current focus is on the organisational implications of macro trends such as increasing longevity, 4IR future of work scenarios and sustaining a truly inclusive workforce. Mercer’s Next Stage platform examines the coalescence of living and working longer, and how organisations can harness the longevity dividend as we move into an increasingly digital age. Multigenerational fairness plays a big part here.

I co-chaired the UK Govt. Department for Work and Pensions Fuller Working Lives Business Strategy Group, working with employers to recruit, retain and retrain older workers, which published its policy document in 2017. My first book, The New Rules of Living Longer, was published in November 2015, with a foreword from the UK Pensions Minister. I am an advisor to the Healthy Ageing challenge fund and currently working on a global dialogue series called ‘Redesigning Retirement for the 100 year life’ with the World Economic Forum.

I have worked in senior HR and HR Consulting roles for 30 years, living in the Middle East and Europe and working with global organisations on strategic HR and people programme design. I hold Masters Degrees in Psychology and Business Research and I am a Fellow of The Pensions Management Institute, previously an author of their International Diploma syllabus. I am a Director in the creative arts education sector and am trained in advanced design thinking methodology.

Jawad Khan

Jawad Khan, CEO, PSDF

Jawad Khan is the CEO of PSDF, largest skills development fund in Pakistan, and the Founder of Parwaaz, Pakistan’s National Accelerator on Closing the Skills Gap in Pakistan set up in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. He is also the Global Expert on WEFs Global Future Council on New Agenda for Education & Skills. Before returning to Pakistan in 2016, he spent 15 years in the UAE building smart cities globally and technology, industrial & entertainment clusters in Dubai. He held several leadership positions, including, Chief Operating Officer, FCG, Investment Corporation of Dubai; Chief Strategy Officer, TECOM Investments, Chief Operating Officer, Smart City Dubai; and Chief Operating Officer, Global Village Dubai.

Fred Goff

Co-founder and CEO, Jobcase

Fred Goff is co-founder and CEO of Jobcase, Inc., the only social platform dedicated to empowering workers. He has emerged as a leading voice for worker advocacy and on issues related to the future-of-work such as AI’s impacts on labor. Characterized as “amplifying the voice of the worker,” Fred and Jobcase’s advocacy is informed by an abundance of behavioral market data and years of interaction with workers in the Jobcase community. With more than 130 million registered members – of which, 20+ million are active every month – Jobcase has recently been ranked by Comscore as the 3rd largest online destination for career services. Prior to his career as a consumer internet entrepreneur, Fred enjoyed a successful career on wall street. Fred, originally from Toledo Ohio, is a first-generation college grad holding a BS in Economics and MS in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MS in Management of Technology from MIT. He welcomes all outreach that might help empower Jobcasers to achieve their better tomorrow!

Caroline Casey

Founder, Valuable 500

Caroline Casey is an award-winning social entrepreneur and founder of The Valuable 500 – a catalyst for an inclusion revolution that exists to position disability equally on the global business leadership agenda.

Committed to building a global movement on inclusive business for the 1.3 billion people in the world with a disability, over the past two decades she has set up several organisations and initiatives centred on disability business inclusion.

Her latest initiative, The Valuable 500, is a campaign to get 500 businesses to commit to put disability inclusion on their leadership agendas. Launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Summit in 2019, Casey succeeded in bringing disability inclusion onto the main stage at DAVOS for the first time ever with the support of global business leaders.

The Valuable 500 is supported by a host of global leaders including Sir Richard Branson, and Paul Polman, and global brands including Microsoft and Sky.

Casey is also a TED speaker, Ashoka Fellow, Eisenhower Fellow, a past advisor for the Clinton Global Initiative, a One Young World Counsellor and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

www.thevaluable500.com

Thomas Birwe

Head of HR Switzerland, Swiss Re

Thomas Birwe heads HR Switzerland for Swiss Re since July 2018. He has many years of HR experience; a track record in HR business partnering; and leading organizational and cultural change. Prior to joining Swiss Re he worked for Zurich Insurance from 2010 until 2018. He led the Global Corporate / Commercial Insurance HR team and was a member of the Group HR Executive Team. Previous roles at Zurich include Global HR Partner for Corporate Life & Pensions and for the banking segment. Before working for Zurich, Thomas was Project Lead Global Performance Management & Compensation at Kuehne & Nagel; Senior Consultant at PwC; and started his career at Campina.

Thomas is a German-national with an MBA jointly from London South Bank University & Berlin School of Economics. He studied economics and HR at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld, Germany

Gülen Bengi

Executive Vice President for Global Hair Care, Unilever

Gülen Bengi rejoined Unilever in 2020 as the Executive Vice President for Global Hair Care, over 20 years after she started her career there as a graduate trainee.

Before this role, Gülen was the President of North America for Adult and Feminine Care sectors at Kimberly Clark, leading iconic brands like Kotex, Poise and Depend.

She has extensive consumer goods, marketing, sales and general management experience turning around and growing businesses in complex environments. Her career journey has spanned across North America, Latin America and EMEA with established global leaders in the FMCG space Kimberly Clark, Danone as well as Unilever.

Gülen is passionate about building legacies of growth through an obsession with consumers at the centre, building purpose led brands, focusing on innovation and digital acceleration coupled with a commitment to building talent, high performance teams and inclusive cultures.

In her current role, her focus is accelerating growth for the Global Hair Care with its powerful portfolio of purposeful brands, shaping the future with thought-leadership on purpose and innovation in pursuit of Positive Beauty.

Gülen believes in respect, positive energy and progress which inspire her towards her purpose of helping people and businesses breakthrough, grow and seize opportunities often considered beyond reach.

Originally from Turkey, Gülen holds a TRIUM Global Executive MBA, a joint degree from NYU Stern, London School of Economics and HEC Paris and a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Boğaziçi University.

Gülen moved back to the UK a year ago with her husband and son after living in the US, UK, Costa Rica and Turkey.

Leila McKenzie-Delis

Founder & CEO, DIALGlobal

A passionate thought leader with multiple business and charitable interests, Leila McKenzie-Delis is moving the dial on diversity, inclusion and aspirations in business.

In 2019, Leila founded DIAL Global, a global community for ‘Diverse Inclusive Aspirational Leaders’.

DIAL Global’s purpose is to foster a more open, diverse and inclusive society by helping organisations to think differently about their working culture, recruitment, attitudes and understanding of diversity in all its forms.

The community includes a podcast series ‘Diverse Inclusive Leaders’ and YouTube channel, featuring exclusive talks with the most inspirational and accomplished thought leaders of today.

Leila has also created the McKenzie-Delis Foundation – a charity dedicated to furthering the research and insight into diversity, inclusion and belonging. While the D&I agenda has long been a high priority in the UK, until this point there has not been a comprehensive review of how the country’s largest employers are addressing and prioritising their efforts across the ten facets of workplace diversity and inclusion.

In 2020, they launched the McKenzie-Delis Review – a ground-breaking report on diversity and inclusion in the UK workplace. The MD Review charitable research will take place again in 2021 surveying the FTSE 500 and Fortune 500 organisations about their practices across ten visible and invisible facets of diversity.

The McKenzie-Delis Review represents a significant step forward in how diversity and inclusion is measured – proving a unique level of insight into where we are, and what more we need to do. The MD Review in the USA and UK partners with Ipsos MORI, the United Nations GC, and is chaired by Lord Simon Wooley CBE and co-chaired by Ben Page, chief executive of Ipsos MORI.

Leila’s passion and commitment to diversity and inclusion has been inspired by her upbringing and career to date. Originally born in Hong Kong, Leila was adopted as a baby by a British couple and grew up in Harrogate, Yorkshire. As one of the relatively few non-white people in her school and the local area, Leila began to think about the nature of identity, race and professional ambition.

Although Leila went on to excel academically, graduating top of her class and with a first a first-class honours degree, she quickly came across difficulties in accessing opportunities to graduate jobs and internships – while her friends and peers around Harrogate did not experience the same barriers.

Committed to creating opportunities for herself, Leila went on to run several businesses and built a successful career in Executive Search, where she was able to promote the idea of more diverse C-suite hires to major organisations.

One day, at a round table event, Leila noticed that she was the only female and only person of colour. From that moment onwards, the idea for DIAL Global was born as a way to create more opportunities for diverse candidates to access top level careers and leadership roles.

Today, Leila spends her time managing numerous directorships and advisory positions whilst continuing to promote and campaign for the benefits of inclusion and diversity in business and in wider society. Her mission is to build DIAL Global and The McKenzie-Delis Foundation in order to forge a more diverse and inclusive society.

Jonathan Puerta

Co-founder, Design Your Nation and TASKME

Young leader and social innovator passionate for the power of science, technology and innovation to transform societies. Co-founder of Design Your Nation and TASKME, two initiatives in Colombia working in youth entrepreneurship and employment. He has also worked in innovation management and policy for both the non-profit and the private sector in Colombia. He was recognised as “Young 2020” by the Medellin City Council, awarded the National Young Talent Prize 2019 by the First Lady and the Presidential Youth Counsellor of Colombia, and is a One Young World Ambassador since 2019. He is a Chevening Scholar 2021 and is currently pursuing a MSc in Science & Technology Policy at the University of Sussex in the UK.

Bhakti Vithalani

Founder & CEO, BigSpring

Bhakti Vithalani is an engineer and entrepreneur working to achieve her lifelong passion, to empower people to create a better quality of life through education and technology.

Bhakti is the Founder and CEO of BigSpring, which provides AI-powered skilling infrastructure for measurable ROI. BigSpring equips “all collar” people with market-relevant skills so they are gainfully employed. The platform enables employers to measure the ROI from skilling, to establish investing in people as mission-critical to business. With over a million learners globally, BigSpring is the platform of choice for leading companies including Google, Facebook, Uber. BigSpring has been selected by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Technology Pioneer 2020, joining a select group of companies that are poised to have a significant impact on business and society.

Bhakti also serves on the Board of Governors for JA Worldwide. Previously, Bhakti worked as an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company leading client engagements for the High Tech and Corporate Finance practices. She started her career in product development in Silicon Valley with Siebel Systems. Bhakti is a Computer Engineer with University Honors from Carnegie Mellon University, where she was among the first women from India to attend. She earned an MBA from The Wharton School, where she was a Joseph Wharton Fellow.

Ryan Cunningham

General Manager, PowerApps, Microsoft

Ryan Cunningham is the General Manager for PowerApps, Microsoft’s low-code application development offering. Ryan has led PowerApps to millions of global users across Office 365, Dynamics 365, and standalone applications – helping everyone from citizen developers to professionals accelerate their delivery of enterprise line of business applications. Ryan holds advanced degrees from the University of Southern California and the London School of Economics, and is a frequent presenter on the low-code movement.

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