Pinky Lilani CBE DL welcomed guests to the Women of The Future Network Annual Reception on 8th October 2019 at Fidelity International in London. Coinciding with Ada Lovelace Day, speakers at the event included Jacqueline de Rojas CBE, President, techUK; Anne Richards CVO CBE, Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity International and Marianne Waite, Director, The Valuable 500 Campaign. Pinky reminded guests that ‘kindness’ in their interactions with others is a powerful way to network and urged guests to ensure that they met at least five other women at the event.
Speaker biographies
Jacqueline de Rojas CBE, President, techUK
Jacqueline is the President of techUK and the President of the Digital Leaders board. She sits as a Non-Executive Director on the board of UK technology business Rightmove plc; on the board of Costain plc, which is committed to solving the nation’s Infrastructure problems; and serves on the board of the online retailer AO World plc. Jacqueline is a member of the government’s panel to review Post-18 Education and is an advisor to fast moving tech businesses and a business mentor at Merryck Group offering board and executive level coaching. She is the co-chair at the Institute of Coding, advises the board of Accelerate-Her and is especially delighted to lend her support to the Girlguiding Association for technology transformation.
Jacqueline is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion which informs where she places her support. She focuses on helping those in the tech world to provide proactive and practical opportunities that encourage diversity and inclusion, or that use tech for good to tackle the global challenges of our time.
Jacqueline was awarded a CBE for Services to International Trade in Technology in the Queen’s New Year Honours list 2018.
Anne Richards CVO CBE, Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity International
Anne joined Fidelity International as CEO in December 2018 from M&G Investments where she was CEO and a Director of its parent company Prudential plc. Anne was appointed a Director of FIL Limited in September 2019. She has worked in the asset management industry since 1992. Anne has almost three decades of experience as an analyst, portfolio manager and CIO and is a strong proponent of ESG investing. Her career path spans many blue-chip global names in the financial sector including Alliance Capital, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers and Aberdeen Asset Management.
Anne is a Chartered Engineer and began her career as a research fellow at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. She is a former chair of the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s Practitioner Panel and is also a member of the US-based Board of Leaders of 2020 Women on Boards, which works to increase the proportion of women on corporate boards.
Anne was publicly recognised in the UK for her services to the voluntary sector and to the Financial Services industry by being appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 2014 and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2015. Anne holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BSc (Hons) from the University of Edinburgh as well as an honorary degree from Heriot-Watt University.
Marianne Waite, Director, The Valuable 500 Campaign
Marianne Waite is Director of The Valuable 500 Campaign and Inclusive Design Consultant, Omnicom. Designer turned Brand Strategist, Marianne has worked in a number of leading creative agencies over the past 12 years. Her clients have included; Burberry, HSBC, and the Ministry of Defence.
In 2016, Marianne founded Think Designable an agency thought leadership collective. Their aim is to improve society’s relationship with disability and difference by promoting inclusive product and service development and communication.
This initiative earned her a place on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list 2017, the Women of The Future Award for Media 2017, A Woman of Tomorrow Award 2018, a place on the BIMA Hot 100 list 2018, as well as the Campaign 50 Trailblazers of the Future list 2018.
Marianne is also the UK Government Disability Sector Champion for Brand & Design.
About the Women of the Future Programme
The Women of the Future (WOF) programme is a portfolio of events and projects that support and celebrate the successes of young women, through the WOF Awards, WOF Summit, WOF Ambassadors and WOF Network. WOF was founded in 2006 by Pinky Lilani CBE DL and Cherie Blair is Awards patron. WOF is a movement focused on collaboration in the workplace, galvanising a community of influential women to work together as a new generation of talent across business, media, culture and public service. 2015 marked the 10 year anniversary of Women of the Future.
For further information visit https://womenofthefuture.co.uk/
About Ada Lovelace Day
Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) is an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). It aims to increase the profile of women in STEM and, in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls into STEM careers and support women already working in STEM.
Founded in 2009 by Suw Charman-Anderson, it is now held every year on the second Tuesday of October. It features the flagship Ada Lovelace Day Live! ‘science cabaret’ in London, UK, at which women in STEM give short talks about their work or research in an informal, theatre-like setting.
For further information visit https://findingada.com/
About Ada Lovelace
Born in 1815, The Honourable Augusta Ada Byron, the woman we now call Ada Lovelace was the only legitimate daughter of the romantic poet George Gordon Byron (Lord Byron) and Anne Isabella Milbanke, 11th Baroness Wentworth.
Ada Lovelace collaborated with inventor Charles Babbage on his general purpose computing machine, the Analytical Engine. In 1843, Lovelace published what we would now call a computer program to generate Bernoulli Numbers. Whilst Babbage had written fragments of programs before, Lovelace’s was the most complete, most elaborate and the first published.
More importantly, Lovelace was the first person to foresee the creative potential of the Engine. She explained how it could do so much more than merely calculate numbers, and could potentially create music and art, given the right programming and inputs. Her vision of computing’s possibilities was unmatched by any of her peers and went unrecognised for a century.