2018 International Women's Day Forum

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 9 March 2018

Hosted at:

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 1

In celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD), A.T. Kearney, American Express, and NatWest are delighted to welcome you to our annual 2018 IWD Forum. Hosted by RocketSpace, this event gives participants an opportunity to connect and collab- orate to advance the gender diversity agenda in the spirit of IWD’s central theme of Press for Progress.

Despite legislation and a worldwide commitment to gender equality by both the public and private sectors, according to The Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum, “at the current rate of progress, the overall global gender gap in the workplace will now not be closed for 217 years”—an increase from 170 years predicted in previous reports. Although companies and governments are taking action, the question remains: is gender parity now moving in reverse?

The IWD Forum give participants an opportunity to listen to insights from senior executives from a wide range of companies and to network and share experiences with a senior audience of like-minded peers. During this event, we will examine what culture, processes, principles, and attitudes are effective and how we can apply them to achieve greater gender parity in the workplace.

We are in a new age of gender parity, but are we doing our part? Now is the time for progress.

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 1 Agenda

08:00–09:00 a.m. Registration and Welcome Breakfast

09:00–09:15 a.m. Opening Remarks Priya Guha, Ecosystem General Manager, RocketSpace UK Tulsi Narayan, Principal, Financial Services, A.T. Kearney

09:15–10:00 a.m. Change in the Boardroom and Beyond Johan Aurik, Managing Partner and Chairman of the Board, A.T. Kearney Emma Cerrone, Co-Founder, Partner, and Board Director, Freeformers Interviewed by: Tulsi Narayan, Principal, Financial Services, A.T. Kearney

Women remain significantly underrepresented in leadership roles across all industries. For gender parity to be accomplished throughout our organizations, change needs to occur from the top down. Since the launch of the 30% Club, the ratio of female to male board members in the UK has risen exponentially accordingly to the latest WEF report, yet a vast imbalance remains. Is this a case of a generation gap or a gender gap? What should the priorities of our boards be, and how can we help create change? Advocating for women is different from empowering women—do you need to do both or just one for us to reach gender parity? How do we obtain a key to the C-suite?

10:00–10:45 a.m. Fourth Industrial Revolution: As Traditional Moves Out, How Do We Ensure We Remain In? Caterina Kostoula, Former Global Agency Business Leader, Google; Executive Coach and Founder of The Leaderpath Helen Page, Group Innovation & Marketing Director, CYBG Catherine Pearce, Global Operations and Business Change Director, Oxford University Press Moderated by Ramyani Basu, Senior Principal, Digital Transformation and Head of the London Women’s Network, A.T. Kearney

With the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, many uncertainties exist on whether the gender gap will widen, close, or remain indifferent. As the pace of technological change accelerates, new jobs are being created in place of old and skill gaps are increasing. While new jobs increasingly require a technology component, there is also a greater demand for emotional intelligence to complement artificial intelligence. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is just the most recent example of the need for an adaptation of skills and abilities. As automation and machine learning increase, how can we better prepare ourselves to ensure we are best placed to take advantage of the potential opportunities? Do we need to look at reinventing and reeducating ourselves so our skills are more current, and if so, where do we start? How do we navigate the uncertainties of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 2 Agenda

10:45–11:15 a.m. Coffee Break

11:15 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Closing the Gap: What’s on the Agenda? Heather P. Melville OBE, CCMI, JP, Director Strategic Partnerships – Head of Business Inclusion Initiatives, Commercial & Private Banking, RBS Maureen Penfold, Managing Partner, Kingston Smith

Moderated by: Sophia Skinner, Vice President & General Manager, American Express Travel & Lifestyle Services, American Express

Over the past five years we have noticed a decisive shift in boards, with a plethora of doctrines, schemes, and programs to influence and support gender diversity and ensure equality in the workplace. Companies are responding, but are they responding fast enough? According to the latest WEF Gender Gap Report it is now expected to take 217 years to close the gap rather than the previously predicted 170 years. While a gap of that magnitude requires a much more significant collaboration and discussion between the public and private sector, how can we ourselves support and drive the agenda back on course? Should internal metrics be devised to look at wage gaps and career development opportunities? Should mentoring programs be a requirement rather than a rarity for both genders to lessen the risk of silos between the men and women? How can we increase dialogue and collabora- tions to support the diversity agenda and equally empower both genders?

12:00–12:45 p.m. Unconscious Biases: How Do You Embed Gender Parity into the Culture? Tim J. Ehinger, SVP and Chief Counsel, International and General Counsel’s Organization, American Express Rehmah Kasule, Vital Voices Lead Fellow and President and Founder of Century Entrepreneurship Development Agency–CEDA International Nigyar Makhmudova, President of Global Pet Nutrition, Mars Petcare and Member of Global Petcare Executive Team

Moderated by Kos Apostolatos, Partner and Global Head of Strategic & Top-Line Transformation, A.T. Kearney

Across all industries, we are still witnessing deeply entrenched gender stereotypes. In the media we are being advised simultaneously both to “lean in” and “lean out” in order to correct the imbalance and advance our agendas. Our societies and businesses are still at the table on best practices to resolve the current gender inequality, so how can we expedite the process and shift centuries-old cultural perceptions? Where are the opportunities for change? How can we shake off stereotypes in the workplace and level the playing field?

12:45–1:00 p.m. Closing Remarks Tulsi Narayan, Principal, Financial Services, A.T. Kearney

1:00–2:00 p.m. Lunch and Networking

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 3 Speakers

Priya Guha is an ecosystem general manager for RocketSpace, a San Francisco-based company that helps tech entrepreneurs, high-growth start-ups, and corporate innovators bring the future to market. RocketSpace’s UK campus opened in June 2017. Priya was a career diplomat who recently returned from San Francisco, where, as British consul general, she focused on transatlantic tech and entrepreneurship. As the first female British consul general, Priya used her platform to support women in business, initiating annual delegations of UK female Priya Guha tech entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley. She is also a non-executive director Ecosystem of Innovate UK, a member of the advisory board of Tech London General Manager, Advocates, and an advisor to Merian Ventures, a venture capital firm RocketSpace UK that invests in women-led innovation.

Tulsi Narayan is a senior principal with A.T. Kearney’s Financial Services Practice. She has more than 15 years of experience both as a corporate banker at Lloyds Bank and as a consultant to financial service clients. Tulsi advises companies about transformative strategies in light of new regulations, including open banking and disruption in the payments space. She brings deep knowledge and experience in banking and payments, combined with experience in strategy, operations, and digitization, which enables her to be an effective advisor to leading Tulsi Narayan banks and payment players. Tulsi has co-authored multiple articles, Principal, A.T. Kearney the most recent being on the impact of open banking. She has been a leader in A.T. Kearney women’s network, working with other women’s networks to drive the agenda of gender equality. An engineer who earned an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, she lives in London with her husband and twin daughters, age 6.

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 4 Speakers

Emma Cerrone is a passionate business leader with 18 years of experience in retail, communications, and digital transformation for FTSE 100 brands. She has helped drive transformation in more than 50 brands and led Freeformers’ strategic partnership with Barclays to realize the Digital Eagles program, which reached more than 10,000 colleagues, and HSBC’s global frontline digital adoption initiative. Before co-founding Freeformers, Emma was chief operating officer of a London-based communications agency and worked in-house for a Emma Cerrone large corporate. Emma has received several awards, including the Duke Co-Founder, of York Entrepreneur of the Year at the National Business Awards and the Freeformers 2016 NatWest Women in Tech to Watch. She was also named among The Sunday Times’ 10 Changemakers for her role in the one_for1 social impact model at the heart of Freeformers. She is a regular speaker on the power of people in the digital revolution, how incumbent companies can adapt and remix to remain relevant against challenger brands and start-ups, the importance of addressing the digital divide, and the reasons why diversity is crucial.

Johan Aurik is A.T. Kearney’s managing partner and chairman of the board, a position he assumed in January 2013. A partner with the firm since 1997, he has more than 25 years of consulting experience in the consumer and retail, transportation, and chemicals industries. His areas of expertise include strategy and market effectiveness, organizational design, and complexity and supply chain management. In addition to building deep client relationships around the globe, Johan has taken on numerous leadership positions within A.T. Kearney. He has served as a Johan C. Aurik member of the firm’s board of directors and the senior leadership team, Managing Partner and led the firm’s consumer industries and retail practice for Europe, and Chairman of the Board, headed A.T. Kearney’s operations in Belgium, the Netherlands, and A.T. Kearney Luxembourg. Prior to becoming managing partner, he led the firm’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa region.

Johan is a regular speaker at World Economic Forum events and is the author of numerous articles on strategic business issues and themes relating to the future of production and manufacturing. He is a co-author of The Future of Strategy: A Transformative Approach to Strategy for a World that Won’t Stand Still (McGraw-Hill, 2015) and Rebuilding the Corporate Genome (John Wiley & Sons, 2002). Johan earned masters’ degrees in history from the University of Amsterdam and from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. A native of the Netherlands, he has lived and worked in numerous cities in both Europe and the United States. He is fluent in Dutch, English, French, and German.

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 5 Speakers

Caterina Kostoula is an executive coach and founder of The Leaderpath. Her mission is to coach leaders to have the impact and life they want. Previously, she was a global business leader at Google, managing some of the company’s largest partnerships, a $1 billion client portfolio. Caterina has been awarded a five-star rating distinction for her internal coaching at Google. She also facilitated Google’s female leadership development program, Stretch. Before Google, she worked in advertising and has coached leaders from Amazon, Caterina Kostoula Vodafone, Ferrero, ArcelorMittal, and several entrepreneurs. She has Former Global Agency lived in more than seven countries across America, Europe, and Asia. Business Leader for She writes about personal development on Fast Company, HuffPost, Google and Executive and Thrive Global. In 2017, she was one of Medium’s top writers on Coach and Founder of self-improvement, life-lessons, and relationships. She earned an MBA The Leaderpath from INSEAD and an executive coaching accreditation and diploma from Ashridge Business School.

Helen Page has more than 25 years’ experience in marketing, consultancy, and customer innovation with 17 of those years spent in financial services. Prior to joining Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, Helen spent eight years at the Royal Bank of Scotland in a number of roles, including managing director for innovation and marketing with responsibility for all UK brands across the retail, commercial, and corporate divisions. Helen was also head of marketing at Argos, where she relaunched the catalog company as a retailer and played a key role Helen Page in driving the business to win Retailer of the Year in 2003. Prior to Group Innovation and Argos, she held a number of product and marketing roles at Abbey Marketing Director, National (now Santander), where she became head of marketing. She CYBG also has experience in research, consultancy, and central government. Helen earned a degree in economics, development, and planning and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. She is married with five children and lives in Scotland.

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 6 Speakers

As the global operations and business change director at Oxford University Press, Catherine Pearce is responsible for many aspects of running the business operations, including its supply chain, procurement, property portfolio, and health, safety, security, and environment. In addition, she runs the global change management office, which is helping to build capability to deliver the company’s most important change initiatives. She has worked at Oxford University Press for more than 20 years, starting in production and gradually Catherine Pearce taking on more responsibility throughout the company to become Global Operations and operations director of the academic publishing division before taking Business Change on her current role three years ago. Catherine also sits on the Director, Oxford company’s executive committee. University

Ramyani Basu is a senior principal with A.T. Kearney, co-leading the Digital Transformation Practice for the United Kingdom and Ireland. She is responsible for driving digital and technology transformations across various industries in the UK market, primarily focusing on the consumer goods, retail, and financial services. She has more than 15 years of consulting and industry experience across multiple industries in Europe and the Americas. Both a technology enthusiast and a strategist, Ramyani uses the unique combination of technology, Ramyani Basu business acumen, and transformation to achieve true value for clients Senior Principal, Digital and is known for driving digital transformations with a focus on Transformation and changing the mindset of organizations as they think and embrace Head of the London digital. In addition, she pioneers the relationships with the firm’s digital Women’s Network, ecosystem partners in the United Kingdom, leveraging and curating A.T. Kearney market innovation to drive digital transformation conversations. In this context, she acts both as a connector and a broker to support clients in the process of right match making for digital.

Beyond her professional focus, Ramyani is a strong advocate of the possibilities for women to be successful within A.T. Kearney and passionately fights every cause to promote greater gender equality. She leads the UK Women’s Network and ensures that gender parity is managed across the different areas within the UK office. She is a co-author of multiple articles, her recent one being in the space of retail banking and how important it is to reincarnate in this digital era.

Ramyani is an engineer who earned an MBA with distinction from IMD Switzerland. Before joining A.T. Kearney, she worked for Infosys, which has given her a magnitude of technology experience across multiple sectors. Beyond work, Ramyani is a doting mother to a little girl. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, cooking, traveling, singing, and enjoying life to its fullest.

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 7 Speakers

Tim Ehinger is chief counsel international in the general counsel’s office of American Express. He was born and raised in the Midwestern United States and has spent most of his adult life working in Europe with large multinational companies. He studied German and political science at Earlham College before pursuing legal studies at Indiana University in Bloomington and then in Germany as part of the German Academic Exchange Service. Prior to joining American Express, Tim held European counsel roles at General Motors and General Electric, Tim J. Ehinger supporting these companies’ financial services arms from their Senior Vice President European headquarters in Zurich and London, respectively. He is a and Chief Counsel member of the State Bar of Michigan and the Law Society of England International, General and Wales. In his 13 years at American Express, Tim has built industry- Counsel’s Organization, leading expertise in payment services law at a time of unprecedented American Express regulatory change in the card payments sector. He regularly engages with national and European policymakers on regulatory developments affecting payment services. At American Express, he leads the company’s legal team supporting all business outside the United States, including card-related operations as well as travel, foreign exchange, and loyalty program services.

Heather Melville is the Royal Bank of Scotland’s director for strategic partnerships and head of business inclusion initiatives. She is an innovative banker with more than 30 years of experience in financial sales and marketing in a variety of global organizations. Her achievements include the sale of the first global payments licenses for major Asian and US banks. In September 2016, she was appointed to the Chartered Management Institute’s board and as chair of the advisory committee. She is also the non-executive director for Heather P. Melville Enterprise Enfield, a government-backed social enterprise. Director for Strategic Heather is a diversity and inclusion leader and the founder and global Partnerships and Head of Business Inclusion chair of RBS Focused Women’s Network. She has been recognized in Initiatives, Commercial the Financial Times, the 2016 UPstanding 100 Leading Ethnic Minority and Private Banking, Executives, the 2017 EMpower 100 Ethnic Minority Leaders, and the Royal Bank of Scotland 2017 HERoes Top 50 Champions of Women in Business. In 2017, she was recognized with an Order of the British Empire for her services to gender equality.

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 8 Speakers

Maureen Penfold is the managing partner of Kingston Smith. Since joining the firm in 1982, she has seen the organization’s development over the years—becoming a partner in 1990 and managing partner in 2016. Her role now concentrates on helping clients and employees reach their potential as well as leading the firm’s growth strategy. She believes that people are at the core of the business, and whether it be clients, partners, or employees, it is all about relationships and nurturing those to empower people. As managing partner, Maureen Maureen Penfold propelled the Kingston Smith Brand Charter Project, emphasizing the Managing Partner, firms’ brands and values—throughout decisions, activities, and Kingston Smith communication for the entire firm: commitment, enterprising, enhancing, fresh, potential, empowering, and business building. These principles have been the foundation of the firm for many years and underpin the culture of the workplace and a collaborative workforce. There is an open-door policy throughout the firm and an emphasis on social activities that involve everyone in the business. Maureen values the firm’s composition; a core aspect of the firm has always been hiring school leavers and graduates, promoting entirely on merit and encouraging people to take responsibility for their work and strive for a culture of delivery at all levels. Diversity and inclusion within the firm have developed organically over the years, and it shows: the firm’s Gender Pay Gap Report, which shows figures significantly lower than those of the UK economy as a whole, shows that Kingston Smith is the most gender-diverse practice in the top 20. The firm celebrates this diverse workforce, which enables innovation and blue-sky thinking to come to the fore and aligns people’s aspirations to the success of the firm.

To her clients, Maureen is their business partner, advocate, and adviser. As a chartered accountant, adviser, and audit practitioner with more than 30 years’ experience advising entrepreneurial businesses, she has guided owner–managers through all stages of development—from start-up to growth, through crisis management and on to their ultimate sale, or passing down to the next generation. Her expertise in helping clients implement growth strategies in the United Kingdom and internationally, with her hands-on style, is a tremendous asset. In her spare time, she is a school governor and a director of West London Business. Her family is the balance to her work life; luckily, both include good food and wine.

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 9 Speakers

Sophia Skinner is vice president and general manager for American Express Travel and Lifestyle Services, leading a network of more than 2,500 employees in 21 international countries outside of the United States. This team serves super premium card members around the world, creating memorable travel and lifestyle experiences as part of the core product value proposition. The Travel and Lifestyle Services experience is a multichannel capability—predominantly phone and e-mail—with an increasing online presence in 13 international markets Sophia Skinner as well as face-to-face capability through the Centurion Relationship Vice President and Manager model and select travel partners around the world. General Manager, American Express Travel Before joining Travel and Lifestyle Services, Sophia was the vice and Lifestyle Services, president of customer acquisition for OPEN, the small-business American Express division at American Express. She led this team through the US financial crisis from 2008 to 2010 and was instrumental in ensuring that OPEN continued to meet evolving customer needs while profitably acquiring new customers during this challenging period. She was also involved in building the Small Business Advocacy platform, which has become a hallmark of the OPEN brand, supporting entrepreneurs across the United States with development networking events and programs such as Small Business Saturday.

Sophia joined American Express in Brighton, UK, in 1992 and has held leadership positions in marketing, operations, and information management in both the United Kingdom and the United States. She earned a bachelor’s degree in international trade and finance from Louisiana State University and a business studies diploma from Bradford University in England. She lives outside of London with her three children: 12-year-old Henry and 10-year-old twins, Charlotte and William.

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 10 Speakers

In 2009, after growing her marketing firm, Century Marketing, for 10 years, Rehmah Kasule shifted from building brands to shifting minds and started Century Entrepreneurship Development Agency-CEDA International, a non-profit organization focusing on education, leadership, mentoring, entrepreneurship, youth employment, gender equality, and countering violent extremism. A strong believer that education breaks intergenerational poverty, Rehmah has inspired, mentored, and skilled more than 38,000 youth and women to reframe Rehmah Kasule their thinking to confidently take charge of their lives and lead change President and in their communities. Her work was recognized by President Barack Founder, Century Obama in 2010, and she won The International Alliance for Women World Entrepreneurship of Difference 100 Awards 2011 and the Goldman Sachs–Fortune Global Development Agency Women Leaders Award 2014. Named the country winner for Africa’s Most Influential Women in Welfare and Civil Society Organizations 2016, Amanda Ellis, an international gender specialist, described Rehmah as “an African lighthouse” that is guiding the future generation.

Rehmah is a fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, KAICIID international fellow, Synergos senior fellow, Vital Voices lead fellow, a global ambassador for #LetGirlsLearn, and former president of the Rotary Club of Kampala-Impala. She is an author of the book From Gomba to the White House: the Journey of an African Woman Entrepreneur. Currently a student of peace, conflict, and development at the University of Bradford, Rehmah is also on the Think Tank for Peace, Security, and Mediation for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation promoting positive impact of religion on sustainable development.

Rehmah has a wealth experience in strategic planning, gender diversity and mainstreaming, international trade, leadership development, branding, and marketing communication. As a private-sector development consultant, she has consulted with International Trade Centre, African Development Bank, and European Investment Bank. She spearheaded the designing of the National Export Strategy Gender Dimension, which has increased women exporters in Uganda. Rehmah is involved with New Faces New Voices, a Graça Machel Trust initiative that promotes financial inclusion for women. To pay it forward, she mentors women leaders to become CEOs, get involved with politics, and join boards. A strong believer in collaborative actions, her mantra is “when you walk alone, you go very fast, but when you take others, you go very far.”

2018 International Women’s Day Forum 11 Speakers

Nigyar Makhmudova is the president of Global Pet Nutrition, a division of Mars Petcare. She has been a member of the global pet-care executive team since 2009. Her biggest passion in business is driving growth of category, business, brands, and people. She leads a team of more than 18,000 associates across more than 60 countries, feeding more pets than the next three global competitors combined. The global pet nutrition portfolio includes 34 brands, including the world’s number one dog food brand, Pedigree, and the number one cat food Nigyar Makhmudova brand, Whiskas. Other leading brands include Iams, Cesar, Sheba, Global President of Nutro, Temptations, and Dreamies. Consumer Nutrition, Mars Petcare Nigyar joined Mars in 1998 in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Prior to her current role, she held leadership roles at national, regional, and global levels, including regional president for Mars Petcare Europe, chief marketing officer for global pet care, and regional president for Russia. In every role, she overdelivered on business targets, developed strong partnerships with customers and suppliers, drove an e-commerce business transformation, and built strong and diverse talent pipeline.

Nigyar earned an MBA from Nottingham University, a master’s degree in biochemistry, and a PhD in molecular biology from Moscow State University in Russia. A native of Azerbaijan, she and her family are based out of London and have lived in five countries across three continents.

Konstantinos Apostolatos is a partner with A.T. Kearney, where he leads the global Strategy & Top-Line Transformation Practice. With a wealth of experience working with CEOs and leadership teams for major multinational companies, he has led strategic transformations in a wide variety of industries, especially consumer products, retail, and healthcare. Kos is based in A.T. Kearney’s London office. Before rejoining the firm in 2014, he held senior leadership positions in advisory business and set up and led a privately held venture capital Kos Apostolatos company. Konstantinos earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial and Partner and Global Head systems engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in of Strategic & Top-Line Atlanta and a master’s degree in management from Boston University Transformation, in Massachusetts. A.T. Kearney

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