PARAMOUNT TOP 10 - INSPIRATIONAL LEADERS
AALIA DATOO
Datoo grew up in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and moved to London for university. Not wanting to give up the cosmopolitan environment she found there, she went on to complete her training contract and qualify as a solicitor at Linklaters in 2008, working in the Dispute Resolution team. In April 2014, she moved to Macfarlanes. During her career, she has dedicated a significant amount of time to nurture talent from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in law and other fields. Datoo has been listed as a Rising Star by Legal 500 for three years running.
ASHRINA PARMAR
Parmar is an experienced Change Management Director who is dedicated to promoting and celebrating diversity and inclusion, globally, across medical manufacturing company Smith+Nephew. Through her chairing role of Unity UK (S+N’s race and ethnicity employee inclusion group), she has created a movement, championing a platform for all ethnic minority group voices and fostering a positive working environment. Her personal passion is in creating opportunities to mentor, inspire and develop the next generation of ethnically diverse employees, improving the paths available to them to access the workplace.
ASIF AZIZ
Aziz is an experienced senior leader in the energy utility industry with a unique breadth of knowledge, having undertaken a variety of both strategic and operational roles, including the delivery of large change projects. Since the start of his career, he has been a passionate and vocal advocate of diversity and inclusion, particularly championing ethnicity and faith. He has led an award-winning Employee Resource Group and currently is Co-Chair of Cadent’s Embrace Employee Community. He leads a strategic priority on anti-racism and is a long-standing member of the company’s ED&I Steering Group, which seeks to effect positive and sustainable change to support Cadent’s ED&I ambitions.
LEON DONALD
Donald has ten years of retail experience across big box, e-commerce, discount and telecoms with functional expertise spanning operations, commercial buying and logistics. Leon works for Tesco and is currently the Head of Buying and Supply Chain for Tesco Mobile, as well as the Black Action Project Leader for the Tesco group. Leon is a diversity, equity and inclusion ambassador and in April featured in the Times through his work to dismantle systemic racism. Donald also completed an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School in 2020 to turn his aspirations to make a difference within society into a reality.
MAXINE GODDARD
Goddard is the SVP of Strategic Distribution and Development at Sompo International, a global insurer. She also sits on the Executive Committee of the industry-wide Insurance Cultural Awareness Network (iCAN), with responsibility for partnerships and external relationships. She is also the co-chair of RATL, the Race Action Through Leadership group for senior executives and has over 25 years of international experience across insurance, banking, oil and gas, and the United Nations. Maxine is very active in D&I within the insurance industry and a mentor to others. She was the first winner of the Diversity and Inclusion in Insurance Awards as the Race Champion in 2019, and consecutively in 2020, 2021 and 2022 was listed on the Yahoo! Finance EMpower 100 Ethnic Minority Executive Role Models List which showcases business leaders who are breaking down barriers at work and working hard to smash the ceiling for ethnic minorities
NAV KHINDA
Khinda is a Senior Relationship Manager in the investment bank division of UBS, based in London, and is responsible for providing group-wide products, services and solutions to leading institutional investor clients, including asset managers, hedge funds and insurance companies. Khinda engages through UBS Global Markets business across global equities, FX, rates and credit, and investment research, and works closely with partners in global banking. Nav also partners with leaders at UBS Global Wealth Management and Asset Management in delivering-the-firm for institutional investor clients.
ONA ODILI
Odili is a Lawyer at Clifford Chance LLP and a member of the firm’s REACH network. As part of an initiative to promote talent in business, Odili mentors at Grow Mentoring and Centre for Women’s Justice. In addition, she is the founder of Q-Leap, a self-funded not-for-profit organisation that promotes the personal, academic and professional development of youth in London. The success of the programme has led to its participants winning the UN Affiliate UPF Award, the Commonwealth Award and securing training contracts, apprenticeship and internships.
RIM ADEM
Adem is an Associate Director within Investment Advisory at CBRE with more than seven years’ experience across a number of asset classes; she currently specialises in the residential sector, namely affordable housing delivery. During her time at CBRE, Adem has worked with public and private sector clients delivering solutions which have ESG at the core of their strategy. As a mental health first aider and the Co-Chair of CBRE’s REACH (Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage) Network, Adem is passionate about creating workplaces which promote inclusion and a sense of belonging in order for colleagues to thrive.
SADE OLADUGBEWO
Oladugbewo is currently a Senior PMO Manager at Vodafone working globally on their new technical career pathway. She has built a technical career over the last 25 years working on ground-breaking telecommunication developments in engineering and IT. During her career she has always felt it important to support professionals around her and has mentored apprentices, graduates and peers within the technology space as well as external professionals over her career. More recently Oladugbewo founded the Black Professional Network at Vodafone and has led on creating and driving a multicultural inclusion strategy as Chair of Vodafone Multicultural Inclusion Network.
SAHAR SHEPPERD
With more than 20 years of experience across the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, both as a scientist and a lawyer, Shepperd leads the legal team supporting the medtech businesses of Johnson & Johnson in the UK and Ireland. She also leads Empower, an initiative with the vision of ensuring equality of opportunity for all ethnically diverse talent in the UK. Under Shepperd’s leadership, Empower has matured into a well-established programme that runs awareness workshops and mentoring sessions that provide employees with the tools to further their careers within the company.