Judging Panel 2022

Alan Leung

Macquarie

Alan is an experienced business leader in geopolitical risk and business intelligence who partners closely with internal clients to deliver strategic insights for their business problems. He and his team played a core role in Macquarie’s COVID-19 response, as well as helping clients understand the impacts of major geopolitical events. His other passion is boosting ethnic allyship in the workplace, through his role as co-chair of Fusion, Macquarie’s ethnic diversity employee network group. As co-chair, he helped grow membership, arrange race allyship workshops, ESEA heritage month and support colleagues’ BME recruitment and Black History Month initiatives.

Bernadette Thompson OBE

NHS Barts Health

Bernadette is the Associate Director of Inclusion for NHS, Barts Health. Prior to this role, she spent 23 years in the Civil Service where she held a range of operational and HR roles, across many Government departments and agencies.

She is a strategic and progressive HR professional with in-depth knowledge, insight and expertise in Diversity and Inclusion, employee engagement and cultural intelligence.
For 5 years, Bernadette co-chaired a multi-award-winning cross government race network; she is a pivotal influencer and trusted partner to senior leaders across a range of sectors.

She has a proven track record of engaging with employees at every level, reaching hearts and minds, supporting people to be the best that they can be. In the 2021 Queens Birthday Honours list, Bernadette was awarded an OBE for services to Diversity and Inclusion.

Bola Adesina

Legal & General

Bola is LGIM’s Global DEI Partner, having previously worked in Technology for 20+ years. Her drive, commitment and advocacy for DEI, cohesion and integration have led to impactful organisational culture transformation.

Bola helps formulate and execute on LGIM’s D&I strategy in alignment with our business priorities through collaborating with global stakeholders in embedding D&I into our core business.

She is founder and Co-Chair of Culture Club, fostering dialogue and creating a safe space for colleagues to share experiences, while enabling an inclusive workplace for future generations.

She is known within the industry for her inclusion work, representing LGIM on industry bodies such as the Investment Association: helping to shape an effective approach to diversity data collection. Bola was also Steerco member and now Ambassador of #talkaboutblack under the Diversity Project. She continues to bring together D&I Leads and Ethnicity Co-chairs to share best practice with the goal of effecting broader sustainable and impactful change. Bola is also a member of the Black Women in Asset Management network, who volunteers on the Impact committee

Bola is a thought-leader, speaker and an award-winning DEI Advocate, who has been instrumental in keeping DEI momentum with the support and commitment of senior leadership.

Samantha Owo

Lloyds Banking Group

Sam is the Race Action Plan Lead for Lloyds Banking Group, accountable for driving cultural change, recruitment, and progression across the Group and in the community. In an increasingly multicultural society, we can only truly become best bank for customers if our workforce reflects the ethnic diversity of the UK population.

The first FTSE 100 company to make a commitment to increase representation of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic colleagues to reflect the customers we serve. In 2020, the commitment extended to increasing Black representation in senior roles to align with the overall UK labour market.

Sam is a Non-Executive Director on the board of Ideal For All, a user-led registered charity for disabled and disadvantaged people and Chair of Governors at Meadow Primary School. Sam’s experience in financial services spans over two decades, people specialist with extensive experience in developing strategies and enhancing leaders, their teams and organisational culture.