TOP 10 EXCEPTIONAL INCLUSION
Amisha Wilde
Amisha is a learning and organisational development professional with a passion for coaching and developing others. She has worked as a professional internal coach for more than 15 years and has set up a number of successful internal coaching programmes. Her aim is to democratise coaching, increase the diversity in coaching pools and contribute to the wider coaching profession.
In her current role she is accountable for identifying and developing talent at emerging leader and senior leader level. In an organisation that has low diversity, she is passionate about ensuring under-represented talent is identified, developed and mobilised.
Arfan Bhatti
Arfan Bhatti is a seasoned DE&I professional with over a decade of experience across multiple sectors, including workforce DE&I as well as community engagement. As Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at King’s College Hospital, one of London’s largest and busiest NHS Trusts, Arfan leads the DE&I strategy for nearly 15,000 employees across multiple sites, overseeing a multicultural workforce of whom at least 55 per cent identify as an ethnic minority, and a local South East London population of more than 1.5 million people.
Cordelia Johnney
Cordelia has more than 30 years of professional experience and has been an inspirational Stonewater colleague since 2013.
She has championed initiatives that have built an inclusive culture including an Equality Impact Assessment Toolkit, a Reverse Mentoring Programme for senior leaders and the Opportunity Pledge, supporting women and people of colour into leadership.
She is extremely proud that her work has led to Stonewater being in the Top 10 of the Investing in Ethnicity Maturity Matrix in both the Outstanding Employer and Employee Network category in consecutive years.
Cordelia has achieved this while battling an ongoing disability, which has never dented her passion for DE&I.
Helen Choudhury
Helen has worked for more than 20 years in diversity and inclusion. In early 2022, she launched ten employee networks for the Music Publishing Sector. The networks cover new areas such as menopause and social mobility. Helen also produced a guidance on menopause, menstruation and miscarriage to help support employees going through certain life stages and provide support at work. Under her leadership, the MPA now has three women chairs (one of whom is disabled and another is Black) on all three major boards. Helen runs a number of projects including the NXT Gen programme, which prepares young people from Black and socially marginalised backgrounds for the music sector through mentoring and training.
Iman Abdi
Iman joined Sodexo in 2023 and works within the DE&I team, helping drive forward the DE&I agenda for the UK and Ireland region. With a strong academic interest in race and leadership, Iman is a promising voice passionate about advancing the debate surrounding race inclusion in the workplace. She played a pivotal role in the success of the inaugural year of the business by supporting the 10,000 Black internship programme in 2023, where 24 interns were each offered a six-week work placement. Iman developed an extensive programme supporting the interns in all aspects of their placement, including mentoring and professional development, which contributed to 33 per cent (eight interns) securing roles within the business.
Jacquline Alcindor
Jacquline is a DE&I specialist and her current position is Global Diversity and Inclusion Programme Partner at Legal & General Asset Management. Her role and remit includes creating global strategic DE&I plans, goals and programmes aligned to asset management business priorities.
Jacquline currently works with a variety of internal and external stakeholders such as talent, acquisition, distribution, communications, employee networks, HR business leadership teams and asset management executive leaders as well as external partners to ensure that all activities are aligned to delivering the DE&I strategy.
Prior to working in DE&I, Jacquline was a banker.
Margaret Zimunhu
Margaret has been involved in numerous activities over many years. Recently she has been co-chair of the multicultural network within her organisation, making her instrumental in organising events to celebrate, educate and showcase the talent available, including bring in external speakers from diverse backgrounds. Among other things she is passionate about ensuring that young people from diverse backgrounds can experience and learn about roles and opportunities in financial services through the work experience and internship programmes run within her teams.
Samantha Owo
Sam is a senior DE&I lead at Lloyds Banking Group, which was the first FTSE 100 company to establish an ethnicity goal to improve the representation in senior positions to reflect the society we serve. Her leadership of the ethnicity agenda embodies a commitment to fostering an inclusive culture, increased and retention of ethnically diverse talent, earning recognition as an ‘Outstanding Employer’ in multiple Investing in Ethnicity Awards, a testament to an intentional strategic approach, and the planning and impact of key initiatives. Sam is driven by progress through actionable strategies and empowering leaders and their people to cultivate an equitable and inclusive environment that values ethnically diverse talent.
Tara Forde
Tara is Experian’s Head of HR Business Partnering and Organisational Effectiveness and is a seasoned technology industry HR leader. Tara has led the DE&I strategy for Experian, having sponsored and led on multiple global diversity programs and initiatives throughout her career. Tara focuses on delivering institutional change in organisations, utilising her capacity as a C-suite partner to instigate inclusivity from hiring practices right through to ensuring equity throughout the employee lifecycle. Tara believes wholeheartedly that diverse teams, particularly in the most senior and powerful roles, deliver better outcomes and weaves this into her role as a leader and executive partner.
Tricia Lucas-Clarke
Tricia is the DE&I Lead for Global Early Talent at GSK, leading targeted DE&I programmes to challenge bias and create equity. A member of the Embrace ERG (for ethnically diverse employees), she drives change to help build a safe and inclusive workplace. She leverages her position to grow her networks and brings diverse speakers to the business, which won her an Inspirational Role Model Award. Tricia is also a member of the Institute for Student Employers (ISE), a DE&I working group, a platinum level #IAmRemarkable facilitator and a Trustee of the 93 Percent Club, who help to create social mobility across university student societies for those without social, cultural and economic capital.