Women as Leaders

Venue: Lancaster London Hotel, Hyde Park
Date: Wednesday 9 November 2011
Time: 9.00am - 5.00pm

The IoD's Women as Leaders conference provides the insight and knowledge for identifying and developing tomorrow's business leaders. Concentrating on the issues affecting senior business women working in the UK today, this conference is fundamental to enhancing your corporate business performance and company growth.

This one-day conference gives you the opportunity to meet the very women who are inspiring, revitalizing and transforming business worldwide, despite the global recession. Hear the personal success stories that have made these women some of the UK's highest female achievers.

Speakers

Nikki Hesford - Founder, Miss Fit
Nicki Hesford is a 25 year old, single mum and award-winning entrepreneur. The ex-glamour model, who grew up in a deprived area of Rochdale and had a child at 17, put herself through university before launching the business in 2008 to include clothing, lingerie and swimwear for big-busted ladies which she now supplies to the high street stores. She has also enjoyed a number of other successes including OFTSED childcare centre Lancaster Playschemes, which she set up and sold within six months.

Rachel Clacher - Co-founder & Director, Moneypenny
Deciding to leave her successful marketing & PR career behind Clacher and her brother decided to start-up a business in 2000. With a humble £15,000 of capital and a clear vision Moneypenny is now one of the UK's biggest independent employers UK's market leader in outsourced reception and telephone answering services, annually handling in excess of 6m calls on behalf of more than 3,500 companies across the UK.

Ruby McGregor-Smith - Chief Executive, MITIE Group
McGregor-Smith became part of MITIE Group in 2006 and was promoted from Chief Finance Officer to Chief Executive within five years, making her the first female Asian FTSE-250 Chief Executive.

Since joining the organisation the group's profits have increased consistently year-on-year, despite the recession, McGregor has managed to grow the group revenues from £935m in 2006 to £1.7bn last year.

Dame Fiona Reynolds DBE, Director-General of The National Trust
She has been Director-General of the National Trust since January 2001. Before taking up the post she was Director of the Women's Unit in the Cabinet Office and was previously Director of the Council for the Protection of Rural England (now Campaign to Protect Rural England) and Secretary to the Council for National Parks.

Justine Roberts - Co-founder, Mumsnet
Ex-sports journalist Justine Roberts conceived the idea of Mumsnet in 2000 after a 'family-friendly' holiday turned out to be anything but. She thought the internet would be a perfect place to swap this kind of info and roped in Carrie Longton, a TV producer and friend from antenatal class, to help set up a website where parents and parents-to-be could share their know-how on the net.

Dee Forbes, Executive Vice President & Managing Director of Discovery Networks for UK & Western Europe
Forbes has worked her way up the corporate ladder to the highest levels of one of the world’s most successful media companies. Managing 18 factual and entertainment brands Dee looks after a footprint that reaches nearly 270m cumulative subscribers in 18 countries and territories across Europe including the UK, Italy, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands.

Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba - Commonwealth Secretariat Deputy Secretary-General
Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba advises and reports to the Secretary General on Political Affairs, Human Rights, Youth Affairs, Legal and Constitutional Affairs. Previously she served as the Chief Executive Officer of Botswana's Investment Promotion Agency (BEDIA). Under her leadership, the BEDIA achieved consistent growth and facilitated strategic investment projects. In the same period, she established representative offices, in Johannesburg and London. She started and launched the first ever Global Business Exhibition. Masire-Mwamba has served on several boards in the fields of tourism, business, civil aviation, and banking among others. She is an Assistant Patron Women's Shelter and Chairman BOCCIM, National Business Council

Rebecca George OBE, Partner, Deloitte
Working across all the specialist areas in Deloitte since September 2006, Rebecca George brings together people to address operational, stakeholder management and policy challenges in the public sector.

Before joining Deloitte, George spent nearly 20 years at IBM, where she led business process re-engineering projects and implemented new business models. She previously chaired the Women in IT Forum.

Sharon Pickford, Head of SMB Marketing, O2

As Head of SMB Marketing at O2, Sharon’s top priority is to ensure that customers are given the best possible experience. It’s that focus on customers that has ranked O2 highest in customer satisfaction for both UK mobile and fixed broadband. Sharon is passionate about helping small businesses succeed and has been at the forefront of a bold move into broader communications. By understanding technology and listening to customer insight Sharon is transforming the brand and creating new opportunities for growth.

Sharron Gunn, Director, Member Services, ICAEW

Sharron Gunn leads a large team responsible for ICAEW’s member strategies, commercial initiatives, its advisory services, a jobs website, world-class library and the institute’s business and event facilities in London. Sharron is also ICAEW’s spokesperson on the development of women in the accountancy profession.

At the Treasury Select Committee’s inquiry into women in the City, Sharron gave evidence on how female chartered accountants are treated in the UK’s financial sector. Calling for co-ordinated action from the profession and government, she highlighted the inequalities and challenges that women face. She explained how ICAEW supports its female members and spoke of other measures being taken by the major accountancy firms.

Benefits of attending

• Learn the strategies for reaching the top of the corporate ladder and how mentoring can assist you in getting there.
• Enjoy and engage in lively debate and interact in open networking sessions scheduled throughout the day.
• Benefit from lessons from our speakers, offering you inspiration on future goals and how to achieve them.
• Gain insight into the gender remuneration debate and the current pay gap between male and female directors.
• Debate how to achieve a work/life balance and how to recruit, manage and retain female staff.

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