Women Entrepreneurs Summit in collaboration with Women on Boards

Dauda Barry is a computer scientist, an angel investor and the director of Alidasoft.
Alidasoft is an IT consultancy and training provider and a certified AWS and Salesforce partner.
Dauda Barry is passionate about providing expertise in the use of technology in business and helping businesses achieve maximum IT efficiency and growth.

Dr Kristen Weatherby’s 25-year career has included leadership roles in some of the largest global public and private sector players in technology, education and government policy, including Microsoft and the OECD.

As a consultant she helped set up and run two UCL-affiliated edtech accelerators in London and worked with start-ups throughout Europe and the Americas. After working as an advisor to the French government and seeing firsthand the support they provide to female founders, she was inspired to develop Breakthrough Labs, an accelerator and online community supporting female-founded technology startups.

Faye Long is Regional Director for NatWest Group and is responsible for leading teams of Relationship Managers who support NatWest business customers across London and the South-East. Faye has had a varied career with NatWest working in Commercial teams and also in HR through many different roles.

Faye’s passion is supporting entrepreneurs to champion their potential to help them achieve their ambitions at whatever point they are on their journey.

In her spare time Faye is a Trustee for an Autism charity which helps provide early intervention for young children who are Autistic.

Fiona is the CEO of Women on Boards UK alongside advising a number of different boards and organisations. Currently she is an Advisory Panel Member for the FRC (Financial Reporting Council), advisor to Peel Hunt (mid-cap stockbroker) and Chair of Hanx‘s Nominations Committee (FMCG start-up).

She is an expert in the areas of Governance, Regulation and Talent Management who has sat on both marketing and audit & finance committees. Fiona was formerly a director for Hill Samuel Asset Management. She has advised the board of the Thai Euro Fund and is a Judge for the Non Executive Director Awards, sponsored by The Sunday Times.

In 2020 Fiona joined King’s College London’s ‘Global Institute for Women’s Leadership‘ Advisory Board.

Helen is Co Founder of Lifted Ventures, an early stage investment connector which makes regional funding accessible to all, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, neuro or physical diversity. Lifted has an angel network at its core alongside education, community and consultancy.
She is a Board member of the UKBAA, and a member of the Treasury Women Angel Investment taskforce.
Up until June 2023 she was a Founding Board Director of multi award winning NorthInvest, and in 2020 she founded Fund Her North, a collective of women in VCs who support female founders to get equal access to finance.
Prior to this Helen was MD of the Yorkshire Post and The Scotsman.

Jenny Tooth OBE is Executive Chair of UK Business Angels Association UKBAA, the trade body for angel and early-stage investment in the UK that she established in 2012 where she was CEO until 2020. UKBAA supports and builds the angel and early-stage ecosystem across the UK with 96 angel groups, representing over 18,000 Angels, together with VC Funds, online platforms, accelerators and a range of wider organisations.

Jenny is an Angel investor herself and brings over 30 years’ experience of supporting businesses to access investment. Before setting up UKBAA, Jenny ran her own strategic innovation consultancy operating in London and Brussels and also co-founded Angel Capital Group, incorporating London Business Angels which was sold to Newable in 2017.

Kimberley Abbott is CEO and founder of Vested Impact, a ground-breaking FinTech with a mission to ‘redefine “millionaire” to be a person who impact millions of lives' through their platform that automatically assesses and quantifies the positive and negative effects of companies' products, services and activities on people and the planet.

Kimberley is an engineer, previously working for the United Nations, leading the IT development and implementation of the data platform responsible for assessing and monitoring the effectiveness of the UN’s $8Bn peacekeeping operations.
Kimberley has been named; 2023 NatWest and Telegraph’s 100 Entrepreneurs to watch, 2022 Standout45 in Women in Fintech PowerList, UBS’s global Female Founder award winner in 2022, 2017 UK’s Top 50 Women in Engineering, 2018 Engineers Australia’s Most Innovative Engineers, and Australia’s 100 Most Influential Women.

Maggie leads Heart of the City, a charity that supports SMEs to develop responsible business practices ranging from implementing net zero programmes, supporting their local community to promoting inclusion and wellbeing in the workplace. Since its inception twenty years ago, Heart of the City has been at the forefront of helping small businesses to build successful responsible business programmes.

Maggie was previously Executive Director for Europe for WEConnect International, a global organisation championing supply chain inclusion by helping women-owned businesses to connect into corporate supply chains. Maggie had lead responsibility for the organisation in Europe and her role involved developing corporate and public sector support as well as growing and supporting a network of women-owned businesses across Europe.

Prior to this, Maggie ran an online job board, recruitment and networking forum for women working in the technology profession in the UK. Maggie remains informally involved with championing women in the technology profession and is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.

In June 2019, Maggie was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in recognition of her services to women in business and technology.

Marla is the Founder and CEO of the HERmesa angel syndicate. Marla launched the group in early 2020 with two distinct missions:
• To give more women a seat at the table as angel investors
• To invest more money in women co-founded startups
She has grown the syndicate from 5 women to over 170 and they have collectively invested in 21 women led startups.

Prior to launching HERmesa, Marla worked for nearly 20 years for media & technology companies in operational roles as a strategist, business development director, sales lead and COO. The companies ranged from large multi -nationals, such as the Financial Times & Zee TV, to small media tech start-ups in the U.K. & Europe (companies ranged from pre-seed to Series A). Marla spent the early years of her career working on Wall Street & the City at firms, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and NatWest, in structured finance roles.

Elisabeth Mainelli is married to Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli who took office as
Lord Mayor of London on 10 November 2023.
After completing a GIA diamond grading course, she assisted in setting up the German
operations for a Hatton Garden diamond business, including organising virtual offices in
Hamburg, Vienna and Zurich before becoming the German voice for the company’s
German, Austrian and Swiss customers.
Elisabeth was Michael’s consort during his year as Master World Trader in 2017-2018 and
they were co-Chairmen for the 2017 British Red Cross Christmas Market in Guildhall. She
was Shrieval Consort from 2019 to 2021, an unusual two-year period due to the pandemic.
Elisabeth is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Masons and a Freeman Honoris
Causa of the Worshipful Company of World Traders.
Elisabeth is a patron of Prevent VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) and wants to
help raise awareness of this issue and support initiatives that are tackling them.

Peju is a CEO and Board Director with expertise across multiple sectors, from Industrials to Renewable Energy and Agriculture, including high-growth start-ups, multinational corporations, PE backed companies and private companies. Her experience includes B2B and consumer-businesses.

She sits on the Board of Wolseley (PE backed) and Ibstock (FTSE listed); and was CEO Mouka (UK PE backed), MD of Lafarge Africa (French/ Swiss listed multinational), and CEO Lumos (HK VC backed).

Her early experience was in consulting with BCG and in finance with Citicorp. She holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College and a Harvard MBA.
In 2023, she was shortlisted for the “NED to watch category” for the UK NED awards and recognized in the Business Leader magazine February 2023 edition - Top 33 business influencers list. Other recognitions include Cranfield University’s 2021 "100 Women to Watch" list, LinkedIn's 2021 "UK Top 10 Green Voices, 2015 CNBC Africa Businesswoman of the Year, and the 2013 Harvard Business School Nigeria Leadership Award.

Rosie Bichard has many years’ experience as a buy-side analyst and fund manager, covering consumer and retail businesses globally, who has frequently advised management and boards on critical strategic issues such as M&A, capital allocation, remuneration and dividend policy, ESG and digital transformation.

She is passionate about business strategy, governance and sustainability. Today, Rosie is a Non-Executive Director of two of UBS Asset Management’s UK subsidiaries and Chair of its UK Audit Committee. She is also a member of Royal London’s Independent Governance Committee, responsible for oversight of its workplace pensions schemes especially value for money for consumers. In addition, she serves on several non-profit boards.

Sophia Ufy Ukor is the founder and CEO of Violet Simon, a media company that amplifies women's voices through storytelling, fostering inclusion, equitable equality and a safe space where women's voices are heard.

She has 14-year entrepreneurial journey and a background in English, Law, Fashion and PR, and professionally qualified as a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Through her work and collaborations recognised by global platforms like BBC, UN Women UK, Global Citizen, House of Lords, and Forbes, Sophia pioneers safe and inclusive spaces for women. Her collaborations bridge gaps, amplify women’s voices, and drive positive change.

Her impactful work has garnered awards and accolades for excellence in media and has seen her recognised as one of the top influential change-makers and inclusion champions making significant impact across the UK.

Stiliyana is a fully qualified architect and a healthcare designer, who’s dedicated her career path to women’s health since 2015 when she unexpectedly fell pregnant with her first daughter whilst completing her Masters in Architecture at the Royal College of Art.

She lives and breathes design and she strongly believes that design has the power to equally make and break us and if we get it right from the outset, it can be a complete game-changer to many, if not all, societal, economic and political issues.

She founded Matrix upon completion of her Masters in Healthcare and Design with Imperial College London last year and ever since, she’s been driving this as a mission-driven project and now a business, which she is committed to fully.

Vanessa Dal Busco is Chair of IoD Glass Ceiling Group, Vice Chair IoD International Trade Group, Senior Vice President at Aldgate Ward Club, Liveryman and on the livery committee at Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights and studying her Master of Arts in Serious and Violent Crime researching Violence Against Women and Girls. Vanessa is CEO of Ad Lumin which works with leading brands and people on purpose driven communications.

Yvonne is Director of Women in Business for NatWest Group and is responsible for designing, implementing and driving its Women in Business Strategy across the UK. Yvonne’s passion to understand and change the landscape for female entrepreneurs is breaking down barriers. She is directly enabling women worldwide to access better finance, networking, learning and growth, and inspiring those in this sector to support each other.

Yvonne is an experienced Non-Executive Director and holds a number of external Board positions, she is Chair and a trustee of Firstport, Non- Executive Director of Impact Investment Partnership Scotland; Chair and Non-Executive Director of the Growth Company Business Finance.