Inspirational Women

Birgit Neu is Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Development, Global Banking and Markets at HSBC. Named Mentor of the Year at the 2009 Women of the Future awards, Birgit is heavily involved in gender balance initiatives at HSBC as co-chair of its ‘Balance’ employee network. She joined HSBC in 2007 and has also held other senior [...]

Britt Lintner, armed with a degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin, has held executive roles in finance for the last 15 years, predominantly at Lehman Brothers in New York and London and currently as a Principal in the Asset Allocation Group at Man/GLG in London. In 2005, Britt completed an MA in Fine [...]

The Greek foody Elisavet Sotiriadou is selling out on her Greek Cookery Classes and Greekfoodlovers’ Supper Club. At the cookery class she’s teaching Londoners the wonders of Greek food and products and in a very hands-on style how to cook a delicious Greek meal and then eat it. And if you don’t like to cook [...]

Gibbs S3, also known as GS3, is a privately held, certified woman-owned business enterprise (WBE) founded in 2005 by CEO Farida Gibbs. Headquartered in Surrey, Gibbs S3 is an international provider of IT Staffing, IT Consulting and IT Resource Solutions in the UK, with operations in the US and Europe. Gibbs S3 is a tier [...]

A passionate, professional and artistically creative makeup artist, Julia has a long list of credentials that put her at the top spot of her profession. Her attention to finite detail and ability to produce flawless complexions has resulted in her contribution to numerous worldwide beauty campaigns with global brands such as Olay, Dove and Head [...]

Julia Robertson is the Managing Director of Tate Recruitment. Tate recruitment has 21 offices and have been running since 1985. Tate Recruitment has been voted by the Sunday Times as ‘Best Companies to work for’ in 2007 and 2008. Tate achieved the coveted ‘Two Star Status’, which means it has been graded as ‘outstanding’. We [...]

Val Corbett, Director, Hoxton Apprentice; Associate Director, Training for Life. Director Hoxton Apprentice Born in Cape Town, Val Corbett has had a career in the media spanning national newspapers, magazines and BBC television. She was founder director of an independent TV production company producing several programmes for BBC TV and Channel 4. After that she [...]

Louisa Barnett is the MD & founder of Butterfly, the exquisite hair and make-up boutique in the City of London.   In 2008, after more than a decade of working in the corporate world, Louisa realised there was an opportunity for something she had sought for years: a place to go to be revived and transformed [...]

Louise Cox Chester worked for many years at Director level as an investment analyst, global equity research and investment head for some of the world’s leading investment banks. However, her passion for wanting to help people to achieve their full potential – through both business and personal development – led her in 2004 to found [...]

Nisa Chitakasem has been involved in numerous new company ventures including an IPTV business, executive coaching business and mydeco, created by the team that started lastminute.com.  Nisa helps people get the support they need to achieve what they want and deserve.  She believes that too many people are left with inadequate support and, therefore, get [...]

Prue Leith started her catering company Leith’s Good Food and opened the Michelin starred restaurant Leith’s in the sixties. In the seventies she added Leith’s School of Food and Wine, and by the time she sold the three businesses in the nineties she employed 500 people and turned over £15million. Since then she has opened a training restaurant and catering [...]

Alison is a writer, speaker and conference moderator, who specialises in leadership, women in business, corporate responsibility and the changing world of work.  A former Financial Times journalist, she is co-author of the acclaimed book Why Women Mean Business: Understanding the emergence of our next economic revolution.    Alison is Director of The Conference Board’s European [...]

What made you decide to set up your company? I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. At 7 I was selling Blakes 7 wristbands that I had made to other infant school pupils…Mrs Vousden wasn’t impressed! I did start a coaching practice in 2001 alongside my corporate role and went fully self employed in 2004. [...]

Barbara Campbell is founder and director of Barbwire Enterprises. What made you decide to set up your company? When my son was 5 years old I wanted to take him to the theatre. We’d done the Jack and the Beanstalk stuff, and I’d even taken him to Opera’s (I do like that kind of entertainment [...]

Christina knows all about perseverence and how to overcome  the challenges faced with on a day to day basis. That is why Christina setup Aquitude to provide others with inspiration and guidance on how to be successful in this climate.  We speak with Christina regularly and Aquitude also provide WATC members with some great articles. [...]

With over 20 years in the Financial Services Industry.  Christine is currently the Chair of Women in Banking and Finance where she is responsible for building effective strategic relationships with corporate sponsors and principal partners, for budget and governance, and for ensuring the delivery of WIBF programmes to a high standard. Previously she was a Consultant with [...]

Why did you take this career path and how did you get to where you are today? I fell into project management: I had no idea that such a job existed. When I left university I joined the American Express graduate training scheme. One of my placements was in the Business Engineering division and I [...]

Kate Starkey, spent five years working for a Mens’ tailor in London.  It was whilst surrounded by the strongly male dominated tailoring world, that Kate felt there was a missing piece in this market. After a year of market research Kate founded Kate Starkey Couture, a rapidly expanding women’s tailoring firm based in the City [...]

Mouth2Mouth are a relatively new voice over agency based in W1. Voice Over Agencies supply all the voices you hear on commercials, virals, games, promos even those corporate training DVD’s you sit through at work along with documentaries and cartoons – ANYTHING that needs a voice!!   Hayley Criddle and Donna-Marie Allsop have been friends since [...]

Heather White has been described not so much as a person but as a phenomenon.  As an authority on networking she sweeps aside much of the nonsense and focuses on what is authentic, practical and produces long term results. Her speaking approach is direct, interactive and fun. She gets straight to the issues which hold [...]

Izabel Grindal is chair of the Reuters professional women’s network.  Below she shares her tips having set up a very successful women’s network from scratch. Why did you take this career path and how did you get to where you are today? I trained as a journalist and joined Reuters because they are one of [...]

Julie Hurst’s career background is in international business.  Her keen interest in fashion and style was a personal passion until a fellow short course student at the London College of Fashion encouraged her to consider personal styling full time.  After successfully completing formal style and image training at London’s leading image training centre at the [...]

Justine Trueman is author of “Detox your Finances” – The Ultmate Book of Money Matters for Women.  Justine lives in Paris so we were very lucky to spend some time with Justine to understand how the book evolved and why it is so relevant at the moment What made you decide to write a book? [...]

Karen Stuart works as a IT Global Service Delivery Manager in the City.  When she is not in the City, she spends a majority of her time travelling around the world for her clients. Karen was born in South Africa and is married with 2 children and commutes from Colchester, Essex. Why did you take [...]

Some of you may have seen Kubi either at one of our events interviewing people or perhaps on the TV. If you have not met Kubi before then you have missed out on one of the most energetic and passionate people we have ever met.  Kubi has been spending a great deal of time filming [...]

Lorna Rogers is 33 years-old and lives in Witham. She has been working as a carer with EPIC Children’s Respite Service since it began in 2004. EPIC is partly funded by Little Havens Children’s Hospice and provides respite breaks in a child’s home. Lorna was recently Highly Commended in the Individual Category at The Association [...]

Lorraine Cussen is the highest ranking female officer in the City of London. We asked Lorraine to give us an insight into her career and to impart her experience for the benefit of our members.  Lorraine certainly knows how to survive in a male dominated industry, however the length of time it took her to [...]

Lynne Cantor is President of the WIBFS-C, Toastmasters. Lynne has extensive professional experience and is also a member of the Toastmasters association.  Through her extensive skills and City experience, she is able to help members of the group to improve their public speaking skills and build their confidence when addressing large audiences. Toastmasters run sessions [...]

Maggie Berry is the managing director of Women in Technology.  Maggie has been a mentor to the WeAreTheCity Team and has given guidance and advice to us.  We took some of her valuable time (once again) to ask her a few questions What made you decide to set up your website? The website was set [...]

Mavis Amankwah has been described as ‘a trailblazer and pioneer in her field’. She is the managing director Rich Visions, a marketing and PR agency, and is also the founder of NV Fashion and Beauty. A former journalist, IT consultant and event manager, Mavis now divides her time between running her businesses, PR coaching, raising [...]

What made you decide to set up your company? One day I simply got tired of the battle. I spent the first 15 years of my career trying to convince (mainly) white, middle aged males (who were predominantly left brained) the best way to manage a talent pool that was diverse, young and often right [...]

Nahid set up Good Vibes fitness just over 3 years ago after experiencing just a couple of sessions on a powerplate .   2 months later she opened her first studio !  Nahid is an excellent example of an inspirational women as she has followed her dream, and although she started with nothing, she invested time [...]

The Islington Chamber of Commerce appointed New Chief Executive – Ronke Lawal. Ronke joined the Chamber in early January after spending 5 years running her own business as an advisor to small businesses, mainly on business development, marketing, events and PR. With a good knowledge of the Borough, having studied for her A levels at [...]

Sam Shaw is a Vice President in Technology and is also Chair of Morgan Stanley’s Firmwide Women’s Network “Women’s First Choice”. Sam has been with Morgan Stanley since 2001, and in financial services since 1993. Why did you take this career path and how did you get to where you are today? I had two [...]

Sarah Blow developed the Girl Geek Dinner Network from discovering there was a need for like minded people to be recognised and provide a vehicle for networking with other IT professionals.  In just over 3 years from start up, Girl Geek Dinner Networking events and groups are now held around Europe, the US and Asia [...]

Suzanne Doyle-Morris, PhD is an author, academic, entrepreneur, international speaker and accredited executive coach specialising in strategic career development and leadership coaching for high-potential executive women.   She is International Coach Federation accredited and is a member of the Professional Speakers Association.  She is one of the world’s top experts on gender equality, diversity in the [...]

Inspirational Women Profile – Charmian Ingham – Speech & Voice Coach – Omega Age Charmian Ingham is a Speech and Voice Consultant who helps individuals and teams attain vocal confidence and deliver effective communication. Having developed a creative and highly effective Programme with proven methods and techniques, Charmian delivers real results for those wishing to [...]

Nicky Moffat is the highest ranked woman in the British army. She has excelled in all kinds of things during a near 30-year career that might still take her to the very top of the military. But giving interviews is not one of them. In fact, this is her first – and there are certain [...]

Sheryl Sandberg was once in a meeting in New York, pitching a deal, when she needed a bathroom break. Embarrassed, the man to whom she was pitching had to admit he had no idea where the women’s bathroom was. Sandberg wondered whether they had just moved in to the office. No, came the reply, they [...]