EDI – The Talent Show Where Everyone Can Win
Speakers
David Blower
Executive Director, Corporate Services, Stonewater
David has worked in the industry since 1993 and is passionate about creating high performing cultures where individuals are equipped to succeed. Initially building his career in finance he held a number of senior finance posts before moving into this wider role on the formation of Stonewater in 2015.
He leads a multi-functional team that is driving the business forward across a range of disciplines, including People, Technology, Risk and Assurance, Communications, Strategic Planning, Performance and data.
He is a Chartered Certified Accountant and holds an MBA from Warwick Business School.
Ruth Cooke
Ruth is passionate about the importance of housing and care and support services, having spent virtually her whole career working in and with housing associations.
A highly experienced chief executive and finance director, Ruth has held Chief Executive positions at Midland Heart and Clarion Housing Group, followed by two years as Group Chief Executive of GreenSquare. She has also held several senior finance positions.
Ruth has spearheaded major programmes to improve the service delivery of housing associations including the development of new corporate strategy, the transformation of financial and operational performance and the redesign and refocus of customer services.
Ruth is dedicated to ensuring that GreenSquareAccord is a brilliant landlord.
Kathy-Ann Quashie
Kathy is a respected executive leader with substantial expertise in portfolio growth, sales leadership, digital transformation and innovation. She has worked across Tech, Telecoms, Software, Retail and Banking delivering traction of operation in some of the largest and most dynamic markets.
Kathy is the Chief Growth Officer and executive committee member for Capita plc, where she is responsible for the international growth strategy for Capita’s consulting, transformation and digital services business across all market sectors. Prior to this she was at Vodafone plc leading Enterprise Indirect Partnerships, establishing c-level engagements with businesses to promote the sale of intelligent connectivity, robotics and adjacent services. Kathy drove significant growth transformation within the channel and was recognised by Capacity magazine, as Top 20 Women for doing amazing work across the industry. She previously worked for British Telecom plc as Director for Major Business, where she delivered significant performance growth and customer success. Kathy was also CEO and Chair of British Telecom Expedite, BT’s digital omni-channel retail business, where she led on the turnaround and then profitable divestment of the unit to an Equity acquirer, APAX, based in America.
Kathy has held a number of senior roles during her tenure at BT and across other Retailers and Telcos. Her commercial, customer and tech leadership during this time delivered strong revenue management and M&A assurance activity. Her success in Telco was recognised externally in 2009 by the Global Telecoms Forty under Forty top executives to watch.
Kathy has also been a key member of Tech women programs, mentoring and significantly contributed to the diversity and inclusion agenda for the companies she has worked within. For this, her combined industry leadership and performance, she was recognised externally for Woman to Watch 2019, by Cranfield University, spotlight on BAME Board future talent and more recently featured on EMpower Ethnic Minority Executive Role Model 2021. Her belief is that a truly inclusive culture will drive stronger business performance and that great leaders are great examples so its important to lead by example. Kathy holds a MBA from Heriot Watt University.
Kathy is also a Non-executive Director with Morgan Sindall Group plc.
Marjorie James FCIPD
Group Director of People, YMCA St Paul’s Group
Marjorie is an Executive Director, HR professional with over 25 years of experience. She is passionate about creating organisations where people can work within a culture that is inclusive and that enables individuals to balance their work and life effectively. She has worked for local, national and international organisations, designing and implementing human resource strategies that are aligned with corporate priorities.
She has significant expertise in the area of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, Reward and Recognition and Employee Engagement. Marjorie have procured and project managed the implementation of cloud-based HR Information Systems that have streamlined routine transactional processes such as payroll, recruitment and onboarding and absence management. She currently works for the YMCA St Paul’s Group (SPG) as the Group Director of People and Culture.
Marjorie recently completed the Leadership 2025 programme a development initiative aimed at addressing the significant lack of people from BAME backgrounds occupying C-suite or Board level positions in many of the leading Housing Associations.
In her spare time, she enjoys participating in arts and cultural activities when she’s not spending time with her grandson.
Date: 14th June 2022
Time: 13:00 – 15:30
Venue: Central London
If you would like to register your interest to attend the roundtable please click the link below.