MEET THE PANEL

 

CATHRYN WRIGHT

 

Cathryn Wright is the Managing Director of one of the UK’s fastest-growing finance firms, Sedulo, who offer holistic services including accountancy, wealth management and corporate finance. Whilst continuing to support their development and expansion into new cities and areas of business, she also acts as the Managing Partner for the Sedulo London office.

 

Prior to this, after qualifying as an accountant in industry, Cathryn worked in senior management positions in the voluntary and arts sectors and her most recent role was Managing Director of the national equality charity Stonewall, where she worked for seven years

 

 

ELOISE STONBOROUGH, 

 

Eloise started her role as Associate Director of Policy and Research at Stonewall last July, moving into the role from her previous post as Head of Operational Strategy. With her department, she continues Stonewall’s legacy of working towards legislative progress for LGBTQ+ rights across the UK. She also leads the organisations’ research team which commissions innovate research into the challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community today. Before joining Stonewall, Eloise worked as a strategy consultant in a leading boutique consulting firm in New York, which she joined after studying for a PhD in poetry and poetics. 

 

 

ALLIE FELDER

 

Allie Fleder is the COO of SimplyWise, an NYC-based fintech backed by QED and Village Global. She previously founded and ran Sherpa, a British luggage deliveryplatform for busy travelers that was acquired in 2019. Before starting her own business, she consulted for a number of VC-backed fintech and travel tech startups in London and NYC. She sits on the Board of EUROUT, Europe’s largest LGBT+ business student conference, and is also a cofounder of the Out in Tech Women’s Initiative, and a leader of Digital Corps, a quarterly LGBT+ Hackathon that builds websites for international LGBT nonprofits. She received a bachelor of arts in Latin American studies from Columbia University and an MBA from London Business School, where she was a 50th Anniversary Scholar.

 

 

JACQUI LLOYD 

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Jacqui is Senior Vice President at Citi and works as part of their Talent, Learning and Diversity team, leading on their strategy around Apprenticeships. She is also co-chair of their LGBT+ network, Pride. 

Before joining Citi,  Jacqui was the Early in Career Programme Manager at Microsoft and also helped to design and set up their Apprenticeship Programme. She was responsible for all elements of the Intern and Graduate programmes; including on-boarding, induction, training, programme delivery and pastoral care. 

Jacqui was at Microsoft for nearly 4 years, joining originally to work within the Talent Acquisition team, focussing specifically on Diversity and Inclusion. Prior to working at Microsoft, she worked primarily in education, teaching at the University of Sheffield and also working for over 9 years as an Ofsted Early Years Inspector. Jacqui also volunteers for an organisation called Diversity Role Models and enjoys going into schools to run workshops which are designed to tackle and reduce homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying.

 

 

AUTUMN PRAY

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Autumn is Kaluza’s Chief Product Officer and has over 20 years of experience in product development and strategy across a diverse portfolio of products, ranging from eCommerce to omnichannel. Passionate about customer experience, Autumn is spearheading the development of Kaluza's platform products which will enable energy retailers to better serve their customers and unlock the full potential of smart, low carbon technologies. Prior to Kaluza, Autumn headed up a multi-national team of over 100 product managers, designers and researchers at The Farfetch Group. There, Autumn was responsible for the strategy and user experience of the industry-leading Farfetch marketplace which helped the company reach a $9billion IPO. Previous to Farfetch, Autumn was Senior Director of Product Management at Gap Inc, where she shaped the digital transformation around its store technology.  

 

 

ARLENE MCDERMOTT

 

(Portfolio Director Securities Clearing and CaLM, LCH, LSEG)

As well as overseeing projects across a number of businesses in London and Paris, Arlene is Co-chair of LSEG’s LGBTQ+ network. The network has had a huge impact on LSEG, enjoying support from the most senior levels of the organisation. Arlene has participated in numerous panels, including for myGwork and for Lesbian Visibility Week. She has also been listed on the Pride Power List 2020, Global Diversity List 2020, Visible Lesbian 100 list 2020 and the OUTstanding 100 LGBT+ Executives List 2020. LSEG’s LGBTQ+ network has been shortlisted for the DIVA network of the year award and was also shortlisted for the Women in Finance Diversity Initiative of the Year award. It has also raised funds for charities including akt and supported the launch of Pride in the City’s 2020 programme with a Market Close ceremony at London Stock Exchange