Dr Jill Armstrong, Murray Edwards
Jill Armstrong is a Bye-Fellow at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. Her research specialism is gender equality at work. She is now leading the ‘Collaborating with Men’ research project that aims to ally with men to change workplace culture to be more inclusive. Jill is working with many organisations to support workplace trials of the ideas identified by the research and is disseminating a survey designed to measure the implications for women and men of gender stereotypical biases in workplace culture. Jill researches, writes, reviews and comments on inclusion and equality at work and in family life. She is regularly asked to speak at professional women’s network events, conferences and training courses.
Jill’s book based on her doctoral research - Like Mother, Like Daughter?: How career women influence their daughters’ ambition - was published in October. She has spoken about this research on BBC Radio Four’s Bringing Up Britain. Academic research is the latest act in Jill’s career. Previously she led two successful commercial market research companies and prior to that she was an Account Director in advertising agencies.
Gaenor Bagley (1983, Maths)
Gaenor is the former Head of People of PwC in the UK, where she was responsible for all HR matters for the 19,000 people in the UK. She joined PwC in 1992 as an M&A Tax advisor, became Partner in 2000, and led the Private Equity Tax and M&A Tax team in 2008. In 2011 she became an Executive Director of the UK Board, responsible for developing the firm’s People strategy and CSR strategy, a role she held until 2016. From July 2016 to 31 December 2017 Gaenor was Head of Corporate Purpose at PwC, responsible for PwC’s CSR agenda and she also chaired the Brexit Steering Committee.
Prior to joining PwC Gaenor was a Corporate Finance Advisor at S G Warburg, the investment bank. She joined from EY, where she qualified as an accountant in 1989.
Having had a 30 year career in professional services, Gaenor has retired from PwC and she is now building a portfolio of non-executive roles.
Janet Legrand QC (Hon) (1977, Law)
Janet read law at Trinity Hall and was one of the College's first women undergraduates. She is the Senior Partner and Global Co-Chair of DLA Piper and has combined significant leadership roles and a substantial professional practice with being a pioneer in enhancing the role of women in the law, promoting social mobility, diversity and inclusion within her firm and the wider profession through the board of PRIME and leading the strategic development of her firm's global pro bono practice which delivers major projects worldwide focusing on legal education, women and children's rights and access to justice.
Janet was the first woman to hold a leadership role in DLA Piper, having been elected to its Board in 1999. She has been re-elected six times and has also chaired the firm's Remuneration and Global Risk Committees.
As the first female Senior Partner of a global law firm Janet was a founder signatory to The Law Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Charter. In 2009 she set up and led her firm’s Diversity Board and in 2010 she established the firm’s award winning women’s network, the Leadership Alliance for Women (LAW), which she chairs. LAW’s mission is to help retain women lawyers and develop them into future leaders, focusing on mentoring, skills training and networking. LAW operates across the global firm and has won many awards internationally including Best Diversity Initiative by an International firm for three consecutive years at the European Women in Business Law awards. Women are now represented at all levels of leadership within the firm.
In her legal practice Janet represents Governments in international disputes and is currently conducting the first inter-State Compulsory Conciliation under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea concerning the delimitation of the permanent maritime boundary in the Timor Sea.
Beyond the law she has a passion for supporting the development and education of children and young people, and is Chair of the Trustee Board of The Children's Society whilst being a member of Council of City, University of London, a Trustee of its Student's Union, a member of the Audit Committee of the University of Cambridge, a Marshall Aid Commemoration Commissioner and board member of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.
Professor Sucheta Nadkarni, Judge Business School
Sucheta Nadkarni is the Sinyi Professor of Chinese Management and head of the strategy and international group at the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School and a professorial fellow at Newnham College. She is also the faculty lead of the Women’s Leadership Initiative at the Judge Business School. Her primary research interests include strategic leadership with a special focus on female rise to corporate boards and executive leadership positions. She has published extensively in leading academic journals in management. She is an associate editor of the Academy of Management journal and the Journal of Management. She also sits on the editorial of four other leading academic journals. She has worked on research projects and grants with companies such as Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, Newton Asset Management, BNY Mellon and 30% club. Her research on female rise to boardrooms has been featured in global media outlets including New York Times, Forbes, CNBC, Huffington Post, Reuters, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Scotsman, Economic Times, Times of India, Herald Tribune, Borsen, O Globo, The Times (Kuwait), Business Standard and Folha De Sao Paulo.
Further information about Sucheta can be found online at https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/faculty-a-z/sucheta-nadkarni/
Helen Stevenson (1979, Engineering)
Helen comes from the North East and studied Natural Sciences and Chemical Engineering at Trinity Hall Cambridge (1979-1983).
She started her career with Mars where she spent 19 years. She became the youngest director by the age of 30, responsible for the European supply and logistics function. She transferred to marketing in her 30’s, culminating in her role as European Marketing Director, leading category strategy development across Europe.
She joined Lloyds TSB in 2003 as Director of Group Marketing responsible for the group brand portfolio and the retail customer experience. She then spent 5 years as Chief Marketing Officer at Yell Group UK driving the transformation of the business from a print publisher to a digital marketing services organisation for SME’s.
Helen has additionally served as a non-executive director on the main board of the Department of Work and Pensions and worked for the Cabinet office. Helen now divides her time between non executive work and consulting, with a focus on businesses looking for enhanced customer led growth and valuation.
She sits on the Henley Business School Strategic Advisory Board, and is a non-executive Director of Trinity Mirror PLC, St Ives PLC and Skipton Building Society and a Governor at Wellington College. She is Senior Independent Director at Trinity Mirror and chairs the Remuneration Committee at St Ives and Skipton Building Society and sits on the Risk Committee at Skipton Building Society.
She is married to Nick Walford and has three wonderful daughters, one of whom also went to Trinity Hall (Classics 2011-2014).