Diversity & Inclusion

Alison is a writer, speaker and conference moderator. She 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 critically acclaimed book Why Women Mean Business (Wiley).

She directs The Conference Board’s European Council for Diversity in Business and is a Senior Visiting Fellow at Cass Business School, London.

Alison was a journalist for Reuters in London and Paris and then spent 20 years with the Financial Times. She contributes articles and columns to the FT, The Conference Board Review and other media. Recent speaking engagements have included the International Monetary Fund’s seminar for International Women’s Day in Washington DC and the European Union’s Gender Equality conference in Brussels.

Why Women Mean Business: Understanding the Emergence of our next Economic Revolution (Paperback)

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Jeanette Kilo-Smith is Vice President of Global Inclusion & Diversity for Motorola. In this position, Ms. Kilo-Smith leads the organization’s Inclusion and Diversity function and is responsible for developing and driving the company’s global diversity strategies; and cultural direction for the organization which represents 60,000 employees around the world.

Previously, Ms. Kilo-Smith served as Senior Director, Human Resources where she was responsible for the company’s Human Resources Government Compliance Department. Her mmajor responsibilities have included employee/labor relations, EEO/AA, talent management, government compliance, diversity, community relations and health services. Her professional endeavors have ranged from high-tech wireless telecom business to design, development and manufacture of defensive systems for a major government contractor.

Ms. Kilo-Smith serves on the Board of Directors for the YWCA – Chicago. She is also a member of the Society of Human Resources. Ms. Kilo-Smith has also participated on a number of speaking panels both professionally and within the community and volunteers as a mentor with the Chicago Public Schools.

In the past, Ms. Kilo-Smith has also served on the board of Women Employed to increase awareness of disparity in pay for women compared to men. She has also served on the board of Cable Positive and Chicagoland Area Partnerships (CAPS) Board. CAPS is a unique organizational model encompassing community, government and corporate representatives who come together in partnership to create a forum to discuss and provide leadership on workplace issues in Diversity and Compliance.

In 2008, Ms. Kilo-Smith was recognized by Diversity Edge Magazine as one of the 2008 Diversity Champions based on contributions to her company, influential leadership and her impact on diversity within her industry.

Ms. Kilo-Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in Business with a specialization in Human Resources from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. She is married and has one daughter.

 Gilli Howarth is Head of Global Diversity and EMEA Head of Leadership and Learning at UBS.

She started her early career in Human Resources consulting for Towers Perrin, initially on the pensions side in the European International Consulting office and then later in the Compensation Consulting division. She has an extensive portfolio background within her 15 years in UBS HR, initially working in Compensation and Benefits, then as a Client Relationship Manager within Foreign Exchange, IT and as Global HR Head of Financial Control and Corporate Administrative Services. She has been in the field of Diversity and Inclusion ever since.

Gilli grew up for half her childhood in Nigeria, has lived in France for a brief period and has two teenage children.

Rhodora is the Former Global Vice President, Head of Diversity for Unilever & Founder and Managing Director, Except One Pte Ltd

Rhodora’s background, education and experience span different companies, geographies and functions. She has held various senior leadership positions at country, regional and global level in HR, Corporate Communications, CSR, Finance and Accounting and External Relations. She has also been a teacher. It is in global diversity where she likes to make her unique and most significant contribution. As the former Global Vice President, Head of Diversity in Unilever she made significant impact through the years, working with four consecutive Chairmen and CEOs, the Board and Executive Committee and through several business changes. Today, she remains connected to Unilever as a consultant to the global diversity board. She has expanded her contribution to all sectors and various institutions as Founder and Managing Director of Except One, Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based global consulting firm. Among others, she was keynote speaker for the Japan Women’s Innovative Network and a Ministry of Labor’s conference in Korea. She is currently a Committee Member of the National Integration in the Workplace Group for the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore, Board Member of UK-based BIOSS International and Senior Executive Advisor to the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force. She has a degree in Mass Communications, magna cum laude, with graduate courses in Accounting, Finance, Linguistics, and Communications Research, and a Masters in Management, with Distinction.

 Jacqui Robertson is the Head of Global Diversity for ING Group. In her role Ms. Robertson is responsible for creating ING’s global diversity vision, and developing the workforce diversity framework and strategy for ING’s worldwide operations — the cornerstones of which are talent acquisition, retention and development.

Additionally, Ms. Robertson is charged with building relationships with diverse constituencies and organizations around the globe, and leveraging these relationships to create an ING culture that is globally inclusive, yet locally respectful. As well, Ms. Robertson serves as the executive liaison on all diversity issues, meeting regularly with senior leaders to discuss ING’s diversity strategy, results and organizational impact. Ms. Robertson’s vision is to drive the full integration of diversity into the fabric of ING’s business, fully leveraging the power and richness of varied perspectives that result from a multiplicity of life experiences.

Prior to her current role, Jacqui served as Vice President of Workforce Diversity for ING Americas. In this role, Jacqui was instrumental in establishing a diversity measurement and assessment process for the US, which included inclusion and behavioral metrics and representation metrics. This balanced approach allowed the organization to target the recruitment and retention of high performing talent, as well as career development and engagement at ING. Moreover, it reinforced Jacqui’s philosophy that “With a focus on leadership accountability, workforce diversity is a natural outcome.” Jacqui has been with ING since 1998, serving as Director of Human Resources prior to her leadership role in diversity. Previous professional experiences include Director of Sales for group insurance products, as well as a variety of other positions including Pensions, Employee Benefits, Marketing, Human Resources and Reinsurance at CIGNA.

Jacqui served on boards of The National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), Aurora Foundation, member of The Conference Board’s Diversity & Inclusion Council. In October of 2006, Jacqui was honored by the Women Looking Ahead News Magazine as one of WLA’s “100s List of the Nation’s Most Powerful and Influential Women.”

A native of Chicago, Jacqui holds a bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Science from the University of Chicago. She has two sons and resides in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

 Katharina Amacker (47) is Head Diversity & Inclusion of Novartis Switzerland since July 2003. She started her career at Novartis in Pharmaceutical Production in 1990 after her Studies of Pharmacy and her PHD at the University of Basel Switzerland.

Between 1998 and 2003 Katharina Amacker was President of the Employee Representation Council of Novartis Switzerland and Vice President of the Pension Found Board Novartis Switzerland.

Katharina Amacker is member of Swiss Parlament and Board member of the Christian Democratic Party of Switzerland. She is member of the Commission for Foreign Affairs and the Commission for International Development. For several years, Katharina Amacker was President of the Women’s Commission of the Canton Baselland.

Katharina Amacker is married and has 3 children (1993/1995/1996). She is active in different sport associations. Her hobbies include hiking, literature and music.

 James is the Managing Director, Global Head of Learning & Development at JP Morgan INvestment Bank. He started his working career at PricewaterhouseCoopers from where he qualified as a chartered accountant. Prior to joining JPMorgan in 2007, he spent 13 years at HSBC, the first nine of which were in the front office in Equity Capital Markets, where he rose to Managing Director. At the beginning of 2003, he joined Human Resources and ran both training as and graduate recruitment for the Investment Bank before moving to a Group-wide role where he was Head of Group Strategic Programs and responsible for the design and delivery of interventions targeted at the top talent within the organization. James has a B.Com from the University of Cape Town and a MSc in Strategic Human Resource Management from Nottingham Business School

Nathalie Malige is CEO of Diverseo and professor of diversity management at ESCP Europe. Diverseo developed an exclusive partnership with Project Implicit, an international research project in neurosciences and social psychology founded by Professors at Harvard, the University of Washington and the University of Virginia. Together with Project Implicit’s researchers, Diverseo partners developed an innovative and powerful approach to diversity management: it integrates strategic change management and HR processes redesign with the latest research in mind sciences. This approach allowed several global corporations to register significant breakthroughs in evolving behaviours and significantly increased multi cultural and gender diversity in senior ranks.
Nathalie has a strong background in international strategy and change management in Fortune 500 companies. Nathalie started her career in marketing at Procter & Gamble and Diageo. She then joined McKinsey and Company, expanding her expertise in strategy and general management consulting.
Nathalie holds a bachelor of business administration from the American University of Beirut and an Master of Business Administration from ESCP Europe.

 

Beth Ginsburg is a Programme Manager for the Migration Policy Group’s programme, Supplier Diversity Europe. She has worked for Migration Policy Group (MPG) intermittently since 1995, when she helped found this Brussels-based ‘think and do tank’ with Dr Jan Niessen, MPG’s Director. Through her work at MPG, she has developed expertise in issues relating to diversity, inclusion and anti discrimination at the European Union and national levels and has facilitated a number of senior-level projects in the area. These projects have involved government officials and business executives from several European countries and the US.

Subha Barry recently left Merrill Lynch after a twenty year tenure. In her most recent role there, she was a Managing Director and Global head of Diversity and Inclusion for Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., where she was responsible for managing and integrating existing and new diversity efforts across the corporation globally including the oversight of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Council.
Ms. Barry joined Merrill Lynch in 1989 and spent 13 years in the Private Client Group as a highly successful and best practice Financial Advisor and Branch Manager. In 2001, she created the firm’s Multicultural and Diversified Business Development group to help establish Merrill Lynch as the preeminent wealth management firm among diverse and multicultural markets. She headed the group until 2005 when she was appointed to the Chief Diversity Officer role.
Ms. Barry holds a Bachelor of Accounting from Bombay University, India, a Master of Business and Public Management and a Master of Accounting from Rice University, Houston.
She is a member of the Board and of the Corporate Circle Advisory Committee of the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW); a Corporate Advisory Council member of The White House Project; a Hidden Brain Drain Task Force member, and she sits on the Advisory Board for VOICE, Hyperion’s imprint for women. Ms. Barry is a Board member of Rice University and a member of the Council of Overseers for Rice University’s Business School. She is the Chair of the Board of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Vice-Chair of the Board of the Princeton HealthCare System Foundation.
Ms. Barry is an active mentor of women both within her community and across her industry. A four-time cancer survivor, she supports and coaches newly diagnosed patients with coping strategies and work/life balance.
In 2000, she won the Women’s Fund of New Jersey Award for Outstanding Achievement in Banking and Finance. In 2006, she was inducted into the New York City’s Academy of Woman Achievers. In 2007 she was recognized as a Life Hero by the Val Skinner Foundation. In 2008 she received Rice University’s MBA Alumni Service Award. The National Organization for Women (NOW), recognized her as one of its 2008 Women of Power and Influence.
Ms. Barry lives in New Jersey with her husband and 2 children.

 Deirdre Golden is Director of the ORC Global Equality Diversity and Inclusion Practice. She works with employers in the private and public sector addressing equality and diversity in employment in Europe and the global environment, through confidential employer networks and consulting support and solutions.

Deirdre has comprehensive HR management experience from an operational and strategic perspective, as well as from an external community-based perspective Her career has spanned the financial services sector, IT, and the public sector. She is a member of the UK National Working Group on the European Commission’s ‘For Diversity Against Discrimination campaign’.

Deirdre has a Masters Degree LLM (Employment Law), University of Middlesex; BA (Honours) in Economic and Political Sociology, University of East Anglia; and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.

Mary L. Martinéz is director, Workforce Management and Diversity Consulting for ORC Worldwide. She serves ORC’s clients worldwide through research, speaking, and tailored consulting assistance on diversity and inclusion, organization development, and talent management.

Mary’s career has focused on creating people-management strategies that increase the competitive advantage of corporations. She has 20 years of experience as a consultant and as an HR leader in corporations in a wide spectrum of industries where she has implemented a range of diversity and talent initiatives. Her capabilities include designing and implementing diversity and other HR strategies, systems and processes, as well as creating and facilitating training and organisation development interventions.

She holds an M.B.A. in Management – Organisation Behaviour from Bernard M. Baruch College. 

 Josefine van Zanten is the Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion for Royal Dutch Shell. In this role, she is responsible for Global D&I thought leadership and strategy development of the Shell corporation. She and her expert team of D&I consultants work with the Businesses and Functions to drive D&I further in to the organization’s main processes and systems, enhance key business projects, as well as embed key D&I activities in Talent, Learning and Development. Josefine represents Shell’s D&I voice in internal and external engagements.

During her tenure, Shell has seen a steady improvement in all three of its D&I goals: Women in leadership positions, Local Nationals in Leadership positions, and Inclusion. During the same time, the Global D&I department has received a number of awards, of which the 2009 “International Innovation in Diversity” award for the focus and work on Inclusion.

Prior to this role, Josefine was the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Diversity and Inclusion director for Hewlett-Packard. During her tenure, HP EMEA was the only region that reached its D&I target.

Josefine has further professional experience in procurement, finance and marketing, and has lived in Europe and The US. She speaks fluent French, English, Dutch and German. She holds a BA from Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, and an MBA from the University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.

Josefine left Switzerland and moved to the Netherlands to join Shell in 2006. She has two grown up children. Her interests include hiking, skiing, and reading.

 Catherine Magnant is a senior policy officer in the anti-discrimination department of the European Commission (Directorate General for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities) where she follows issues pertaining to diversity management and corporate social responsibility. Catherine started her career in Moscow, as Head of the Press and Information section of the Commission Delegation. Back in Brussels in the mid 90s, she was part of the team who took care of the preparation of the Czech Republic to enlargement. She then joined the Human Rights department of the European Commission External relations directorate general dealing with Iran and Mediterranean countries. She later joined the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities where she coordinated the 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities for All in 30 European countries.