This year’s theme for International Women’s Day (IWD) is ‘Embrace Equity’. The aim of the campaign is to work towards a more gender equal world – free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination for all women.
At Storey, we want to celebrate women’s achievements and harness the power of community across our network.
So, to mark IWD on 8th March this year, we reached out to women across our Storey customer base to learn more about their career highlights and what Embrace Equity means to them…
Sonia Peters
VP in Human Resources at Levin
Q: What do you like most about your current role?
A: The opportunity to work in a fast-growing business and support the people within the Levin team.
Q: Biggest or most rewarding career highlight to date?
A: Going from no management experience to leading a team of 30 HR professionals overnight.
Q: Where do you take your inspiration from?
A: All the people I work with on a daily basis! Everyone has a different perspective, so I like to understand the full picture by hearing all opinions and views across the teams I work with.
Q: What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other women aspiring to break into your industry / sector?
A: Be confident in your own, personal approach. What works for one person may not work for you, so be true to yourself.
Q: What has been the biggest challenge or obstacle in your career success to date?
A: I have been lucky enough to not have any huge obstacles to overcome so far. But being consistently challenged to prove the value of HR in each new role and new company never gets old.
Q: This year the theme for International Women’s Day is #EmbraceEquity…what does that mean to you?
A: For me, this is about inclusivity and belonging. Doing what you can to create an environment to support everyone and their uniqueness.
Q: Why is it important to celebrate International Women’s Day?
A: Championing the success of all women by taking the time to highlight the amazing work achieved by female peers, colleagues and managers.
Camilla Pang
Senior Systems Biologist at e-therapeutics
Q: What do you like most about your current role?
A: Not only do I really value the company I work for, I love how varied my role is – it involves biochemistry, physiology, data science, maths and even software engineering. I am in a position which allows me to practise and harness different skills, which is really fulfilling.
Q: Biggest or most rewarding career highlight to date?
A: Along with obtaining my PhD, it would have to be publishing my book ‘Explaining Humans’ which won the Royal Society science book prize in 2020 against one of my favourite writers Bill Bryson!
Q: Where do you take your inspiration from?
A: My parents! My mum is an artist and my dad is an engineer – their creativity and drive inspire me on a daily basis.
Q: What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other women aspiring to break into your industry / sector?
A: Trust your own ability to learn and deliver. It’s important to stay confident and believe in yourself!
Q: What has been the biggest challenge or obstacle in your career success to date?
A: Probably finding which part of science fits me well – I wanted to find an area that gave me plenty of variety and room to develop!
Q: This year the theme for International Women’s Day is #EmbraceEquity…what does that mean to you?
A: As someone who is Autistic (and a woman of colour / half Chinese), equity is the ability to understand different nuances around cultural differences.
Q: Why is it important to celebrate International Women’s Day?
A: It’s important to raise awareness and represent women from backgrounds to work towards fairer representation in society.
Nadine James
Global Head of Social Impact and Community Engagement at Cisco AppDynamics
Q: What do you like most about your current role?
A: Being in a position of influence. Advising a business on how best to invest in the communities where they have employees and customers, and to make the world a better place.
Q: Biggest or most rewarding career highlight to date?
A: Getting my first role in a Corporate Social Responsibility position. These types of roles are few and far between and highly competitive. Since then, I have been able to progress and learn more with each role!
Q: Where do you take your inspiration from?
A: I am forever inspired by people who have overcome adversity. For instance, anyone who has excelled in their career despite their socio-economic, class, race, gender and sexual orientation.
Q: What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other women aspiring to break into your industry / sector?
A: Focus on your strengths. And apply for the job even if you don’t tick every box on the job description – no one can fulfil the criteria completely!
Q: What has been the biggest challenge or obstacle in your career success to date?
A: Myself! I didn’t go to university, so I had to learn to feel proud of a different set of accomplishments beyond an undergraduate degree.
Q: This year the theme for International Women’s Day is #EmbraceEquity…what does that mean to you?
A: It’s important to recognise that we don’t all start at the same starting point and we need to ensure we are opening opportunities to all women, rather than just some.
Q: Why is it important to celebrate International Women’s Day?
A: While it’s important to acknowledge the progression behind gender equality, we need to continue advocating for women in societies which are less fairly represented.
Natalia Rozner
Talent Associate Director at Levin
Q: What do you like most about your current role?
A: All the amazing individuals that I get to work with on a daily basis. My London talent team make work so much fun that it doesn’t feel like a job most days.
Q: Biggest or most rewarding career highlight to date?
A: The expected response would be how quickly I have been able to progress in my role – this has been absolutely amazing and one of the things I am most proud of! But another key highlight has been hiring graduates straight out of university, training them and seeing them grow in their roles. No amount of money can buy that feeling!
Q: Where do you take your inspiration from?
A: Every person at Levin, particularly other women in leadership positions! I am lucky to be surrounded by ambitious individuals that inspire me to continue pushing myself to be the best I can be.
Q: What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other women aspiring to break into your industry / sector?
A: Be confident in yourself and your abilities. And if you’re not, fake it ‘til you make it – as they say!
Q: What has been the biggest challenge or obstacle in your career success to date?
A: The pandemic. I had only been working at Levin for six months before we went into our first lockdown. As a fresh graduate, I had set goals in mind – but Covid-19 bought a lot of uncertainty which meant I had to adapt.
Q: This year the theme for International Women’s Day is #EmbraceEquity…what does that mean to you?
A: To me, this means moving forward as a society where the women of today do not have to experience the same glass ceiling that women in the past have done.
Q: Why is it important to celebrate International Women’s Day?
A: It is important to raise awareness and represent women from backgrounds to work towards fairer representation in society.
Nikki Burr
Head of Implementation Consulting at Featurespace
Q: What do you like most about your current role?
A: I love having the autonomy to work across different strands of the organisation – from helping our customers implement our fraud and financial crime prevention software, to growing a global team of technology consultants. It’s challenging work, but incredibly fulfilling!
Q: Biggest or most rewarding career highlight to date?
A: Working as part of a team to develop new products for our customers! I have recently pivoted from cyber security to fraud and financial crime prevention – and I haven’t looked back since!
Q: Where do you take your inspiration from?
A: I have always been intrinsically motivated by detecting and preventing crime. I started borrowing Agatha Christie books from my grandad when I was a child. I quickly realised I wanted to combine my interest for technology and crime, which I’ve been lucky enough to do!
Q: What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to other women aspiring to break into your industry / sector?
A: A solid network is essential. Other women can be an incredible source of support, growth opportunities, industry knowledge and connections. It’s also important to capitalise on your soft-skills and commercial awareness, not just your technical skills – mainly to differentiate you from others in competitive and fast paced environments.
Q: What has been the biggest challenge or obstacle in your career success to date?
A: My confidence! I am actively working building my internal visibility to step out of my comfort zone and grab career opportunities.
Q: This year the theme for International Women’s Day is #EmbraceEquity…what does that mean to you?
A: Equity is like imagining the starting line of a race. Some are hands-free, whereas others are carrying much heavier loads. Equality would mean everyone would start from the same spot. Tailoring support to each woman’s circumstances is key to achieving a fairer world.
Q: Why is it important to celebrate International Women’s Day?
A: Women are often the most dependable and integral cogs in the machine of life. They carry the world on their shoulders and yet are often under paid, under recognised and under valued. It’s important that we highlight this inequality and shine a light on our contributions so we can work towards addressing the balance.
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