Workshop facilitators

Professor Neil Stott was Chief Executive of Keystone Development Trust until April 2015. Keystone is one of the largest development trusts in the country delivering community development, social enterprises and property development.

Neil is a Senior Associate of Locality’s consultancy. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Place Management (SFIPM) and a Visiting Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University.

Dr Vivien Gruar is an Equality and Diversity Consultant within the E&D Section of the University of Cambridge. A former scientific researcher, she worked for the researcher development organisation, Vitae, before joining the University in 2012. Vivien has overseen the expansion of Athena SWAN activity across the University; from one award in 2012, the University now holds 16 Athena SWAN Departmental Awards as well as a prestigious University Silver award (one of only five in the UK). As part of the E&D Section, Vivien supports the delivery of initiatives and events promoting equality for all.

Shima is an entrepreneur, director and academic obsessed with making the world a better place. She is the director of two enterprise and entrepreneurship programmes, at the University of Cambridge, supporting the development of technology entrepreneurs and the commercialisation of technology from within the University and its partners. She is Director of EnterpriseWISE as well as Director of ETECH Projects at the Entrepreneuship Centre at Cambridge Judge Business School.

An engineer by training to postgraduate level, she also has an MBA and a PhD in Management focusing on corporate strategy and the natural environment. She has spent two decades helping companies, governments and international funding agencies improve their performance in an environmentally and socially sensitive manner. As an entrepreneur, Shima is one of the founders and a Director of Value in Enterprise, the responsible business consultancy company. She was also one the founders of Nahdet El Mahrousa (the most successful social enterprise incubator in the Middle East) and the Egyptian Junior Business Association (EJB) in Egypt and the Global Communities Initiative (GCI) in the US which she chaired the board of for a number of years. Shima is interested in critically studying entrepreneurship practice to explore the implications on people and the planet. Currently, she has a particular interest in gender influences.

Smaranda is Global Head of People ClienTech at McKinsey. For more than 18 years, she has been advising and coaching senior professionals with a combination of deep psychological expertise as well as business and consulting experience. Before joining McKinsey, Smaranda worked in consumer/retail (P&G, LVMH) and as a specialised consultant for change management and coaching, advising senior executives on leadership issues.

She is a caring and passionate driver of initiatives and programmes to help advance women leaders and was a Finalist Coach for the Cartier’s Women’s Initiative. In 2017 Smaranda was appointed as a Fellow of Wo+Men’s Leadership Centre at Cambridge Judge Business School. She is a psychologist and holds an Executive MA in Coaching and Consulting for Change (CCC) from INSEAD. Smaranda has also followed her passion in shoe and fashion design by completing courses at Central Saint Martins and the London College of Fashion.

She is a speaker on leadership and has led workshops and programmes at Cambridge Judge Business School, Said Business School, London Business School and the University of St. Gallen.

As much as she cares about women leadership, she is also a passionate mother of three small children and enjoys spending her free time with her son and twin daughters.

Sucheta’s 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 Academy of Management Journal and 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.