Julie Chakraverty
CEO and Founder, Rungway
Julie Chakraverty is the CEO and founder of Rungway, a workplace advice platform that empowers people to seek and share advice at work. Julie has a wealth of board experience, recently serving as a Non Executive Director on the boards of Santander UK and Standard Life Aberdeen (having been Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Risk and Innovation Committees for Aberdeen Asset Management). She has also been Chair of the Remuneration Committee for Mitsui Amlin, a Non Executive Director for Spirit Pubs and a Trustee for the Girls Day School Trust. During her executive career Julie was a Board Member of UBS Investment Bank where she held a number of global leadership positions. She chaired the UBS Women’s Network, “All Bar None” and won industry awards for innovation every year between 2001-2009 for her “CreditDelta” technology product. In 2006 she was named in Management Today’s ‘Top 35 Women Under 35’. In 2013 she was recognized in The Times newspaper as the youngest female director of a FTSE-100 company, aged 41.
Michele Giddens OBE
Co-CEO, Bridges Fund Management
Michele co-founded Bridges alongside Philip Newborough and Sir Ronald Cohen in 2002 and oversees strategy, client development, talent development, public affairs and impact management. She sits on the Investment Committee for all Bridges Funds and has a key role in leading and developing Bridges’ internal team and directing the firm’s strategic growth. Michele has played a leading role in the growth of the sustainable and impact investing sectors in the UK and worldwide. She was an adviser to the UK Treasury’s Social Investment Task Force and chaired the Community Development Finance Association from 2003-2005. More recently, she chaired the UK National Advisory Board on Impact Investing, part of the Global Social Impact Investment Steering Group, from 2016-18 and chaired a Global Working Group on Policy. She sits on the BVCA Council, and is a Non-Executive Director on the board of CDC, the UK Government’s Development Finance Institution. Michele is also a trustee for the Bridges Impact Foundation. Michele has over 25 years experience in sustainable and impact investing and international development finance, having worked with International Finance Corporation, the private sector financing arm of the World Bank Group, and with Shorebank Corporation, one of the leading community development banks in the USA, where she ran small business lending programmes in Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and advised on microfinance in Bangladesh, the Middle East and Mongolia. Michele has a BA Honours in Politics, Philosophy & Economics from Oxford University and an MBA from Georgetown University, Washington, DC. She was awarded an OBE for services to international development and social finance in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Roelfien Kuijpers
Managing Director, Head of Responsible Investments and Head of the Global Client Group for Ireland, Scandinavia and the UK, DWS
Roelfien Kuijpers is a Managing Director for DWS, one of the world’s leading asset managers. Based in London, she is the Head of Responsible Investments and Head of the Global Client Group for Ireland, Scandinavia and the UK. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation and chairs the Investment Committee. Known as a strong supporter of women and diversity, she served as Chairwoman of Women on Wall Street (WOWS) for many years, and helped establish the Women in European Business (WEB) chapters in the UK and Germany. Roelfien is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change. She is also a member of the Women's Leadership Board at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and serves on the President’s Advisory Council at Oberlin College and the Parent’s Committee at Middlebury College. She has served on the Board of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Pratt Institute Board of Trustees, and SculptureCenter NY. In 2011, she received the Fulbright Award for Global Business Leadership for building understanding and cooperation across cultures. A Dutch native, Roelfien received a Master’s Degree in History and International Politics from Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Ursula Marchioni
Managing Director, Head of BlackRock Portfolio Analysis and Solutions in EMEA, BlackRock
Ursula Marchioni, Managing Director, is Head of BlackRock Portfolio Analysis and Solutions, BlackRock’s Portfolio Consulting business in EMEA. Her team engages with Institutional and Wealth investors on portfolio construction and risk management – assisting them with asset allocation and implementation decisions across multiple asset classes and structures, including index, factor and alpha-seeking strategies. She is a member of the EII EMEA Executive Committee and the Wealth EMEA Executive Committee. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2012, Ms Marchioni worked for Credit Suisse, Societe Generale and KPMG in a variety of roles in the respective Securities and Advisory divisions. A former physicist, Ms Marchioni is a frequent contributor to financial news media and appears regularly on Bloomberg TV and CNBC.
Ewa Jackson
Director, BlackRock
Ewa Jackson née Herisz, Director, works in the BlackRock Wealth Solutions team assisting wealth managers with portfolio construction, investment proposition and partnership solutions in Europe. Ewa is a member of the BlackRock EMEA WIN Committee, co-leading the External Networks pillar and of Pilotlight, coaching and mentoring charity leaders and their boards to become more efficient, effective and sustainable. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2017, Ms Jackson worked for Deutsche Bank and RBS in a variety of roles in investment banking and Strategy focussing on the asset management industry. Ewa received a Master of Laws, with honors, from the University of Aix-Marseille III.
