Further to our announcement on 12th August, we are delighted to share more details of each of the shortlisted nominees, with a reminder of the category overview.

HARRIET KUZEMKO, KPMG

Harriet is a manager in the financial services strategy team, having joined KPMG’s audit practice in 2015. She specialises in the insurance sector and recently started to focus on driving KPMG’s perspective on ESG in this field, working with specialists across the firm to bring a joined-up approach to clients. Passionate about diversity and the promotion of women, Harriet is currently Co-Chair of SheCan, a network focused on empowering women in the strategy and customer divisions. Steering a committee of >20 colleagues to run events and increase awareness of key issues impacting women (e.g. career coaching, safety and financial management), she is working to scale the project beyond the 400 people currently targeted to other areas of the firm. Harriet is also the chair of the Financial Services Shadow Leadership Team (16 individuals), providing challenge and input to the firm’s leaders and driving specific initiatives across the financial services community of some 4000 colleagues.

HERMIONE STOREY-MACINTOSH, KPMG

Hermione is a senior manager within the transformation services team at KPMG, and helps financial services firms re-design and transform their operating models to better prevent and detect financial crime. Hermione also recently completed a data analytics fellowship and as part of that, played a fundamental role in developing an app to showcase the possibilities of advanced network analytics in the context of financial crime. Hermione leads ‘Employee Appreciation Week’, an initiative which drives a culture of gratitude across KPMG’s 4k financial services colleagues and features a talent competition, multiple events and generates thousands of nominations of appreciation between colleagues. An ambassador for the Women Supporting Women programme at The Prince’s Trust, Hermione raised over £5k for the programme through a variety of initiatives, including by running ‘bake a difference’ (a virtual bake, donate and nominate competition on social media), hosting a charity spin class, and climbing the 3 peaks and cycling 450 miles in-between.

IGNE ALISAUKAITE, KPMG

Igne is Lithuanian and moved to the UK at the age of two. After finishing school, at the age of 19, Igne joined KPMG’s apprenticeship programme, ‘KPMG360’. Rotating across audit, tax and the advisory practices for two years of the apprenticeship programme, she joined the banking risk consulting team in 2017. Igne has been involved in several initiatives to raise awareness for diversity and inclusion and is an advocate for apprenticeships, attending various events (both internal and external) to share experiences. She is also a key contributor to the KPMG buddy scheme, providing support to new joiners in the team, highlighting the many options open to females in the professional and financial services industries, regardless of background.

JESSIE OFEI, KPMG

Jessie is a manager within KPMG’s banking risk team and was promoted from graduate trainee to manager within an impressive 4-year timeframe. Jessie’s success is not only attributed to her exceptional client delivery, for which she has received feedback from very senior clients who described her as “indispensable”, but also her passion for social causes and the progression of underrepresented people. Some highlights of Jessie’s career include organising a KPMG UK firmwide Sickle-Cell internal event with external speakers, including the Chief Executive of Sickle Cell UK, John James, OBE, and getting over 20 KPMG employees to sign up as Blood Donor Ambassadors. Following the Black Lives Matter movement, Jessie galvanised her team to form a monthly Inclusion and Diversity Forum for the financial risk management team, which she led. This forum brings together senior KPMG team members and junior staff to discuss issues and challenges, with Jessie contributing to ground-breaking initiatives that help shape KPMG’s company culture.

JUSKIRIN DHANOA, CAPCO

Juskirin is a Managing Principal at Capco who demonstrates leadership both through her client work and through her additional responsibilities to bolster Capco’s diversity and inclusion culture. Recognised as a role model, having been nominated at joint first place for her level in the Capco 2021 Leadership Awards, Juskirin mentors women, is an empathetic coach for her team, and leads by example with her excellent client delivery. She also leads the Associate Talent Programme for Capco, which is responsible for hiring the next generation of talent into the business. Having joined as an associate, been promoted four times and taken ownership of the programme, Juskirin has implemented significant change, materially improving the diversity of graduate hires into the business, with 89 women joining the 2021 graduate intake (52% of the total cohort).

KAVITA RAI, KPMG

Kavita is a manager at KPMG specialising in audit engagements for private equity clients. Joining KPMG in 2014 straight after her A-Levels on the School Leavers Programme, she juggled her role at KPMG with an accelerated undergraduate degree. Kavita has since risen rapidly through the ranks at KPMG due to her dedication, grit and exceptional performance and currently manages a portfolio of private equity engagements responsible for revenues of over £2.5m. As a woman and a person of colour, Kavita seeks to empower anyone in finance to have a successful career. A passionate advocate of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion, achieving a first for her undergraduate dissertation examining “Why the financial services industry has not been more successful in addressing gender balance in senior roles”, Kavita has also ‘given back’ to the next generation by promoting the School Leavers Programme and mentoring more junior staff members in the department.

MEREDITH REYNOLDS, WELLS FARGO

Meredith Reynolds is a Vice President on the corporate debt finance (CDF) team within Wells Fargo’s Markets Investment, Financing and Solutions division. Meredith leads the European banking and origination team that structures levered credit facilities for private debt fund managers and has worked in London, UK since 2017 when she moved from the US to lead the build out of the CDF European platform. Meredith acts as both advocate and ally to both women and other underrepresented groups and strives to ensure the diversity, equality and inclusion lens is not only considered, but progressed in every conversation. Over the past two and a half years, Meredith has been co-leading the Marketplace Outcomes team within the Women’s Network, connecting Wells Fargo to external organisations and other financial institutions to share best practices and organise joint events.

RACHEL JOE, TD SECURITIES

Rachel established the TD Securities European Inclusion & Diversity Committee’s Mentorship program, which has seen over 170 people – nearly half the regional population – participate each year since its inception in 2019. The program applies a gender lens, matching female talent of all levels with senior leaders who actively assist in their career development and provide the support needed to move into senior leadership roles. In addition, Rachel introduced TD Securities to Generation Success, which now partners with the firm’s HR team to help create a pipeline of diverse young talent in London and Dublin. She is also a qualified executive coach and active volunteer with WIBF, seeking innovative ways to support women to progress in the workplace and received the WIBF Volunteer of the Month Award for March 2022 for her contribution to the social enterprise’s business strategy and mission statement, and support for the WIBF Leadership Academy. Rachel is a 2021 Vision in Action (VIA) – Award of Distinction winner, which is only awarded to the top 0.1% of 95,000 colleagues each year for outstanding contributions to our clients, colleagues, and communities by consistently meeting and surpassing expectations and living TD’s values.

SHARNIYA FERDINAND, NATWEST

Sharniya’s decade-long banking career has seen her devise and manage customer-focused inclusion activities, support and engage diverse communities, and encourage inclusive entrepreneurship support. She led a project focused on accelerating multi-ethnic founded start-ups was Highly Commended at the 2019 European Diversity Awards and won the Supplier Diversity programme of the year at the 2022 British Diversity Awards. In 2017, Sharniya was awarded the RBS Women’s Opal award recognising her contribution to female-led business. In 2019, Sharniya was recognised as a Rising Star in Diversity by WeAreTheCity. In her current role as a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant, Sharniya collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to ensure market-leading intelligence is used to promote inclusive thinking and mentors start-up business owners and diverse professionals in the early stages of their careers.