2022 Shortlist: Tech Leader Award

We are delighted to share more details of each of the shortlisted nominees, with a reminder of the category overview.

DEBRA WEBSTER, LSEG

Debra Webster is Senior Manager in the LSEG Enterprise Architecture team and responsible for running and transforming the governance operations. Since joining the company in 2017 she has been involved in process improvement initiatives across technology, product and proposition. Separately, she has engaged with key technology leaders to identify process improvements delivering change and alignment within the various business groups, resulting in a productivity increase of 45%.

Debra also works to advance women in the tech sector, establishing her firm’s women’s network in its Nottingham office and, through her advocacy, growing female representation at the Nottingham Tech Centre to 40%. She also in an integral supporter of the company’s tech graduate recruitment process, mentors via the Women on the Wharf network and serves on the company’s events committee for International Women’s Day (IWD). In addition, at a IWD Leadathon – a hackathon for female leadership – she won the team effort and the individual best leader award for a project to design an improved process around one of LSEG’s significant applications without impacting delivery. If that wasn’t enough, Debra is also a respite foster carer on weekends.

FELICIA MEYEROWITZ SINGH, FNZ

Felicia Meyerowitz Singh is a growth focused tech innovator, with specialisations as a fin and wealth tech leader and as an entrepreneur. Her leadership roles include her current role as Managing Director of Wealthtech FNZ. Previously the CEO and founder of a wealth focused payments/cash marketplace that was FCA regulated, the initiative saw partnerships established with various banks including Barclays, Investec, Aldermore and Metro, amongst others (recently acquired), as well as with other ventures in affinity, insurance (sold to Willis) and a disruptive micro-savings initiative in India.

Felicia feels strongly about supporting women in business, focusing on growth and entrepreneurship, and advises under-represented founders and their start-ups. It was in this capacity that she co-founded Hive Founders, a community of 350+ female entrepreneurs. Hive Founders, which provides a range of fundraising support, monthly events and an Investor readiness programme. In addition, Felicia also co-founded Open 51, focusing on sharing thought leadership of senior women in open finance, where women’s voices are under-represented. Felicia has previously been a winner for Everywoman in Tech, was named Innovator of the Year by the South Africa Chamber of Commerce and was included on Innovate Finance’s Powerlist.

JESSICA BEVAN, CAPCO

Jessica is a Senior Consultant within the technology practice at Capco, specialising in helping financial services firms to extract insights from data and driving technology transformations by leveraging the best solutions in the marketplace. Jessica’s time in consulting post academia has seen her make a material impact across multiple clients through her proven ability to adapt quickly to new projects and challenges. Using this skill, she has driven the migration of commercial banking customers from a legacy Bacs solution, delivered through hands-on agile execution focused capability, while also driving project co-ordination, sprint planning and utilization tracking. Jessica leads the Women In Technology community within Capco, as well as running a series of initiatives to develop, expand and improve representation and the capability of women across the firm. As part of that broader community, she has established key external recruiting partnerships specifically designed to increase the level of female technology talent within Capco.

KARISHMA PANDA, CAPGEMINI

Karishma is a self-driven high-potential professional who consistently strives to achieve the best results for herself, the organisation she works for and her clients. She has an excellent track record of delivering flagship banking and payments innovation projects globally, positioning her as a strong role model in tech. This has been underpinned by her industry experience, which includes: launching RuPay, a domestic card scheme in India, delivering 200+ payments innovation ideas for a leading bank in the UK; producing the ‘Future Ready Payments 2030’ report, a flagship high quality UK industry strategy publication (February 2021); and, most recently, delivering a successful central bank digital currency interlinks solution for a leading global financial messaging provider. Karishma also leads Capgemini’s global delivery of decentralised finance and blockchain projects, resulting in new operating models being developed that focus on revenue generating propositions and capitaliseS on emerging technology. And she has been pivotal in building our payments innovation practice working in a diverse multinational team. Karishma was also awarded with Rising Star at Women in Payments Symposium held in April 2021 for her contribution towards global payments innovation.

LOUISE BRETT, DELOITTE LLP

Seen as an industry ‘pioneer’ and instrumental in shaping the future of fintech for the benefit of clients, Louise is Deloitte’s Vice Chairman and Head of FinTech and Financial Services Innovation for Deloitte Europe, working across the ecosystem with financial services clients, government bodies, regulators, advisors, venture capitalists and the broader fintech community. Louise is also known to be a natural innovator and practical strategist, who is passionate about the power of fintech collaboration to drive financial inclusion and financial literacy and is collaborating with Innovate Finance on the Fintech for Schools initiative.

In addition to her leadership of Deloitte’s Women in Leadership programme, she sits on the board of UK Women in Payments and is a leader of the National Chapter of the Kalifa Review of UK FinTech.

MARIA SHEVCHENCO, KPMG (NOW LSEG)

Known as an Industry subject matter expert, Maria is passionate about technology and using it for good. It’s an approach that has led her to be a prolific public speaker at events, including those organised by WINS (Women’s Initiative for Networking at Success), “ITs Her Future” and “ITs Not Just for Boys”, and led her to set up and run the Advanced Analytics Ladies Luncheons.

In addition to formally mentoring over 50 people, while being a champion and a lifetime mentor to over 80 females, Maria is a massive supporter of diversity in IT and technology via her commitment to numerous initiatives, helping many people through their careers to progress, secure the next promotion and even that board position. In 2020, she was shortlisted for the WIBF Tech Star Award. 2022 saw her appointed as the People Sponsor role at UK Digital Lighthouse for her contribution in the 500+ people team.

Her nomination by KPMG resulted from her leadership as a Director of Innovation within KPMG’s UK Digital Lighthouse practise – two very fast paced and male dominated verticals. She has over 15 years specialising in extracting insights from data and has worked with a gamut of data and technologies in advanced analytics, data science and cloud space to create innovative solutions tailored to clients’ current needs – many of which have won industry awards.

SIAN WALKER, EY

Sian has contributed to EY and the wider financial services sector as a passionate technology, innovation and people leader. She is known in the market as somebody who can bring new ideas and solutions to address a range of challenges, while also bringing teams and clients along on the innovation journey. She has successfully delivered a range of projects, from various tooling developments to some of EY’s largest actuarial transformation projects.

She is a strong advocate for women and has demonstrated her commitment to the progression of female careers by establishing and then running a Women’s Leadership Network, involving herself in STEM initiatives and mentoring other women. She consistently shares her knowledge and has inspired others to think outsideof the box and leverage new technologies.

Sian’s work has culminated in a range of commercial and social benefits. She has access to influence the technology landscape and women’s agenda at large insurers and can, therefore, improve the efficiency of her clients’ processes and offerings for their customers. She is also taking steps to shape the future of technology in the insurance industry and opening up opportunities to redefine the end-customer experience to positively impact society and people’s financial wellbeing.