Women of the #LboroFamily come together to support International Women’s Day

To mark International Women’s Day (8 March 2020), alumnae supported two events held on campus: Inspirational Female Leaders in Business, and Inspirational Female Leaders in STEM.

Alumnae Trusha Kachhela (Accounting and Financial Management 1994), Sima Ruparelia (Industrial Mathematics 1997) and Karen Thomas (Printed Textiles 1989) volunteered and shared their top business tips with students on 5 March.

Karen is the Head of Design - Home and Beauty at Marks and Spencer. In her role, Karen works to create a global vision and lead her team of designers at the multi-national company.

Alumna Sima works for AIG as Chief Actuary for the UK, Europe and Global Speciality. Sima shared experiences of working in consulting and finance with focus on her specialism in underwriting and portfolio optimisation.

Trusha Kachhela is a Partner at PwC, leading the Central Tax practice and focusing on private equity backed companies to make sure that clients are compliant with current regulation, but also ready to maximise their value on a subsequent exit.

Pictured L-R: Fliss Healey-Lyman (Careers Network); Sima Ruparelia; Karen Thomas and Trusha Kachhela.
Pictured L-R: Fliss Healey-Lyman (Careers Network); Sima Ruparelia; Karen Thomas and Trusha Kachhela.

Alumnae Dr Ozak Esu (PhD Electrical Engineering 2016; BEng 2011) and Kay Thompson (Management Sciences 1999) discussed careers in STEM at the second event, which took place on 12 March 2020.

Ozak (pictured) is Technical Lead at BRE and represented careers in engineering. She has won multiple awards in her career so far and was named in the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) “Top 50 Women in Engineering under 35” list in 2017. Her current role focuses on research into projects such as smart buildings and services within the built environment.

To represent technology, alumna Kay joined the panel from IBM where she works as Executive Partner – Comms Sector Digital Lead. Kay has also previously worked for mobile phone providers and power companies – so was able to share a range of different experiences with the students.

Alongside the guest panels, alumnae Jane Boardman and Juliana Chua shared insights into their careers and their thoughts on the importance of International Women’s Day in alumni profiles.

Thank you to our alumnae for volunteering.  

Find out more about the Women of the #LboroFamily.