BOARD

Chair of London Women's Forum
Independent
Trustee of The Royal Academy of Dance
Trust of The Circle NGO
Managing Director

Jane Karczewski

Jane Karczewski joined Société Générale in March 2022, and is Head of UK Investor Business Development and ESG Solutions. She is responsible for defining and implementing the commercial strategy with clients across the UK. Jane has over 28 years’ experience across markets trading, sales, and product development with senior roles at Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Citi. She was most recently Head of Global Custody at HSBC.

Jane is also a respected Diversity Advocate and is a champion of culture and inclusion in the workplace. She is a Gender, Pride, and Multi-Cultural Ambassador at Société Générale.

Jane was Co-Chair of Citi Women for 7 years when at Citi and is currently the Chair of London Women’s Forum, having served on the Board for 15 years.

Jane is an avid supporter of the arts and is an active member of the Royal Academy of Dance, serving on their Funding and Development Committee. She continues to dance in her spare time, ballet and Pro Am Latin.

Jane is married with 3 children.

Vice-Chair of London Women's Forum
Independent
Managing Director Accenture

Celia Larkin

Celia has over twenty five years of experience in financial services working currently at Accenture as a Senior Advisor to their Wealth and Asset Management practice, prior to this Celia held senior positions in Willis Towers Watson and Societe Generale CIB where she was responsible for looking after a portfolio of Asset Managers in the UK for Global Markets, ensuring that the sales and trading relationships functioned correctly and built institutional relations with her clients across all asset classes.

Prior to Societe Generale, Celia worked for Deutsche Bank where she held the position of Global Head of New Product Development for their Global Equities division since October 2008. Whilst at Deutsche Bank, Celia developed and implemented new structured equity access products globally; including leading strategic initiatives in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, US, Hong Kong & China. Previously, Celia has worked at several major asset managers (Threadneedle Investments, Henderson Global Investors, Aberdeen Asset Management & Deutsche Asset Management).

Celia holds a BA (Hons) degree in Modern Languages and International Business.

Secretariat of London Women's Forum
Independent
Chartered Accountant

Hannah Miller

Hannah (di Mambro) Miller is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser with her own accountancy practice, Chipperfield Accounting Ltd, specialising in tax advice to owner managed businesses. Hannah was a finalist in the Best Business Women Awards 2016 for the following categories: Best Business, Best Business Services and Most Inspirational Businesswoman.

Previously she worked in the tax department at Goldman Sachs for 9 years advising on international tax issues and structuring for the asset management and fixed income divisions.  Prior to Goldman Sachs she worked for Bear Stearns and Ernst & Young.

Hannah is the Company Secretary of the London Women’s Forum.

Board Director of London Women's Forum
Invesco
Head of EMEA Corporate Governance and Company Secretarial

Andrea Davidson

As Head of EMEA Corporate Governance and Company Secretarial, Andrea is responsible for management of the teams providing governance and secretariat services to Invesco’s investment trust business and UK, Irish and Continental European regulated entities and related funds.

Prior to joining Invesco, Andrea was responsible for management of the governance obligations of Wellington Management International’s EU fund business which was preceded by seven years at Schroders in the Asset Management Corporate Secretariat function, (covering Luxembourg entities, UK listed investment trusts and real estate); preceded by Fund Company Secretary at Gartmore Investment Management. She began her career at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (now Blackrock) in Product Administration.

Andrea holds a LLB (Hons) in Law with French Law from University College London and a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the College of Law, London. She is a Chartered Governance Professional and a Fellow of The Chartered Governance Institute.

Board Director of London Women's Forum
Natwest
Director

Ange Johnson de Wet

Ange is the Head of Engineering for the Start and Manage my Banking Relationship goal in commercial banking at NatWest.

Prior to working at NatWest, Ange was a head of function in Lloyds Banking Group and a Global Programme Manager / Director at Deutsche Bank. Within banking she’s worked in Business and Commercial Banking, Cloud Enabled Business Transformation, Operational Technology and Cloud Risk, Data and Analytics and Capital Markets Finance Risk and Regulatory Reporting.

Before working in banking, Ange worked in consulting as a senior manager with EY and a consultant with IBM. She worked across Asia Pacific and EMEA and focused on business and commercial banking and financial services. Ange worked as a developer, tester, designer, business analyst, programme analyst, project manager and programme manager. She has led business and technology strategies, programme reviews and complex technology enabled business transformations.

Ange has an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering (Mechatronics / Robotics) and Computer Science from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Board Director of London Women's Forum
JP Morgan Chase
Director

Crystal Poku

Crystal Poku is the Head of HR for JP Morgan Chase’s Corporate Functions within the EMEA region. In addition to this, the overseas the HR Advisory function for the UK and Poland where she is responsible for a team of HR Business Advisors who partner with senior leaders both regionally and globally to deliver strategic people solutions. Crystal is a member of the EMEA HR & Global HR Advisory Leadership Teams.

Over the past 13 years, Crystal has held various HR Business Advisor roles supporting a range of lines of businesses at the bank.

Prior to joining JP Morgan Chase & Co, Crystal worked in Lateral Recruiting & Talent Development at UBS and Barclays, also based in London. She has a over 17 years of HR experience having managed a full-spectrum of HR disciplines over the course of her career.

Crystal has a BSc in Economics from the University of Surrey in England.

Board Director of London Women's Forum
HSBC
Senior Executive

Fatima Hadj

Fatima Hadj is a senior executive in banking and asset management industry, with experience in scaling businesses across financial services that have a positive impact for investors. She joined HSBC two years ago to set up the climate strategy for Asset Management and just moved back to her original field Alternatives to support the growth of this rising asset class. Prior to joining HSBC, Fatima has held several senior roles in the banking and asset management industry at Tikehau Capital, Standard & Poor’s, and Moody’s.

She just joined the Advisory Board of the Net Zero Asset Management initiative, the coalition of the leading ESG market associations for the Race to the Net Zero. She co-chairs the Scope 3 Working Group for IIGCC, the leading European membership body enabling the investment community in driving significant and real progress by 2030 towards a net zero and resilient future. She is also chair of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) ’s committee for ESG integration in securitised products, in bank loans and related products.

Fatima has been named goalkeeper of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The goalkeeper program brings together recognised leaders and aspiring personalities from around the world to accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. Fatima is a Young Leader and member of the Board of the French American Foundation in New York City, and a former member of the Board of the Alumni Association of Ecole Centrale Paris.

Board Director of London Women's Forum
Northern Trust
Senior Vice President

Jane Porter

Having started her career at Chase Manhattan Bank NA Jane has worked in the financial services industry for 27 years, mainly in the relationship management, client side of the business. Currently Jane is Head of Client Services for Asset Owner clients. In 2006 she completed a 2 year secondment in Dublin working on the Funds side of the business.

Jane has mentored both men and women in different locations of the bank and outside of the bank for the last 15 years, specifically focusing on their personal development, raising their profile and ensuring they get the best out of themselves and their career. Jane held the role of Chair of the Women in Leadership group for 5 years.

Jane has a BA(hons) Degree, a Post Graduate Diploma in International Business, the Investment Management Certificate & in July 2022 passed the Chartered Associate Programme in Financial Services Management from the London Institute of Banking & Finance . Jane speaks French, enjoys traveling, visiting and learning about new cultures and current affairs.

Jane is on the Development Board of Tender a UK Charity.

Board Director of London Women's Forum
Schroders
Director

Jo French

An experienced executive in financial services firms, I have over 25 years of global business experience covering everything from pandemic planning through to major transformations to achieve seismic growth. With a focus on building strong collaborative relationships, I have been described as hard but fair. I am a raging feminist who loves to celebrate equality.

I have been with Schroders wider Group for over 5 years and am a Business Transformation Director. Life before Schroders Group was spent in a mix of technical and change roles. I spent 9 years in pension remediation for firms in corporate turnarounds. My first grown up role in the UK was with the wonderful NFU Mutual Insurance in Stratford upon Avon – where my family and I still live.

As an import I had a life before the UK. I worked in Sydney at the NSW Fire Brigades (Aust.), Kellogs (Aust.) Ltd and the NSW Dairy Corporation (Aust.). So fire and mile and rice crispies. I learned so much from those wonderful organisations – about people and change – but mostly people.

I have a BA from the University of Canterbury (the New Zealand one). I studied Sociology and Psychology – so perfect for financial services.

I live for my family and am lucky enough to enjoy them every day.

Board Director of London's Women Forum
Independent

Karen Bashford

Karen is Legal & General Capital’s (LGC) Chief Operating Officer and joined Legal and General in 2023, bringing over 20 years of Financial Industry experience. Her role and team covers Operations & Governance, Change, IT and Data & Analytics.

Karen is a stalwart advocate of D&I and is the D&I representative for LGC along with being a member of a number of industry groups to further inclusivity. Karen has always been passionate about ESG and sustainable investing.

Before joining LGC, Karen worked across Asset Management, Investment Banking and in the Public Sector with her last role being Head of Enterprise Change at Schroders.

Karen has Master’s degree in Transport Planning and Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Management Science along with other industry qualifications from Oxford, LSE and CFA.

Board Director of London's Women Forum
Bloomberg
Managing Director

Patricia Torres

Patricia Torres is Global Head of Sustainable Finance Solutions at Bloomberg, where she leads the Sustainable Finance solutions team, a group that is focused on ESG data, scores, regulatory solutions, third party data, Gender equality index and analytics. Previously, Patricia held several positions at Bloomberg, namely as Global Head for Financial Products Knowledge Group – leading a global team of learning consultants whose job was to create impactful change management programs aligned with Bloomberg’s new Enterprise Operating Model, as Regional Sales Manager, and as Regional Manager in the Data Department. Patricia has also worked as a consultant for Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, spanning different sectors, from the clothing segment, the mobile telecoms sector, and the digital and imaging technology market.

Board Director of London Women's Forum
Deutsche Bank
Managing Director

Shaheen Yusuf

Shaheen Yusuf is a Managing Director in Deutsche Bank’s Structured Finance team and is responsible for originating and distributing risk for the Bank’s credit and financing business. Shaheen also runs the Credit & Political Risk Insurance Distribution business for Deutsche Bank’s Global Markets EMEA trading books. She has been in Deutsche Bank since 2001 in a variety of roles such as OTC Derivatives, Client coverage and Capital Markets. Shaheen was a JP Morgan in the swaps team prior to Deutsche Bank. She also currently co-chairs the Bank’s gender diversity network.

Board Director of London Women's Forum
AO Sherman
PSL Counsel

Sheila Fahy

Sheila describes herself on social media as a professional support lawyer whose mission is to bring colour, simplicity and rock and roll to UK employment law and practice. As a non-practising barrister, she joined Allen & Overy’s Employment team in 1997 as one of the country’s first professional support lawyers, and has been instrumental in elevating the role from back-office to somewhere more visible.

Described by many as a creative tour de force, Sheila focuses on designing and creating training and products for clients, and ensuring that both her internal legal team and external clients are ahead of the curve on employment law and market practice. She is one of the new breed of lawyers who are active on social media and delights in blogging. Her passions are equality, diversity and inclusion, with particular emphasis on neurodiversity and social inclusion.

Sheila mentors a number of women, preferring to work with those who are returning from maternity leave/career breaks, or women who quietly believe that they can do so much more.

What career advice would you go back and tell your 20-year-old self if you could?

Sadly, we rarely get to mix wisdom and experience with youth, but if I could go back there I would tell myself three simple things:

1. Be authentic
2. Don’t just fly, soar
3. Remember to invest and believe in others along the way.

Board Director of London Women's Forum
SWIFT
Managing Director

Shriyanka Hore

SWIFT’s MI business spans over 230+ global market infrastructures across payments , securities and FX .Shriyanka is Tribe Lead for Market Infrastructure Communities and Standards Services. She leads the product tribe that is responsible for delivering secure, reliable and efficient solutions for Financial Market Infrastructure and their communities. The team manages critical central applications and services for central banks and scheme operators of high value payment systems, instant payment systems and bulk clearing in payments as well as for FX and Securities MIs. She and her team are also responsible for the management of financial messaging standards for the entire SWIFT community including translation and validation services that arise from the industry’s move to ISO20022.

Prior to SWIFT, Shriyanka has worked in Oracle, IBM and Intellect Design Arena and architected and delivered payments transformation projects for Tier 1 banks and advised central banks and scheme operators on industry innovation and standardization initiatives.

Board Director of London Women's Forum
Societe Generale
Managing Director

Sonia Luthra

Sonia is a highly motivated, commercially and practically minded solicitor, practising in the commercial, technology and data protection arena for 22 years. After obtaining her Bachelors of Laws (LLB (Hons)), Licence de droit Français and Masters in International Business Law (LLM), Sonia worked as a technology lawyer in various law firms, including Addleshaw Goddard LLP. In 2011 Sonia joined the Legal Department of Societe Generale in London, as a commercial lawyer specialising in technology and data protection laws. Since the implementation of GDPR in 2018 Sonia qualified as a data protection practitioner, obtaining her IAPP CIPP/E and PC.dp certifications in data protection, and her main focus at Societe Generale as the UK Data Protection Officer and Head of Data Protection is now data protection and data.

Sonia is a champion for equality, diversity and inclusion and is an active member of Societe Generale’s Gender and BeMe (Black and ethnic Minority) networks and an ally for its Pride and Allies network. As Societe Generale’s representative on the Board of the London Women’s Forum, Sonia also leads LWF’s Marketing and Communications Committee.

When not working or running after her two young sons, Sonia enjoys painting, music and travel.