Women Who Work

It is a great honour to have with us this month Craig Fazzini-Jones from Aviva. Craig is the Chief Operating Officer at Aviva for UK Investment, Wealth & Retirement. Craig joined Aviva in September 2021 and is on a mission to drive business transformation of the largest life insurance business in the UK with a 23% market share, over £300 billion of assets under management and more than £15 billion of annual sales. Craig is responsible for over 4000 employees that support 11 million customers across 9 major business lines and Craig is directly accountable for £300 million annual operating budget. Before Aviva, Craig was at Canada Life where he was appointed Chief Operating Officer responsible for a business transformation in the UK market.  Alongside these fantastic career achievements, Craig is also a family man and has 3 children (now 18, 16 and 14). We primarily wanted to hear from Craig on this podcast because each of his children have been diagnosed as neurodivergent which has come with its own challenges. All three of his children have been diagnosed with varying degrees of dyslexia and ADHD and two with autism. We wanted to hear about the challenges he has to balance juggling family and work life alongside his wife, and we think it is particularly valuable to hear about that from a male perspective.

Joy and Alsi are delighted to return for Season 3. In the first episode of Season 3, Joy and Alsi provide an update on their journeys to date, including another pregnancy announcement! Since last Season, Joy has been a Partner at CMS for over a year and discusses her experience returning to work from her second daughter into a new firm and new role. Joy discusses the benefits of being more senior whilst having young children and some of the practical challenges, including issues around perception and the challenges / benefits of moving jobs during this difficult period. Alsi has seemingly entered into more of a 'steady state' although has still moved house and nursery arrangements with her 2 daughters in the last year!We are really excited to share our experiences of running the mentoring programmes for 2 years now and we give some tips for returning to work from maternity leave that we have learnt along the way.We have some wonderful guests lined up for this Season so watch out for our monthly episodes and please do like, comment and subscribe!

For our final episode of Season 2, Joy Davey and Alexandra Buchan-Heelas are joined by the outstanding engineering entrepreneur, Shirin Dehghan. Shirin moved to the UK from Iran when she was 14, did an engineering degree, developed software during her second maternity leave that led to her leaving her job at Vodafone and founding and running a company as CEO - which she ultimately sold for £85m! Since selling her company, she has extensive experience in raising venture capital and since 2016 she has been a Chairwoman and investor of leading start-ups, medium sized and blue-chip companies. She has been an active angel investor and senior partner of a leading venture capital fund in London. Shirin’s latest venture is a fintech called Oxford Algorithms where she is full time CEO and co-founder. Shirin is incredibly inspiring and has consistently taken brave steps in pursuit of her career whilst juggling motherhood to 2 children. Shirin is also a huge supporter of women and girls doing STEM subjects and is a trustee of a charity, Smallpiece, that aims to do just this. Shirin is a winner of multiple awards including Blackberry Woman in Technology, Best Woman in Mobile, Business Woman of the year 2013, and European Entrepreneur of the year 2013. 

This month Alsi and Joy are joined by Sarah Oluwole, Chief Operating Officer at Lumin Wealth. Sarah was previously the youngest qualified accountant in the UK and since starting her career at Deloitte, has now been at Lumin Wealth for over a decade where she has helped to grow the firm to £1 billion AUM. Sarah has also had two children in that time with her husband who has now runs his own fitness business.This is our most emotional podcast yet and Alsi and Joy both end up in tears listening to Sarah's emotional story about giving birth to her daughter. It is an incredibly moving episode for so many reasons, and the bravery and hope that Sarah and her husband displayed is truly inspirational. Thank you to Sarah for her openness and honesty. We hope you enjoy this as much as we do.

This month we are delighted to have Amy Todd on our podcast. Amy trained as an accountant and is now a Partner at KPMG. Amy also co-founded Ox Box in 2018 which provides boxes of educational fun for children inspired by growing up in South Korea until the age of 13. Amy also has two sons who are 14 and 11.We loved hearing from Amy on her experience of growing up in South Korea and the academic pressure that brings, as well as her move (alone!) to the UK at age 13. We also hear about Amy’s interesting career path that has had its fair share of challenges along the way. Amy talks openly about her experience of burn out and how a coach helped support her through that difficult period.

This month we speak to Jo Farmer who is Joint Managing Partner at law firm Lewis Silkin. Jo has had a phenomenal career as a lawyer and has moved up the ranks to take on the role of Joint Managing Partner 8 months ago following over 15 years as a Partner there. Jo also has twin boys who are now 15 and was promoted to Partnership whilst on maternity leave. Jo had very humble beginnings and we loved talking to Jo about social mobility, what it is like having twins and her thoughts on working 4 days a week. This podcast is filled with practical tips for working parents, including the help she found from a business coach, walking out the front door at pick up time and understanding that careers are not a linear path. Importantly, Jo has demonstrated visible change as a leader and is a huge inspiration to us.

This month we have Her Honour Judge Alison Raeside on our podcast. Alison is a Circuit Judge and was the first sitting Judge in the UK to take maternity leave so has pathed the way for us all. Alison has had four children, with her final son being born when she was 47 (when her eldest was 16). It is such an honour to hear from Alison and her experiences, including how to get on in a male dominated environment with limited support (including no maternity leave policy or pay, and no female loos!). Alison was often the only woman in the room and, as she says, there was more chance of being in the Supreme Court if you were called “David” than if you were a woman. Do listen to hear all of Alison’s practical tips, including her discovery that commuting is a “complete waste of time” and that you should be a “submarine parent”! Alison is passionate about allowing flexibility and working from home, including for court hearings. Alison also touches on how important it is that there are more women Judges to ensure that our law-makers and enforcers reflect society. Alison is hugely inspiring in terms of how she has navigated a successful career alongside parenthood and we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did.

We are delighted to have Natasa Williams on our podcast. Natasa co-founded the investment management firm, Cadro, and has had a varied career that includes accountancy, investment banking and wealth management. Natasa also has a daughter and juggled parenthood around an incredibly demanding job in investment banking that involved travelling around the world with her daughter. Natasa moved into wealth management as a direct result of becoming a parent to pursue a career without the international travel requirements, although the wealth management industry presented new challenges, particularly from a gender perspective. Natasa helpfully gives her view on which industry she thinks is most supportive for having a family so this is a must listen for anyone who is considering their future career choices. This is a fascinating podcast that we hope you enjoy as much as we did!