Mentoring

We feel deeply proud of our winners and those remarkable women shortlisted for the awards over the past years. This year we reinvigorate our mentoring programme to provide additional value to our alumni and candidates for the 2020 awards. We are delighted to offer a one-to-one session with our mentors for all nominees. In addition, all shortlisted candidates are invited to participate in a 12 month programme where they will be mentored and included in networking, learning and social media activities.
Nominate yourself or a woman whose leadership inspires you to join our programme.
Alongside our Trustees, we are delighted have passionate, local leaders use their experience and support to help mentees achieve their goals, direct their careers and build their networks. Meet our mentors here and follow our work on social media.
What Mentoring Means To Us
Meet our mentors
Dr Julie Mills OBE
A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, Julie was recently named Principal of the Year by the National Centre for Diversity (NCF). She is the driving force behind plans for an Institute of Technology at Bletchley Park, chair of the Helena Kennedy Foundation and Chair of Women Leaders UK.
Julie was recognized with an OBE in the Queen’s 2019 Birthday Honours List for services to business and education.
Nikki Ross
Nikki has always felt that looking back and helping others up the ladder behind her is so important and wants to continue to invest her time to help others as much as she can.
Ruby Parmar
She believes that our personal circumstances, the way we feel, and a corresponding drain on energy will all have an impact on our professional development. We need to address both to reach our full potential.
Pam Gosal
She is a great advocate of helping others and has been mentoring for over 10 years. She believes not one size fits all therefore she tailors her approach to what the mentee needs, this could be anything from giving some simple advice, providing direction, just listening, reaching goals or coaching.
Pam was the proud Women Leaders award winner twice, in 2015 she was recognised for the work and support she has provided the Business Sector and in 2018 she was recognised for her work in and Public Service.
Sarah Thorne
Sarah’s own experience of being mentored had a profound effect on her career and personal development, and she gives back by mentoring other women, including school age girls at risk of underachieving. She uses the challenges she has faced ‘on the way up’ to inspire others to reach higher and to challenge gender inequality in the workplace.
Kelly Haynes
Kelly is an ambassador who helps teach fitness in a number of charities such as MK ACT (which is a local women’s refuge), Sportraider, fit4life and a non-profit project - Boxing Clever.
Boxing Clever is achieving amazing results with students in secondary schools and won a ‘Kids Count’ award in 2019. The project which was started by Thames Valley Police & Milton Keynes Council, aims to foster positivity and discipline through martial arts.
Elizabeth Sheldon
She looks forward to creating those relationships and doing what she can to ease the path towards leadership and success.
Maureen Sumner Smith
She is directly accountable for the operation of all BSI’s business streams including assurance services incorporating the Kitemark™ plus training and certification.
Zoe Mills
Zoe firmly believes that mentoring is a great way for individuals to collaborate and progress. She would be happy to mentor an individual who needs help in her professional field of Human Resources or navigating their way through organisations.
Jane Horridge
Having been fortunate to have the support of strong mentors throughout her corporate career, Jane is an advocate for mentoring, and has supported many individuals at various stages of their career to expand their thinking, develop and progress.
Jane is currently running three of her own businesses following six years in the education sector, bringing commercial and marketing expertise from her corporate career to MK College.
Zoe Raven
Zoe is an advocate of lifelong learning, with an MBA from the OU and currently a part-time doctoral student at Royal Holloway, University of London, researching ethical issues in early years provision in the UK.
Mentoring and training within Acorn has shown her that supporting talent and celebrating women’s achievements is a great way to inspire the next generation of women.
Gamiel Yafai
Mentoring is Gamiel’s way of giving away the knowledge, skills and experience he has accumulated over the years and getting that feel-good factor as a result. Gamiel was the proud recipient of the Global Diversity Leadership Award presented by the Global HRD Congress 2017 and the author of ‘Demystifying Diversity’ and ‘Yemen Proud’.
He is also an Ambassador for the Global poverty charity The Hunger Project and is on the Board of Trustees for The Parks Trust and Women Leaders UK.
Precious Lwanga
Precious is a strategic thinker with sharp business acumen; she admires and encourages other women in business who have a passion for their industry. Precious also has a keen interest in raising the profile of STEM careers.
Kate Aspinall
Research tells us that women who cannot see relatable females in positions of leadership often don’t stretch upwards – strong women leaders show their mentees the way. Kate feels it is her responsibility to play her part by giving away what has been so freely given to her.
Yvonne Owuor, Msc BA (Hons)
Growing up in the UK, Yvonne always thought that her mentor was going to be an older version of herself and looked for someone who looked like her for years, never finding that person. There are very few women in leadership positions and so very rare to see women of color in leadership roles. By being a mentor, Yvonne can empower women and lead them to upward mobility in employment, education and personal development and as future women leaders.
Helen Sachdev
Helen particularly enjoys working with those who are in, or have had challenging careers.
Richard Naylor
His main focus is bringing entrepreneurs and businesses together, as well as helping grow new and existing commercial opportunities, through mentoring start-ups, entrepreneurs and business executives.
John Cove
He is particularly proud of his work with StadiumMK and is delighted to be a Trustee of Women Leaders.
Claire Farmer
She has delivered key projects around budgeting and forecasting and debt management and these projects lead her to be recognised as an NHBC star for 2019.
She joins Women Leaders as Treasurer this year, on the board of Trustees and looks forward to using her passion for finance and experience to help other women reach their goals.
Professor Lynette Ryals OBE
She was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours 2019 for services to higher education and intends to continue using her profile and platform to encourage women to step into leadership pathways, especially in STEM fields.
Dr Chinwe Osuchukwu
She is passionate about diversity and inclusion and has served as an international chair, co-ordinating international activities for a local Rotary Club and is an executive member of British Academy of Childhood Disability (BACD) and Oxford BACD regional Coordinator. Chinwe became a trustee of CBM, the Overseas Disability Charity UK in 2015.
Emma Bowman-Smith
Emma is passionate about helping start up and step up businesses and has helped to launch a number of successful new companies by providing the business owners with clear plans for structure, admin and strategy.