Celebrating Women In Business

To celebrate trailblazing women in business, we will be hosting an interactive panel and Q & A session with three local business women, who will share their wealth of experience in their respective business sectors, and let us know what it takes to succeed as a woman in business.

The Q & A session will be followed by networking, discussions and food and drinks. This event will also be livestreamed. For all those that would like to attend the event via livestream, please email: startup@gll.org and we will send you the livestream link.

Please see below an overview of the pannelists. Third pannelist to be annouced shortly.

Felicia Odamtten is a distinguished Economist and the founder of The Black Economists Network (T-BEN), an organisation committed to diversifying the field of economics. Her leadership has driven T-BEN to forge strategic partnerships with prominent organisations, including The Bank of England and the Government Economic Service (UK). A skilled public speaker, Felicia has shared her insights at institutions like The London School of Economics and in various media, including BBC, Bloomberg and The New Statesman. She has also written articles that have appeared in the Sunday Times. 
 
Currently an Economist at The Resolution Foundation, she focuses on improving living standards for low to middle-income groups. Felicia's background includes impactful work in the UK Civil Service, where she addressed key policy areas such as housing and environmental economics and also where she served as an Ambassador for the UK Government Economic Service's Fast Stream recruitment scheme. 

Felicia holds a Masters degree in Local Economic Development from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Bachelor of Arts degree (Hons) in Economics and Development studies from the University of Manchester. Adding to her list of accomplishments,In 2023, Felicia was recognized for her contributions to the field and her advocacy for social equality with an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration from Anglia Ruskin University. 

As a Business Mentor, Julie Wong has helped a wide range of SMEs recognise the need for understanding and implementing robust financial management to enable the business to optimise itself operationally. The focus is to identify areas of growth through purposeful use of its information and to enable the business to reach its goals.   

Julie is qualified accountant, Finance Director and finance & business professional with 30 years’ experience working with diverse organisations ranging from FTSE listed blue-chip to SMEs and start-ups in multiple sectors including banking, property, education and fintech.  As well as her technical skills, she is adept at supporting organisations to grow through her friendly, problem-solving approach. She applies leading business thinking to come up with innovative ideas to help organisations unlock their growth. 

Throughout her career, she focuses on connecting finance with operational parts of the organisation. She is an advocate that a strong finance function with a clear financial strategy is critical to the success of any company. Everything you do in business has a financial impact so finance is not just a back-office support function. All departments should work together and not in isolation, in order to achieve the organisation’s objectives.  

As well as being a mentor, Julie is also a fractional Finance Director, providing commercial and strategic support to businesses that do not require a full-time FD.  

Julie believes in taking the “fear out of finance” and that knowing your numbers is key to business growth and success. With a holistic approach to business she will help identify which area needs attention, whether it is sales and marketing or internally through its operations. She especially likes empowering female founders in their journey to realise their potential and reach their goals.  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-wong-fd-mentor/ 

Email:   juliewong.fd@gmail.com