Open Door, Open City is a webinar series from The Inclusion Initiative at the LSE hosted by Karina Robinson. In this webinar series, Karina typically interviews a single guest - often leaders of business in London—on the benefits of bringing behavioural science and data science together to create more inclusive cultures at the organisation level.
Catch up on the webinars in our series so far
2022
Karina Robinson in conversation with Lord Mayor, Alderman Vincent Keaveny
Open Door, Open city session on 14 October 2022
Vincent Keaveny is the 693rd Lord Mayor of the City of London. He is currently a member of the Policy & Resources Committee and the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Sub-Committee. He is also a Governor of the City of London School. Vincent is Co-Chair of the HMT & BEIS Socio-Economic Diversity Taskforce.
During his discussion with Karina Robinson he discussed his work on the Socio-Economic Diversity Taskforce, the challenges of dealing with the cost of living crisis and the importance of equality, diversity and inclusivity in the city of London.
Listen to the podcast here
Karina Robinson in conversation with Julia Hoggett
Event hosted by TII on 16 June 2022
During this event they will discuss Julia’s role in advocating for the rights of women, LGBTQ+ people and minorities in the workplace. Julia will also talk about being the first ‘out’ gay CEO of the iconic LSE, why she is not afraid to insist that City executives and non-executives should be paid more, and why the UK should fall back in love with financial markets.
Julia Hoggett is chief executive officer of London Stock Exchange Plc. She oversees the exchange’s primary and secondary markets and associated products and services from both a regulatory and commercial perspective. She has spent her entire career in capital markets and knows the key role they play in providing vital capital to companies and institutions and delivering returns for individual and institutional investors.
Listen to the podcast here
Karina Robinson in conversation with Sheldon Mills
Event hosted by TII on 22 April 2022
During this event Sheldon Mills, Executive Director, Consumers and Competition at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was in conversation with Karina Robinson. Where they discussed his work on LGBT+ rights with Stonewall where he is the charity's longest-standing trustee and D&I in the City through his work with the FCA.
Sheldon Mills is the executive director, consumers and competition at the Financial Conduct Authority. He had previously been a senior director at the Competition and Markets Authority. He chairs the board of trustees of Stonewall.
Listen to the podcast here
2021
Karina Robinson in conversation with Simona Paravani-Mellinghoff
Event hosted by TII on 27 September 2021
Simona Paravani-Mellinghoff, Managing Director, is the Global Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Solutions, Multi-Asset Strategies & Solutions (MASS) at BlackRock. The MASS team is the investment group at the heart of BlackRock's portfolio construction, asset allocation, and active management ecosystem.
Ms Paravani-Mellinghoff was named for two consecutive years in 2009 and 2010 as a rising star of finance under 40 by Financial News, a sister company of the Wall Street Journal. She is Industrial Professor at the Institute of Finance and Technology at UCL where she teaches Financial Analytics and Machine Learning. Ms Paravani-Mellinghoff is a published author and sits on the board of financial education charity MyBnk.
Watch the video here
Karina Robinson in conversation with Georgia Dawson
Event hosted by TII on 9 June 2021
Georgia is Freshfields’ Senior Partner and has a background in internal and regulatory investigations, complex multi-jurisdictional litigation, and compliance advice in relation to anti-money laundering, anti-bribery and corruption and human rights. Georgia has practised for over 20 years in Sydney, London, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Georgia is a champion for diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. She was named by the Financial Times and Yahoo! in the OUTstandingTop 50 LGBT+ Ally Executives lists in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and by Stonewall as its Global Senior Champion in 2019. She was also named an Innovative Leader in the Financial Times Asia-Pacific Innovative Lawyers Awards 2020.
Watch the video here
Karina Robinson in conversation with Esther Odejimi-Uzokwe
Event hosted by TII on 5 May 2021
Esther founded Opened Palm in 2015, with the focus of increasing the pipeline of Black, state-comprehensive-educated students into Oxford, Cambridge and Russell Group institutions. She graduated from Oxford University in 2017, having studied an undergraduate degree in Theology and Religion. Esther then joined Goldman Sachs as an Equity Derivatives Investment Banker, before joining the 10,000 Black Interns team as Programme Director. Esther also sits on the board of Intermission Youth (Theatre).
Watch the video here
Karina Robinson in conversation with Shellye Archambeau
Event hosted by TII on 21 April 2021
Shellye Archambeau (@ShelArchambeau) is an experienced CEO and Board Director with a track record of accomplishments building brands, high performance teams, and organizations. Ms. Archambeau currently serves on the boards of Verizon, Nordstrom, Roper Technologies, and Okta. She is also a strategic advisor to Forbes Ignite and the President of Arizona State University, and serves on the board of two national nonprofits, Catalyst and Braven.
She is the author of Unapologetically Ambitious: Take Risks, Break Barriers and Create Success on Your Own Terms. A book that will inspire you and provide the tools to enable you to fight the battles, make the tradeoffs and create the life you want.
Watch the video here
Please note that there were technical issues during the recording of this video.
Karina Robinson in conversation with Poppy Jaman OBE
Event hosted by TII on 10 March 2021
Poppy Jaman OBE (@poppyjaman) is a global voice of authority on workplace mental health, CEO of the City Mental Health Alliance, Director at Re=Balance and Trustee at the Centre for Mental Health. In 2018, Poppy was awarded an OBE in recognition of her services to people with mental health issues and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Gloucestershire. In 2019 she won Woman of The Year at the GG2 Culture & Diversity Leadership Awards and was named a Game Changer in the FT women of 2019 list. Poppy also founded Mental Health First Aid England and served two terms on the PHE Advisory Board.
Watch the video here
Karina Robinson in conversation with Tom Ilube CBE
Event hosted by TII in association with The Entrepreneurs Network, on 17 February 2021
Tom Ilube CBE (@tomilube) is CEO and founder of London based Crossword Cybersecurity plc, a Non Executive Director of the BBC and a Non Executive Director of FTSE100 company WPP, the world’s largest advertising group. Previously he was Managing Director of Consumer Markets at Callcredit Information Group, founder/CEO of Garlik, a venture capital-backed identity protection company, sold to Experian and Chief Information Officer of Egg plc, the pioneering British internet bank.
Tom is Chair of the education charity, African Gifted Foundation and launched the African Science Academy, the first girls’ science and technology school on the continent. He is an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and an Advisory Fellow at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, as well as being awarded Honorary Doctorates by City, University of London and the University of Wolverhampton. He was named as Britain’s most influential Black person in 2017 and was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 Birthday Honours for services to Technology and Philanthropy.
Watch the video here
Karina Robinson in conversation with Alderman Timothy Hailes JP FKC
Event hosted by TII on 26 January 2021
Timothy Hailes FKC (@HailesTim) is a multi-award-winning international capital markets lawyer with over 25 years’ experience in derivatives, securities and wholesale markets. He is an Alderman of The City of London and served as Sheriff in 2017/18 - making him eligible for election as Lord Mayor of the City of London, the international ambassador for the UK's financial and professional services sector. His commitment to public service started in 1988 when he was Parliamentary Assistant to two Cabinet Ministers in Her Majesty’s Government aged just 20.
Tim is currently Group General Counsel and Company Secretary of Five Islands Capital Limited a specialist FinTech company focused on payments, trading and capital markets.
Watch the video here
2020
Karina Robinson in conversation with Vivienne Artz talking about conclusions from the TII/WIBF Inclusion study and the tensions between privacy and data.
Event hosted by TII on 11 December 2020
Vivienne Artz (@VivienneArtz) is the Chief Privacy Officer at Refinitiv, leading the global Privacy Office and overseeing global privacy strategy and practice.
Previously, Vivienne was a Managing Director and Global Head of Privacy Legal and Head of International for the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Group at Citi. Prior to joining Citi in 2000, Vivienne worked in private practice in London.
Vivienne placed in the top 20 Executive Women Role Models in the HERoes List 2020, was awarded “Woman Solicitor of the Year” in the Law Society Excellence Awards in 2020, and has many years of experience leading a broad range of diversity initiatives and groups both within firms and across sectors.
Watch the video here
Karina Robinson in conversation with Dr Alice Maynard talking about Inclusion, the Financial Conduct Authority and the 25th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act.
Event hosted by the TII on 7 December 2020
Dr Alice Maynard is Director of Future Inclusion, working across sectors increasing inclusion through improved leadership and governance.
Alice is a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of the Financial Conduct Authority, HMRC and Transport for London. She has been a member of the expert challenge panel for the Williams Rail Review, the Committee on Fuel Poverty and the Human Genetics Commission, and she chaired a NICE guideline committee on improving the experience of adult social care users.
She has worked in the field of diversity and inclusion for 30 years and now coaches senior leaders in inclusive leadership alongside her Board and advisory roles.
Watch the video here
Karina Robinson in conversation with Lord Karan Bilimoria talking about the CBI’s Change the Race Ratio, entrepreneurship and UK-India commerce.
Event hosted by the TII on 24 November 2020
Lord Karan Bilimoria CBE, DL (@Lord_Bilimoria) is the founder of Cobra Beer, Chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership Limited, a Joint Venture with Molson Coors, and Chairman of Molson Coors Cobra India. In the Monde Selection, one of the most prestigious quality awards in the world for beer, the Cobra range have collectively been awarded a total of 110 Gold medals since 2001, making it one of the most awarded beers in the world. Lord Bilimoria is the Founding Chairman of the UK India Business Council, a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, a former Chancellor of Thames Valley University (now the University of West London); he was the youngest University Chancellor in the UK when appointed.
Watch the video here