PowerWomen Speak

Jess Hall is Chief Product Officer at Just Eat Takeaway.com, one of the world's leading on-demand delivery platforms, connecting hundreds of thousands of partners with tens of millions of consumers across 17 international markets. She leads the global product vision powering this ecosystem, evolving the platform beyond food delivery into a broader digital high street for everyday convenience. With nearly two decades of experience building and scaling digital platforms used by millions of people every day, Jess has held senior leadership roles at some of the UK's largest consumer businesses, including Tesco, Argos and Sainsbury's, leading large-scale transformation in complex retail and technology environments. She has been at the forefront of applied AI in consumer platforms for years, most visibly when she led the deployment of the first autonomous wheel-legged delivery robots in Europe. But the work she is most proud of sits closer to home: she created JET's early careers programme from scratch, deliberately designed without degree requirements, hiring on potential rather than credentials. Three cohorts in, over 52% of each intake are women, 95% graduate into full-time roles, and the cohort includes career switchers from nursing, teaching, veterinary work, and documentary filmmaking. In a sector that has historically locked women out by insisting on CS or maths degrees, Jess used her platform to open a different door. A longstanding advocate for women in tech and business, she speaks regularly on the importance of active sponsorship and building genuinely diverse talent pipelines. Outside work, Jess is a mother of two, a tennis player, a runner, and a reader with an ambitious annual book target and no apologies for it.

Jennifer Tejada is the Chairperson and CEO of PagerDuty, the global leader in digital operations management (NYSE: PD).  Jennifer brings to the role 25 years of diverse experience spanning mass consumer products to disruptive cloud and software solutions. She has a successful track record in product innovation, optimizing operations, and scaling public and private enterprise technology companies. She is also an active tech investor as an LP in multiple firms, including Operator Collective, Harlem Capital, and Penny Jar. Prior to her role at PagerDuty, Jennifer was CEO of Keynote Systems, where she led the company to strong, profitable growth before its acquisition by Dynatrace. Before Keynote, Jennifer was Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Mincom, leading its global strategy up to its acquisition by ABB. She has also held senior positions at Procter & Gamble and i2 Technologies. Jennifer currently serves as a board member of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL). Jennifer holds a bachelor's degree in organizational behavior and business management from the University of Michigan, where she was a proud member of the Michigan's Women's Golf Team. Outside of her professional roles, Jennifer enjoys spending time with her family and is an avid skier.

Shiva McMahon is the CEO and MD of Petro Australis Energy (PAE), an Australian exploration and production company. With over 30 years of experience in the energy industry, she has built a distinguished career in business leadership, delivering safe and sustainable operations, strategy development and implementation, financial management, business development, and risk management. Before joining PAE, Shiva was Executive Vice President for International Operations at Woodside Energy, where she managed operations across Gulf of Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Canada, and Senegal. Her tenure at Woodside followed its merger with BHP Petroleum, where she was the Managing Director for the Australian business. Shiva spent a significant portion of her career at BP, primarily in the Upstream business. She also served as CFO for Castrol, BP's global lubricants business and prior to that ,held various leadership roles across multiple geographies, including as Chief of Staff for Upstream from 2014-2017. Her governance experience includes serving as a Non-Executive Director and Shareholder Representative on the Board of Castrol India, listed on the Mumbai Stock Exchange. She has also served on the boards of The Greater Houston Partnership, the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), and the Australian Energy Producers (formerly APPEA).

Established in 2008, the luxury womenswear label Emilia Wickstead has become known in the industry as the epitome of modern femininity. Born in New Zealand to a part-New Zealand part-Italian mother and a part-Samoan father, Emilia was raised in the suburbs of Pakaranga, Ellerslie and Parnel in Auckland. After her father, an artist, passed away when Emilia was four, her mother Angela Wickstead founded her own successful made-to-measure fashion line. Emilia spent her formative years observing her mother build her business, assisting in fittings after school. At the age of fourteen Emilia moved to Italy when her mother married an Italian, spending her teenage years studying in Milan. There, Emilia became mesmerized with the world of luxury fashion. At eighteen she moved to London to study Design and Marketing at world-renowned university Central Saint Martin's, graduating with Honours in 2007. After her studies Emilia worked at American Vogue and at fashion houses including Giorgio Armani and Narciso Rodriguez before returning to London to establish her eponymous label, opening her first store in Belgravia in 2009. Known for her fluent use of colour and exacting craftsmanship, Emilia Wickstead's designs effortlessly combine tradition and the romance of bygone eras with refined silhouettes and contemporary twists to create timeless, elegant clothing with a clear point of distinction. Originally founding her business with a unique made-to-measure model, Emilia's collections now comprise seasonal ready-to-wear, homeware and bridalwear, as well as bespoke and made-to-order services operated from her West London atelier. Her designs have been showcased at London Fashion Week since 2011. Emilia Wickstead collections are held by some of the most prestigious retailers in the world, including Net-A-Porter, MyTheresa, Nordstrom, Harrods, Harvey Nichols UK, Tuckernuck, and Simon James.

Serpil Timuray is an Independent Non-Executive Director at British American Tobacco Plc.  Most recently, Serpil was the CEO of Vodafone Investments and a member of Vodafone Group's Executive Committee. Her previous roles at Vodafone Group's Executive Committee included CEO of Europe Cluster, Group Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, and CEO of AMAP (Africa, Middle East, Asia, Pacific).  Prior to joining Vodafone, Serpil spent 10 years at Danone Plc, latterly as the CEO of Danone Dairy Turkey. Prior to Danone, she held several marketing roles at Procter & Gamble Plc. Serpil also serves on the boards of various non-profit organisations. She is the Founding Chair of ChangeTheFace Alliance, an industry-wide global cooperation to accelerate diversity and inclusion in the tech sector. She was awarded GSMA's "Diversity in Tech Outstanding Achievement GLOMO Award" in 2022 for this. She is a Board Member of Digital Leaders Europe at WEF, a member of Founders4Schools, and a Board Member of DEIK DTIK (Global Turkish Business Council) and the UK Representative of DTIK. She has also served as a board member of GSMA (Global Mobile Communications Association) and chaired the GSMA Board's Public Policy Committee. Serpil has been recognised in various international rankings, including HERoes "100 Women Executives Role Model List" six times, ranking 4th in 2024, Financial Times HERoes "Champions of Women in Business" ranking 20th in 2018, Fortune's "Most Powerful Women International" ranking 27th in 2017 and Newsweek's "World's 125 Women of Impact" ranking 79th in 2013. 

Margarida is a founding team member and VP of Operations at poolside. Before joining poolside, Margarida spent two years as a venture capitalist at Beacon Capital, primarily investing in early-stage deep tech companies. Prior to that, she served as COO at Lifebit, an AI genomics platform for developers, where she played a key role in growing the company from Day 0 to their $60M Series B round. Margarida's earlier experience includes working at source{d}, applying AI to code and software. In both source{d} and Lifebit, Margarida joined when the companies were Day 0 and only had its founders, while at Beacon Capital she was critical to raising their first fund. Next to her day jobs, Margarida helped raise over $100M in capital for founders she mentored.

Nneka is a Senior Director at Alvarez & Marsal, where she leads the UK's Wealth Management Performance Improvement practice. She was previously Chief Operating Officer at a wealth management business and prior to this, Nneka spent almost 10 years in Management Consulting at Deloitte and Accenture. A passionate champion of improving social mobility, Nneka is a mentor with the Social Mobility Foundation. She previously mentored with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and Amos Bursary, and she is a supporter of Women of Colour Global Network (WOCGN), Women of the Future Future and Inspiring the Future.

Ingvild Næss is the CIO of Schibsted and CEO of E-Tech AB delivering IT services across Schibstead. She is on the Board of Komplett ASA, an electronic consumer goods company, and Neddy AS, an ed-tech startup. Ingvild was named female media leader of the year in Norway 2023. She chairs the board of Feltgis, a startup focused on using data in forestry. Ingvild used to chair the Norwegian Media Businesses Association's data and privacy committee. Furthermore, she was appointed as a member of the Norwegian government's privacy commission. She is also a member of the board on the Polytechnic society. Ingivild is married with two children and loves running.

Sarah Friar, former CEO of Nextdoor, soon to be the CFO of OpenAI, led the company to nearly triple its reach to over 92M Neighbors in 335,000 neighborhoods worldwide. Previously, as CFO at Square, she oversaw its IPO and $30 billion market cap increase. Her prior experience spans Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Salesforce. Currently a Board Member of Walmart and Consensys, she's also known for her Board contributions to Slack Technologies and New Relic. A Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and on the Advisory Boards of Operation HOPE, the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford and Co-Chair of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. Sarah is committed to mentorship, founding LadiesWhoLaunch.org. Raised in Northern Ireland, she holds degrees from Oxford and Stanford, earning an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II for entrepreneurship.

Joanna Jensen is the founder of the UK's number one baby and child personal care brand, Childs Farm, having created the brand in 2010 as a result of her own daughter's sensitive and eczema prone skin.  In March 2022, Jensen sold Childs Farm for £40m to PZ Cussons Plc Jensen is a keen supporter of other female entrepreneurs.  She is a mentor to a number of British SMEs through Imperial College's mentoring programme and is a leading advocate of supporting female founded businesses.  She works on the advisory board of Buy Women Built (BWB) driving awareness of female founded brands to UK consumers and investors.   Joanna is also a Sustainability advisor to The British Beauty Council. Childs Farm is the market leader in sustainability, and recently became a certified B Corp.