Our Founders
JANE GIBBON
Jane is Chief People Officer for London Business School. With a strong track record of delivering business-focused HR practice globally, Jane has worked in over 50 geographies including her native US, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Jane’s experience began in the US working for internet pioneers such as AOL Time Warner, Netscape and Yahoo. She then moved to McDonald’s where she was the Chairman of the Women’s Leadership Network, and founded the Diversity and Inclusion function in Europe.
She has subsequently served in a variety of HRD roles at Tesco, Starbucks, Just Eat and now London Business School. Jane has always kept building inclusive workplaces at the core of her work. Jane is a Trustee for City and Guilds, and is Chair of their Nominations Committee.
Her passion is building cultural bridges and creating workplaces where individuals can come be their authentic selves.
ELIZABETH JENKIN
Elizabeth co-founded Lift as you Climb because she believes deeply that women need other women to guide, champion and cheer-lead them through their career journey. She is passionate about her family, people and sport. Reflecting these passions, she currently sits on the board of the Women's FA as well as on the insurance boards of AJG UK and Fidelis UK.
Elizabeth is currently the CEO of Nimbla – a disruptor in the Insuretech world. She is often contributing to panels, articles and events on the topic of inclusion and diversity.
Our Advisory Board
We meet frequently with our advisory board, who are there to support and guide us; to ensure that LAYC is offering the best that we can to our community. We are grateful to be able to seek advice from all the team, who have a diverse mix of skills and experience.
LAVINIA GROVES
Lavinia is a qualified accountant with over 25 years of experience in financial services within asset management, retail and investment banking across Finance, Internal Audit, UK Governance, Risk and Controls, Product Advisory and Regulatory Compliance.
Lavinia is currently a Director at a large global investment bank, within the Compliance Regulatory Engagement Function and is the Global Head of Regulatory Engagement Standards. She is married with a son and daughter, loves reading and travelling. Lavinia has been a mentor for several years and continues to support several mentees.
PROFESSOR CLAIRE THOMPSON
Claire is a multi-award winning scientist, strategist and storyteller with more than 20 years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry spanning the large multi-nationals GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, virtual biotech and Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisations (CDMOs).
She is CEO of Agility Life Sciences, an award-winning CDMO, consulting and communications firm which works with organisations across the healthcare space to fast track their products to market, raise investment and help them to convey the benefits of their science through impactful communications.
Claire is also Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Cambridge, where she advises academics on how to translate their research into healthcare products, develop strategic partnerships and source funding. She holds an Honorary Professorship from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham, and is Chair of the International Pharmaceutical Federation’s Women in Science and Education (FIP WiSE) initiative.
A former footballer, Claire has launched and fully funds the Girls In Football Teams (GIFT) Grants, which support girls’ and women’s teams across the UK.
VINEETA RAYAN
Vineeta is a Team Leader at Mudskipper Business Limited, a healthcare communications company.
Vineeta gained a BSc (Hons) in biochemistry at Kings College, University of London, followed by a PhD at the University of London researching the repair mechanisms involved in osteoarthritis in a laboratory. She continued her research in this topic as a post-doctoral fellow at Rush Medical College, Chicago, US, before joining the healthcare communications industry. She has worked in this industry for over 20 years, providing medical communications, healthcare learning, consultancy and digital innovation to clients within the pharmaceutical industry.
Currently, Vineeta leads a team supporting a wide range of medical education initiatives for both internal and external stakeholders and strategic publications activities. Vineeta is a senior member of the team and is also involved in the operational aspects of the company. Mentoring and training her colleagues is an area of key interest to Vineeta.
ROSE PYKE
Rose is a Business Analyst at the insuretech, Nimbla, working to build products that innovate the credit insurance market.
An Edinburgh graduate of Astrophysics, she moved to London and began her career organising clinical examinations for the School of Medicine at King’s College London. She has navigated business development, office management, and operations for a digital transformation consultancy, where she mentored junior colleagues and apprentices. Rose explored the fine art world as art registrar of a print mounting and framing company before moving into the insurance industry, initially at a Lloyds insurance broking house. As part of a technology development team, she helped to modernise the Broking Operations processes.
Rose is passionate about people and problem-solving.
KATIE BRAZIER
Katie is the Competition and Events Director for UK Athletics providing strategic leadership to the development and delivery of major competitions and events including domestic UK Championships, the London Diamond League and bids to host European and World Athletics Championships. As a sports business consultant, Katie has used her extensive expertise and knowledge in marketing, communications, events, sponsorship and sports competition development to support a variety of organisations including The Rugby Football Union and England Netball. She continues to do so at FA Women’s Championship side London City Lionesses where she is a Board member.
A graduate of Carnegie School of Sport (Leeds Beckett University) Katie began her career in leisure facility management before moving into senior marketing and commercially focused roles at Adecco then British Swimming, where she experienced the magic of working on international events including Commonwealth Games, Summer and Winter Olympics, World and European Championships. As Head of Women’s Leagues and Competitions at the Football Association Katie oversaw the transformation of The FA Women’s Super League from a part-time amateur competition to a full-time professional league, as well as finally establishing Wembley as the home of the Women’s FA Cup Final.
PAULINE MCNULTY
Pauline McNulty is the co-founder of Playfilled which is a transformational people consultancy that builds human resilience through play. Pauline has executive-level leadership experience that spans transformational change, risk and assurance.
At Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM), a global specialty (re)insurer with over $5bn gross written premium (2018), she led the setup and oversight of delivery and change management for global multi-million dollar / multi-year strategic transformation to create a high-performing resilient organisation of the future.
Passionate about inclusion and mental well-being, Pauline was recognised for her work as LSM Executive Sponsor for D&I when she was featured on inaugural 2019 InsideOut Leaderboard, which is designed to end the stigma of mental ill-health in the workplace.
Since the beginning of 2020, in conjunction with co-founding Playfilled, Pauline has built a portfolio focused on enabling sustainable success for people and organisations as a coach, advisor/NED, and advocate.