Leaders from Google and Leeds City Council back International Women’s Day

The Leeds-based social initiative ‘Empowering Women with Tech’ is set to welcome 275 attendees to a sold out evening of “fireside chats” on March 8 at the Howard Assembly Rooms in Leeds.

The conference will celebrate the contributions of women in the digital, science and technology industries with talks from leading figures from Accenture, the European Space Agency, Google and Leeds City Council.

The speakers will include Ana Jakimovska, the director of product management, Guardian News & Media, Milena Nikolic, the director of software engineering at Google, Coun Rebecca Charlwood, executive member for health, wellbeing and adults at Leeds City Council, Niamh McKenna, the managing director at Accenture Health, UK, Vinita Marwaha Madill, the Founder of Rocket Women, which aims to inspire the next generation of young women to choose a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) and Eve Roodhouse, the chief officer for economic development at Leeds City Council.

Ms Madill is a contractor employed by TERMA B.V. which is based at the European Space Agency.

The speakers will be interviewed by Natasha Sayce-Zelem, the head of technology for digital service at Sky and founder of Empowering Women with Tech.

Ms Sayce-Zelem said: “Role models and mentors can play a pivotal role in shaping a career so to celebrate International Women’s Day, I wanted to focus on our speakers sharing the benefit of their experience”

“Role models can show you career paths and opportunities that you didn’t know were out there. Most importantly, they can also inspire. Sharing stories, tips and experience is a great way to work through challenges and opportunities. We hope that these inspirational role models will inspire our attendees to imagine themselves in these fascinating roles.”