21 March 2023

 

Changemakers from Northern businesses were recognised for their outstanding achievements in Manchester last night at the Northern Power Women Awards 2023, sponsored by EY.

 

The Northern Power Women Awards, which celebrate those who have championed gender equality in their respective fields and industries, are now in their seventh year and have become a highlight of the region's calendar.

 

This year's event saw a record 1,500 nominations across 11 categories. The individual award winners represent all regions in the North and were:

1. Lee Chambers – Agent of Change

2. Syima Aslam MBE – Disruptor for Good

3. Nickala Torkington – Levelling Up Leader

4. Lyndsay Geraghty – Mentor of the Year

5. Dr Nimrah Munir – One to Watch

6. Natalie Kenny – Outstanding Entrepreneur

7. Shabana Khushi – Person with Purpose

 

Four organisations were also recognised:

8. Ability Consultancy (NW) Ltd – Inclusive Innovation

9. Safer Date – Small Organisation

10. NTS – Medium Organisation

11. Deloitte – Large Organisation

 

With a large number of outstanding nominations, the judges chose to commend five individuals and two organisations:

 

12. Heather Jackson – Disruptor for Good

13. Nicky Chance-Thompson DL – Levelling Up Leader

14. Lauren Rosegreen – One to Watch

15. Zandra Moore – Outstanding Entrepreneur

16. Professor Diana Anderson MBE - Person with Purpose

17. BioGrad – Inclusive Innovation

18. Freedom4Girls – Small Organisation

 

Two additional awards were created this year; a ‘Judges Special’ award for the Levelling Up Leader category, which was awarded to Isobelle Panton (#19) for her grassroots level work to unlock the potential of young people in the Greater Manchester area. 

 

The second award was a ‘Special Honour’ Award for Ukrainian nationals Okszana Nepijvoda and Marianna Vaszilyiv, who have supported over 1000 Ukrainian refugees with direct employment and advice as part of the pan-Northern United For Ukraine initiative, which was launched in April 2022.

Go to the Awards tab to see all those recognised in more detail

 

Alison Kay, Managing Partner for Client Service at EY UK and Ireland, said her organisation was delighted to sponsor the event:

“The competition this year was outstanding and it was incredibly hard to pick one winner for each category. All of those recognised – whether individual or organisation – are shining examples of how we can drive real change and use our influence and power for the benefit of others.

 

“We’re delighted to be able to further our ongoing commitment to promoting gender balance across the UK by being involved as headline sponsor. It was an honour to support the Northern Power Women Awards and to showcase these fantastic leaders.”

 

Simone Roche MBE, Founder and CEO of Northern Power Women, commented: 

 

“This year’s Award winners and commended once again showcase the awe-inspiring contributions that we can make as individuals, organisations and communities when we support one another. Those recognised represent the outstanding leaders and role models present in and from North. 

 

It's fantastic to see how our community is using its power to achieve truly great things for the benefit of others, embodying the Northern Power Women ethos of inspiring people to use their PoWEr for good and accelerate gender equality.”

 

While the awards ceremony plays an important part in recognising role models, it is just one aspect of what Northern Power Women and its Power Collective community delivers. 

 

On the newly launched Power Platform users can gain access to monthly webinars, a weekly podcast, blogs, mentoring programmes, and networking events throughout the year, all designed to continue the campaign towards gender equality.

 

For more information visit www.wearepower.net

 

Since 2016, Lee Chambers, psychologist and founder of Essentialise, has made it his mission to engage male allies in conversations about menopause. He does this through gender health education in the workplace, advocating for mandatory reporting of the impact menopause has on organisations, and lobbying the government. In September 2022, Lee launched the first all-female cohort of Black STEM Futures, a support and mentoring programme aimed at graduates who are looking to accelerate their careers or bring their business ideas to life. He is part of a growing collective of male allies who use their privilege to dismantle systems that are slowing down the progress in gender equality. 

Syima Aslam is the Founder, CEO and Creative Director of Bradford Literature Festival (BLF), and believes education has the power to change people’s lives, with literacy the key. BLF’s free early years, education and family programmes help children and young people – especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds – to see literature and books as exciting, accessible and a natural part of their life. Over the last five years almost 80,000 students and teachers have been engaged and inspired through BLF’s free annual schools programme, which complements the four days of free events that take place for children and young people.

 

For the last 20 years, Nickala Torkington has helped overlooked women with talent create jobs for themselves and others to drive social change. During the past ten years, she has led Flourish Together CIC, an organisation that has supported over 1000 women changemakers in the North develop and grow. Flourish Together CIC’s programmes have helped women move from unemployment and low confidence to gaining employment, launching their own social enterprise ventures, and increasing their income. Nickala’s passion for reaching undervalued areas of the North West has developed a stronger social economy in the areas Flourish Together CIC operates.

 

In the last four years, Lyndsay Geraghty has personally mentored and supported more than 300 people, 100 of which have gone on to become mentors themselves. During the pandemic she continued her work, supporting 90% of the people she supports to graduate with first class degrees in tech and retail. Lyndsay’s support is far reaching and she has helped a number of other organisations committed to supporting young talent, such as Innovate Her, Agent Academy, The Girls’ Network and PoWEr Collective.

 

Dr Nimrah Munir left academia to undertake biomedical research and is now developing a new medical device that will offer people with brain tumours a better quality of life. Nimrah is one of the inventors of an innovative implantable medical device that treats brain tumours using electrical fields. Beyond her role as Principal Scientist at QV Bioelectronics (QV), Nimrah has also led the development and launch of a programme that supports female or ethnic minority university students into an internship at QV to tackle the lack of women, and British Pakistani and Muslim people working at a senior level in engineering.

 

In 2015, Dr Natalie Kenny left a difficult marriage with her 16-month-old son to return home to Liverpool, where she found she was unable to find secure employment as a scientist. Later the same year, Natalie founded BioGrad, which provides medical and scientific support for education and research organisations. Her company has grown from a £600k annual turnover in its first year to £16m in 2022. Natalie’s company offers a minimum company wage that is 20% of the average three-bedroom house price in the UK to increase home ownership among staff, eight weeks holiday each year and a free creche, so employees’ children are cared for during working hours. These inclusive policies, along with its impressive growth, also saw BioGrad17 commended in the Inclusive Innovation category. 

 

When The Halo Project wanted to create a refuge out of disused flats and bungalows in urgent need of renovation, Shabana Khushi stepped in as a full-time volunteer to lead the project. Shabana’s hard work and dedication resulted in a haven for women and children fleeing domestic abuse in the global majority community. Today, Shabana continues to work with women and children in her role as a Housing Officer at The Halo Charity, where she offers 24/7 support before, during and after residents time at the refuge, ensuring their cultural, religious, emotional, educational and medical needs are met. 

 

Former England and Team GB para-athlete, Claire Buckle, established Ability Consultancy in 2019 as an equality and diversity company that educates and trains people about disability discrimination. The consultancy aims to change perceptions and reduce the stigma around disability through an awareness app that uses virtual and augmented reality to put non-disabled people into the world of disability. This app can be used at home, in schools and at work to help people and businesses learn and understand often-unnoticed challenges people with disabilities face.

 

Elaine Parker founded Safer Date to protect people from online predators. It is the only dating app that carries out real-time, biometric ID checks on every member to eliminate anonymity and fake profiles, and offers global criminal background checks as an additional layer of security. Safer Date filters out offensive messages and images, stops people from receiving unwanted messages, and even tackles ghosting to protect customers’ wellbeing. 

 

Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS), the nuclear transport and logistics specialists, deliver a strong focus on supporting people who identify as female. Since 2021, it has launched a female-focused gender recruitment campaign, which resulted in a cohort of female trainee train drivers, and a Women Returners Programme to help talented women return to the workforce. It has also achieved gender parity in its executive team.

 

Global professional services organisation, Deloitte, has made gender balance a key focus for leaders in its Northern offices through initiatives such as inclusive sponsorship, mentoring, and targeted development programmes, tools, and initiatives. It also supports working families through enhanced leave policies, actively monitors its talent pipeline, and focuses on allyship and advocacy. Deloitte has recently been included in the Times’ Top 50 Places for Women to Work list due to its introduction of policies and approaches to supporting women.

 

 

Having founded and chaired organisations such as An Inspirational Journey and Believe Corporate Relations, Heather Jackson, Co-founder of GenM, has spent over a decade helping organisations gain the best from their talent and enabling those talented individuals to reach their full potential. Heather has united more than 70 of the most recognisable and forward-thinking brands to better understand the needs of those going through menopause, and to use their platforms to normalise conversations on the topic.

 

13. Nicky Chance-Thompson DL – Levelling Up Leader

Nicky Chance-Thompson DL is CEO of The Piece Hall in Halifax, Ambassador for the Yorkshire Asian Business Association (YABA), and a judge in the Northern Asian Power List. She also chairs the WeCan movement with Leeds Beckett University, which has been building opportunities and leadership capabilities among women in the Leeds City Region and enhancing the resilience and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. Nicky has helped many women build their self-esteem, courage, and ambition, and encouraged them to undertake learning and qualifications. Under Nicky’s leadership, The Piece Hall has contributed £26 million to the local economy.

 

Lauren Rosegreen, Policy and Influence Manager at Manchester Central Community (MACC), became the youngest ever trustee of the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity (GMMC) and played a significant role in amplifying their ‘A Bed Every Night’ Christmas campaign. She is dedicated to supporting those who are currently homeless or have lived experience of homelessness, and is actively involved in several initiatives across Greater Manchester. She pioneered ‘Manx Supporting Mancs’, which enabled people on the Isle of Man to support rough sleepers in Manchester. This funded WOTW, a publication for rough sleepers that is written and edited by those who have experienced homelessness, while amplifying their voices. Lauren is now co-chair of the delivery task group for the Greater Manchester Homelessness Action Network.

 

 

In 2014, Zandra became Co-founder and CEO of Panintelligence, an award-winning business intelligence software company that offers comprehensive reporting, visualisation and AI-driven predictive modelling. Her ambitions are to be an impactful leader, to ensure women have the same access to start-up funding as men, and to make Leeds the best place to build a diverse team and business. Zandra is also the founder of Lean in Leeds, which is dedicated to improving the quality of life and opportunities for women and girls and to achieving greater equality in the workplace. Zandra is on the board of Founders4Schools in Leeds, is an ambassador for The Ahead Partnership, and is an active speaker at technology events.

 

Professor Diana Anderson MBE has recently been awarded an MBE for her outstanding research towards finding a cure for cancer. Throughout her career, Diana has published 13 books and more than 540 academic papers. She is currently working on a lymphocyte genome sensitivity test, which is used to detect cancer. In partnership with University of Bradford, her goal is to develop a quick and easily administered test that will give people results much more quickly than is currently possible.

 

Tina Leslie MBE founded Freedom 4 Girls in 2016 to fight period poverty. Based in Leeds, the charity aims to challenge the stigmas, taboos and gender inequalities associated with menstruation through education, provision of menstrual health management solutions, and actively being at the forefront of the wider campaign against period poverty in the UK and Kenya. The charity delivered more than 32,000 free period products in 2021 and is now launching #periodpositivespaces, which offers guidance to organisations wanting to provide period products for staff and customers and celebrates those that do. 

 

19.Isobelle Panton – Levelling Up Leader (Judges’ Special)

Isobelle Panton, Director of Recruitment & International for UA92, is passionate about levelling up the Greater Manchester community and unlocking young people’s potential. She developed an outreach programme, now in 500 schools, colleges, youth zones, boxing clubs and barber shops, to inspire talented and marginalised young people to consider accessing higher education. The programme improved UA92’s application rate by 88%. Isobelle’s initiatives take an intersectional approach, focusing on gender and race, and she will host Manchester’s first Black Excellence Awards in May.