Dr Ismail is CEO and founder of SGMA, and will be sharing her experience of founding a successful research-based business, and reflecting on what can be done to close the gender gap in the innovation ecosystem.
Industrial strategy has set an ambitious goal for the UK to become the most innovative economy in the world by 2030. however, research shows that there is a gender gap in the ecosystem that drives innovation.
Dr Fanya Ismail
Dr Fanya Ismail is recognised as one of the most innovative women in the UK as she was announced a winner of the “Women in Innovation” award 2019 by Innovate UK for inventing a paper coating technology to replace plastic linear in coffee cups.
She is the CEO and founder of SGMA, a company focusing on the development of sol-gel technology, delivering solutions to global challenges.
She is an entrepreneur, with expertise that span the chemistry, business and legal sector. Fanya obtained a PhD from the University of Manchester in 2003. She previously worked for QMUL, University of Manchester and Kingston University.
Professor Simonetta Manredi
Simonetta Manfredi is a Professor in Equality and Diversity Management and Director of the Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice.
Her recent research has focused on work-life balance, gender and age discrimination issues in the Higher Education workplace. Her work has been published in academic journals that included the Industrial Law Journal, Legal Studies, International Journal of Discrimination and the Law and Employee Relations, but also in practitioner-oriented publications.
She has co-authored the award-winning article: Improving Women’s Representation in Senior Positions in Universities, published by the international journal Employee Relations. This paper was named by the leading publisher Emerald Group Publishing as an outstanding paper award winner in their Literati Network Award for Excellence 2011. She is also co-author of Managing Equality and Diversity: Theory and Practice (Oxford University Press 2012).