Speakers
Keynote speaker
Professor Dame Athene Donald DBE, FRS, Professor Emerita of Experimental Physics, University of Cambridge
Professor Dame Athene Donald, DBE FRS, is a Professor Emerita of Experimental Physics at the University of Cambridge, where she spent almost her entire career.
Her research area was soft condensed matter and biological physics.
She was the University’s first Gender Equality Champion from 2010 to 2014 and was awarded the 2019 THE Lifetime Achievement Award for her work championing women.
From 2014-24, she was Master of Churchill College, a college focused on STEM, where she ensured that admissions moved from 28% women to parity within five years.
Now retired, she is chairing the Science Advisory Council for the Department for Education.
Keynote: What’s stopping you?
Places of business and education have changed since I entered the job market. Changed substantially for women. Gone are the days when I was regularly the only woman in the room as a physicist. Gone are the days when no one else was worrying about school holiday childcare and men behaved as if they didn’t have children.
But… there are still many places of work where women are systematically, although possibly unintentionally, disadvantaged, where ‘banter’ and worse thrives, and where women can feel excluded or unwanted.
All the problems used to be seen as women’s problems. That has improved, but much more can be done by involving like-minded men in the change that needs to happen. Inclusion should work for everyone. As long as women remain under-represented problems will continue, so we also have to worry about the pipeline.
We need to ensure children – boys and girls – see women doing extraordinary things across the sector, and get into schools to enthuse youngsters. Teachers should be challenged, just as much as employers, to see past stereotypes. Employers need to see past the conventional ideas of what an ideal apprentice looks like in a machine shop, for instance, to widen the pool of recruits.
We’ve come a long way. But there is so much more to do.
Conference speakers
Professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon FREng FIET, Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Study Group, Chair of the Engineering Development Trust and Industrial Cadets
Professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon is Provost at Study Group and specialises in enterprise, engineering, and global education.
A Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Engineering and Technology, she has received numerous accolades, including being named the 2020 Woman of the Year in Technology and one of the top 101 global Mexicans.
In 2025, she was awarded The Princess Royal’s WISE Lifetime Achievement. Elena is passionate about innovation in education and outreach initiatives, and serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees for EDT and Industrial Cadets, and President of her Alma Mater, UANL’s International Advisory Board.
Flash talk: No time to dither anymore: turning outreach on its head
In the fight to close the gender gap in STEM, it’s clear that traditional outreach efforts have fallen short.
Despite years of initiatives aimed at supporting girls and women, we continue to see stagnation in their participation and retention in these fields. The time has come for a radical shift in our approach—one that disrupts the status quo rather than merely tweaking existing strategies.
We must challenge the prevailing narratives and rethink who is involved in outreach action. This means engaging not only the traditional subjects but also policymakers and industry leaders.
Systemic changes are necessary, including the implementation of policies that reflect the diverse needs of female STEM professionals. Parents must also be educated about STEM subjects so they can act as catalysts of change.
I have for a long time been of the view that, it may even be time to reconsider the very language we use—even changing the name of the engineering profession itself to attract a broader audience.
It’s not just about outreach anymore; it’s about a comprehensive overhaul of the entire ecosystem. Let’s embrace this disruption and take bold action now, ensuring that we create a future where women thrive in STEM. The responsibility rests with us to pave the way for the next generation.
Paul Williams, Bloomberg
Paul co-founded the London Engineering Department at Bloomberg, and is part of the leadership team that has seen the local office grow to 1,600 developers over the last 26 years. He and his peers designed and built many core components of the Bloomberg Professional Service, including Launchpad, the multi-screen real-time financial data display, and Instant Bloomberg (“IB”), the finance industry’s ubiquitous secure instant messaging system.
Paul is involved with STEM and education initiatives in the UK, working with non-profits and educational establishments to help ensure that the next generation is excited about a future in technology.
He founded his first STEM scholarship with the University of Leicester and Virgin Galactic, and is very actively involved with supporting education charity Big Change. In total, he has raised over £250,000 in the last 10 years.
Paul won the WISE STEM Ally Award 2025. He actively supports women in tech by championing inclusive hiring practices and mentoring female professionals.
A genuine leader who not only deeply understands the challenges women face in STEM, but also the broader societal barriers they encounter.
He invests time, resource, and unwavering effort into meaningful initiatives that drive lasting impact and create opportunities for women in STEM and beyond.
Flash talk: Activating Agency
For me, the fundamental tenet of allyship is providing the opportunity for everyone in a team to develop agency – that is, to have the power and resources they need to fulfil their full potential.
This can be as simple as making space for every voice in the room to be heard, or giving one software engineer the opportunity to try out their own approach or idea to solve a problem, or offering to co-present with a nervous speaker who has been selected to speak at a conference – in addition to encouraging and championing those who feel they don’t yet have that agency.
In my talk, I will share some examples of how I have gone about these kinds of things with women I have supported during various stages in my career.
In addition, I will explain how I have successfully illuminated career pathways and opened up possibilities for which young people might not otherwise have been aware through supporting a variety of STEM initiatives in the UK over the last 10 years and setting up my own STEM scholarship.
Becky Kalam, Diversity & Inclusion Manager, Playground Games
Becky Kalam is the Diversity & Inclusion Manager at Playground Games, leading strategies that foster equity, representation, and belonging. Becky was appointed a board member of UKIE’s EDI Committee in 2024 and Co-Leads the Xbox Studio D&I Network, driving industry-wide inclusion programmes.
With over 10 years extensive experience in strategic leadership and organisational development, Becky is passionate about inclusion and representation and endeavours to encourage more women into the games industry and champions diversity to enhance creativity and innovation.
Flash talk: The importance of inclusion and accessibility in games and technology
In the rapidly evolving world of gaming and technology, it is paramount to foster an environment of inclusivity and diversity.
We truly believe that diversity and inclusion fuels our creativity and drives our innovation, connecting us closer to our players.
By embracing diversity, companies can cultivate innovative ideas that resonate with a broader audience, ultimately leading to more engaging and relatable gaming experiences.
Moreover, accessibility in games and technology is a fundamental pillar, essential to ensuring all individuals, regardless of physical or cognitive abilities, can enjoy and participate in gaming.
We will highlight the importance of integrating accessibility features into game design from the outset, stressing the need for comprehensive and thoughtful approaches to inclusivity.
The discussion aims to inspire developers, designers, and industry leaders to recognise the value of diverse and inclusive teams, and the profound impact such teams can have on creating universally accessible technologies.
At Playground Games, we don’t just create extraordinary games. Our employee-led initiatives, deep partnerships and unwavering focus on lived experience, makes us more than a workplace – it makes us a community where everyone belongs.