The Purse Podcast

Nicole Sykes leads Pro Bono Economics' communications and influencing work, in addition to overseeing a number of key policy themes in relation to the effectiveness of civil society, philanthropy and relationships between civil society, business and government. She joined PBE in 2020 to help deliver the Law Family Commission on Civil Society, and is responsible for maintaining the successful delivery of policy change that ensures the Commission continues to deliver impact. Nicole has extensive experience influencing policy, and specialises in working across the public, private and charity sectors to build partnerships and systemic change.

Prior to joining PBE, Nicole led the CBI’s work on Brexit, and has worked at Microsoft, for MPs and in political campaigns. She has experience on boards of a charity and social enterprise, and a multi-year international research project run by Queen Mary’s University London. She is presently on the advisory board of leading think tank UK in a Changing Europe, and a volunteer with a local community garden.

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Catherine Gray is the producer of the groundbreaking new documentary “Show Her The Money”- featuring rock -star female investors who invest in diverse women entrepreneurs with innovations that will change the world. Catherine is doing a 50 city grassroots tour of the film to encourage more women to invest in female founded funds to move the needle on women getting less than 2% of venture capital. She is also an author, TEDx speaker, podcast host, founder of She Angel Investors and co-founder of the non profit She Angels Foundation. Catherine also hosts and produces the popular podcast series Invest in Her, distributed on Apple, Spotify, IHeart Radio and wherever you listen to podcasts.

Catherine has produced, co-produced and directed several documentaries including I Can’t Marry You, with Ellen DeGeneres’ mom Betty as narrator for PBS, Millionaires True Stories and several LGBTQ films for LOGO. She also helped start a gay cable network and produced a series called Way-Off Broadway with trailblazing entertainers and recording artists. Currently, she is co-producing Millennials Are Killing Musicals, with plans to go to Broadway. This female driven show focuses on motherhood and the impact of social media. The team behind it is 80% women- and the show and music was created by a woman- Nico Juber.

Marcia Dawood is an early-stage investor who serves on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee, a venture partner with Mindshift Capital, a member of Golden Seeds, and the Chair Emeritus of the Angel Capital Association (ACA), the global professional society for angel investors. She is also an Associate Producer on the documentary film Show Her the Money, which debuted at the Women’s Film Festival in Philadelphia in September of 2023. She is a founding member and chair of the ACA’s Growing Women’s Capital Group, which is building syndication and collaboration among US investment groups focused on women-led companies.

A TEDx speaker and the host of The Angel Next Door Podcast, Marcia walks the talk and holds investments in over 50 early-stage companies and funds. She is committed to expanding support for diverse companies that overcome the world’s biggest problems and accelerate positive change. Her upcoming book, Do Good While Doing Well – Make A Difference, Get Financial Rewards and Increase Your Happiness, is due out in 2024.

Marcia is on a mission to empower and educate everyone to realise their potential to invest in positive change. She is passionate about bridging the gap from early-stage inception to building thriving, profitable companies.

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Professor Dame Heather J. McGregor is the Provost and Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt University Dubai.

Professor McGregor was previously the Executive Dean of the Edinburgh Business School, having held the post since 2016. Her earlier career was in investment banking, and she has spent 17 years as an entrepreneur leading her own executive search firm prior to her move into higher education.

Professor Dame McGregor has a PhD from the University of Hong Kong in Structured Finance and an MBA from London Business School. She is a qualified chartered management accountant (CGMA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Her undergraduate degree was a BSc in Agricultural Economics & Marketing from Newcastle University. She is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland.

Professor Dame McGregor is an experienced writer and broadcaster, including writing for the Financial Times for 17 years. She was the founder of the Taylor Bennett Foundation, www.taylorbennettfoundation.org which works to promote diversity in the communications industry, and a founding member of the steering committee of the 30% Club, which works to raise the representation of women at senior levels within publicly listed companies.

Furthermore, Professor McGregor is a non-executive director of two public companies, one listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and one listed on the London Stock Exchange. She is also a member of the UK Government’s Honours Committee for the Economy.

In 2021, Professor Dame McGregor was one of the first two people at Heriot-Watt University to be named a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She was awarded a CBE in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List in UK for her services to business, especially diversity in the workplace.

In December 2022, she was made a Dame of the British Empire in the New Year’s Honours for services to education and business and heritage in Scotland.

She is among the first to be recognised with the title of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) by King Charles III.

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Vicky Pryce is Chief Economic Adviser and a board member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). She was previously Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, Director General for Economics at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Joint Head of the UK Government Economic Service.

Before that she was Partner at the accounting and consulting firm KPMG after senior economic positions in banking and the oil sector. She has held a number of academic posts and is a Fellow and Council member of the UK Academy of Social Sciences, a Fellow of the Society of Professional Economists and a Companion of the British Academy of Management. 

Her latest book, “Women vs Capitalism”, was published by Hurst in November 2019.. She is a frequent contributor to media broadcasts and debates on the economy and on the economic rationale for gender equality. 

She is co-founder of GoodCorporation, a company set up to advise on corporate social responsibility, is a Freeman and Liveryman of the City of London, was the first female Master of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants and has been sitting on the City’s Members Diversity Working Party.

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Alex Gessner is COO and Managing Director at ACI Diversity Consulting as well as a speaker and panelist. She spent 14 years as a senior executive in product and tech in the finance industry, at American Express and most recently Solaris, where she was responsible for innovative and disruptive projects in the digital and open banking space.

From chatbots to Buy Now Pay Later, product pitches in London and New York and testing Apple Pay at 4am at the Frankfurt train station, she's seen it all.

Her specialty is organisational design and building scalable teams and businesses. Finance disruptor by day, diversity activist by night: in this homogeneous industry, she has built several intersectional networks, including futura at Solaris, and conducted the first data collection in Europe focusing not only on "women and finance" but especially on trans* and migrant women.

She has been recognised for her achievements as a Future Maker by Business Insider, as Prout Executive #1 by Prout At Work and many more, including Global Digital Women, Beyond Gender Agenda, Impact of Diversity.

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Kristine Beese is the CEO of Untangle Money. Her goal is to get an affordable, unbiased financial plan into the hands of every woman in the world. Equipping women to close the gender wealth gap, thereby improving global gender equity.

Kristine talks about the unintended consequences of a financial system built for the typical male. She shares captivating stories about what women need to know about money and what women can do differently to align their day-to-day spending with their long-term goals so that women can make the best financial decisions for themselves.

Equipped with research, insights, and experience, Kristine is a credible and compelling resource that regularly educates audiences on why gendered financial equity is critically important.

As a woman and a mother, Kristine learned through her experience in male-dominated industries that women experience the world differently from men, especially regarding wealth and finance. As a result, her work is developed for women using women-specific data.

Kristine is a former national pairs figure skater who brings tenacity and bravery to her role as a founder. A problem solver by nature, her international experience in engineering, capital markets and wealth management helps her look at problems from a first-principles perspective. Kristine holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business and an engineering physics degree from Queen's University.

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Sarah Courtney Dockett is Managing Director at Citi Private Bank, Head of Women in Wealth, EMEA. She is passionate about Diversity and Inclusion.  She is also a Senior Private Banker in the UK Ultra High Net Worth Team based in London.  Sarah is responsible for managing 30 client and Family Office relationships. While they may be resident in the UK, Sarah’s clients span the globe and she has a specialism in dealing with US connected clients.  Sarah has 23 years of experience working with Private Clients, 12 of which she has spent with Citi.

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Kathleen Burns Kingsbury is an internationally published author, coach and consultant. Her firm, KBK Wealth Connection, delivers confidence-building negotiation programs specifically designed for women.

Kathleen knows what it means to struggle with negotiating and has learned what it takes to shift fear into focus so that women advisors, coaches and consultants can charge for their value, make more sales, and feel great about it.

She is currently working on her sixth book, Unleash Your True ValueTM: How to Shift Your Negotiation Mindset, Boost Your Confidence. and Close More Sales. 

Kathleen has a unique blend of business negotiating experience and expertise in financial psychology that makes her programs extremely effective in changing mindsets and behaviours to achieve better results.

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Anam Parvez Butt is a Pakistani feminist economist who currently works as the Head of Research at Oxfam GB where she works with others to develop and implement Oxfam’s research agendas on care and informal work, fragility and conflict and climate justice. 

In particular, the focus areas of her research include gender and macroeconomic policies, the care economy, feminist economic alternatives including metrics that challenge the neoliberal logic of growth, social norms and ending violence against women and girls (eVAWG).

She is deeply committed to integrating intersectional feminist and decolonial approaches in research, learning from and supporting others to do so.

She has co-authored two of Oxfam’s flagship inequality reports including “Time to Care”, the “Care Policy Scorecard” and recently published paper on “Radical Pathways to move beyond GDP”.

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Jana Hlistova is the Founder of The Purse and The Purse Podcast. Jana's focus is on women-centred innovation and closing the gender investing gap.

She stands for women's financial empowerment, gender lens investing, women investing in women, entrepreneurship, technology and social impact.

Her personal mission is to level the playing field for women. She believes that women, women founders and women investors are reshaping the future of business and innovation.

Jana has 18years+ experience in senior business development and commercial management in tech, digital, media and professional services.

She has a MSc from the London School of Economics. And she is a gender lens investor and invests in crypto.

To celebrate 100 podcasts, Jana talks about:

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