Women in Leadership at OR62

Whatever your gender, join our four distinguished OR/analytics leaders to explore issues around leadership in our profession

13:00 - 15:00 | Monday 14 September 2020

Gender imbalance is real and present in both academia and industry despite some actions being taken so as to progress towards a fairer world. Climbing the career ladder and reaching the top is even more difficult for women than for men.  But getting there is only the first step - do women have different leadership styles? do they face different challenges? Join four distinguished female leaders from OR/Analytics to discuss their vision on/definition of leadership, their personal journey and some tips and tricks for future generations.

The OR Society’s ‘Women in OR and Analytics Network’ aims to help women overcome barriers to working in OR and analytics by strengthening networks, encouragement and support. In this event, we are delighted to be joined by international organisation WISDOM (Women In Society: Doing Operational Research and Management Science), which aims to provide a platform to support, empower and encourage the participation of all genders in Operational Research within EURO

This session would be useful to both female and male conference attendees.

Meet our speakers

Julia Bennell
Executive Dean, Leeds University Business School; EURO Vice-President

Professor Julia Bennell is the Executive Dean of Leeds University Business School. Prior to joining Leeds she has held a number of leadership roles including Director of Centre of Operational Research, Management Science and Information Systems, Head of the Department of Decision Analytics and Risk Research and Deputy Head of School all at the University of Southampton. She is a Prof of Operational Research and continues to be an active researcher in optimisation and decision-making.

Prof Noel-Ann Bradshaw
Head of School of Computing and Digital Media, London Metropolitan University

Noel-Ann is currently a member of the Senior Management Team at London Metropolitan University. Prior to this she worked at the University of Greenwich in several roles including lecturer in mathematics and operational research, Admissions and New Arrivals Coordinator and Faculty Director of Employability.  After a brief spell in industry as a Data Scientist at Sainsbury's Argos she took on the role of Head of School at London Metropolitan University in November 2019.

Leila Seith Hassan
Head of Data Science and Analytics, Digitas

Leila has worked in Australia, America, Europe and now the UK. In her current role, Leila’s responsible for driving connected experiences powered by analytics and data science. To do this, her team combines tried and tested methods such as statistics, web, social and media analytics, data visualisation and data strategy with new techniques made possible with enhanced technology such as Machine and Deep Learning and Natural Language Processing.

Hiroko Plant
Lead Analyst, Land Registry

Hiroko has been providing decision support to policy-makers and leading analytical teams for over twenty years; highlights include:

• Modelling the impacts of road user charging;
• Managing immigration queues;
• Bringing cutting-edge OR to counter-terrorism; and
• Quality-assuring analysis for EU Exit.

Hiroko is currently working to set up a new analytical function for HM Land Registry.

Frances O'Brien 
University of Warwick

Frances O’Brien is an Associate Professor in OR and Management Science at Warwick Business School.  She teaches modelling, analytics and supporting strategy development to a variety of student groups. Her research interests include the development and use of tools to support strategy development, in particular scenario planning. She currently chairs the Women in OR & Analytics Network (WORAN) and the OR and Strategy Special Interest Group for the OR Society.

Prof Sally Brailsford
Professor of Management Science and Associate Dean, University of Southampton 

Sally is Professor of Management Science and Associate Dean (Research & Enterprise) in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton. Her early career included Russian translation and working as a nurse in the NHS, but she has worked in academia since the late 1980s.  In 2016 she was made a Companion of OR by the UK OR Society in recognition of her contribution to health OR.

Paula Carroll
University College Dublin and
Chair EURO WISDOM Forum

Paula is an Assistant Professor in OR and Business Analytics at the School of Business, University College Dublin, Ireland. She lectures in data analysis, mathematical modelling and optimisation techniques. Her research focuses modelling and solving optimisation problems that arise in integrating  energy systems to achieve climate mitigation actions. She chairs the EURO WISDOM Forum.