Moderator

Professor Dame Carol Black DBE 

Chair of the Rising Festival, British Library & Centre for Ageing Better

Full Bio

In 2019, with drug-related deaths and crimes at all-time highs she was appointed to lead a major independent review of the impact of illicit drugs on society. This was published in two hard-hitting Parts in 2020 and 2021. She successfully galvanised commitment to a cross-government approach and additional funding (£780m over three years) to tackle drug misuse, within a new holistic drug strategy to address the various challenges. This work followed a 2016 independent review analysing the impact on employment prospects for people battling drug addiction, alcohol addiction or obesity; and two other influential independent reviews, in 2008 and 2011, on health, work, wellbeing and sickness absence, all affecting productivity.

She is chair of the British Library and chairs the boards of the Centre for Ageing Better and Think Ahead, the Government’s training programme for mental health social workers.

From 2012 to 2019 she was Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge University. Professor Dame Carol Black was awarded the Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the New Year’s Honours List 2024. 

Alison Cork MBE

Author, Columnist, Presenter, Entrepreneur
Make It Your Business & NWEW 

Behind National Women’s Enterprise Week is author, columnist, presenter, and powerhouse in women’s enterprise, Alison Cork.

Awarded an MBE in 2023 for her services to female entrepreneurship, Alison has been a role model and champion to women in business for over 35 years.

After floating a publishing and mail order business in 1994, making her the youngest female founder of a public company at the time, she later founded the Alison at Home interiors brand.

Alison has seen firsthand the lack of female role models, starting her first business in the 80s – which ignited her passion for empowering women of today to consider entrepreneurship as a natural career choice and possibility. It was because of this core belief that Alison founded and funded Make It Your Business and from which NWEW was born.

As of today, Make It Your Business has seen thousands of women attend its free networking and online training sessions.

Also an ambassador for the British Library Business & IP Centre supporting start-ups and scale-ups (66% of which are female-led), Alison continues to help women nationwide of all ages to achieve their economic potential and financial independence.

Jas Rai

Chief Operating Officer, The British Library

Jas Rai currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer at the British Library, having previously held the role of Director of People. With a wealth of experience spanning all facets of HR, Jas leads initiatives in organisational design, development, workforce planning, and talent management. Her journey into her current role began amidst the challenges of a global pandemic, which she saw as an opportunity to champion HR as a driver of change, particularly focusing on mental health, wellbeing, diversity, inclusion, and shaping the future of work.

Before stepping into her role at the British Library, Jas held an executive position as Global Head of Talent & Development at Sony at their headquarters in Japan. Her six-year tenure there equipped her with a global perspective on talent dynamics and organisational excellence. 

Beyond her corporate endeavours, Jas is deeply committed to societal impact and environmental stewardship. As a trustee at Bore Place, Commonwork trust, she aligns her passion for people and nature, striving to bolster educational efforts while championing environmental sustainability. In her role as Chair of the People Sub-Committee, Jas actively shapes strategies to enhance organisational culture and foster meaningful engagement.

Dorothy Byrne

President of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge

Dorothy Byrne is the President of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge, a college for women. She took up the role in 2021. Under her leadership, the College has played a leading role in championing girls and women in STEM, particularly in physics, engineering, maths and computer science where they are underrepresented nationally and revealed a significant gender attainment gap in these subjects at Cambridge. In 2023, she announced the College, teaming up with AstraZeneca was launching an entrepreneurship scheme which would be open to all women students and recent alumnae across Cambridge. 

Prior to joining the College, Dorothy was Editor at Large at Channel 4, a role that was specially created for her when she stepped down as Head of News and Current Affairs after 15 years. During her time at Channel 4, Dorothy was responsible for news and current affairs programmes which have had a national and global impact, winning numerous Royal Television Society, BAFTA and Emmy awards. 

Dorothy was made a Fellow of the Royal Television Society for her ‘outstanding contribution to television’.  She also won the BBC Grierson Trustees Award for contribution to documentary at the British Documentary Awards; received the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards; was awarded a BAFTA Scotland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television; and won the Women in Film and Television Award for contribution to television. 

Dorothy continues to work in international documentary. She was Executive Producer of Leaving Neverland, The Hunt for Jihadi John, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, The Ballymurphy Precedent, The Man Putin Couldn’t Kill, and Island of Secrets, a film about sex abuse in the Falklands..  

In 2019, Dorothy delivered the prestigious MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival in which she criticised politicians for lying and failing to be held to account. 

In 2023 Dorothy delivered the James Cameron Memorial Lecture