We are pleased to launch the 2025 Student Webinar Series, Empowering Futures.

This will focus on the career journeys of 3 women in diverse fields: including a Sustainable Solutions Lead at Cazenove Capital, an architect running her own firm vPPR ARCHITECTS and a Professor in Interdisciplinary Plant Sciences. We hope to inspire your students to think about career paths they may not have considered before.

All three webinars, will be available live during the stated dates and times, however should your students be unavailable, we would be happy to share the recordings with you.

  • 29 January 2025, 1:00pm – 1:45pm
  • 25 February 2025, 1:00pm – 1:45pm
  • 19 March 2025, 1:00pm – 1:45pm

Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso, Professor in Interdisciplinary Plant Sciences. UKRI Future Leader Fellow and Co-founder Black in Plant Sciences UK

29 January 2025, 1:00pm – 1:45pm

Yoselin is the principal investigator in an UKRI funded Future Leaders Fellowship program, a mentor and teacher at the University of Leeds undergraduate program and a champion for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and co-founder of the Black in Plant Science network.

She leads a team that research plant development and resilience to environmental changes through dissecting the mechanisms that regulate intercellular signalling and cell walls. In plants, cell-to-cell channels (called Plasmodesmata) are required for coordinated development and growth, and for responses to the environment. Without a proper communication system, plant uptake, fixation and transport of water, minerals and nutrients from the soil will be compromised. Translation of knowledge from the research will be used to improve plant resilience to climate change and to develop new methods to optimize the use of plant resources addressing sustainability challenges.

Women Academics – Inclusivity, communication and Plant Science

This webinar will introduce an inspirational leader and researcher. Yoselin will talk about what inspired her to study biology, how she chose her career and how this has developed into her specialist field of plant cell communication. She will also talk about how she taps into her roots and has created a network promoting diversity in the field she loves.

In association with Novi a leading private network of women leaders, founders and investors.

Emilie Shaw, Sustainable Solutions Lead at Cazenove Capital

25 February 2025, 1:00pm – 1:45pm

Emilie Shaw is Cazenove Capital’s sustainable client lead, vice chair of the sustainable investment committee and member of the Cazenove Charity Responsible Multi-Asset Fund investment team.

With 12 years’ experience managing investments for charities and high net worth individuals, Emilie is passionate about helping investors move capital away from harmful businesses and towards environmental and social solutions for the benefit of people and the planet. Emilie holds the Diploma in Wealth Management (CISI Level 7) and Investment Advice Diploma (CISI Level 4). She is a speaker for Girls Are Investors (GAIN) Charity.

How to invest for a better future for people and the planet

Emilie Shaw (Cazenove Capitals Sustainable Solutions Lead) will discuss the potential for sustainable investing to transform financial markets for the better and how impact investments are helping drive progress towards achieving a fairer and greener world. Emilie will also share some practical advice for those interesting in a career in investment.

In association with GAIN – Girls Are INvestors

Tatiana von Preussen, Director at vPPR ARCHITECTS

19 March 2025, 1:00pm – 1:45pm

Tatiana founded vPPR with Catherine Pease and Jessica Reynolds in 2009. She is has a special interest in the relationship between architecture and landscape, especially where the two begin to merge together. She enjoys working across a range of projects with particular specialisms in mixed-use projects, housing, historical sites and public realm. She has been a key partner in establishing Triangle, an in-house real estate company focused on sustainable and responsible developments.

She has taught design studios at the Architectural Association and at Columbia University and has acted as a design critic and a lecturer for multiple universities in the US and the UK.

Tatiana has judged the London RIBA Awards, RIBA MacEwan Awards, Camden Design Awards and the UK Brick Awards. She has been a board member for a regional board of the Guinness Partnership and has a particular interest in housing and landscape design. She also sits on the Tower Hamlets, Greenwich and Barking and Dagenham Quality Review Panels.

She studied architecture at Cambridge University and Columbia University and lived for several years in New York, where she worked for James Corner Field Operations on the High Line Park

Women in architecture – a career in construction

A short seminar on studying architecture at university and where it can lead you. I will discuss my own career history in setting up vPPR Architects, one of a small handful of women-led architecture practices in the UK, and also touch on various career paths others have taken after an architectural degree: in fields as varied as construction management, real estate development, film-making and art.