Social Impact bios

About Our Novi Social Impact 2024

Abimbola Ajala

Abimbola Ajala is a Social entrepreneur with over Eight years experience, spanning Education, development, non profit management and community engagement.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English language from Obafemi Awolowo University Ile ife Nigeria, she proceeded to Lagos business school for her Mini MBA in Nonprofit Management and Leadership.

Abimbola is currently the Executive Director of Lend a hand for the development of Africa, a Non profit organization in Lagos Nigeria dedicated to supporting families in underserved communities in Africa, starting with Nigeria her immediate community with Educational scholarships and a blend of supplementary initiatives which includes the food drive and padforagirl drive.

The various projects from the organization encourages children to go and stay in school thereby reducing poverty and illiteracy in local communities.

Through fund raising and partnerships she has promoted the girl child education, through her pad a girl drive over Ten thousand girls have gotten access to sanitary pads and counseling. Her documentary #ibleeddifferent on YouTube further discusses period poverty.

In 2020 she became a youth lead ambassador representing Nigeria, the following year she became a Youthlead peer ambassador, a platform to give mentorship to ambassadors under her that year.

She also leads a project team in a thriving Finance organization in the Uk.

She has been given several awards some of which includes

The Lagos state ministry of youth and social development award for her selfless service to girls at the center.

The Exhale woman international award for her contribution to the girl child education and women empowerment.

The Hall of fame award of recognition for her continuous contribution to society.

She has also spoken on several Tv and Radio stations in Nigeria on issues on women and girls empowerment and community engagement.

She is also the recipient of the Rising star award in the Uk.

She believes that we can all play our part to see the change we want in the world. She is currently a One Ambassador in the Uk championing and lending her voice to issues and concerns around poverty, climate change amongst other. She is currently a community leader at One having served her time as an Ambassador.

Hannah Wilson

Leadership Development Consultant, Coach and Trainer. DEIB Advocate and Founder/ Director of Diverse Educators

Jane Knight

Jane Knight, FIEP, understands the challenges that many women encounter when trying to return to work or start a business. In 2014, she founded Successful Mums Career Academy, with a mission to support all mums no matter their circumstances. What started as a goal to help 100 mums has now grown into a movement, with over 10,000 mums (and dads) supported in their journey back to work.

Julie Feest

Julie Feest is an experienced senior leader and collaborator who has worked both within the Tech Industry as well as not-for-profit sector, with excellent business, communication and interpersonal skills.

Julie is the CEO of EDT (Engineering Development Trust) & Industrial Cadets, an established educational charity. Julie’s passion is to help young people to a fulfilling STEM career. In post since September 2017, with emphasis on social mobility and building impactful partnerships for continued success.

She has an impeccable reputation for client relationship management in a variety of sectors including large private sector, small business and charity sector, with the ability to negotiate at all levels of seniority to ensure success of a program.

While working in the Digital Industry, Julie worked for Digital, Compaq and Hewlett Packard, with great success in business development and design and sale of multi-million pound outsourcing services to a wide range of businesses.

Julie studied BSc (Hons) in Maths and Computing Science (2:1) at Surrey University, including a placement year at Plessey in Hampshire. She is married with 2 grown-up children, one of whom has just completed her degree in Biomedical Sciences at Surrey University graduating this year.

Keranjeet Kaur Virdee MBE

Keranjeet Kaur Virdee MBE heads South Asian Arts-uk (SAA-uk) based in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Her role as Chief Executive has evolved organically alongside the development of SAA-uk. Since 1998, she has played a pivotal role in shaping the vision and artistic direction of SAA-uk, developing strong partnerships with cultural institutes, community organizations, and artists at local, regional, and national levels. In recognition of her contributions, Keranjeet was awarded an MBE in the 2023 New Year’s Honours list.

Pawlet Brookes

Recognised for advocacy, quality and ambition, at the heart of Serendipity’s vision is founder, CEO and Artistic Director, Pawlet Brookes MBE. Pawlet Brookes has a passion and innate talent for discovering, nurturing and promoting artistic talent from across the African and African Caribbean Diaspora. Her initiatives have resulted in the UK debuts of renowned dance companies, recognition of the previously unshared histories of Black presence in the Midlands, the innovative use of digital technologies as tools for accessibility and creativity, and the production of an internationally acclaimed documentary.

In 2022, Pawlet Brookes was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours in recognition of her contribution to the arts and cultural diversity. In 2023, she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

Premila Puri

Premila Puri is a multi-hyphenate entrepreneur, independent film producer at Be Kind Productions (BKP) and the founder of UK charity Be Kind Movement (BKM). Her background and international experiences (born in Mumbai, raised in the Netherlands and based in London) reflect diverse cultures and a distinct perspective that inspires her voice which she brings to her films. As a creative educator and philanthropist, Premila has single-handedly built a values model for schools that builds emotional intelligence in young people by uniquely using powerful short films and the transformative power of kindness whilst providing short filmmakers a new route to market.

Rav Bumbra

Rav Bumbra is a multi award-winning diversity consultant, advisor to organisations, international speaker and Founder. She is established as an expert on mentorship and is highly recognised within the industry for her work in the space of “Women in Technology” addressing the gender gap and underrepresentation of women across industries. She has been showcased as one of the Most Influential Women in UK Tech since 2017, inducted into the Computer Weekly Hall of Fame in 2022 and awarded the Tech Woman of the Year at the European Diversity Awards 2023.

With a 30-year background in technology and consulting, Rav mentors senior leaders and advises businesses on building winning strategies that attract and retain talent, turning their organisations into engines of growth and transformation.

She is also Founder of Cajigo, a social enterprise and app building the confidence and careers of women in tech. Cajigo has provided tech education and mentoring to thousands of women across 26 countries, supporting their entry into the tech workforce and progression to senior levels. Rav is also driving a mission in UK schools to upskill and engage 20,000 girls into technology.

Rav is a board director at Women of the Year Lunch and Awards and an advisory board member at Tech Southwest.

Victoria Kinkaid

Victoria is an army medical doctor who is passionate about women’s health. She runs a podcast called Virago Voices and co-founded the FGM Education Project, an organisation that aims to educate frontline professionals on FGM and their mandatory reporting duties. Her research interests are focused on global reproductive health and gender based violence. She is passionate about bridging the gap in women’s health between scientific research and user friendly information, to ensure women are empowered to make informed decisions about their care.