Women On Boards bios

About Our Novi Women on Boards 2024

Diana Madibekova

Diana Madibekova is polyglot professional with rich academic & professional experiences in five different countries (Kazakhstan, South Korea, Poland, Türkiye, UK), who can lead and empower others, with high sense of objectivity, excellent management skills, political and social astuteness. Her work is dedicated for the causes of peace, public-private partnerships, and women’s empowerment.

Chetal Patel

Chetal is Head of Immigration at Bates Wells, and regularly commended across all legal directories. She advises commercial and private clients on both domestic and international immigration issues, as well as UK businesses on complex immigration-related matters. She provides pragmatic solutions to often complicated situations, and has a particular interest in sponsor related matters, the post-Brexit landscape and the government’s ‘hostile environment’ policies. She shares her expertise regularly, delivering training sessions on business immigration related topics to fellow practitioners and organisations both nationally and internationally.

Gisela Abbam

Gisela Abbam FRSA is the Chair of the General Pharmaceutical Council – the regulator for the 90,000 plus Pharmacy profession in Great Britain, and former Chair of the British Science Association. She is the Senior Director for Government Affairs at Revvity, a global Life Sciences and Diagnostics corporation. She also serves on the Boards of the Bar Standards Board – the regulator for Barristers and Briyah Institute, USA. Gisela is the Founder and former Managing Director of OTGA Management Consultancy. Gisela is a Commissioner for the National Preparedness Commission in UK.

She has worked in conjunction with the WHO, World Bank and the UN to improve health outcomes globally. She has presented to and advised Presidents, Prime Ministers and Ministers.

Gisela was named one of the 100 Women to Watch for FTSE 350 Boards. Gisela was the winner of the 2019 Black British Business Person of the Year Award. She was awarded Iconic Woman creating a better World for All by the Women Economic Forum. In 2018, Gisela was awarded Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce for her contribution to social change.

Previously, she was the Director of Strategic Partnerships and a Company Officer for Abt Associates, one of the top 20 global research and evaluation companies.
Gisela was also previously the inaugural Global Executive Director for Government Affairs & Policy for General Electric Healthcare. She developed the global function. She was responsible for the strategic direction of government affairs and policy for GE Healthcare, the $18 billion business unit of GE that provides transformational medical technologies to health customers in over 100 countries. She was part of the leadership team that set up the Centre for Public Health Excellence at NICE.

Gisela has written over 50 white papers on various public policy issues.

Elizabeth Vega

Elizabeth has over 30 years’ experience working at executive leadership level, heading and advising on complex change and digital transformation programmes for globally recognised and respected organisations.
Elizabeth’s work and that of her company is driven by the aims of sustainable and responsible business, entrepreneurship with a purpose beyond profit, building better places to live and work, improving social inclusion, economic empowerment, and equity.
She is a vocal advocate and campaigner in the UK and Australia for increased diversity and inclusion in the tech and digital sectors, alongside the appointment of more women and BAME people to leadership and Board roles.
As a business leader, she advocates for strategic investment in skills to support regional economic development, workforce, and community empowerment, improve social and economic mobility, and close the skills gap across industry.
Reflecting these values, Elizabeth holds representative roles including:
• Member of the Prime Minister’s Business Council.
• Member of the Cabinet Office’s Small & Medium Business Panel, championing policy that levels the playing field for SMEs, including fair and equitable business practices for SMEs within the supply chains of large businesses; improved access to justice and commercial redress for SMEs; direct procurement and contracting for SMEs and scale-up businesses; and enabling culture and capability development across government procurement and buying functions.
• Member of the Public Sector Procurement Innovation and Reforms Panel, championing a more diverse, innovative, and competitive supplier marketplace. Over 2021-23, the procurement reforms have been a high-profile subject with the primary Bill passed through parliament and receiving Royal Assent. In 2023/24, the focus shifted to whole-of-government implementation of the provisions of the Bill.
• UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) Export Champion and member of the International Trade Policy Advisory Panel supporting the official negotiation teams on the UK- Singapore Digital Economy Agreement (June 2022), Australian-UK Free Trade Agreement (March 2023), and UK’s accension to the CPTPP Agreement (July 2023). Elizabeth’s particular contributions included new provisions for trade across the digital economy, professional services, innovation partnerships; city-region level trade partnerships; and lowering the barriers and burdens to international trade for SMEs and scale-up businesses.

• Member of The Open University’s Strategic Research Advisory Board.
• Member of the UK’s leading digital industry group, Digital Leaders Advisory Board.
• ScaleUp Institute ‘Access to Markets & Finance’ Committee member advocating for government policy and incentivises for small and medium businesses to innovate, grow, and export more effectively.
• Active contributor to The Bank of England Agents Network: Increasing the diversity of feedback from small, medium, female and minority-led businesses, enabling better and more equitable policy decisions and economic outcomes.
• Across the Greater Manchester and Northern Powerhouse region, she is a member of the Greater Manchester International Trade Group, Northern Power Circle, Northern PowerWomen and Manchester Digital networks.
• Member of the Leaders Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and previously Leadership Fellow of St George’s House (Windsor Castle).
• Elizabeth holds the title: Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for Services to Digital Transformation and International Trade.