Equality
At Surrey Business School, we are dedicated to fostering a supportive, positive, and inclusive work environment where every individual can thrive and succeed within their roles and teams. By creating a strong sense of community and belonging, we actively promote staff engagement and collaboration, ensuring that everyone has access to the opportunities necessary for growth and success.
People and culture committee
Nurturing a positive, inclusive, and collaborative culture to support high performance, excellence, and growth
Dr Sumeetra Ramakrishnan
Belonging & Inclusive Culture Lead
Professor Christine Rivers
People Development Lead
Dr YingFei Heliot
Athena SWAN Lead
Dr Ann Parchment
UN PRME Lead
Dr Christos Mavrovitis
People Development Lead
Vicki Blamey
Staff Wellbeing Lead
Claire Hobson
Staff Wellbeing Lead
Abi Bradbeer
Health & Safety Lead
The Athena SWAN Bronze Award
Surrey Business School was awarded the Athena Swan Bronze Award in 2020 (additionally, Surrey Hospitality and Tourism Management achieved the Athena Swan Bronze Award in 2022). The Athena Swan Charter is a framework which is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research. Established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment, the Charter is now being used across the globe to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.
The Athena Swan Charter:
- Helps institutions achieve their gender equality objectives
- Assists institutions to meet equality legislation requirements, as well as the requirements and expectations of some funders and research councils
- Uses a targeted self-assessment framework to support applicants identify areas for positive action, as well as recognise and share good practices
- Supports the promotion of inclusive working practices that can increase retention of valued academics and professional and support staff, demonstrating an institution’s commitment to an equitable working environment.
Athena SWAN Values in Action (ViA) Team
The Athena SWAN Implementation Team: Values in Action (ViA), was launched to ensure delivery of the values and action plan outlined in our Athena SWAN submission.
Highlights:
- 15th September 2020 ViA team was launched. 15 pioneering staff members who all joined voluntarily and two student members representing the students voice, particularly from a diverse background.
- Athena SWAN staff survey launched in September 2021. We received 89 responses out of 122. This is an excellent response (73%). Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. Your views and responses will be considered and continue to guide our Values in Action activities.
- 2nd March 2022 ViA team first Away Day took place in Multi faith Centre at the University of Surrey. This is the first face to face meeting after Covid restrictions.
ViA team members
Abigail Bradbeer
School Manager
Dr Cecile Guillaume
Associate Professor in Employment Relations & Organisation Studies
Michael Hassell
Equality and Diversity Adviser
Dr YingFei Heliot
Associate Professor in Organisational Behaviour
Benita Rose Mathew
Lecturer in AI and Fintech
Tim Mitchell
HR Advisor
Dr Farhana Sajjad
Director of Student Success/ Senior Lecturer in Marketing
Professor Iis Tussyadiah
Dean of Surrey Business School
Jodie Weller
Accreditations Officer
Professor Carol Woodhams
Professor of Human Resource Management
ViA Milestones
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2020
The Launch Event
Following our recent success in Athena SWAN Bronze Award, we have launched our SBS Athena SWAN Implementation Team: Values in Action (ViA) on 15th September 2020. All team members are joined voluntarily. The key purpose of the ViA is to deliver those values outlined in the action plan in our Athena SWAN submission. ViA will be our guiding principle in driving this through. SBS is committed to improve the quality of working life for all staff and ViA is where we can support each other to make this happen.
At the launch, we had 15 pioneering team members join us.
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2021
The 2021 Athena SWAN Staff Survey
We designed and conducted Athena SWAN Staff Survey and received 73% responses. Key findings are presented in this infographic.
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2022
Athena SWAN Lecture 2022: Dame Ann Limb DBE
SBS had a very successful Athena SWAN Annual Lecture event presented by Dame Ann Limb who is newly appointed Pro-Chancellor University of Surrey, Chair at The UK Innovation Corridor, a British educationalist, business leader, and philanthropist.
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2023
Athena SWAN Lecture 2023: Folarin Oyeleye
Hosted by Professor Andy Adcroft and Dr YingFei Héliot on 18-Oct-2023, we welcomed Folarin Oyeleye, Managing Director at JPMorgan Private Bank for a fascinating talk on his journey from University of Surrey student to his trailblazing role in private banking.
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2024
Athena SWAN Away Day
The Athena SWAN Working Group spent half a day in the Religious Life and Belief Centre (RLBC) on campus on 31-Jan-2024, deciding sub-leads for each theme within the Action Plan, finalising key activities for the next 12 months, including the next annual lecture, and finally reviewing the action plan.
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2025
Athena SWAN Lecture 2025: Hayley Magorian
On the 17-Mar-2025, Dr. YingFei Héliot, Chair of Athena SWAN (ViA) for Surrey Business School welcomed Hayley Magorian to deliver our Athena SWAN annual lecture. Hayley shared her inspiring career journey from a first-class Surrey graduate in Business Management to a senior leader in Transport for London (TfL), a Chair of TfL’s Women’s Network and a UN Women UK delegate. Hayley’s incredible personal journey in how she resiliently dealt with each difficult and challenging time touched all the audience. Hayley shared her top tips in different career stages. We invite you to try out a couple of Hayley’s top tips for your career: ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway!’ ‘Be brave, be curious, be hungry and keep creating your dots.’
