Funke Abimbola MBE, General Counsel and Head of Financial Compliance, Roche UK
Guest Speaker @ 2nd Annual GC Summit
23 May 2018, 2.00 PM to 6.30 PM | CMS, 78 Cannon Street, London
Good afternoon,
I am absolutely delighted that Funke Abimbola MBE will be our guest speaker at our *2nd Annual GC Summit* in London on 23 September. Funke will give us a TED-style Talk about her personal career journey and lessons she has learned along the way.
About Funke
Funke is a solicitor and senior leader for Roche, the world’s largest biotech company. Her team provides legal support to Roche’s pharmaceutical operations in the UK, Ireland, Malta and Gibraltar. In addition, she also leads the financial compliance function for the UK pharmaceutical business.
Outside of her day job, she is a notable diversity campaigner, mainly focusing on campaigning for more gender equality, race diversity and social mobility within the legal profession and wider business community.
Currently the most senior black lawyer in her field, she is ranked as being a top 15 BAME leader globally (Financial Times), one of the 100 most influential leaders of African/Afro-Caribbean heritage in the UK (The Powerlist) and the most influential black lawyer in the UK (Debretts 500 list).
Funke has received both national and international recognition for her legal and diversity work and is an experienced public speaker, sharing her personal journey with large audiences ranging from school children to senior professionals including regularly speaking and campaigning in Parliament. She holds a number of board-level voluntary leadership roles across a range of different diversity organisations and appears regularly on BBC 1 as a news reviewer to an estimated global audience of 320 million.
A proud working mother, an expert mentor and sponsor, Funke is passionate about the law, diversity, education and healthcare. She is a regular media commentator, a keen fundraiser for various charities (including Cancer Research UK) and has twice served as school governor and as a board director. She founded the Akindolie Medical Scholarship in memory of her father, Dr. Frank Olufemi Akindolie. This is a privately funded bursary and leadership mentoring initiative aimed at supporting future UK doctors from a minority ethnic background.
Funke was honoured with a ‘Point of Light’ award by UK Prime Minister Theresa May and the UK Cabinet Office in October 2016, recognising the positive impact of her voluntary diversity work in improving workplace diversity and in supporting the next generation of future leaders.
In June 2017, she was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s 91st birthday honours list for services to diversity in the legal profession and young people.
TED-style Talks @ 2nd Annual GC Summit
London | Wednesday, 23 May 2018 | 2.00 PM to 6.30 PM | CMS, Cannon St, London
Sponsors: Matheson & CMS
Contact: colin@lawyersbdc.com
Some of the most influential and inspirational General Counsel in the UK have very kindly agreed to give us a 20 minute TED-style TALK about their personal career journey and share with us some lessons they learned along the way. I hope it will be a very enjoyable, fun and inspirational afternoon.
Sponsors
My thanks to our sponsors:
- Éanna Mellett, corporate partner and resident counsel in Matheson’s London office.
- Rita Lowe, Head of Banking and Finance at CMS.
Contact: Colin Carroll
Please feel free to get in touch if you would like more information or would be interested in purchasing a ticket.
SPONSORS
About Matheson
Headquartered in Dublin with offices in London, New York, Palo Alto and San Francisco, more than 650 people work across Matheson’s five offices, including 85 partners and tax principals and over 350 legal and tax professionals. Matheson concentrates on serving the Irish legal needs of internationally focused companies and financial institutions doing business in and from Ireland. Matheson’s clients include the majority of the Fortune 100 companies and over half of the world’s 50 largest banks. Matheson has worked closely with some of the world’s largest tech multinationals and high-profile start-ups advising 7 of the top 10 global technology brands.
Awards and Endorsements
- Matheson was named Ireland’s Legal Adviser of the Year in the Mergermarket European M&A Awards 2017.
- Matheson was ranked Ireland’s Most Innovative Law Firm in the 2017 Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards. In addition, the firm was ranked in the FT’s Top 20 Most Innovative Law Firms in Europe.
- Matheson won seven Finance Dublin Deals of the Year 2017 relating to M&A, Equity Capital Markets, Loans and Financing and International Financial Services.
- Matheson was named International Firm in the Americas by International Tax Review 2017 and also won European Financial Services Tax Deal of the Year.
- Matheson was named UCITS Law Firm of the Year by the Hedge Fund Journal 2017
- Matheson won ILO Client Choice Awards in the categories of Corporate, Banking and IT and Internet Law in Ireland.
CMS
Ranked as the world’s 6th largest law firm by lawyer headcount and 6th largest in the UK by revenue, CMS can work for you in 42 countries from 74 offices worldwide. Globally 4,500 lawyers offer business-focused advice tailored to our clients’ needs, whether in your local market or across multiple jurisdictions.
With the coming together of CMS, Nabarro and Olswang on 1 May 2017, we have created a new future-facing firm, one that is well equipped to help our clients face the future with confidence.
This means putting our clients’ interests and priorities at the very heart of everything we do. And, in a world of ever-accelerating change, that demands unwavering sector focus combined with quality practice specialism.
It would be great to hear from you
Contact details
I’d love to see you on 23 May if you were free and interested in joining us.
I hope to see you soon.
Have a great evening,
Colin
Email: colin@lawyersbdc.com
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