Around 100 guests gathered in Central London to a special event billed as the Aspierations' ShowcASe. In his words of welcome, Gabriel Herman (left) explained: "We are very proud of what we've achieved in the last year but this afternoon we'll leave it to others to do all the talking". Nick Hecksher, Sales and Operations Director introduced a number of presenters who had embarked on journeys with Aspierations and who spoke eloquently about the impact this had had on them and the organisations they were associated with.
At the reception afterwards, many said they were overwhelmed by what they had learnt and were keen to work with Aspierations in the future.
Nikki Roche has worked for Siemens as a Reward Manager for 14 years. She leads the Siemens UK Neurodiversity programme and it is this that led her to work with Aspierations for the past year. Nikki talked about the business case she developed to secure top down engagement within Siemens, and share some of the conversations she had with staff embedded in the business to simultaneously galvanise bottom-up support for change.
The University of Bath were represented by a panel including a student who had attended a ground-breaking interview workshop where Aspierations had brought together Bath students on the autism spectrum and top employers who wanted to better engage with autistic talent.
In this short video, Melanie Wortham from the University of Bath describes the experience from the perspective of the University Careers Service.
Will Oulton is the Global Head of Responsible Investment at First State Investments (FSI) based in the UK and is responsible for defining and delivering FSI’s responsible investment and stewardship strategy globally. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Honorary Associate Professor at Nottingham University Business School’s International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility.
Will complemented his comments with this short video of colleagues who reflected on an Aspierations' Neurodiversity Awareness event they had just attended.
Finn Beasley has been employed in a fast-growing FMCG start-up called Oppo for the past 10 months. He graduated from the University of Bath in July 2018 with first-class honours in International Management with Spanish. Aspierations introduced him to Deloitte’s senior Blueprint management workshop with the opportunity to shadow senior Technology Consultants for a number of days in their Bristol office. At Oppo, he is currently employed as a Data Analyst where he supports the business through Commercial Analysis and assists supply chain operations through order processing.
Read his blog for Aspierations here.
