International Women’s Day Lunch 2025

MAGGIE OLIVER is perhaps best known as the Detective turned whistleblower who resigned from Greater Manchester Police in 2012 to expose the now infamous Rochdale Grooming Scandal.

Fighting her feelings of disbelief, fear, outrage, and anger she has fought tirelessly for 12 years to expose the truth about how the vulnerable victims of serial sexual abuse were being failed by our criminal justice system.

This led to her working tirelessly for 4 years as “The Programme Consultant” to bring multi-award-winning BBC 1 drama ‘Three Girls’ to our screens and more recently known for her appearance on Celebrity Big Brother 2018 -Year of the Woman, as well as Loose Women, This Morning, Lorraine, Dky News, BBC, ITV and many more media outlets including in France, Switzerland, Australia, USA etc.

Her first book ‘SURVIVORS’ was published on 11th July 2019, (available on Amazon) which tells the story of her life as well as the full horrifying truth of how generations of children have been failed from the unique perspective of an ex-police detective.

The Maggie Oliver Foundation is the next chapter of her journey. Totally exhausted with trying to help all those who contacted her, she realised there were only two choices left …. abandon those victims and survivors of sexual abuse who so desperately needed help, or build an army of like minded warriors alongside her to share the load and fight for much needed change in a broken criminal justice system. Maggie chose the second option and in 2019 her charity The Maggie Oliver Foundation was born.

Since then, The Maggie Oliver Foundation has grown to a team of almost 40 staff and volunteers who have provided much-needed emotional support and legal advocacy to over 4000 adult survivors of sexual abuse and rape. Survivors from all communities who have nowhere else to go, but who need a helping hand to help them move forward in their lives.

The legal advocacy work TMOF undertakes is led by Maggie and another ex police officer plus a survivor of abuse and is totally groundbreaking and unique. At the national forefront of pushing for much needed changes in a broken criminal justice system where victims are horrendously failed every single day, the cases they are involved in are regularly covered in many national news programmes and on the many podcasts, documentaries and interviews which Maggie undertakes every week.

Leigh Dunkley has dedicated her entire career to financial services, working with renowned organisations such as Lloyds Bank, Scottish Widows, and more latterly, Schroders Personal Wealth (SPW). In her current role at SPW, she leads a team of financial advisers to support SPW’s mission to change lives by helping individuals and their families create financial plans for the future. Additionally, she leads on the Workplace Wellbeing agenda, promoting the importance of financial wellbeing to both individuals and employers across the UK.

Leigh is a passionate advocate for the financial empowerment of women, evident through her role at SPW and her responsibilities as a committee member of SPWomen – SPW’s Gender Equity Network. By establishing an understanding of wellbeing and demystifying the subject of finances, Leigh aims to empower women to achieve their financial goals and create a more equitable and supportive financial landscape. Her commitment to financial education and personalised support ensures that women have the resources and guidance they need to navigate their financial journeys with confidence.

In 2020, Phoebe Graham left her job as marketing lead for broadcaster Sky to become a full-time cricketer, becoming one of 41 women to be handed a full-time professional contract by the England and Wales Cricket Board. 5 years later, the game has been fully professionalised, minimum salaries have been established and the scope for female athletes in the UK has revolutionised. Outside of cricket, Graham established Tip ‘n Flip in 2019, an organisation that engages with leaders and employers that want to champion gender parity and which seeks to help young girls to follow their sporting dreams without compromise

Tasnim is the founder and Managing Partner of Private Client Solicitors, a boutique law firm in Manchester. Tasnim acts for entrepreneurial clients, business owners, landed gentry and ultra-high net worth individuals in all matters related to estate planning and wealth protection, nationally and internationally. Tasnim also advises a vast amount of wealthy non-domiciled clients and has a specialist interest in Shariah and Charity Law.

Tasnim is Trailblazer, Northern Power Woman 2024 and regular panel expert.

Siobhan Forster is a senior director with management consultancy company Alvarez & Marsal (A&M), serving as co-lead of their technology disputes practice. With a background in forensic computing, Siobhan specialises in providing advisory and expert services within information technology / information system focussed disputes, insurance claims, litigations and arbitrations.
Siobhan has provided advisory and expert services within many high-value, complex technology matters.

Between 2017 to 2019, she was the chief analyst and case manager of the technical expert team, engaged on behalf of the Claimants for the Horizon Issues trial in Bates & Others v Post Office Ltd (aka the Post Office scandal). Her work behind the scenes for the Horizon Issues trial uncovered many of the bugs, errors, defects, governance and process flaws within the Horizon System that led to Subpostmaster branch account shortfalls and discrepancies.

Nathan leads the HR practice for Michael Page across the North West and North East, specialising in senior to executive-level HR appointments. He has a strong track record of driving inclusive hiring processes that result in highly intersectional placements.

Passionate about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) and Social Impact, Nathan actively champions meaningful change in both the workplace and wider community. As a person of Black mixed-race heritage, he is committed to fostering understanding, empathy, and action to create equitable opportunities for all.

Nathan chairs PageGroup’s UK DE&I & Social Impact Board and advises the Northern DE&I Board. He leads national DE&I initiatives across Unity@Page (Race & Multiculture), Women@Page (Gender), and SocialMobility@Page.

Nathan was inducted into the 2025 Change Maker Advocacy List for the WeArePoWEr / Northern Power Women, won the ‘Life Changer – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ award at the 2022 PageGroup Life Changer Awards and was shortlisted for the ‘Diversity & Inclusivity Champion’ award at the 2021 Made in Manchester Awards. He also presents at HR thought leader events, with a focus on how to create diverse and inclusive working cultures, including how to attract top talent with an inclusive approach.

As COO, Nicola runs the business on a day to day basis, looks after the team and plays a key role in the creation of commercial strategy alongside Sam Booth.   Nicola & Sam run the organisation together as equal partners with shared responsibility.  She’s a strong believer that their differing skillsets and experiences complement each other’s strengths and perspectives, thus building a culture of creativity and innovation.

Nicola is passionate about the development of the organisation, helping evolve marketing, sponsorship, product development and customer service.

Nicola oversees the delivery of pro-manchester’s extensive events and conference programme.  This includes over 150 events per year from business lunches and breakfasts to the Trailblazing Tech conference and Made in Manchester Awards.

Nicola has worked in the events industry for  over 20 years.  She joined pro-manchester with a wealth of knowledge in 2010 as Events & Conference Manager and was made a Director in 2017.

Prior to working for pro-manchester, Nicola was the International Event Manager for Travel Counsellors. Before this, she worked her way up from Events Assistant to Head of Events at Manchester agency, Gilds Events, with regular clients including N Brown Group, Bupa and Siemens to name but a few.