Monica Chadha, Vice-Chair of Queen Mary’s Council and a Queen Mary alumna, is featured in the annual Women to Watch supplement. The 2019 edition features fifty Black, Asian and other Minority Ethnic (BAME) women, showcasing inspiring professionals who come from backgrounds historically under-represented in senior leadership roles.
Cranfield University’s Female FTSE Board Report, launched on 11 July 2019, reveals that only 11 per cent of women on FTSE 100 boards are from BAME backgrounds.
The Women to Watch supplement showcases a wide range of women available for, and ideally suited to, board positions on FTSE 350 companies now or in the near future. The 2019 edition, produced in collaboration with the Black British Business Awards and The Network of Networks BAME – Multicultural Chapter (TNON), features women from a range of sectors and from across the BAME spectrum.
Monica Chadha said: "I feel very honoured to be named on this list! This is a very special moment for me and my family. I hope my story can help inspire other Queen Mary BAME students, and BAME women everywhere to achieve their potential.
"I would like to reach out to BAME women to say believe in yourself, work hard at what you love, ask for stretch assignments and aim for the stars!"
Monica Chadha has more than 20 years’ commercial experience in entertainment and digital media. She is a Vice-Chair of Queen Mary’s Council, Chair of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk and Governance Committees. She is a history graduate.
Monica has broad and extensive experience in both executive and non-executive roles in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors. She secured her first non-executive role at the age of 24 at the British Video Association, and her first executive role as Production Director at Prism Leisure Corporation Plc aged 25.
Previously she was Chair of the British Board of Film Classification Advisory Group, and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Digital Communications Board and the Industry Trust for Intellectual Property Awareness. Her last executive position was as CEO of MyMovies.Net Ltd, a UK market-leading service delivery company that aggregated, curated and monetised content for retail, internet service providers and mobile networks.
Currently Monica is a Non-Executive Director of Obviously Creative Ltd and Chair of the British Independent Film Awards Advisory Board. She is an alumna of the Deloitte Women on Boards Programme, and the BAME on Boards Programme, and was appointed an ambassador for Women on Boards in 2018.
Dr Doyin Atewologun, Director of the Gender, Leadership and Inclusion Centre at Cranfield University, says: “We need to be sure that we are not only advancing progress for a certain small group of women, but are truly pushing board diversity in every sense. We hope executive search firms, FTSE Board Chairs and other Directors are inspired by the rich talent we highlight, to look at gender diversity - including men - in a different way.”
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