Women at the Table – Speaker Takeaways
Thanks again to everyone who joined us for Women at the Table, and if you weren’t able to make it, here are some of the key takeaways from the evening.
It was a brilliant evening filled with connection, energy, and a real mix of thought-provoking perspectives – from navigating emotional intelligence in high-pressure environments to finding purpose through mentorship, volunteering, and technical innovation.
Anh Clifton – Tech-Driven Innovation in Quant Finance
Anh gave a fascinating overview of her work at Limex, a cutting-edge fintech building quant and AI-driven trading solutions. She shared technical insights into concepts like:
- Walk-forward optimisation
- Ridge regression and feature engineering
- Optuna hyperparameter optimisation
- AI integration into portfolio management
Her talk showcased the frontier of innovation in quant finance, and a lot of attendees were snapping photos of the slides! Anh has kindly given us permission to share them in the presentation attached.
Hannah Moran – Volunteering & Purposeful Impact
Hannah spoke about her positive experience as a Girlguiding leader and the power of giving back, whether through tech or otherwise, highlighting how volunteering can help build a broad range of soft skills.
Her advice?
- Find a cause you genuinely care about
- Be realistic about what time you can offer and what the organisation actually needs
- Explore platforms like charity job boards, websites, and local communities for opportunities – don’t be afraid to approach organisations directly
- If possible, seek your employer’s support – many offer volunteering days or would be open to the idea
Volunteering isn’t just about giving your time, it’s also a chance to develop leadership, initiative, planning, and communication skills, while meeting like-minded people along the way.
Brooke Lear – The Power of Mentorship
Brooke shared how mentorship can help build confidence, resilience, and perspective, and how it’s not just something you benefit from later in your career. Even if you’re early on in your journey, you still have value to offer, whether that’s sharing your experience, listening with empathy, or just being a sounding board for someone else navigating a similar path. Mentorship is a two-way street, both mentor and mentee grow from the relationship. It encourages curiosity, accountability, and self-awareness.
Brooke reminded us that mentoring doesn’t always have to be formal – sometimes just offering a conversation or support over coffee can make a real difference.
Teagan Hill – Emotional Intelligence as a Strategic Edge
Teagan spoke about emotional intelligence and its often-overlooked role in decision-making and leadership, especially in high-performance environments like trading and tech. Drawing on her research from a master’s in performance psychology, she shared that elite performers don’t suppress emotion, they integrate it.
Emotions are not distractions; they’re data. And when managed well, they help sharpen judgement, support better decisions under pressure, and create more inclusive, connected teams.
Her practical takeaways included:
- Name it to tame it – Labelling your emotions can help create clarity and control
- Use your breath – Deep breathing to reset under pressure
- Rehearse mentally – Visualising outcomes to build readiness
- Lean on your network – Support helps regulate emotion
- Reflect with curiosity – Ask what your emotions are trying to tell you
Her full reflection is well worth a read, and you can find it here.
It was a super inspiring evening in the comfort of our office, with a wonderful buzz of conversation and connection throughout.
You can find a link to a quick video from the evening here.
We’ll be hosting more of these events going forward – so if you’d like to be part of the community, stay tuned for updates and make sure you join our LinkedIn group.