Sophie Bialaszewski
Head of Innovation Culture & Events
Sophie isn’t your usual digital leader; neither is how she got there. With an MSc in Public Policy and a background in communications, her differentiator is her ability to combine culture change, innovation and communications to deliver campaigns and programmes that inspire, excite and help people experience a new way of working.
Sophie enables colleagues to push the boundaries of banking. Her vision is that innovation will be everyone’s job at Lloyds Banking Group and she has spent the last 3 years building the internal capability and team to bring this to life. She is trailblazing new initiatives like the hac-kit (think hackathon in a box with a mission impossible countdown) to foster intrapreneurship, upskilling colleagues with FinTech talks and films, and connecting colleagues with startups through espresso martinis (meet-ups). The programmes Sophie’s team run provide colleagues with the tools and techniques they need to DIY innovation as the future leaders of the bank.
Sophie was instrumental in developing our Innovation ecosystem working with accelerators, the Government and Innovate Finance. She has connected future leaders in the Group with tech start-up founders to support Tech entrepreneurs. Sophie is passionate about supporting women in tech which is why she has driven the sponsorship of the Women in Fintech Power List to help showcase the diversity of roles in the sector to help inspire the next generation of talented women to enter the tech sector. Sophie leads by example and speaks about her experiences as a new mum and being a woman in tech to encourage future talent to enter the industry. She develops female talent within the organisation; two women in her team were promoted into strategic roles in the last 6 months. Most recently she worked with colleagues across Transformation to launch a new network called ‘family matters’ helping colleagues balance the complexities of work and home life.
Sophie is regularly asked to speak about the innovation journey and transformation at Lloyds Banking Group and has represented the company at Innovate Finance’s Launch of the Women in FinTech Power List in Parliament, gave the keynote at London FinTech Week and has taken part in panel discussions at the Future of Banking and Global Digital Banking conferences.
@sophiebtalk
RFI Group Profile
https://www.rfigroup.com/rfi-group/news/sophie-bialaszewski-lloyds-banking-group-uk
FemTech Global Interview
http://www.femtechleaders.com/europe/sophie-bialaszewski/
Intrapreneurship Conference Talk
