Rebecca Glenn
Founder and CEO, Centre for Women’s Economic Safety Ltd

Rebecca founded the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety (CWES) to raise awareness of economic abuse as a form of domestic and family violence and advocate for structural and systems change to support women’s economic safety. From 2018 to 2021 she worked at Insight Exchange; a domestic violence initiative with a focus on resistance and responses to violence and abuse.

Before Insight Exchange and CWES, she worked for Australia’s largest bank developing its employee financial wellbeing program. As a member of the Commonwealth Bank’s Domestic and Family Violence Working Group, Rebecca worked with a range of experts to develop the Women’s Financial Wellbeing Guide and partnered with Domestic Violence New South Wales to produce the Addressing Financial Abuse Guide. She also led development of the bank’s first Financial Inclusion Action Plan.

Rebecca previously led the Communications and Marketing function at Australia’s peak body for superannuation, ASFA, and was the Campaign Director for MoneySmart Week before being appointed founding CEO of not-for-profit organisation, Financial Literacy Australia in 2013.

In 2019, she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate service responses to women experiencing or escaping domestic economic abuse in the UK, USA and Canada.

Catherine Fitzpatrick
Catherine is Founder & Director of independent consultancy Flequity Ventures.

A former bank executive, she works with businesses to reimagine and redesign products and services to
be more flexible, safe and equitable for their customers experiencing vulnerability.

Her aim is to inspire innovation to disrupt financial abuse and address gender bias in financial products
– helping to close the economic gap for women.

Catherine was recognised nationally in 2018 as an AFR|Qantas 100 Women of Influence for her work as the architect of Commonwealth Bank’s domestic and family violence strategy.

She holds a number of advisory positions, including as the only business representative appointed to the Australian Government’s advisory group on the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2032.

She is Chair of the Australian National University’s Student Safety and Wellbeing Committee, Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales School of Social Sciences and a member of the Monash Safe and Equal @ Work Advisory Board.

Catherine is the author of Designed to Disrupt: Reimagining banking products to improve financial safety – the first of a series of discussion papers for the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety.

Gilberto Cedolia
Director AML, Compliance and Financial Access Program, Scotiabank

Gilberto L. Cedolia is a banking professional, with a background in corporate finance, financial risk management and social sustainability practices. In his current role, Gilberto is a Director on Scotiabank’s AML Risk Advisory team. Since 2019, Gilberto has been leading the Bank’s Financial Access Program: a financial inclusion initiative that supports survivors of human trafficking and domestic abuse to gain access to banking services in Canada. In addition, he is a member of CCFWE’s Financial Taskforce, sits on the board of directors of VoiceFound, a front-line, human trafficking support organization, and is also a member of CivicAction’s DiverseCity Fellows leadership program for 2023/24. Gilberto holds a Master of Business Administration from the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University.

Lauren Garrett
Financial Services Manager, Surviving Economic Abuse

Lauren is the Financial Services Manager at SEA. Lauren has 10+ years of experience working in the financial services sector, specifically in complaint resolution, vulnerability and accessibility. Lauren leads on SEA’s work with financial services seeking to transform industry responses to economic abuse. Lauren’s team delivers training and consultation across the sector to raise awareness of what economic abuse is and amplify the voices of victim-survivors to ensure they receive fair outcomes.

Millie Acuna
Manager, Asset Building Programs at SEED Winnipeg Inc

Millie comes from a unique blend of industry and non-profit experience in providing financial access to low-income Canadians through 15 years of employment with a local credit union and in the current role as Manager of Asset Building Programs at SEED Winnipeg.

As part of the credit union system, Millie worked in various management roles for seven retail branches, process improvement, community financial access programs, and supported the credit union through audit and risk procedures, a four-way credit union merge, banking system conversion and established a student-run credit union for a Winnipeg inner-city high school.

At present, Millie coordinates the delivery of financial empowerment programs through over 100 community agencies by providing on-site services, service provider training, and mentorship. Program interventions include financial literacy and access to banking.

Millie is passionate about serving unbanked/underbanked individuals, strengthening relationships within the community, and supporting financial empowerment for all to build a sustainable future.

Maria Vranas (FCAC/ACFC)
Acting Director of Behavioural Finance Lab, FCAC

Maria is the Acting Director of the Behavioural Finance Lab at the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC). The FCAC’s mandate is to supervise financial institutions’ compliance with consumer protection legislation and to strengthen the financial literacy of Canadians.

Maria leads an interdisciplinary division of researchers and designers in analyzing emerging issues in the consumer protection field, and designing digital tools and behavioural interventions to strengthen the financial resilience and wellbeing of Canadians.

Maria has been with FCAC since 2010 holding leadership roles in Financial Literacy, Consumer Education and Stakeholder Engagement. Prior to joining the FCAC, Maria worked in Ottawa’s high-tech industry. Maria holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of Ottawa.

Dr. Nicola Sharp-Jeffs
Founder and CEO, Surviving Economic Abuse

The charity is led by our founder and CEO, Dr Nicola Sharp-Jeffs OBE, who is supported by a growing team and Board of Trustees. Nicola is an expert in economic abuse as it occurs within the context of coercive control. She has worked in the violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector since 2006 in both policy-influencing and research roles.

In 2016, Nicola was made a Winston Churchill Fellow and travelled to the United States and Australia to explore innovative responses to economic abuse. It was her determination to ensure that women in the UK have access to the same responses that led her to establish SEA. Read more about her work as part of the Winston Churchill Fellowship (under ‘Economic abuse and policy’).
Nicola is also an Emeritus Research Fellow in the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU), London Metropolitan University.

In 2020, Nicola was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to victims of domestic and economic abuse in recognition of her work. She was the 2020 winner of the Third Sector Award for Rising Chief Executive and also named ‘Rising Leader of the Year‘ in 2021 by the Charity Times Awards.

Naomi Hawthorne

Naomi has committed her career, spanning over 10 years, to the UK Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector in various frontline, training, consultancy and management roles. Naomi brings her passion and dedication to her current role as Women’s Sector Manager at Surviving Economic Abuse (SEA) – the only UK based charity dedicated to raising awareness of economic abuse and transforming responses to it. Naomi is responsible for the development and implementation of SEA’s strategy for influencing positive and lasting changes to professional response and systems change in the women’s sector, and also is leading on SEA’s survivor engagement strategy.

Meseret Haileyesus
Meseret Haileyesus is a multi-award-winning thought leader and change-maker with a distinguished record in championing economic justice and health equity. For the past 22 years, she has dedicated her life to advancing progressive policies on access to reproductive health, women’s and children’s health, global health research, financial empowerment, racial justice, and women’s economic rights. As the visionary founder of the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE), she has been unflagging in her efforts to address economic disparities and dismantle systemic barriers that hinder women’s economic advancement. Through pioneering policy advocacy, groundbreaking research, educational initiatives, and programs preventing Economic abuse, Meseret is at the forefront of this critical work.

Her primary mission is to shape public policy and legislative decisions that empower victims of Economic Abuse to achieve economic independence in Canada. Meseret is dedicated to bridging gaps in existing approaches to combat economic abuse. Her commitment to societal improvement extends beyond CCFWE. Meseret is also the Founder of Maternity Today, an organization dedicated to sharing evidence, resources, and advocay tools with healthcare workers. Meseret serves on the Board of Directors at Centertown Community Health Centre and the End FGM Canada Network. She is actively engaging as a subject matter expert with various World Health Organization taskforces, Service as a Policy Advisor of the Network for the Advancement of Black Communities and the Governance Committee for the City of Ottawa’s Community Safety Wellbeing Plan, aimed at addressing poverty, systemic racism, gender-based violence, and mental health challenges youth and their women face in Canada.