Sally Keane is Head of Sales, LinkedIn and President of the women’s network Bloom. At LinkedIn, she founded the Parents At LinkedIn employee group, chairs the culture committee, and plays an active part in Black Tech recruitment and Black Girls in Tech events. She has been a member of Bloom since 2017 and became President this year.
Who is your digital hero?
Marsha Powell, founder of BelEve UK.
What has she done to win hero status in your eyes?
Marsha is co-founder of BelEve, a girl-focused charity working with 8 to 18-year-old girls. They Believe it is crucial to inspire and empower girls and young women to maximise their potential and celebrate their achievements.
How has her heroism helped drive digital?
Marsha and the BelEve team are inspiring girls, mostly from underprivileged backgrounds, to pursue a career in digital and media.
One of the most impactful things they do is partnering with media companies to provide marketing workshops and a mentorship program to help these girls to develop their personal and employability skills.
What the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
Diversity across the board, but specifically race. If you look at the UK digital sector, it’s not representative of the London population in terms of racial diversity, and that needs to change.
We all need to think differently when it comes to attracting and retaining a diverse talent pool – not just getting them through the door but helping them to thrive and grow in their career so that we have diversity across every level of an organisation.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
As a senior leader at LinkedIn, I am a champion of inclusivity around several initiatives including leading Diverse Hiring for the UK Marketing Solutions business and partnering with our Embrace employee resource group around Black Tech recruitment and Black Girls In Tech events.
I have been a Bloom member since 2017, holding several leadership positions, and I’m very proud to be the president for 2020. A few examples of what we have achieved in the past six months include: onboarding 200 women into the organisation, launching a mentorship program for 600 women, and introducing Bloom Boost – a bridge between our mentee programme and mentor partnership in association with BelEve.
We also donated £20,000 to our charity partner Women’s Aid and hosted our first virtual event ‘The Comparison Trap’ with 596 tickets sold.
Being recognised on this year’s IPA’s Iist as Inclusivity Trailblazer is a huge honour.
