Capgemini women work at the very cutting edge of technology

Capgemini UK's Priscilla Li, Head of Applied Innovation, and Aghogho Akponah, Innovation Consultant, work at the very cutting edge of technology: solving complex problems across sectors by applying emerging technology and ideas from Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Blockchain and the Internet of Things – at speed.

Priscilla and Aghogho share what they do in their roles and why they enjoy working at Capgemini.

Why did you choose this career path?

"Why I do what I do is that I've always wanted to create a better future than what I was given. I really believe that applying innovation, thinking differently, including all different perspectives, is a powerful way to do that," explains Priscilla.

"From a professional angle, my 'why' is to provide a frictionless end-to-end experience for my clients. So to generate value or revenue from an idea or a theme, I think that's hugely exciting. From a personal angle I am innately free-spirited and entrepreneurial and my role allows me to be able to express myself and be creative. My role also allows me to interact with loads of inspiring people," says Aghogho.

How has your career journey led you to your current role?

"Innovation has always been a very common theme in my life. I think the reason for that is I've always loved to experiment. When I was very young I always wanted to try new things and I was always interested in different perspectives. I liked those hidden connections that you can find where people are solving things differently in different areas. That's what led me to writing my own AI (artificial intelligence) start up. I was in an innovation role in telecommunications and it led me to heading up Digital at American Airlines," says Priscilla.

"So all of that is still around as the foundation of how could we make things better through innovation. It led me to Applied Innovation Exchange where I get to see all problems from all different sectors and industries. I think that is a unique opportunity and I'm very grateful to have the chance to do that."

Some final words

"My final message is to be relentless and persistent in pursuit of the life that you deserve. Women are four times less likely to go for a promotion than men. If you consider women of BAME, so black, Asian and minority ethnicity, we'd probably find that the stats are much more worse and this makes me really sad," adds Aghogho.

"I'd like to implore all women to have a goal and take sizable actions to essentially make it a reality. Just know that your ambition is valid."