Foluke Akinlose – inspiring women of colour in the UK

17 Oct

Foluke and her neices

For my last article for theglasshammer.com, I wrote a profile of Intrepid Woman Foluke Akinlose, founder of  website Precious and the accompanying Precious Awards,  both of which celebrate the talents of women of colour in the UK.

I met Foluke at a networking event in August and was so blown away by her talents and passion to help women and girls be the best that they can be that I immediately pitched an article on her to my editor.

And here it is - I hope it does her justice.

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Tamara Box, Voice of Experience in Structured Finance

12 Oct

As a child in Texas, Tamara Box was regarded as argumentative but yet was also a leading light in her school’s debating society.  These qualities led her to law school in London and Washington DC and she now leads Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP’s structured finance practice.

Read my profile of her here and learn why she suggests that women should never eat lunch alone.

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Carole Berndt of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and winner of the 2011 WIBF award for achievement

3 Oct

At an early stage in her career, Carole Berndt, winner of the 2011 Women in Banking and Finance’s Award for Achievement, stood on a mountain in Hong Kong and was asked to quote on the risk element of turning the side of the mountain into an airport.  She duly quoted, the site was purchased and developed and is now Hong Kong’s Chep Lak Kok international airport – a story which reflects Berndt’s geographically diverse career, first in insurance and now in banking.

Read the rest of the story here.

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Across Boundaries: What the UK can learn from Australia about Women on Boards

15 Sep

As the debate around the use of quotas to increase the number of women on UK boards continues, so does the need to look at what’s working around the world to shift the gender diversity needle.

Earlier this month, the European Professional Women’s Network invited Claire Braund (pictured), co-founder of Women on Boards, the leading advocate for improving gender diversity on Australian boards, to a London event to speak about the Australian story and outline Australia’s track record of success around women gaining access to board positions in business, government, community and not-for-profit sectors.

Read my report of the event here.

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Working mums as role models

2 Sep

I’ve had more feedback and positive responses to my article about working mums than about anything else I’ve ever written.  It urges mums to not feel guilty and cites recent research which suggests that children whose mothers work outside the home are no more likely to have behavioural or emotional problems at age 5 than kids whose mums stayed at home.

One woman wrote to me to say:

“My daughter has just been diagnosed [with] ADHD. As a working mother you think ‘maybe if I had stayed at home she would be ok’. (I know it’s silly). So the article means a lot to me – thank you.” 

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The Number of Female FTSE 100 Directors Doubles – But Is It Enough?

22 Aug

My final article for theglasshammer on the issue of women on boards is now available and describes some of the measures taken to increase the number of senior female leaders. It starts:

Britain’s biggest companies have more than doubled the number of women they are appointing to boardroom jobs since Lord Davies, the government’s champion of female board representation, told businesses this year that within four years a quarter of senior bosses should be women.

FTSE 100 companies have recruited 23 women to their boards this year – representing about 30% of total board appointments – after Davies said they should sign up to a voluntary target of 25% board representation by 2015.

Read the rest of the article here.

Pictured – Helena Morrissey of Newton Investment Management, a founder of the 30% Club.

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Why the Majority of UK Women and Businesses are Opposed to Gender Quotas

11 Aug

The scond article in my series on how UK business is approaching the issue of women on boards is now available to read via theglasshammer.com.

According to a recent survey by executive recruiters Harvey Nash, 81% of women feel that bias in the appointment process has a major impact on female representation – but two-thirds (64%) do not support legal quotas.

Instead, respondents cited education and awareness as the single biggest opportunity for improving boardroom balance (44%), followed by published targets and regular reporting (40%). Eighty-four percent of women believe they personally need to do more to achieve a higher representation on the board.

It appears from the survey, conducted of 365 male and female board level and senior executives, that the majority of women in business want to be taken seriously for their expertise and not simply be viewed as having “won” a place on the board through a mandated quota, an observation with which Charlotte Sweeney, Head of Diversity & Inclusion, EMEA at Nomura PLC agreed. She said, “Women want to be appointed into roles because they are the best person for the role, not because they are a woman.”

Read the rest of the article here.

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