LEADING CEO CALLS FOR WOMEN IN FINANCE TO ‘BE EMPOWERED AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CHANGING LANDSCAPE’

One of the UK’s first female Corporate Banking CEOs, Diana Brightmore-Armour, has called for young women in business to embrace a wave of new opportunities available as companies in the City of London begin to implement fairer hiring practices.

The number of women on UK FTSE Boards has more than doubled from 12.5% in 2010 to just over 30% in 2019 and Ms. Brightmore-Armour, the Chief Executive of the UK arm of international bank, the ANZ group, believes it’s a great time to be a female in the finance world.

Speaking at the Women in Leadership conference hosted by social mobility charity, Leadership Through Sport and Business (LTSB), she said: “Now more than ever organisations are committed to getting more women into senior positions, they are making unconscious bias mandatory training to stamp out sexist and bad behaviour/attitudes and they are committed to closing the gender pay gap.”

Brightmore-Armour cites Lloyds Bank’s graduate scheme in-take, which allocates exactly half of its roles to women, as further evidence that the right steps are being taken.

“Every shortlist for every role is now 50:50 – the women are out there but you have to find them and encourage them to apply,” she said.

The Chief Executive, who spent a decade working for The Coca Cola Company, speaks proudly of a significant shift in attitude within the industry that has seen female achievement celebrated rather than dismissed.

Brightmore-Armour, a founding member of the 30% Club, which has lobbied to get more women on FTSE Boards since its inception in 2010, said she recognised the importance of celebrating female achievement with innovative new ceremonies like the Women of the Future Awards and added: “None of this support to help women existed early on in my career but it is now so I encourage you to be empowered to take advantage of this change and use it to your benefit when kick-starting your careers. Seek out any gender diversity committees in your organisations, sign up for any development programmes, work flexibly if you want to. Most importantly – put yourselves out there – it really is a great time to be female!”

The theme of the conference was HER – Heard, Empowered, Ready – and Brightmore-Armour went on to offer her top tips from her sparkling 30-year career to the young women in attendance recommending the young women to network even when outside of work as you never know when someone will turn out to be a fantastic contact, to be prepared for every meeting – no matter who it’s with or what it’s about, and to just say yes – to any opportunity – if you believe you will learn from the experience.

The keynote address was followed by a Q&A, a panel discussion and an interactive seminar on developing a growth mindset.

Also speaking was Joanna Abeyie, the founder of Blue Moon, Natasha Ashdown, the associate director of HR at the Macquarie Group and Nusrath Hassan, a Women of the Future ambassador.

The event was put on by LTSB, who run successful apprenticeship schemes that provides talented individuals from economically disadvantaged backgrounds with unique opportunities and access to careers in high-level business and finance.

Caroline Adair, CEO of LTSB, added: “We had a wonderful day that was filled with inspirational speeches from women who have made it to the top by determination, hard-work and tenacity.

“To hear about the journey of a woman rising to the top in a male dominated industry was really captivating and uplifting. Everyone left feeling empowered and excited to try out everything they learned.”

To help more deserving bright, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, LTSB needs more funding partners. Please contact chief executive of LTSB Caroline Adair if you can help directly or indirectly: caroline.adair@leadershipthroughsport.org