Women in Banking and Finance interviews Jayne-Anne Gadhia

WIBF were fortunate enough to interview the CEO of Virgin Money, Jayne-Anne Gadhia. A Chartered Accountant, she spent six years at Norwich Union (now Aviva) before becoming one of the founders of Virgin Direct in 1995.

“In 1998 she set up the Virgin One account which was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland in 2001. After five years at RBS as part of the Retail executive Committee, she returned to Virgin as the CEO of Virgin Money.

A vocal supporter of businesses responsibility to make a positive contribution to society, Jayne Anne is a trustee of Business in the Community. In November 2016, Jayne-Anne was announced as the government’s Women in Finance Champion. The event followed a Q & A format which allowed the members insight into an inspiring career journey together with background into the importance of the Finance Charter. Our executive Board member and Director of Stanton House , Sally McFall, led the conversation.

A few words of advice from Jayne-Anne….

• When asked about her own career success, a lot has come down to seizing the opportunities that came along. Her advice to the audience was ‘Don’t lock yourself into a career path too early – don’t define yourself as an actuary or accountant as you may be missing out on something new.’

• You are responsible for your own career – look after it and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Find a good mentor and sponsor and work out a way to connect through your network or through organisations. This can work both ways and most senior staff are privileged to be able to help so ask a mutual connection to put you in touch. Mentors can be from all walks of life including sport where the experiences of hard work and dedication can cross over into finance.

• Challenge wrong doing and stand up for what you believe. Key message from the session don’t be afraid to stand up for what is right and have the confidence to do so. In financial services the senior manager’s in charge must feel able to challenge the status quo and the best way to do this is by ‘being yourself and being authentic’.

Last year the government asked Jayne-Anne to lead a review into the representation of women in senior managerial roles in financial services. This work complements the government’s wider programme of work to tackle gender inequality and support women in the workplace. Jayne-Anne is a supporter of quotas as these can help to challenge the unconscious bias of recruiting in your own image. It is essential that Boards understand the benefits of gender diversity and the business advantages, linking diversity to incentives. Published targets should finally shift the dial assuming firms sign up.

The review, ‘Empowering Productivity: Harnessing the talents of women in financial services’ makes four recommendations to industry to improve gender diversity in financial services, which have received widespread support from the sector.

• Firms should have one member of the senior executive team who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion.
• Firms should set internal targets for gender diversity in senior management.
• Firms should publish progress annually against these targets in reports on their website.
• Firms should have an intention to ensure the pay of the senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets on gender diversity.

A number of high-profile firms have already signed up to the Charter, including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Legal and General, Lloyds of London, Capital Credit Union, Columbia Threadneedle and Virgin Money.

The event was hosted jointly with Standard Life, one of the first organisations to sign up. Sandy Begbie, People Director supports putting these initiatives in practice with a range of initiatives to support diversity in the workplace.

The event was well attended with the chance to network with colleagues from across the financial services industry in Scotland. If you would like to attend future WIBF events or find out more about joining the mentoring programme please have a look at the WIBF website for upcoming events.

We are delighted to announce we have secured an interview with Alison MacGregor, CEO HSBC Scotland in August. See our listings page for more details and to book your place at the event.