WIBF Recognition of Achievement – Virtual Celebration

As a community, we’ve been leading the charge for gender equality in banking and finance for over 40 years, and have seen huge strides made over that time that we can all be proud of. Following an unprecedented past 18 months, our members have continued to spearhead progressive diversity and inclusion initiatives in our sector, with some amazing individual achievements!

So, what better way to celebrate by bringing together the WIBF network to recognise the achievements of this remarkable group of individuals at a virtual event hosted by journalist and TV presenter Kate Thornton, where we also announced our proudly ambitious plans for 2022 that support our gender equality agenda.

The event also celebrated the first ever President’s Award, presented to Alison Rose, CEO of NatWest Group and a truly exceptional individual. In 2019, she achieved what many considered unachievable when she was appointed to lead a top four UK bank. In presenting the award, Anna Lane, President of WIBF, stated: “What struck me in my research for this award was the universal admiration of the many NatWest Group staff I spoke to – some of whom got in touch directly, which was incredibly touching. They all talked of the immense credibility and pride her personal sponsorship of all of the employee-led networks in the organisation has brought them. She is someone that really cares about her teams and genuinely lifts as she climbs.”

In our keynote speeches we heard Alison talk in detail about how some of her experiences have shaped her, how networks can help and how keen she is to help promote female talent, especially among entrepreneurs. We then heard from Dame Inga Beale who wanted viewers to benefit from her encounters in financial services and at the BBC before, and during her time as CEO of Lloyd’s of London.

We were delighted to be able to talk about our Accelerating Change Together research programme, which is now entering the second of its four year timeline, in a session chaired by Dr Grace Lordan, Associate Professor in Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics. She was joined by past winners of our WIBF Awards for Achievement.

We were also very proud to have the opportunity to celebrate a group of outstanding diversity and inclusion role models from the WIBF community, put forward by our institutional members.

You can catch up on all of this and much, much more on the WIBF website at https://www.wibf.org.uk/awards/recognition. We hope you enjoy the video and the incredible stories behind the 2021 Role Models.

We would also like to take the opportunity to thank our sponsors who helped make the event possible. These are Citi, Cynergy Bank, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, LSEG and TEN Group.

Thank for your continued support and we look forward to announcing our new categories and an updated approach for the WIBF 24th Awards for Achievement – which will be celebrated in June 2022 – soon. Watch this space!