Our 2019 awards – what happened

David is the Chairman of the Institute of Director for some 6000+ business leaders in the London and is the Managing Director of Fortis Consulting London. A strong proponent of the benefits of diversity of thought, David holds several degrees including Law and an MBA.

David is also a Court Member and Committee Chairman of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers in the City of London, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors (established 1903), a member of the Bank of England Institute of Directors Panel and leads various other organisations.

Based in London, alongside her front office roles, Esra is the Executive Sponsor of Barclays’ WIN Gender Network in London. She also represents Barclays on the Board and Finance Committee of Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership.

Since joining Barclays in 2009, Esra has held various senior roles across distribution, structuring, financial resource management and risk. She was also instrumental in the success of Barclays Non-Core where she led the client management team which developed client-centric solutions that accelerated BNC’s derivative and asset divestments. Before this, Esra was the Head of Cross-Asset Sales and RSG for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.

Gerry started as Chief Executive of Tesco Bank in August 2018 and is a member of the Tesco executive committee.

Prior to joining Tesco, Gerry has held a number of leadership roles in financial services. Most recently Gerry served as Chief Executive Officer of Ulster Bank Ireland. Before joining Ulster Bank, Gerry served as Chief Executive Officer of Danske Bank UK (formerly Northern Bank) for eight years, successfully leading the organisation in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Earlier in his career, Gerry also held roles at Bank of Ireland, McKinsey & Co., and the UK Civil Service.

Working for Virgin Money since 2014, Jay is heavily involved in Virgin Money’s work on the HMT Women in Finance (WIF) Review and the subsequent HMT WIF Charter.

Jay has previously worked for the European Commission, the CBI and the Treasury Committee as Senior Economist and Policy Specialist. This included a secondment to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards (PCBS) where he was one of the drafters of the PCBS final report.

Julie Baker has a 30+ year career in the world of banking in both business and commercial, covering leadership roles. Julie was ‘highly commended’ at last year’s Women in Finance awards for the programme she leads at NatWest supporting female entrepreneurs, which has prompted research for HM Treasury to examine the barriers faced by female entrepreneurs in the UK and on which she is presently working.

Julie is an external influencer and has chaired the BBA Diversity & Inclusion Council, the Access to Finance Group at the APPG for Women in Enterprise and sits on the NatWest Business Banking Board.

Vivienne Omaset is a Managing Director and Global CAO for Citi's research division with 20 years of experience in financial services.

Responsible for overseeing the financial, business and strategic goals for research which employs staff in 25 locations around the world, she interfaces with Citi’s functional teams including technology, human resources, compliance, legal etc.. Vivienne leads the employer of choice goal for research with specific focus on gender diversity and emerging talent development advocating for an organised promotion and career management process.