The 22nd WIBF Awards for Achievement were a huge success, with more nominations than ever before and more than 530 people attending the Awards Luncheon on Friday 14th June.
Our headline sponsor for the 2019 Awards were Lloyds Banking Group who have been a long term supporter of WIBF and we were delighted to work with them on these awards which recognise the incredible achievements of women in the banking and finance industry.
Fiona Cannon, Group Responsible Business, Sustainability & Inclusion Director at Lloyds Banking Group said:
“These awards play a crucial role in recognising the stand-out talent and significant achievements of individuals in the banking and finance sector, and the important work they are doing to progress diversity and excellence in the workplace.”
We were proud to welcome Dr Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England to present the keynote speech.
This year saw the introduction of a new award - Tech Star Award and for the first time since 2008 we awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award. This went to Noreen Doyle, a phenomenal businesswoman, who has been in the banking industry for over 40 years. Noreen served as Patron of Women in Banking and Finance for four years. She has been a champion of women in the banking industry – formally in her executive and non-executive roles, and informally as a mentor and sponsor of other women.
Video highlights
The Categories
Award for Achievement
Celebrates a woman who has achieved success within a senior role and who displays qualities of dynamism and daring in her working life. Candidates have also used their skills beyond their own career by either serving on boards of other organisations and/or by their involvement with furthering the interests of women in the workplace. This woman is considered a role model and is making a significant impact by driving change across the industry.
Sponsored by Citi
Champion for Women
Celebrates a seasoned professional, man or woman, who through personal commitment, application and dedication, continuously promotes and inspires women in the workplace to reach their full potential.
Sponsored by Credit Suisse
Team Award for Diversity
Celebrates team success in promoting gender diversity in the workplace. The team may be a business line team that has driven and embedded the diversity agenda or a specialist function (such as HR or Diversity & Inclusion) that partners the business to provide vision and framework for enabling diversity at work.
Sponsored by City AM
Young Professional
Celebrates a woman aged 35 or younger (on 28th February 2019) who is making an exceptional impact within an organisation. She is shaping her organisation, not only in terms of business success, but also in the example she provides to colleagues. This individual out-performs her peers across the industry and demonstrates huge drive for career success alongside energy for helping others.
Sponsored by Barclays
Tech Star Award
Celebrates this woman’s outstanding contribution within FinTech or Digital within Financial Services. This award is to recognise the woman who is leading the Tech agenda, either through thought leadership, technical expertise or as an innovator. This individual will have demonstrated their passion and innovation in either a thought leadership project or who is leveraging technology to advance an improved gender equality; helping their financial services organisation move forward in terms of their digital agenda.
Sponsored by LSEG
Sponsored by
Headline Sponsor
Fiona Cannon, Group Responsible Business, Sustainability and Inclusion Director
Award for Achievement Award Sponsor
Young Professional Award Sponsor
Wendy Papworth, Director, Global Diversity and Inclusion, Barclays
Champion for Women Award Sponsor
Team Diversity Award Sponsor
Tech Star Award Sponsor
David Craig, Chief Executive Officer.
Shortlist Dinner Sponsor
David Fass, CEO EMEA, Macquarie Group
2019 Alumni Network
The Shortlist
The Tech Star Award
Young Professional Award
Team Diversity Award
- Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions COO Team, Macquarie
- Beazley diversity and inclusion steering group, Beazley
- EMEA Women’s Network (M-WIN) Steering Committee, Mizuho Bank
- Global Transaction Banking UK, Santander
- Innovation & Strategy, Lloyds Banking Group
- Scottish Widows Distribution, Scottish Widows / LBG
- The EY Gender Advisory Board, EY
Champion for Women
Award for Achievement
The winners
Noreen Doyle, Credit Suisse
Lifetime Achievement Award
Noreen Doyle is a phenomenal businesswoman, who has been in the banking industry for over 40 years. Currently, Chair of Credit Suisse International and Independent Non-Executive Chair of Newmont Mining Corporation, she has led five different organisations. Noreen served as Patron of Women in Banking and Finance for four years. She has been a champion of women in the banking industry – formally in her executive and non-executive roles, and informally as a mentor and sponsor of other women.
Jenny Chong, Credit Suisse
The Tech Star Award
Jenny Chong is currently a Director in Credit Suisse, working in the Semantic Technology, Analytics, and Machine Intelligence team. She is the Global Head of eCommunications Surveillance Technology, running an award-winning global platform to monitor and supervise electronically produced communications, using behavioural analytics and machine learning to detect potentially malicious or anomalous activity.
Amani Kiflemariam, Credit Suisse
Young Professional Award
Amani is the Head of Risk & Control, Impact Advisory and Finance Department (IAF) division at Credit Suisse. Amani has shown exemplary leadership and made significant contributions to the business and to enhancing the Diversity & Inclusion initiatives of Credit Suisse.
Macquarie Infrastructure Debt Investment Solutions COO Team, Macquarie
Team Diversity Award
The COO team encompasses 12 individuals who are based in London and Hong Kong. Together they support a global business which raises capital from institutional investors and invests this in typically long dated debt assets. Importantly the team manages a wide range of activities, from client servicing and reporting, to debt valuations, fund administration and loan servicing.
Anna Somaiya, KPMG LLP
Champion for Women
Anna leads KPMG’s Digital Technology & Data Strategy. Three years ago, she founded the IT’s Her Future Programme which she continues to expand and lead. The programme has impacted technology teams across KPMG UK and globally, partnering with external organisations to deliver the best results for women in technology, and speaking with clients to assist with their transformations.
Deborah Gilshan, Aberdeen Standard Investments
Award for Achievement
Deborah is the Founder of The 100% Club, a network for professional women that seeks to promote the importance of networking for career advancement and personal development. It is Deborah’s contribution to retaining women in sectors challenged on gender balance.
Keynote Speaker
Mark Carney
Governor of the Bank of England
In addition to his duties as Governor of the Bank of England, he serves as First Vice-Chair of the European Systemic Risk Board, a member of the Group of Thirty and the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum.
Mark Carney was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada in 1965. He received a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University in 1988. He went on to receive a master’s degree in Economics in 1993 and a doctorate in Economics in 1995, both from Oxford University.
After a thirteen-year career with Goldman Sachs in its London, Tokyo, New York and Toronto offices, Mark Carney was appointed Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada in August 2003. In November 2004, he left the Bank of Canada to become Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Finance. He held this position until his appointment as Governor of the Bank of Canada on 1 February 2008. Mark Carney served as Governor of the Bank of Canada and Chairman of its Board of Directors until 1 June 2013.
The Judges
Gerry Mallon
Chief Executive, Tesco Bank
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.
Outside of financial services, Gerry served as Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council at the University of Ulster, President of the Institute of Banking in Ireland, and he is currently Chairman of the Irish Football Association.
Gerry is an Economics graduate from Cambridge University and received his MBA from Ulster Business School. He is married to Una and has four children.
Vivienne Omaset
Managing Director, Global CAO, Citi Research
Vivienne is responsible for overseeing the financial, business and strategic goals for Research which employs staff in 25 locations around the world. In this role, Vivienne interfaces with Citi’s Function’s 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.
Prior to this, Vivienne who joined Citi in 1998 was the Business Financial Controller for Fixed Income Global Markets in EMEA a role which was preceded by Product Controller in the FXLM Treasury Hub and Financial/Management Accountant in the Western European business covering four countries.
Vivienne is a Chartered Accountant and holds a BA (Hons) in Accounting. Vivienne is a member of Executive Committee for Research and is based in London.
Jay Sheth
Head of Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Virgin Money
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.
Jay’s undergraduate degree was in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Anne’s College, Oxford and has a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics in the Economics of Transition in Central and Eastern Europe. He is also a Trustee of Hackney Empire.
Julie Baker
Head of Enterprise and Community Finance, NatWest
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. Julie is presently working on some research for HM Treasury which examines the barriers faced by female entrepreneurs in the UK.
David Stringer-Lamarre
Chairman of the Institute of Directors and Managing Director, Fortis Consulting
David is a strong proponent of the benefits of diversity of thought. David holds several degrees including Law and an MBA.
David is a Court Member and Committee Chairman of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers in the City of London, an ancient Livery Company, first recorded in 1328. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors (established 1903), a member of the Bank of England Institute of Directors Panel, Chairman of the Trade & Investment Group of the British Malaysian Society, the City of London FinTech Action Network, Tech London Advocates, The 48 Group Club ‘The Icebreakers’, the Austrian Business Circle, the Arab Women of the Year Awards Advisory Board, the Chinese Business Leaders Awards Judging Panel, the Imperial College Business School Alumni Financial Services Group, the Cass Business School Entrepreneurs Network and a Vice President of Blackheath (Rugby) Football Club, the world’s oldest.
Esra Turk
Managing Director & Head of Emerging Markets Origination for Markets, Barclays
Since joining Barclays in 2009, Esra has held various senior roles across Distribution, Structuring, Financial Resource Management and the Risk Solutions Group (RSG). She was also instrumental in the success of Barclays Non-Core (BNC) where she led the client management team which developed client-centric solutions that accelerated BNC’s derivative and asset divestments. Prior to BNC, Esra was the Head of Cross-Asset Sales and RSG for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.
Prior to Barclays, Esra was Country Head for Turkey at Dresdner Kleinwort. She started her banking career at Bankers Trust in Leveraged Buy-outs and Corporate Finance, and went on to work in Derivatives Marketing for Eastern Europe, Turkey and Portugal. Esra has also worked in a Structuring role within Emerging Markets Proprietary Trading at Credit Suisse, and was an Executive Director and Co-Head of Debt Capital Markets Origination and Liability Management for Eastern Europe and CIS at UBS.
Esra holds an MBA in Finance from UCLA Anderson School of Management and BA (Honours) in Business Administration from Bogazici University, Istanbul.
The 2019 WIBF Charity - The Fawcett Society
The Fawcett Society has been advancing women’s equality since 1866 when, aged just 19, Millicent Fawcett collected signatures on a petition for women’s votes. She went on to lead the suffrage campaign and made this cause her lifetime’s work, securing equal voting rights 62 years later. All proceeds from the collection at the WIBF Awards Luncheon this year will be donated to The Fawcett Society.
Today The Fawcett Society continues her legacy of fighting sexism and gender inequality through hard-hitting campaigns and impactful research. They believe in a society where no one is prevented from reaching their full potential because of their gender.
The Fawcett Society’s national campaigns shapes the debate and drives change.
• Close the gender pay gap – at current rates of progress it will take 62 years to close it
• Secure equal power from politics to the boardroom – women make up just 32% of MPs, 33% of councillors and only 6% of FTSE 100 CEOs
• Challenge attitudes and change minds – 20% of men aged 25-34 say women’s equality has ‘gone too far’
Help them achieve their vision for a society where women and girls are equal and truly free – and support a better future for all.
“Fawcett is delighted to be part of this years’ WIBF Awards. The WIBF values of ambition, development and leadership for women are so close to our hearts, our cause, and our many campaigns. We look forward to this event and sharing more about our work.”
Sam Smethers, Chief Executive of The Fawcett Society