We are delighted to announce the launch of the 2019 WIBF Awards For Achievement. After the most successful awards ever last year, we are really looking forward to yet another amazing year.

The Awards for Achievement luncheon and award ceremony will be held on held on Friday 14th June 2019 at the London Hilton on Park Lane. These prestigious annual awards highlight the inspirational work taking place every day in pursuit of diversity and excellence in the banking and finance sector.

WIBF are delighted that the 2019 Awards Luncheon will sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group. Lloyds Banking Group have been a hugely supportive and engaged member of WIBF for many years, and shares WIBF’s belief that the Awards are a flagship event and opportunity to recognise the talent and achievements of women (and their male champions) in the sector.

This year sees the introduction of a new award - Tech Star Award. 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.

The Ballroom, Hilton Park Lane, 22 Park Lane, London W1K 1BE
Friday 14th June 2019 11:45am to 4:00pm Add to my calendar
Member : £300   Guest : £360  

Book Tickets and tables

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.

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 Refinitiv

Sponsored by

Headline Sponsor

Lloyds Banking Group

Award for Achievement Award Sponsor

Citi
We couldn’t be our clients’ top financial provider without the talent of our female employees to help us all raise our game. By demonstrating diversity of thinking and ideas, the WIBF women play a powerful role in our global businesses and communities, which is why we couldn’t be more delighted to sponsor the Award for Achievement award.

Young Professional Award Sponsor

Barclays
"Barclays are delighted to sponsor the 2019 Young Professional Award, with just over 45% of our colleagues under the age of 35 it is important for us to nurture, grow and of course recognise the contribution of this talented part of our workforce.”

Wendy Papworth, Director, Global Diversity and Inclusion, Barclays

Champion for Women Award Sponsor

Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse is delighted to sponsor the 2019 Champion for Women Award. This category celebrates the individuals who – through consistent personal endeavour – inspire, champion and promote their female colleagues to ensure their fullest potential is reached. Good luck to the 2019 nominees!

Team Diversity Award Sponsor

CityAM

Tech Star Award Sponsor

Refinitiv

Shortlist Dinner Sponsor

Macquarie
“Macquarie is delighted to be sponsoring this year’s shortlist dinner. Diversity of thought and equal participation in the Financial Services sector is critical to the communities we work in. And it matters to us too, as together, we will achieve much more. Good luck to all of this year’s nominees.”

David Fass, CEO EMEA, Macquarie Group


2019 Alumni Network

Santander
"Santander is delighted to sponsor the 2019 WIBF Alumni network. At Santander we believe that building strong networks creates collaboration as well as diversity of thought, offering new perspectives which is good for business and the communities we serve. We look forward to hosting the Alumni at future events."


The Shortlist

The Tech Star Award

Young Professional Award

Team Diversity Award

Champion for Women

Award for Achievement

Keynote Speaker

Mark Carney

Governor of the Bank of England

Mark Carney is the Governor of the Bank of England and Chair of the Monetary Policy Committee, Financial Policy Committee and the Prudential Regulation Committee. His appointment as Governor was approved by Her Majesty the Queen on 26 November 2012. The Governor joined the Bank on 1 July 2013.

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

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.

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 Omaset is a Managing Director, Global CAO for Citi Research with 20 years of experience in Financial Services.

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 Sheth has worked for Virgin Money since 2014 and is currently Head of Policy and Regulatory Affairs. Jay was also heavily involved in Virgin Money’s work on the HMT Women in Finance (WIF) Review and 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.

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 Baker is Head of Enterprise and Community Finance at NatWest, with 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 program she leads at NatWest supporting female entrepreneurs.

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 the Chairman of the Institute of Directors, London Region; 6000+ business leaders. He is the Managing Director of Fortis Consulting London which helps organisations & individuals meet their objectives via knowledge input, skills development & ‘business-matching’.

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

Esra Turk is a Managing Director and Head of Emerging Markets Origination for Markets at Barclays, based in London. 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 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.

Make a donation

Become a member

“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