2020 is an incredibly special year for Women in Banking and Finance (WIBF); it marks forty years of our network, forty years of women supporting women, forty years of working together to improve gender practice in our sector.

Each individual success, every group attainment, has been part of those forty years and WIBF wants to celebrate every woman, every year, every achievement during 2020. We want the sector to recognise the changes that have been made and the developments that have occurred thanks to the women of WIBF and the men who have made our cause their cause, for the benefit of the industry and the men and women yet to join us.

WIBF’s programme teams will celebrate the 40th anniversary with a myriad of events throughout the year, but our stand-out celebration will be the 2020 Women in Banking and Finance Awards for Achievement, to be held on Friday 12th June at the beautiful London Guildhall. This celebration of the accomplishments of women working in the sector today, the triumphs of teams working for diversity and the inspirational champions of women will be for every woman that has walked that stage before or has paused in her career over the past forty years to put her hand out to the woman following her.

WIBF is delighted to announce that Citi will be the headline sponsor of the 2020 WIBF Awards for Achievement. Longstanding WIBF member, Citi, shares WIBF’s passion for inspirational mentors and effective gender practice throughout the sector and we know that in partnership with Citi, the 2020 WIBF Awards for Achievement will be an absolutely exceptional occasion.

Nominations closed on Friday 28th February 2020 with the shortlist to be announced in early April.

Every nomination is a declaration of pride in colleagues, of the work of individuals, of an organisation’s attitude to gender practice. WIBF and the financial services industry wants to know about the brilliant, dedicated people you work with and we all want to learn how to replicate their successes in our workplace.

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 HSBC

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 Cynergy Bank

Future Leader Award

Celebrates a woman aged 35 or younger (on 28th February 2020) 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 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 Goldman Sachs

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

The President’s Award

WIBF's objective is to accelerate culture change in financial services through research, community and action with measurable impact. We aim to empower a broad community of diversity champions (male and female) with connections, education and inspiration. We are able to do this with the incredible support and dedication from working closely with our Institutional Members, Individual Member and partners. Together our collective efforts are having a positive impact on inclusion within Financial Services. For our 40th Anniversary, we are introducing a unique one-time award, the President's Award, to recognise and celebrate either an organisation, individual or team that embodies the true essence of WiBF's objective. The award will be in special recognition for the outstanding work, contribution and partnership of that member of a sustained period. The award recognises the support and action of the member in advancing the gender agenda for the financial services sector. The WIBF awards are few in number and highly sought after, representing the top talent and achievers in the sector. The WIBF award winners have an outstanding record of paying it forward, and going on to make ever more significant contributions to achieving gender balance across our sector. The positive impact of recognising and celebrating achievements, both for the recipient and the community, is well understood, and WIBF looks forward to recognising an outstanding member for what they have achieved and contributed to ensuring a equality of opportunity for women in the financial services sector.

Sponsored by

Headline Sponsor

Citi
To be a high-performing organisation, we need a team that is representative of the places where we operate and the clients we serve. Citi has a strong record of action on important issues related to diversity, inclusion and equality and supporting the work of WIBF is essential to ensure female representation continues to grow and is appropriately recognised.

Award for Achievement

HSBC
HSBC is thrilled to be a part of the WIBF 40th Celebrations and we are honoured to be sponsoring the Award for Achievement this year. It is so important to recognise the game-changers and champions within our organisations and consequently encourage those around them to realise their own individual potential.

Champion for Women Award

Cynergy Bank
We are delighted to be sponsoring the 2020 Champion for Women Award and to be a part of the celebrations for the WIBF’s 40th Anniversary.

This award celebrates the commitment and dedication of individuals who enable and inspire women to reach their full potential, and in turn promote the agenda for diversity and inclusion across the Banking and Finance industry.

Future Leader Award

Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse is delighted to sponsor the 2020 Future Leader Award. This category celebrates young talents who not only excel in their day job but are also inspirational role models for others. Good luck to the 2020 nominees.

Tech Star Award

Refinitiv
“Refinitiv is extremely proud to be sponsoring the Tech Star Award. As a global data driven business, we know that one piece of data must change: the number of women in leadership in business, technology and finance. It’s why we have set our own ambitious targets for women in our top leadership, appointed our first female CTO, and it’s why we have been a long-term supporter of WIBF and will work with you to inspire our sector to hire, promote and develop women."

David Craig, Chief Executive Officer, Refinitiv

Team Diversity Award

Goldman Sachs
Our commitment to creating and sustaining a diverse work environment is absolute. Ours is a culture of teamwork. For our groups to excel, all members must feel that they are operating in an inclusive environment that welcomes and supports differences, and encourages input from all perspectives. Our people have the right to expect a work environment in which the richness of their lives and experience is welcomed and valued by their team and by the firm.
We are pleased to sponsor this award, as it celebrates team success in promoting gender diversity in the workplace.

Shortlist Dinner Sponsor

Refinitiv
Businesses focused on success know that ensuring a gender balanced approach to recruitment, retention and promotion is essential to building strong performance and a positive culture of inclusion and diversity within an organization. At Refinitiv, we are proud to sponsor the short-list event for the top talent from across the financial services sector who have been short-listed for the 2020 Awards for Achievement. Congratulations to those short-listed – a terrific achievement!

2020 Awards Alumni Network Sponsor

Citi

Awards Media Partner

City AM

The Judges

Ann Cairns

Executive Vice Chairman of Mastercard

In her role as Executive Vice Chairman Ann represents Mastercard around the world, focusing on inclusion, diversity and innovation. She plays the important role of senior ambassador and executive leader and sits as part of the company’s global management committee. Prior to her current appointment, Ann was President of International Markets responsible for the management of all Mastercard customer-related activities in over 200 countries.

Ann brings more than 20 years’ experience working in senior management positions across Europe and the U.S. Prior to joining Mastercard in 2011, Ann was head of the Financial Services Group with Alvarez & Marsal, CEO of Transaction Banking at ABNAMRO and held senior positions at Citigroup.

Ann is currently chair of ICE Clear Europe, owned by the Fortune 500 company Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). She is also global co-chair of the 30% Club, the chair of the Financial Alliance for Women and serves as a member of the UK government’s AI Council and the IBDE advisory board.

She has a Pure Mathematics degree and honorary doctorate from Sheffield University and a M.Sc. with research into medical statistics and honorary doctorate from Newcastle University.

Charlotte Crosswell

CEO, Innovate Finance

Charlotte Crosswell is the CEO of Innovate Finance, the industry body
representing the UK FinTech sector. Prior to joining Innovate Finance, she spent most of her financial services
career in market infrastructure roles. Prior to joining Innovate Finance, Charlotte
was Founder and CEO at two Nasdaq owned London start up exchanges in
equities and fixed income, and sat on the board of LCH Ltd. She has held a
number of management positions at Nasdaq and London Stock Exchange across
international capital markets, equities, fixed income, OTC derivatives trading and
clearing.

In addition to her work with Innovate Finance, Charlotte advises and sits on the
boards of Government FinTech advisory groups, technology companies and
FinTech startups. and has been working with technology companies throughout
her career. Charlotte holds a BA (Hons.) in French from the Southampton
University. She has been included in the list of top 100 Women in Finance over
many years.

Sue Dawe

Managing Partner and Head of Financial Services in Scotland for EY

Sue leads EY’s Financial Services Practice in Scotland and is the Managing Partner for the Edinburgh office. She has 30 years of experience within the financial services sector. She joined EY in 1988, became a partner in 2009, and was appointed Head of Financial Services Scotland in 2016. She is a member of EY’s UKFS Leadership team and a member of the EY UK LLP Board. Sue is on the Financial Services Advisory Board (FiSAB) and on the Board of Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE).

Sue is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and has a degree in Accountancy and Finance from Heriot Watt University.

Philip Grant

Chair of the Scottish Executive Committee of Lloyds Banking Group

Philip is Chair of the Scottish Executive Committee of Lloyds Banking Group and responsible for the Group across Scotland. This is in addition to his role as Chief Operating Officer, Insurance & Wealth Division of LBG which includes Scottish Widows.

Philip is Chair of the Scottish Financial Enterprise and Co-Chair of the First Minister’s Advisory Board on Financial Services, Council Member of CBI Scotland, Chair of the Board of the Bank of Scotland Foundation and a Past President of the Chartered Bankers Institute.

Philip was educated in the West of Scotland, prior to joining Bank of Scotland. Having spent nine years in a range of retail banking roles, he completed a full time MBA at the University of Strathclyde, sponsored by the Bank.

His career then progressed through various leadership roles in Corporate and Retail Banking.

Stephen Jones

CEO of UK Finance

Stephen Jones is the first CEO of UK Finance, the trade association for the finance and banking industry based in the UK created in 2017 by the merger of 6 legacy associations. UK Finance provides a single voice and resource for more than 250 member organisations across banking, capital markets, payments, cards and mortgages. He also sits on the Boards of TheCityUK, the International Banking Federation and the European Banking Federation.

Stephen is a UK-qualified lawyer who has spent most of his career in wholesale and retail banking over 30 years at Schroders, Citigroup, Barclays, where he was Head of Investor Relations between 2009 and 2011, and Santander UK, where he served as Board member and Chief Financial Officer between 2012 and 2015.

He served as a Senior Adviser at Cerberus between before joining UK Finance in 2017.

Dame Cilla Snowball

Governor of the Wellcome Trust, Chair of the GREAT Private Sector Council and a Non-Executive Director of Derwent London plc

Dame Cilla Snowball is a Governor of the Wellcome Trust, Chair of the GREAT Private Sector Council and a Non-Executive Director of Derwent London plc.

She is the former Chair of the Women’s Business Council.

She led the UK’s biggest advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers until December 2018, where she had worked for 26 years.

She was awarded a damehood in June 2017 for services to advertising, diversity and equality.