2022 Shortlist: Award for Achievement

Further to our announcement on 12th August, we are delighted to share more details of each of the shortlisted nominees, with a reminder of the category overview.

Charlotte Weir, Wells Fargo

Charlotte joined Wells Fargo in 2021 to run Corporate Banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Joining following a 22-year career at Barclays, where she had been running corporate debt capital markets for EMEA, she is driving the creation of a larger and more impactful corporate and investment bank for Wells Fargo in the corporate space for the region.

Charlotte is a passionate and inclusive leader who believes in building strong, collaborative and diverse teams and is a champion of women in the organisation and supporting internal mobility. An active mentor to women across the industry, she is a regular speaker at high-profile events and has joined various International Women’s Day panels.

Debbie Walker, Tesco Bank

As the sponsor for the Women at Tesco network, Debbie has driven forward and delivered a number of initiatives at Tesco Bank and has gone above and beyond to make a difference in gender equality and to further diversity and inclusion. These initiatives have included: support for the challenges that colleagues as working parents faced during the pandemic, which saw a partnership developed with Vilo Sky; advocacy on wellbeing issues for females and the championing of Tesco Bank’s ‘Flushfest’, which included conversations on taboo female health issues, including menopause; and the sponsorship of the ‘Hey Girls’ partnership, which provides free period products across all Tesco Bank sites.

Elaine Kealy, TD Securities

Elaine Kealy is passionate about building high-performing teams aligned around a common vision and helping others succeed, with a focus on championing and supporting women in finance. Through her roles as Chief Risk Officer for TD Securities and Vice-Chair of the firm’s European Inclusion & Diversity Committee (EIDC), Elaine is an inspiring role model and business leader and has been a driving force of the firm’s inclusive culture in Europe. In her role as Chief Risk Officer, Elaine provides independent oversight and governance for risk identification and assessment, measurement, control, and monitoring and reporting for TD Securities. Elaine’s role as Vice-Chair of the EIDC is to champion and support its ambitious plans as it seeks to develop the region’s network of executive leaders and resource groups dedicated to diversity and inclusion, colleague experience, corporate citizenship, and ESG.

Elvira Keen, Santander

Elvira is enthusiastic about developing young talent in a diverse and inclusive work environment. She has headed up Santander’s internship and graduate programmes for the last three years, and has also serves as an active member of the company’s diversity and inclusion working group. She has implemented three company-wide mentoring programmes available to people from all levels of the organisation, which included the creation of a ‘Mentoring Circles’ scheme, allowing colleagues to exchange views and knowledge not only with their mentor on one-to-one basis, but also from their peers of similar seniority. Recently she took on a leadership role steering developing, sustaining and retaining their biggest asset – their people – and building in a diversity and inclusion focus.

Funmi Dele-Giwa, MFS Africa

Funmi is a seasoned governance champion and risk and compliance executive, who has had an immeasurable impact on MFS Africa. A passionate business leader who shapes and moulds organisations within which she operates, Funmi led a transformational programme in 2021, which resulted in the establishment of a UK holding company and the implementation of a best-in-class governance framework across the group. She oversaw the design and implementation of an enterprise risk & compliance framework and the function she leads. Funmi is a sought-after speaker on financial inclusion and digital financial services, and a champion for the fintech community’s role in shaping sustainable development across Africa. She has been recognised by TheBoardroom Africa, a pan-African consulting firm focused on promoting and celebrating African women in senior executive and board director positions, as a Woman to Watch and as an inspirational leader. In May 2022, Funmi was awarded the Distinguished Payments Thought Leader award by the EMEA Women in Payments Association.

Manda Vadher, Citi

Manda heads the Conduct Strategy globally and leads Conduct Risk for the EMEA region in Citi Markets business. Since joining Citi two and a half years ago, Manda has created a successful team from scratch for a highly material remediation project that – two years on – has over 120 staff who are recognised for their achievements. The rapid development has not come at the cost of an inclusive culture also created due to Manda’s ability to bring in individual and diverse points of views while making everyone feel heard and acknowledged. The set up of cross-business tailored volunteering days has helped renovate deprived parts of London and connected staff with different talent groups. Manda is also a governor for an underprivileged school, and is actively involved on the Financial Markets Standards Board (most recently, developing new ways of thinking around hybrid working models to strengthen employee belonging balanced with risk oversight).

Yael Selfin, KPMG

Yael is the Chief Economist at KPMG, a role in which she advises clients on the global economic outlook and its impact on their strategy. With 20 years in her role, Yael’s regular forecasts are very popular with clients, with she and her team in high demand. Her team took a central stage in guiding clients during the Covid-19 pandemic on the likely direction the government was going to take and the resulting economic impact. Yael is one of the firms’ leading spokespeople and is a regular commentator on economic issues in the media. Her high profile provides inspiration for young women to join the financial and professional services industry either as economists or business and finance professionals. She is a member of the Council of Management of SUERF and Co-Chair of the International Roundtable at NABE, where she has been actively promoting women contributors to their events. Yael has been working to increase the proportion of women, as well as people from disadvantaged background, in the economics profession and has acted as a mentor to women in the industry for many years.