And that’s a wrap!- What WIBF achieved in 2024 – Part four

October

2 October saw us gather at Wells Fargo to honour the remarkable women and inclusive leaders shortlisted for the 2024 WIBF Awards for Achievement. The evening was a celebration of inspiration and excellence, highlighting the incredible talent driving innovation and progress in our industry.

WIBF proudly supported the UK Black Business Show, which showcased the achievements of Black entrepreneurs and business leaders. 

9 October saw the re-launch of our Belfast/ Northern Ireland branch with a networking event on making yourself visible at work. The amazing energy in the room was due to many, including our co-chairs Cathy Hawthorne and Siobhan Moran. Watch this highlights video from Camilla Long, one of the speakers. 

16 October saw an in-person thought leadership event, kindly hosted by TLT LLP in London on breaking down barriers for women in AI and tech.

The following day saw our Senior Business Leaders Network gather to discuss the transformative role of AI in financial services. Hosted by Cynergy Bank, we covered a broad spectrum of topics, from more efficient client relationship management to robo-advice and algorithmic trading. 

Ahead of International Men’s Day (on 19 November), we invited a panel of senior financial services role models to explore the importance of all genders engaging with the gender agenda, the role of allyship in gender, and ways all colleagues can take action for International Men’s Day 2024. The 23 October event was supported by The Scottish National Investment Bank and marked a new category for the Personal Excellence Programme events series. 

November

WIBF made an exciting stride in its talent retention programme by partnering with PushFar, a leading mentoring and networking platform. All current mentors and mentees have been transitioned to the new platform, enhancing access to career guidance and support.

On 14 November, we celebrated the 2024 WIBF Awards for Achievement with in-person ceremonies across London, Edinburgh and Birmingham (the latter for the first time). By uniting these key financial hubs and 600 attendees via a live-streamed presentation, the event showcased the diversity and dynamism of the industry while underscoring our commitment to promoting inclusivity beyond London. And thanks to our members’ generosity, WIBF has raised an amazing £5,258 through a silent auction, donations and raffles at our awards celebrations in London, Birmingham and Edinburgh for our charity partner, NSPCC.

November saw our first Sponsor Member Roundtable, which was kindly hosted by Legal & General and discussed the challenges of talent retention initiatives. The purpose of the event was to create a community among our nine sponsor members in order to share best practices, to network and connect people across other large organisations.

On 20 November, we officially launched the WIBF Female Financial Advisor Network at abrdn’s London office. Spearheaded by Emma-Jane Apps, the network aims to connect and empower all female financial advisors across all advice providers, whether from small companies to large corporates or independent practices. Advisors are encouraged to join the exclusive LinkedIn group to network and exchange ideas.

20 November also marked Equal Pay Day – a day that the Fawcett Society has calculated is the point from when, on average, women effectively work for free for the rest of the year due to the disparity between their wages and those of men. Karen Bennett wrote for us about her great grandmother, Edith Alice Forrest, who was a suffragette.

On 21 November, Social Enterprise Day, WIBF reflected on the strides we’ve made since becoming a social enterprise in 2021. With a 120% growth in corporate membership, we are proud to be among the 63% of UK social enterprises led by women, driving faster growth than traditional SMEs.

On 27 November, over 60 attendees gathered at Lloyds Banking Group’s London Wall offices for a WIBF Thought Leadership event on Leadership & Sustainability: Navigating the Future Together. Two outstanding panels featuring eight experts in the sustainability space explored the critical role of leadership in navigating the headwinds and risks facing the financial industry beyond climate change.

December

This month saw the exciting launch of the WIBF ConneXion Hub, a new initiative designed to strengthen our mission to support women in developing their careers and to address diversity and inclusion challenges in the UK financial services industry.

WIBF was delighted to once again support the FT Global Banking Summit. This premier event, which featured industry leaders, including CEOs from WIBF’s members in Deutsche Bank and Lloyds Banking Group, among others. 

A finalist in the Social Enterprise Building Diversity, Inclusion, Equity & Justice category of the prestigious Social Enterprise UK Awards 2024, we attended the awards which recognised WIBF’s excellence and innovation in driving positive social and environmental impact. A fantastic evening, we were sorry not to have won but were delighted to be listed alongside many inspirational companies, initiatives and people.

Our Impact

While some of the numbers for 2024 are still being totted up, it’s worth highlighting some of the numbers behind our successes, which include:

• • 2,500+ individual members and 140+ volunteers driving change

• 73 corporate, 9 sponsor, 21 SME and 7 association partners

• 116 events, including leadership training, personal development and mentoring
• 159 award entries across 11 categories, 15 individuals and organisations recognised
• 24.6m social media impressions supported by our 50,000 followers
• 20,000 job opportunities posted on our Jobs Board.

And before we finished, we wanted to flag that WIBF is seeking sponsorship to support delegates for the One Young World Summit 2025 in Munich. This initiative will empower young leaders from WIBF’s Future Leader Shadow Board to attend the event and ensure we (continue to) have a global impact.