August 2024 – Arlene Stokes

Arlene Stokes is Chief People Officer at Aegon UK and is one of our wonderful mentors in our mentoring programme. She was put forward by Karina Piestrzynska who she mentored this year.

Arlene currently serves as Chief People Officer for Aegon UK, having been appointed to the role in June 2022.

First joining the leadership team in June 2022 as Chief Human Resources Officer, Arlene is responsible for leading Aegon UK’s HR and Internal Comunications functions. Arlene plays a key role in helping to create a diverse and inclusive culture that supports everyone at Aegon UK to be their best and most whole self.

Prior to joining Aegon, Arlene worked at The Weir Group, where she was HR Transformation Director and then Global VP HR for the Minerals Division. She has also previously worked for Standard Life in a number of senior HR and Operations roles across their UK and Asia businesses, having originally made her start as a Graduate Trainee at ScottishPower.

Karina has worked in Finance for most of her career, steadily progressing through various finance roles at IG Group. She has worked in Financial Control, Budgeting & Forecasting, Change Management and is currently leading a team providing strategic cost analysis. She enjoys working with wide range of stakeholders from across the business and support them in business decision making.  Outside of work, on a sunny day Karina enjoys exploring London’s parks and on a rainy days spends time with friends and family or learning some new Spanish vocabulary.

We asked them both a few questions to find out more about their mentoring relationship

How did you first get involved with WIBF, and what drew you to the mentoring programme?

Arlene: At Aegon, we’re a member of WIBF so we always try to promote  WIBF initiatives and for me personally  I’ve benefited hugely over the years from mentoring so I was keen to get involved In the mentoring scheme and hopefully help someone else with their career and development planning.

Karina: The company I work for sponsored WIBF membership. I’ve joined mentoring program to broaden my perspectives and learn from experiences of other women in the industry.

What do you believe are the most important qualities of a good mentor?

Arlene: It sounds obvious but I’d say the most important quality is having a genuine interest in other people and their development.  Another important quality is to be open and honest and willing to share about your own development and career (the good and the bad!)

Can you tell us more about how the mentoring process worked, Karina?

Karina: Due to distance between Arlene and me we weren’t able to meet in person unfortunately, but we had a virtual session every 6 weeks or so. During each session we focussed on the areas I was struggling with and we would also agree on the things I would try to do/think about in the time between sessions. Then the following session we would start by recapping on the things I was meant to action.

What made Arlene such a great mentor and can you share any successes due to being mentored?

Karina: Arlene showed me the benefit of expanding my professional network. Arlene generously shared with me contacts from her network who were also willing to share their experiences with me to help me grow professionally. It’s the first time in my career that I came across initially complete strangers that were willing to dedicate their time to support my development. It has been very refreshing experience that gave me courage to advocate for my professional growth and not settle. In addition, Arlene has breath of experience so she was always able to show me different perspectives on the situations I’ve been facing and she encouraged me to view them in much brighter colours than I would have myself.

How do you approach building a successful mentor-mentee relationship?

Arlene: I recommend that when you first meet, spend some time getting to know each other – both as people and as professionals.  I think that helps to build trust which is pretty important if you’re to have meaningful conversations.  The other thing I’d say is make sure you discuss and agree up front what you (as the mentee) are looking to get from the mentoring and how you’re going to work together – especially in terms of cadence of meetings so you both know what to expect.

Can you share any success stories from your mentees that make you particularly proud?

Arlene: I don’t know who said it but I read a quote once that said a mentor is “a brain to pick, an ear to listen and a push in the right direction”.   I particularly like the last part of that quote and there are a few examples of where some encouragement from me was enough to give someone the confidence to do something or make a decision that seemed scary but ended up being transformational to their career.  I also think that one of the biggest benefits of mentoring is the networking it brings and there are several examples I can think of where connections formed to my network led to career opportunities for people I was mentoring.

What advice would you give to someone who is considering joining the WIBF mentoring programme?

Arlene: It’s good to mentor people from within your own profession or organisation but it’s also interesting to form mentoring relationships with people from outside of your own domain – be that a different line of work or a totally different sector as you’ll learn a lot.

Karina: Be open minded and use this opportunity to push yourself out of your comfort zone whilst you have a friendly person in your corner that is cheering for you to succeed.

Do you see yourself becoming a mentor in the future, Karina? 

Karina: Yes absolutely, I’ve already signed up to become a mentor!

What advice do you have for women looking to advance their careers in banking and finance?

Arlene: Always take risks when it comes to your development.  If a move or a change doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable then it’s probably not worth doing!

At WIBF we are committed to providing members with someone who can help them shape their career and achieve their goals.  People who choose to mentor provide invaluable experience, knowledge and help to unlock potential in future leaders.  It is a rewarding experience which can enrich your own career, develop your own leadership skills and give you new perspectives. 

If you too want to be a part of the journey to support women in the industry, please sign up to join the community of people already committed to creating a legacy and shaping the leaders of the future.