Financial News: The City woman with a ‘gender agenda’

Gender parity in three years is not in her sights, but the new head of an industry association for women is making plans for the City to get there

“Vivienne Artz, the incoming president of non-profit group Women in Banking and Finance, almost didn’t apply for the job.

Artz, a managing director and general counsel for intellectual property, technology and privacy legal for Emea and Apac at Citi, blames an age-old problem common to professional women – and one that, as an organisation, WIBF is trying to change.

“I saw the job advert, thought about it, then said ‘No, it will be someone really fabulous who gets it,’” she told FN. It was only after being challenged by someone she had met through the WIBF network that she changed her mind about applying.

Artz had received the WIBF Champion for Women Award in 2016 and, after a nudge, realised that taking a leading role at the industry organisation would enable her to champion the cause even more.

The three-year post, which she will start in April and will do alongside her existing job, will see her help set the agenda for the not-for-profit group, which runs around a hundred networking, mentoring and skill development events around the UK each year and is supported by financial institutions including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Credit Suisse.

Artz’s personal experience of trying to climb the career ladder gives her a passion to help other women.

In 2000, she quit private practice law as she could not see how to break into partner level in the firms at which she had worked. Partners were predominantly male and there were very few female role models. So she looked elsewhere and joined Citi.

“We have to look at what puts women off getting to the top,” she said. “A lot of that is how organisations are structured and how that needs to change to reflect the broader workforce.”

Since joining Citi she has observed the market cycles and onslaught of regulation and technology and noticed how women have begun to replace men in a variety of roles.

When Artz began her focus on the technology around privacy and data for the bank, much of the trading was done face-to-face by men wearing blazers. Now is it predominantly automated. And if these men have moved out of the trading pit, many have also been replaced by women in these institutions. Organisations like WIBF, but also internal workplace networks, have been instrumental in making that happen, according to Artz.

“I joined the women’s network at Citi many years ago,” she said. “But initially, I resisted. ‘Why should I?’ I thought. But I found it to be the most inspiring and powerful thing I have ever done, both internally and externally.”
Finding such benefit from the Citi network encouraged her to join WIBF, which opened up a much wider spectrum of women from different companies, backgrounds and seniority levels.

Now she aims to help other women to network, but also to help educate policymakers and men.
“We have men on the WIBF board and as corporate members – and they are some of our best advocates,” said Artz. “We are not just a women’s group. We need to go on this journey together.”
She said that, as an industry, more needs to be done on recruitment, retention and creating a pipeline of women – and leadership skills are key in that.

“By the end of my term as president I want to have made a difference to the lives of our members and promoted the gender agenda,” said Artz. “I’m not saying that we will have achieved parity, that’s still a long way off, but we will have done a huge amount to raise awareness and help implement what is going on at policy level.”

By

Elizabeth Pfeuti March 3, 2017 Updated: 12:34 p.m. GMT

Poppy Berry / company photograph”