WIBF Review of the Year

From a new branch in Birmingham, the 20th anniversary of WIBF`s Awards for Achievement, the launch of the Awards Alumni Network and many many events we have had an amazing year. Just a few of the highlights here…

“January

President Janet Thomas attended the Women in Finance Summit in London on 24th January. Chaired by Helena Morrisey and with keynotes from Jayne- Anne Gadhia, CEO Virgin Money, Amanda Pullinger, CEO, 100 Women in Finance, Elin Hurvenes, Founder & Chair, Professional Boards Forum AS amongst others it was a very special event.

More than 250 executives from the financial services industry, in the UK and beyond, joined us at Bloomberg European Headquarters to hear the report on the progress made by the 2016 Women in Finance Charter, established after Jayne-Anne Gadhia’s review of women working in financial services.

The conference reviewed the practical aspects of implementing HM Treasury’s Charter, as well as promoting effective corporate strategies for creating gender diversity at all levels of leadership.

Edinburgh branch launched it’s 2017 mentoring scheme with senior bank and finance professionals offering their support and advice to members.

The 20th Anniversary Awards for Achievement nominations were opened in January.

February

President Janet Thomas attended the Edinburgh Student Finance Conference. Janet reported; “It served as a reminder of how important it is for senior women in our industry to get out there and tell young women that not only are there opportunities for them in the industry and that they should learn from our mistakes and triumphs, but that they must be a force for diversity and ethical good. And, of course, they must absolutely take time to create their network.”

Vivienne Artz, 2016’s winner of our Champion for Women Award was announced as WIBF’s new president on 8th February.

She said “I am proud to take on the role of WIBF President in 2017, it is a special year for WIBF, celebrating twenty years of the WIBF Awards for Achievement. I want to use the celebration as an opportunity to inspire and encourage women in the sector to exploit their most powerful ally – their network. I know that women in our sector need this network.”

The Glasgow Branch launched their Mentoring Programme in early February.

Sally McFall, WIBF Head of Membership Relations, interviewed Jayne-Anne Gadhia, who produced the report for the Government recommending the Women in Finance Charter. Jayne-Anne gave a fascinating insight into her career journey, illustrating the importance of the Women in Finance Charter for the industry. When asked about her own career success she was clear about seizing opportunity, “Don’t lock yourself into a career path too early – don’t define yourself as an actuary or accountant as you may be missing out on something new.”

Her key message from the session was do not be afraid to stand up for what is right and have the confidence to do so.

March

Financial News interviewed incoming President Vivienne Artz. She talked about how she nearly didn’t apply for the position of WIBF president and her own experiences of climbing the career ladder. Full interview here

The 20th anniversary Women in Banking and Finance Awards for Achievement launched on March 9th, with the organisation’s President Janet Thomas calling on the industry to “pay it forward” and nominate colleagues.”

Noel Harwerth, 2017 Awards Judge and WIBF Patron, said: “I know many outstanding women in the banking and finance sector. I also know that many progress determinedly with their careers while being generous with the support they give to other women in the industry.”

April

Outgoing President Janet Thomas officially handed over the presidency of WIBF to Vivienne Artz at the 2017 WIBF Annual General Meeting on Monday 24th April.

Janet said; “These past three years have been very full but very rewarding. I took on the role of president with a remit, with a promise to our members that I would grow the network both in size and in influence. I step down satisfied that I have done this, leaving more corporate members and close to double the number of individual members. I also leave satisfied that my successor, Vivienne Artz, is the leader WIBF needs at this time. Her intellectual rigour will ensure that WIBF thought-leadership will be invaluable for the industry. I leave knowing that the values of the network – of reaching out to colleagues, of advising, of sharing – are Vivienne’s values, too.”

Also in April, we were delighted to hear that WIBF’s Head of Operations Sharon Forder had been included on Brummell Magazine’s Ones To Watch list for 2017 which celebrates the performance and achievement of 30 bright young talent in London’s financial services sector and allied fields.

May

May saw the launch of WIBF’s newest branch in Birmingham, the latest development in our network’s ambition to be accessible to as many women in the industry as possible across the UK.

The shortlist for the 2017 WIBF Awards for Achievement were announced. The standard was as high as ever and the judges had a tricky time ahead agreeing on the winner.

The very first WIBF Millennial Women event was held on 5th May in London; ‘The Rise of Women in FinTech: An Insight into Changing Landscape and Its Opportunities’. The keynote and panel discussion was about the ever-changing landscape of FinTech and meet the Women leading innovation in their fields.

June

The winners of the 2017 20th Anniversary Awards for Achievement were announced on 9th June at a highly successful luncheon at the Park Lane Hilton, attended by almost 400 people. The winners were:

Champion for Women: Tracy Jordan, Credit Suisse
Award for Achievement: Arlene Isaacs-Low, Moody’s
Young Professional of the Year: Francesca Lynch, Royal Bank of Canada
Team Diversity: Finance Diversity Team, Sky

To mark the 20th Anniversary of the Awards, president Vivienne Artz announced the launch of the WIBF Awards Alumni Network. She said; “I know that this network of the most inspired and inspiring talent in our industry working together, cross-sector, in the pursuit of diversity, will be the best kind of anniversary tribute.”

June also saw the first of the WIBF Networks Social Drinks event at Silk & Grain in London and the Bristol Summer Party at Racks in Clifton.

July

The very first Birmingham event was held at RBS. This is a taster session, facilitated by Jo Simpson showed how the Birmingham branch would support and develop individuals looking to achieve their full career potential.

WIBF announced that we would once again be partnering with the FT Women at the Top summit on Wednesday 27 September at the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane Hotel.

WIBF and ING hosted five distinguished women to talk about the journey to the boardroom. Denise Wilson OBE, Karina Robinson, Siobhan Walker, Geraldine Kelly and Leslie Ferrar CVO spoke on a range of topics including improving the representation of women in leadership positions, the skill set required for non-executive director (NED) positions, how to manage a portfolio career and balancing a NED role with a demanding Executive position.

August

WIBF Edinburgh welcomed Alison McGregor, CEO Scotland, HSBC as our high profile speaker in August. The event was also an opportunity for our Scottish members to meet our WIBF Chair, Vivienne Artz.

Alison gave an insight into how she progressed through her career, from bank teller to becoming a senior leader responsible for the HSBC Group in Scotland with a focus on people, customers and shareholders – with Alison providing many interesting anecdotes and tangible tips along the way.

September

The WIBF Executive Board, Advisory Board and Operations team got together in September to look at how we are delivering WIBF for members. We confirmed the importance of the WIBF Awards for Achievement in our calendar as a showcase of that year’s best work for women and diversity as well as recognition and celebration of those achievements.

The first WIBF Awards Alumni Network event was held on the 20th September at a fun and incredibly inspiring evening at The Ned in London. We welcomed over 60 attendees including, Carolanne Minashi, a WIBF Award winner from the first awards event and Anne Watts, one of the co-founders of WIBF, through to award winners from 2017. Noel Harwerth, WIBF Patron, set the tone for the evening – and for the network – with her insights into her impressive career including her current role as Chair of the UK Export Finance (UKEF) Board.

October

WIBF attended The Herald and GenAnalytics National Diversity Awards Dinner. Held in Glasgow on October 12th 2017, WIBF’s Glasgow and Edinburgh branches hosted a table with guests from Morgan Stanley, Scott Moncrieff and Clydesdale Bank for a great evening celebrating diversity across companies, organisations, individuals, third sector organisations and community groups.

WIBF and KPMG were delighted to host a panel discussion in London on the impact of educating girls in Africa, the importance of building entrepreneurship skills and access to micro-finance, and the role we can play in addressing these social issues.

Claer Barrett, Personal Finance Editor at the Financial Times and editor of @ftmoney, chaired discussion and speakers Dr Rachel Linn and Olivia Hills from PEAS (a charity and rapidly growing, multi-award winning secondary school network) and Minaho Shiraishi, Partner at KPMG, shared their thoughts on the importance and impact of educating girls in developing countries.

WIBF’s Head of Operations Sharon Forder received a commendation at Scotland Women in Technology Awards for Gender Diversity Champion.

November

November saw 300 people, mainly women, and mainly young women at that, gathered in one venue made for an engaging, fascinating, illuminating day at the 17% Banking on Diversity in Tech event. Collaboration by Lloyds Banking Group, Digital Leaders and Women in Banking and Finance made the conference possible. Our largest event of the year, we were thrilled with how inspiring, motivating and positive the event was.

Nominations opened for the 2015 WIBF Achievement Awards. 2018 sees the introduction of a new award, ‘The WIBF Rising Star Award,’ celebrating those women who have been in the finance industry for five years or less, but have absolutely left their mark on their organisation and on their colleagues.

In response to feedback from our corporate members for timely discussions on the industry’s hot topics, we held a roundtable for corporate members on the Gender Pay Gap report, chaired by Marian Bloodworth, Employment Law partner at Kemp Little LLP and member of the WIBF Advisory Board with Petra Wilton, Director of Strategy and External Affairs, Chartered Management Institute, and Doug Brown, Chief Data Scientist, Employee Benefits, Capita. Generously hosted by RBC, it was an extremely effective session.

London and Glasgow branches kicked off Christmas early with well attended and successful Christmas parties held at the end of November.

December

In the latest episode of DiverCity Podcast, host Julia Streets is joined by our President of Women in Banking and Finance, Vivienne Artz, and Dr Miranda Brawn, Director of Legal and Transaction Services at Daiwa Capital Markets and Founder and CEO of the Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation, each with over 20 years’ experience spanning law, banking, investment and financial services.

Topics discussed on the episode include: the road to gender parity, attracting more BAME professionals to senior positions, finding and creating opportunities for the talent of the future, driving action and accountability with initiatives like the Women in Finance Charter, and why we need diversity champions at every level.

Vivienne also attended a celebration in honour of the 100th anniversary of Women being able to enrol in the British Armed Forces. She said; “The content and company drawn from a very broad range of sectors made for fruitful exchanges of ideas and experiences, and all too soon the day was over, leaving us with a sense that we had only just begun to scratch the surface of so many important topics.”

We hope this brought back some memories for you- What are your stand out moments of 2017?

Happy New Year and here is to a peaceful, prosperous 2018 from all of us at WIBF.

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