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commissioned by
theTreasury and
Harriett Baldwin,
the Economic
Secretary to the
Treasury, has
accepted its
recommendations
‘in full’. Baldwin’s
support reflects a
broader governmental interest. Prime
Minister David Cameron (who has
appointed 10 women to his 30-strong
cabinet) told the Conservative party
conference in Birmingham last year:
‘You can’t have true opportunity
without real equality.’
There is still some way to go to
achieve equality, however. Looking
at all companies – not just those in
finance – the stats show that just more
than a quarter (26%)
2
of board members
of FTSE-100 companies are female.
ANALYSIS
You need amixture
of talents, skills and
personalities at the
board table
H
ave we reached a
tipping point regarding
the representation of
women on boards in
the financial services
sector?The report
Empowering Productivity:
harnessing the talents of women in financial
services
found that women accounted for
just 23% of places on boards in the sector
and only 14% of executive board posts
1
.
But the report’s author, Jayne-Anne
Gadhia, Chief Executive of Virgin Money,
is making her report the starting point
of a process of change, not the end
point of her work.
Her recommendation – that financial
services firms link bonus payments to
the success of senior managers in
improving gender balance – gives the
sector a clear example of what the
government expects of them.
There is substantial political backing
for the project.The report was
Women
are
taking
the lead role in
some businesses,
however. Caroline
McCall, Chief
Executive of airline
easyJet, andAlison
Brittain, her
counterpart at
hospitality and
leisure giantWhitbread, are among the
women in senior executive positions at
high-profile companies.
St. James’s Place itself has a female
Chair, Sarah Bates, and a female Non-
Executive Director, Baroness Patience
Wheatcroft. Noël Harwerth, Chair of
GE Capital and a Non-Executive Director
at Standard Life, mentors other women
and believes that they will one day make
up 50% of boards.‘It relates to the
talented women that are in the pipeline,’
she says. She believes that these younger
breaking
the mould
Women are making inroads onto the
boards of Britain’s top companies
By Neasa MacErlean
BARONESS PATIENCE WHEATCROFT
18
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THE INVESTOR
Eyevine, NYT, Redux,Andrew Testa