Anne Boden, CEO and Founder of Starling Bank
Today (8 March) the world marks International Women’s Day, an annual celebration of inspiring women that has (surprisingly) been going on for more than century.
More recently, the day has also marked a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.
While great progress has been made over the most recent decades for women’s rights across much of the Western World (and we use this geographical reference on purpose to acknowledge the recent shocking attacks on women’s rights in Afghanistan), there is still a way to go.
Scroll through LinkedIn and most of the top jobs are still held by men. But things are changing as more family-friendly working practises are being increasingly adopted by both corporate and commercial companies.
And more women are confident enough to go for the top job. Kath Shimmin is the female chair of national law firm Blake Morgan, which has its headquarters in Southampton.
Kath had founded and run the firm’s banking group for years. She had a lot of influence across the partnership because of the team she ran but when the opportunity to put herself forward for the role of chair at the firm in 2021, she initially held back. “Even though I was very engaged with the growing equality, diversity and inclusivity agenda, I hesitated. Then one of my colleagues asked why I wasn’t standing, and I realised that talking about female ambition wasn’t enough, I had to take my own advice.
“The other person up for the role was a superb guy and I would have been happy to have him as the chair, but I thought our colleagues deserved a choice, so I said to him if I stand and I don’t get it, you have my full support, but I felt it was important that the women in the firm saw that I was prepared to do it.”
From a business perspective, encouraging women in business is a no-brainer. The Rose Review, commissioned by the government in 2019 which shed light on the barriers faced by women starting and growing businesses, highlighted that if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as men, up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy –money that this country could certainly do with.
We can continue to drive change through example. Across this feature we highlight successful women from across the region who are blazing a trail – and not always in stilettos.
Dame Sharon White is the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, which includes Bracknell-based Waitrose.
When she took up the position in 2020 she was the first woman to lead the partnership in its near 100-year history.
The daughter of Jamaican immigrants, Dame Sharon grew up in East London and attended Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, from where she received a BA degree in economics. She later earned an MSc in economics from University College London.
From there she pursued a career in government, winning jobs at the Treasury – where she supervised a review of the Treasury's management response to the international financial crisis of 2007–08 – and then at the British Embassy in Washington. In 2014 she was appointed chief executive of Ofcom.
As chairman of John Lewis she heads a team of executive directors of which five of eight are women, and a board of which five of eight are female.
In 2022 she gave a talk on The Role of Business in Society at the Resolution Foundation, in which she argued that consumers and the wider public want businesses to be more active on social and environmental issues.
She also lamented that businesses trying to do good had been "caught up in the culture wars," being dubbed as ‘woke capitalism’ and ‘virtue signalling’ by some sections of the media.
But, she argued, "doing good and doing well can and do go hand in hand."
Debbie Crosbie is chief executive of Nationwide Building Society, which has its headquarters in Swindon.
She joined the UK's biggest mutual as CEO in June 2022, succeeding Joe Garner.
Debbie was born and raised in Glasgow, the daughter of an engineer father and a care worker mother. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Strathclyde. She started her career in the Prudential graduate training programme, working in the City of London.
Debbie was previously CEO at TSB where she led a successful turnaround by transforming customer experience, making the bank more competitive, improving its reputation and increasing colleague engagement and diversity, delivering the bank’s three-year growth strategy a year early.
Prior to TSB, Debbie had extensive experience of leading turnaround strategies and, while Acting CEO of Clydesdale Bank, led preparations for its successful demerger and subsequent IPO. Debbie has overseen the execution of several far-reaching transformation projects. Debbie is also Non-Executive Director at SSE plc.
She took up her post with a commitment to Nationwide's 2019 'branch promise' to keep bricks and mortar branches open. The building society's commitment not to leave any town or city currently served by Nationwide without a branch means that in many market towns it is the last banking presence.
Anne Boden MBE is a British tech entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Starling Bank – Britain's first digital bank
Born in Swansea, the daughter of a steelworker and a department store worker, Anne graduated from Swansea University in 1981 with a degree in Chemistry and Computer Sciences before embarking on a career in banking as a graduate trainee with Lloyds Banking Group.
She joined Allied Irish Banks in 2012 as chief operating officer to help turn round the bank's fortunes after the financial crisis of 2008.
She founded her online banking business in June 2014. Her objective was to create an entirely on-line bank that gave easier feedback to customers.
Anne has spoken frequently about gender equality in the finance industry, telling one publication: "When I started, people didn’t talk about the lack of women at all. It was how it was and we got on with it. The gender gap didn’t preoccupy me and I wasn’t sensitive to it. But only in recent years did I realise it was harder and I had to struggle more because I was a woman.
"I was never particularly paranoid but always managed to achieve when people said it was not possible. Only when you look back do you realise it was so difficult. And really the banking sector is a much better place for the women in it today."
Starling Bank, which runs a large part of its operation in Southampton, is a signatory of the Women in Finance Charter, which aims to achieve a gender-balanced financial services sector. In 2017, when the charter was signed, 27 per cent of senior roles were occupied by women. By 2022 it was 43 per cent. Forty-four per cent of the company's workforce, 42 per cent of the executive team, 40 per cent of the board, and 43 per cent of senior managers are women.
The entertainment industry has always been better at putting women into space than the scientific community – think Star Trek’s Lieutenant Uhura or Ripley from Alien.
Far less well known than her colleague Tim Peake, but arguably no less influential – a regular face and voice on radio and TV where she shares stories of human spaceflight – is Libby Jackson OBE, head of space exploration at the Swindon-headquartered UK Space Agency.
Libby, who lives in Swindon, modestly describes herself as “just a civil servant”. Educated in the UK, where she got A levels in physics, maths, further maths and music, she did her work experience at Houston Space Center.
She went on to complete a BSc in physics at Imperial College London in 2002 and an MSc in Astronautics and Space Engineering at Cranfield University in 2003 before landing a job as a graduate engineer at the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company.
She became director for the ISS European Space Agency Columbus Module in 2010 before joining the UK Space Agency in 2014, and becoming the spokesperson for Tim Peake's mission to the International Space Station.
In July 2019 she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Kent, and in the 2022 New Year Honours was awarded an Order of the British Empire for Services to the Space Sector.
She also – literally – wrote the book on women in space. A Galaxy of Her Own: Amazing Stories of Women in Space tells the stories of Mary Sherman Morgan, who invented Hydyne – the fuel that powered the Jupiter-C rocket into orbit in 1957, and Margaret Hamilton, who wrote the computer code for the Apollo space program, and coined the phrase ‘software engineering’.
Meanwhile, Helen Sharman – not Tim Peake – was the first astronaut to wear the Union Jack on her spacesuit, back in 1991 in a joint Soviet-British mission to the Mir space station.
These women, argues Libby, deserve to be remembered as much as Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.
Dr Ilana Wisby is the CEO of Reading-based Oxford Quantum Circuits, which operates the UK’s most advanced and only commercially available quantum computer.
She became the company’s first CEO in 2017, the year it spun out of University of Oxford by founder Dr Peter Leek, who had developed a quantum bit (qubit) with commercial potential.
Under her leadership the company moved into new offices at Thames Valley Business Park in Reading where it has built a commercial quantum laboratory, staffed by quantum physicists with PhDs, software engineers, electrical engineers, project managers, commercial and business minds.
“If I built a team of entirely academics, I wouldn’t be building a company but an academic research group,” she explained.
Ilana grew up in Hampshire and attended her local comprehensive school. She studied physics at Royal Holloway, University of London, and went on to complete a PhD in quantum physics at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington.
As she was completing her PhD, she began working with tech start-ups, and decided it wasn’t academia that floated her boat, but the chance to make a difference in the real world.
“I loved the start-ups’ fast pace and amazing can-do attitude. I found my passion for entrepreneurship as I developed programmes, managed teams of international remote workers and talked to customers,” she said.
She is a champion of diversity in science and technology. “It is a challenge being a woman in this world. Making sure I have a really robust support network has been very important for me personally – finding my tribe of women, my cheerleaders who help me understand the daily challenges,” she said.
“We are nowhere near where I want to be in terms of diversity within Oxford Quantum Circuits, but it is something we are focussed on in our recruitment. Making sure that I am visible, able to represent women to inspire and mentor other women and minorities in this space is really, really important to me.”
Construction is one of the most male-dominated – some might argue macho – industries in the world. Only 12 per cent of the sector workforce is female.
Enter geologist and environmental engineer Roni Savage, who founded Uxbridge-based Jonas Construction in 2009.
“Having a woman turn up in a white van on site isn’t something that people were used to when I started my career," she told Harper's Bazaar last year. "So, you’re dealing with stereotypes and the comments that come with that, but you develop a really thick skin so that you can just get on with it.”
Roni studied engineering geology at Portsmouth University and, while working, completed a distance learning master’s degree with distinction in environmental management.
She has worked on many major construction schemes, including the widening of the A406 and M25. When she started in business, Roni decided not to put her face to her name, fearing her sex and ethnicity would dissuade potential clients.
Since then Roni has won a string of accolades – and has become one of the most recognisable faces in the business world. In 2017, Jomas Associates was named by Goldman Sachs as a high-growth company. In 2018 she was named Black British Business Person of the Year. in 2019 she received the highly prestigious presidential invitation to Fellowship of the Institution of Civil Engineers. And last year she was voted the Most Influential Woman in Construction.
She is also an ambassador for the charitable organisation Start Her Enterprise (SHE), which aims to make a difference to women’s lives in some of the poorest parts of the world by supporting female entrepreneurs, equipping them with business skills and providing the start-up capital that will enable them to build an independent income.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Roni has become a champion of women in the industry. "I spend as much time as possible aiming to raise the profile of women in engineering and to encourage more girls to join the profession, so being a mentor to others is an important part of what I do daily," she said.
Tech entrepreneur Nicola Hartland was made chief revenue officer at Reading-based cyber security firm Falanx Cyber in November, having joined the company as senior vice president in March last year.
A serial entrepreneur, Nicola has founded, built and sold several businesses, including Basingstoke-based iCaaS, an IT Channel-based solution that simplified GDPR data compliance and protection for SME businesses.
Nicola has held a series of executive positions at technology firms across the UK, chief revenue officer and board director at emerging cybersecurity firm Cybercrowd.
When the pandemic hit, Nicola launched Just Sanitise Ltd, an alliance of businesses taking a WHO-approved sanitiser formula to public and private sector organisations.
Just Sanitised is distributed across a network of over 300 UK supermarkets and in seven other EU countries. With ethical values at the core of the business model, Just Sanitised established to help lead the fight against Covid. And through its charitable work the company donated a percentage of all profits to NHS Charities Together.
In 2019 Nicola was presented with the Role Model Award at the Women In Business Award and was a finalist in the Women of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year and Business Person of the Year too. The following year she was asked to mentor for the 2020 Santander Breakthrough Women Business Leaders programme.
"Guiding young aspiring women on their business journey was an incredibly rewarding experience and genuinely inspired me to push ever harder against my own career horizons," she said.
Nicola is also well known on the public speaking circuit.
Fran Collins is the CEO of Southampton-based Red Funnel, a position she took up in 2018.
She was previously executive director at Condor Ferries.
She is also a non-executive director of Saga Cruises. She was appointed to the board in 2021.
Fran has more than twenty years of experience in the shipping and travel industry. She started her career as a cadet in the Merchant Navy before joining Condor, where she climbed the career ladder – or maybe that should be rigging – over 16 years.
She trained to become both a Master Mariner and Chief Engineer, but found that life on the bridge suited her better.
She is passionate about changing the culture of the maritime sector and making the industry more attractive to young people.
Becky Harris joined MSP in 2015, having qualified from Loughborough University with a degree in banking and financial management and previously worked for Grant Thornton, where she qualified as a chartered accountant.
Since joining Poole-based MSP, Becky’s focus has been to grow and develop the financial and operational structure of MSP. This has included several structured finance transactions over the past six years including the prominent private equity transaction with Cabot Square Capital in 2018.
Now, as finance director and member of the board, Becky’s focus is to use her 13 years’ experience in the finance industry to guide the strategic growth and operational management of MSP.
Alongside this Becky is responsible for the structured finance of the group and building on MSP’s relationships with institutional investors.
Becky was a finalist in the hunt to find the top performing mid-market finance director of the Central South of England, 2020.
Caroline Rowland has taken up position as the first-ever chief people officer at Oxford-based biotech company Exscientia.
Caroline’s new role sees her leading the firm’s People and Places functions while developing its talent, training and employee experience strategies.
Caroline joined Exscientia from Arm, where she held multiple roles of increasing responsibility and led the firm’s talent, business partnering, shared services, global integration and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Her final title upon exiting was vice president of talent.
Prior to Arm, Caroline spent eight years leading executive performance strategy, global mobility and talent management at Diageo; and five years as a management consultant advising corporate clients with Human Capital, Deloitte, where she was seconded to Hyderabad, India as well as New York.
She currently serves as a board member for not-for-profit the Cambridge Network, which focuses on bridging the technology and education sectors of the city.
Caroline holds a BSc. in business studies and human resource management from the University of Salford.
The UK’s leading space laboratory, RAL Space, has appointed Dr Sarah Beardsley to advance its ambitious programme of space science and technology development.
Sarah was previously head of continuous improvement at RAL Space and head of the space engineering and technology division within RAL Space for eight years.
She was also an instrument scientist on RAL Space’s first mission to the moon and a project manager on various high-profile missions.
Sarah has been active in defining the UK and European strategies for solar system science, sitting on several national and international advisory panels for the community.
Sarah is passionate about early careers development and is a proactive supporter of both graduate and apprentice development, sitting on STFC governance boards for both.
RAL Space conducts and enables scientific research in disciplines such as climate science, solar physics and astronomy. With over 60 years’ experience in space programmes, RAL Space run some of the UK’s most advanced space and science facilities for UK industry and academia.
It employs more than 335 highly skilled staff in the heart of the Harwell Space Cluster and at the Chilbolton Observatory.
Ruth Cook is one of the founding directors of Swindon-based packaging company GWP Group, having worked for the company since its inception as Great Western Packaging in August 1990.
Originally financial director – a role she held until 2008 when she became managing director of the GWP Packaging division – Ruth has an intricate knowledge and understanding of everything happening at GWP.
This covers virtually every area of the business, from production, planning, design, sales, purchasing and all the way through to customer service and support. This diverse knowledge and expertise has been a key factor in GWP achieving significant growth over the last few years.
Now managing director of GWP Group, Ruth has also been on the board of directors of Corrboard – the corrugated material manufacturer with which GWP has a close, long-standing relationship.
Holly Frizzell is managing director of Oxfordshire-based Frizzell Wealth Management, the firm she established with her husband, Tom, in 2011.
Frizzell & Partners is a senior partner practice of St James’s Place, predominantly looking after clients in London, Oxfordshire and the Home Counties.
Holly started her career in banking as an executive graduate with HSBC in 2008. She left to pursue a career in retail banking with NatWest "as I soon realised my passion was managing and developing people."
She ran the flagship branch of Natwest in Reading town centre until 2011 before crossing the floor to Lloyds TSB, where she managed branches in Reading and Swindon.
In 2011 Holly was headhunted to launch new stores with the challenger bank Metrobank. She was store manager of Metrobank in Reading for a year before accepting a promotion to regional retail manager and eventually retail performance manager with Metrobank.
Frizzell Wealth Management aims to provide a highly professional and personal approach to financial planning, underpinned by its philosophy to build and maintain long-term relationships with clients based on the quality of our service, integrity, and trust.
Under Holly's management the firm has won Wealth Management Company of the Year – City of London Wealth Management Awards 2022, Best Advisory Service – Online Money Awards 2022, Global Good Company of the Year – The Global Good Awards 2022, Best Financial Adviser – Personal Finance Awards 22/23, and Best Customer Service – Shares Awards 2022.
Catherine Bond is owner/director of Reading-based Blue Peak, a company made up of Big Four tax and accounting professionals with a wealth of experience both in practice and industry in technical and commercial roles.
Catherine is a qualified tax professional and advises businesses from sole traders right through to large corporate companies on how to maximise tax efficiency, at the same time as remaining compliant.
Having qualified and spent 12 years at EY, which she left as a director in 2018, Catherine initially worked in expatriate taxation, before diversifying.
She has a wealth of experience in some of the more complex areas of personal and employment tax, including share plans and dealing with HMRC investigations. She has dealt with a range of clients from individuals and start-ups, through to multi-million pound international businesses.
When not in the world of tax and accounting, she can usually be found on the dance floor where she competes internationally in Ballroom and Latin dancing and has four world amateur titles.
Victoria was appointed Development Director at Thomas White Oxford, the development company of St John’s College, last year.
She is tasked with deliver Oxford North, the city’s £700 million new global innovation district.
Victoria joined Thomas White Oxford from Legal & General Capital, where she headed development for its Suburban Build to Rent business, building-up a portfolio of projects with its sister companies and local authority partners including the North Horsham masterplan in West Sussex.
Victoria is a chartered surveyor with 18 years’ development and regeneration experience specialising in development management and financial advisory for the public and private sectors.
She has worked across England and Wales as a consultant, including at CBRE and Navigant Consulting, acting for many public bodies and third sector organisations.
More recently she spent eight years in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, as lead advisor to Abu Dhabi Municipality’s Investment Office, with a development portfolio of more than forty projects.
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