Women in the Boardroom

The Guardian recently reported on the advancement of women in the boardrooms of the UK’s top listed businesses. Research by Cranfield School of Management found progress on gender targets but still too few female chairs, chief executives and chief financial officers.

There are currently just eight women CEOs in the top 100 UK companies, and this remains the highest figure for the female FTSE board report since it was first published in 1999. The current female CEOs are Alison Rose at NatWest Group, Emma Walmsley at GSK, Carolyn McCall at ITV, Alison Brittain at Whitbread, Jette Nygaard-Andersen at the sports betting firm Entain, Amanda Blanc at Aviva, plus Liv Garfield, Severn Trent and Mondini de Focatiis at the insurer Admiral. The last two companies also have female chairs.

The report by Cranfield recommended that more companies should prioritise succession planning and talent management on their board agenda to improve the appointment of women into executive roles. This is where ABSTRACT can help.

For many years now, ABSTRACT have been working with organisations in UK, Ireland and internationally who want to take positive, practical action to support more women and other under-represented groups into leadership positions. Since 2013, they have worked with well over a thousand delegates through our ACCELERATE programme. Over that time, they have learned that individuals need to be given the responsibility, the empowerment and the tools to manage their career. ABSTRACT have proven that equipping individuals in more junior roles through to senior manager levels is critical to sustainable change. The focus of ACCELERATE is on engaging our delegates to aspire and explore beyond their initial aspirations and expectations. One of the programme modules is Boardroom Expectations and Future Readiness, which helps to relook and refocus these aims.

ABTRACT want to see more organisations seriously investing in their middle to senior tier of business personnel, ultimately leading to a stronger, more sustainable pipeline of future leaders across businesses, the public sector and charities.

Get in touch here to find out more about ABSTRACT or set up a meeting to explore how they can help with your 2022 plans.