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Hanneke Smits welcomed as 30% Club global chair

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Hanneke Smits
Our new Global Chair Hanneke Smits is CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management

The 30% Club is delighted to announce the appointment of Hanneke Smits, CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management, as its fourth Global Chair, succeeding Ann Cairns.

Hanneke has been a long-time champion of improving gender diversity in the workplace. In 2015, she co-founded Level 20, a not-for-profit organisation established to inspire women to succeed in the private equity industry.

Hanneke also serves as Chair of Impetus, a venture philanthropy organisation that backs charities to transform the lives of disadvantaged young people.

At BNY Mellon, Hanneke is the Executive Sponsor of PRISM, the company’s LGBTQ+ employee group, and as CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management since October 2020, one of the largest asset managers in the world with $1.8 trillion in assets under management.

She has championed numerous initiatives such as Newton’s work with the Diversity Project to ensure that returning female portfolio managers were able to maintain their investment track record, and BNY Mellon’s partnership with Inspiring Girls through The Pathway to Inclusive Investment research in 2022, and being an early supporter of the UK’s #10000BlackInterns programme.

Hanneke succeeds Ann Cairns as global chair of the 30% Club.

Ann, who retired as Executive Vice Chair of Mastercard at the end of 2022, joined the campaign in 2019 as Co-Chair, working with the late Brenda Trenowden before becoming sole global Chair in 2020.

Hanneke Smits, CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management, said:  “It is an honour to succeed Ann Cairns as Global Chair of the 30% Club and to continue its mission of increasing the number of women at board and senior management levels.

“The role of the 30% Club is as vital now as it was at launch in 2010. Even today, the baseline target of reaching 30% women – either at board or senior management level – remains a stretch for many organisations throughout the world. Reaching the campaign’s ultimate goal of gender parity will take significant effort and investment.

“I look forward to continuing to grow the 30% Club internationally and tackle a wider range of diversity challenges, inside and outside the boardroom.”

30% Club Global
Ann Cairns
Outgoing chair Ann Cairns expanded the 30% Club internationally

Under the leadership of Ann, the 30% Club formed new chapters in Mexico, Colombia and Chile and welcomed Poland, Ecuador and an investor group in France to the campaign.

Her involvement with UN Women’s Outstanding Women’s Leaders Group saw the 30% Club, Melinda French-Gates and the UN Foundation convene what is presumed to be the world’s biggest meeting of CEOs and company chairs to discuss gender equality in May 2021.

Cairns also broadened the UK chapter’s target to focus on racial equality, which included the launch of the Mission INCLUDE strand of the 30% Club’s world-leading and cross-company mentoring programme enabling individuals from all underrepresented groups to participate.

She also launched the Leaders for Race Equity CEO development programme last year in partnership with Change the Race Ratio and Moving Ahead.

Ann Cairns, outgoing Global Chair of the 30% Club, said: “On behalf of the members of the 30% Club, we are proud to welcome Hanneke as our new Global Chair. It will be invaluable to have a respected leader of Hanneke’s experience and calibre join the global campaign at a time when many companies are still struggling to achieve diversity at board and executive levels.

“In the UK, for instance, we may have reached 40% women on the boards of the FTSE 100, but the majority remain in non-executive roles; there are just 25% women at executive committee level and just eight female CEOs. Women of colour remain under-represented at every managerial and leadership level. We must continue to keep diversity and inclusion high on the agenda.”

This is the second time BNY Mellon Investment Management has taken a leadership role within the 30% Club. The campaign was launched in 2010 by Dame Helena Morrissey, who was the then CEO of Newton Investment Management, one of BNY Mellon Investment Management’s investment firms.

Newton and BNY Mellon Investment Management were early supporters of the campaign’s goals and helped encourage many chairs of Britain’s biggest companies to commit to the initial target of 30% women on their boards. This target was reached across the FTSE 100 in September 2019 and there are now 40% women on boards.

This transparency allows firms to learn together ‘what works’ for the fair inclusion of Black women in finance, professional services and big technology. Given that the pay gaps experienced by Black women are the largest in the sectors studied, making Black women the benchmark for real change within organisations is appropriate. 

Training, recruitment, operations, promotions, procurement, strategies, and policies should be evidently inclusive of Black women. The call for greater transparency through reporting, audits and monitoring of the progress of Black women will help ensure firms are on track.

The 30% Club would like to thank UK steering committee member Karin Barnick, a partner at executive search and leadership advisory firm Korn Ferry in London, who led the search for the new global chair on a pro bono basis. 

Work to do

Where we are

The 30% Club has come a long way from when it was set up in the UK in 2010.We now span six continents and more than 20 countries. We’re actively expanding into more G20 countries

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Investors given tool to boost gender equity in net zero race

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The Women in Finance Climate Action Group has developed a framework to help financial institutions support women in the net zero transition and limit the negative impact of climate change on women.

The 30% Club is delighted to support the rollout of this first-of-its-kind framework specifically for private investors and the key role they play in financing net zero.

Integrating a gender lens into climate investments is important to value women as key stakeholders in solutions, to ensure not only a better path, a more ‘Just Transition’, but also a shorter one, unleashing the potential of women as changemakers, in finance and in who and what is being financed.

 

Women remain under-represented in climate finance

 

The Women in Finance Climate Group argues that whilst climate change disproportionately impacts women, women remain seriously under-represented in climate policy, climate decision-making and climate finance.

The Action Framework, created in collaboration with the Oliver Wyman Forum and 2X Global, is available to download here.

The Women in Finance Climate Action Group comprises women leaders from business, the public sector and civil society and includes Tanya Steele, CEO of WWF-UK and Sarah Breeden, Executive Director at the Bank of England.

 

Amanda Blanc, Aviva’s Group CEO, said: “Private capital is key to mobilising the trillions of dollars required over the next three decades to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. And yet the global private finance sector does not currently have the tools or incentives in place to evaluate and improve the impact of climate finance on gender equality.

“We need more data to measure the impact of specific climate investments or project financing on women and girls. We hope this Framework will give financial institutions what they need to begin to measure and deliver greater gender equality when taking action on net zero.”

Rupal Kantaria, Partner, Oliver Wyman Forum and head of climate for the 30% Club, added: “This first-of-its-kind Action Framework for investors embeds gender considerations into climate investment decisions. Both are critical for financing a faster and more just climate transition.”

 

 

 

Read THE FULL REPORT
Amanda Blanc and Rupal Kantaria

Where we are

The 30% Club has come a long way from when it was set up in the UK in 2010.We now span six continents and more than 20 countries. We’re actively expanding into more G20 countries

Find out more

French investors reveal gains for women’s leadership

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According to the 30% Club France Investor Group’s annual report, gender diversity is improving in the SBF 120 but there is still a long way to go.

The 30% Club France Investor Group is pleased to announce the publication of its second annual report. In its second year of the campaign, the 30% Club France Investor Group conducted a wide variety of activities to engage with corporates, stakeholders, and experts, enabling us to develop key observations regarding gender diversity in France.

The 30% Club France Investor Group are stewards of France’s investee companies. Part of that responsibility includes the assessment of their executive management teams. Since 2017, listed companies in France must have a minimum of 40% of women on the Board of Directors under the Copé Zimmermann law. The Rixain Law adopted in 2021 also enforces that Executive Committees have 30% female representation by 2027 and 40% by 2030. 

 

Last year, the Investor group conducted 18 in-person engagement meetings and conversations and observed that:

– Compared to last year, companies are both more open to engaging with us and more prepared. 

– There is positive momentum emerging in the form of action plans and targeted goals, but these targets as well as their scopes (i.e., the executive body targeted) and time horizons lack homogeneity, making it difficult to work towards the goal of 30% female representation at the highest levels of management.

– Two opposite trends are coming into play. The COVID-19 crisis had a disproportionately negative impact on women in attracting, retaining, and promoting talent while the enforcement of the Rixain Law acted as an accelerator of awareness for the importance of gender diversity.

 

Read THE FULL REPORT
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Member of the French Parliament, Marie-Pierre Rixain said:

By making equality between women and men the great concern of his five-year term, President Emmanuel Macron has helped accelerate the march of history. Indeed, a certain number of blockages in our collective organization still constrain women’s economic room to maneuver and lead to a cascade of consequences. With this in mind, I drafted a bill in 2021 that enshrines new economic rights for women thus allowing them to conquer their status as free and autonomous economic actors.

The number of requests I receive proves that this issue is on the table for all companies now more than ever. Finally, our country is thinking about how to make half of the working population a source of value creation, wealth, and jobs. 

I believe that an increasingly significant proportion of large companies have taken measures for the challenge of gender diversity. In this respect, the law that I introduced – which marks a major change in the management and retention of corporate talent – will accelerate this dynamic by imposing ambitious but achievable targets for the players concerned.

Global Head Sustainable & Impact Investment, Allianz Global Investors, Matt Christensen said: 

“In the two years since the initiative’s launch, I’m pleased to see that the importance of gender diversity is increasingly acknowledged within French companies and that encouraging progress in terms of female representation on executive leadership teams is visible.

Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go. By pooling our efforts under the 30% Club France, we as investors can help move the lines faster to drive genuine and sustainable change by looking not only at the executive committee but also at how companies build a gender-diverse talent pipeline. The 30% by 2025 is the floor, not the ceiling. The Rixain Law on economic and professional equity for women sets 40% by 2030 as the next frontier. We are willing to do our part!”

Where we are

The 30% Club has come a long way from when it was set up in the UK in 2010.We now span six continents and more than 20 countries. We’re actively expanding into more G20 countries

Find out more

NEW: 30% Club Podcast – Episode 2 featuring Penny James & Nimesh Patel

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More episodes coming soon!
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Coming Soon: 30% Club Podcast

Stay tuned for the new 30% Club podcast, exclusively hosted by Ann Cairns, Chair of 30% Club and Executive Vice Chair of Mastercard. She’ll be meeting some of the leading women.

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October 11, 2021 No Comments

30% Club pays tribute to former chair Brenda Trenowden

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London, UK, 30 August 2022: It is with great sadness the 30% Club has learned of the death of Brenda Trenowden, CBE, a former chair of our global campaign.

 

She was actively involved with the 30% Club since its launch in 2010 and became chair of the UK chapter in 2015. She was an executive at ANZ at the time.

 

In 2019, while working for PWC UK as a partner, she became global co-chair, alongside Mastercard executive vice chair Ann Cairns. She stepped down from the campaign in 2020 but supported Ann during the transition to the role of sole global chair.  

 

During her involvement with the 30% Club, Brenda launched many successful activities to help promote gender balance in the workplace.

 

She set a deadline for our campaign’s initial aim of 30% women on the boards of the FTSE 100 by 2020. Building on the Club’s initial focus on chairs as members and improving the share of women on boards, she brought scores of new CEO members into the Club to set voluntary targets for the share of women in senior leadership. She also engaged with many more existing members to help achieve the board target and was delighted when it was achieved early in September 2019.

 

Since then, there has been acceleration in female representation at board level and there are now almost 40% women on board in the FTSE 100, according to data from BoardEx. The 30% Club hopes this will reach parity in the next few years.  

 

Another major contribution from Brenda was as a driving force behind the 30% Club’s Strategy Best Practices Working Group. She co-chaired the group from its inception in March 2019 to review how businesses should incorporate a diversity lens into enterprise-wide strategy development for customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.

 

In November 2019, Brenda opened the market at the London Stock Exchange to launch the working group’s report, Are You Missing Millions? The Commercial Imperative for Putting a Gender Lens on your Business, featuring case studies from the group’s participating firms. Since then, Brenda continued to work across multinationals gathering further case studies and best practices to evolve the thinking in this space.

 

Brenda’s work and dedication to promoting gender diversity in business is a rich legacy and was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2018.

 

Of her appointment to Commander of the British Empire, Brenda said: “I have the privilege of working with talented and committed women and men as part of 30% Club to affect real change. Improving gender balance in the workplace is so important to driving business success and economic prosperity.”

 

Ann Cairns, global chair of the 30% Club, said: “Brenda’s passion for life and commitment to gender diversity will be sorely missed across the 30% Club and the business community globally. She worked tirelessly to open doors for women, and men, throughout her career and was adamant talent should never be held back because of a person’s gender, race or anything else. The 30% Club is thinking of Brenda’s family and friends at this saddest of times.” 

79% of dissatisfied employees say they’ve experienced an inclusion barrier

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London, UK, 19 July 2022: The FTSE 100 is ahead of the S&P 500 and TSX 60 in diversity and inclusion, according to exclusive research for the 30% Club Global Investor Group by Diversio. But a significant number of employees do not feel included at work.

 

Diversio scraped negative employee reviews of companies and analysed these reviews for content.
Diversio found that 79% of negative reviews (ie dissatisfied employees) cited inclusion related
issues as the reason for their dissatisfaction.

 

The FTSE 100’s overall score for diversity, inclusion, and commitment, Diversio’s key metrics for assessing Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), is 65.7 out of a possible 100. Such a score indicates that programming, inclusion, and diversity are closely linked and mutually reinforcing, with higher scores indicating successful D&I policies, practices, and implementation.


The overall scores, based on analysis of publicly available corporate policies and employee reviews, were 58.8 for the American S&P 500 and 55.1 for the Canadian TSX 60. A quarter of each company’s score looked at gender, racial and ethnic diversity at the board and executive level. Another quarter looked at D&I programmes and policies. While half of the score was calculated using anonymous feedback from employees about their experience. These “inclusion metrics” represent the biggest opportunity for improvement. 


Inclusion findings
Inclusion barriers fell into six broad categories: inclusive culture, fair management, career development, workplace flexibility, workplace safety, and recruiting and hiring.

 

  •  
Inclsuive CultureFair ManagementCareer DevelopmentWorkplace FlexibilityWorkplace SafetyRecruiting and Hiring
FTSE Average6.086.256.816.866.646.83
Global Average5.815.946.086.296.326.36

Top scoring companies across all KPIs include:

Pershing Square Holdings, Mondi, and Segro.

Among the 27-inclusion metrics Diversio analysed, inclusive culture and fair management were the most prominent among FTSE 100 companies. Commonly cited pain points cited included issues such as:

●     “Very old school management style, which is male, middle-age dominated”
●     “Domineering/bullying management styles tolerated. Highly political and full of silos”
●     “Profit driven with constant cost cutting at the expense of everything”
●     “Limited promotional opportunities from within. Average pay Culture in upper management.”
●     “Stressful work environment and hard to strike a work life balance.”

Diversity findings

On the plus side, the research found there has been progress on gender diversity at the board level across the indices, with female representation now at 40% for the FTSE 100. Gender diversity at the executive level sits much lower, at 26%.

Racial and ethnic diversity for the FTSE 100 companies have an average of 14% representation at the board level and 13% representation at the executive level.

For the full methodology, see Appendix.

Laura McGee, co-founder and CEO of Diversio, said: “The quickest way for low-scoring sectors and companies to improve is by surveying employees and implementing fundamental programmes and policies, including a DEI strategy with executive level accountability and transparent reporting. Survey data can help leaders understand company culture and any barriers that might be faced by under-represented groups.”

Ann Cairns, global chair of the 30% Club, said: “What the analysis means for companies is that it’s critical to track not just diversity but also inclusion. All companies should have fundamental DEI programmes and policies in place and need to listen to employees to identify pain points and create a smooth funnel to leadership.”

Table: How the three indices stack up against each other, data provided by Diversio.


FTSE 100S&P 500TSX 60
Overall diversity, Inclusion, and commitment score (out of a possible 100)65.758.655.9
% Women at board level40.1%Not enough dataNot enough data
% Women at executive level25.6%23.3%18.9%
% Racial/ethnic diversity at board level13.9%Not enough dataNot enough data
% Racial/ethnic diversity at exec level13%13.8%10.6%
% Racial/ethnic diversity of total population (census data)About 15% (2019 census data)About 38% (2020 census data)About 22% (2016 census data)
Best 3 performing sectorsReal estate, energy, information technologyIT, financials, real estateReal estate, utilities, financials
Worst 3 performing sectorsFinancials, utilities, consumer discretionaryMaterials, consumer discretionary, energyIndustrials, IT, consumer staples

ENDS


Appendix

Diversio Insights methodology

The Diversio Scores
The Diversio Insights platform scores companies in four main ways: diversity, inclusion, commitment, and an overall average. The diversity score is made up of the gender and racial diversity of the board and executive teams of a company. Optimal diversity scores are given to companies with executive and board diversity that correspond with percent representation observed in the population. Diversity data is collected through Mechanical Turk, by scraping company websites or SEC filings. The data is then labelled through a combination of human expertise and algorithms, assigning gender and race/ethnicity to each executive and board member. 1 We then provide the companies with the opportunity to confirm or correct their public data through direct outreach.  The commitment scores are determined using a score of 0 – 3 based on the published documentation surrounding a firm’s policy and governance, recruiting practices, employee engagement, and transparency and data disaggregation. The inclusion score is determined by scraping employee reviews of their companies and having our algorithms identify patterns in employee reviews regarding the barriers employees face every day. These patterns are classified into pain-points from a predetermined set of 27 pain points. Companies with the least pain points score the most highly, while companies with the most pain points score the lowest.

 

Limitations and Data Accuracy
All of our data is based on publicly available information at the time of its collection. Diversio recognises that there are limitations to this methodology. We do not have real time data and could show some information that is 6 months to 1.5 years out of date. We are not able to update our database every time a company institutes a new policy. We cannot be responsible for how often a company updates their public facing image. If the makeup of a board changes without a public facing announcement, our database cannot reflect the new addition.

 

Contact: 30% Club campaign manager Laura Whitcombe, laura@30percentclub.org, or media@30percentclub.org
Website: www.30percentclub.org Twitter: @30percentclub 

 

Notes to Editors

Diversio found that about 97% of companies on the FTSE, TSX, and S&P have implemented D&I programmes and policies. However, the data makes clear that these commitments alone will not create a diverse and inclusive workplace. Companies are encouraged to survey employees to understand inclusion barriers, and double down on advancement opportunities for underrepresented employees.

The analysis reveals the best performing sectors for D&I in the FTSE 100 are real estate, energy, information technology. The worst were industrials, utilities, consumer discretionary.

 

About Us : The 30% Club is a global campaign led by Chairs and CEOs taking action to increase gender diversity at board and senior management levels of the world’s biggest companies. We set targets of a minimum of 30% female representation at the board and executive committee levels. This is the critical mass at which research shows minority voices are heard. However, the ultimate goal is parity.

Under the leadership of Global Chair, Ann Cairns, the campaign continues to expand its international footprint with presence in 20 countries around the world. We support diversity in its very broadest sense and while gender has been our starting point, we fully realise that considerations of ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background and beyond are all part of the journey – and that gender identities are themselves evolving rapidly. We believe that only those organisations that foster truly inclusive cultures – cultures that embrace women who look, act and, importantly, THINK differently – can reach their full potential to positively impact their people, their markets and their communities.

 

30% Club UK Chapter’s 2023 Targets

 

  1. 1. Beyond 30% representation of women on all FTSE 350 boards, to include one person of colour. We support the Parker Review goals for at least one person of colour on every FTSE 350 board – in addition, we advocate for gender balance with half these seats going to women, creating 175 board seats for women of colour.

     

  2. 2. Beyond 30% representation of women on all FTSE 350 Executive Committees, to include one person of colour. We advocate for gender balance with half these seats going to women, creating 175 executive committee roles for women of colour.

     

  3. 3. Beyond 30% of all new FTSE 350 Chair appointments to go to women between now and 2023.

 

About Diversio: Global leader in the use of AI technology and sophisticated data analytics to
measure, track and improve D&I, working across 35+ countries and 25+ sectors.

Black women least likely to be top earners

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Black women are under-represented and underpaid in executive roles and the least likely to be in the UK’s top 1% of earners. Black women continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles across the UK workforce.

The Inclusion Initiative at LSE, Mastercard and the 30% Club collaborated to undertake interviews with 44 Black women at various stages in their careers. The study was designed to  understand the headwinds and tailwinds that these women experienced throughout their career, with the view that firms interested in nurturing talented women could focus on augmenting the tailwinds that these women experience, as well as reducing their headwinds.

The analysis led to the creation of the TRANSPARENT framework, a new framework to create organisations that are inclusive of Black women in Finance, Professional Services and Big Technology. 

  • Key highlights from the report include:

     

  • 92% of the women we interviewed called for systemic change within their workplaces.
  •  
  • Black women also experience the largest pay gaps when compared to non-Black women and men, as well as Black men (Almeida et al. 2021).

  • The largest gaps are in finance, professional services, and big technology. 70% of Black women in these sectors believe they are being paid less than their comparable peers, with more than 10% of women reporting pay gaps as high as 30%.

     

    From the analysis, the researchers created the TRANSPARENT framework to create organisations that are inclusive of Black women in Finance, Professional Services and Big Technology.

 
Read THE REPORT
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30% Club global chair and Mastercard executive vice chair Ann Cairns said: 

 

“We were delighted to partner with the London School of Economics on this research, to better understand the barriers Black women face in the workplace. Anecdotally, we have been hearing that Black women experience the most negative impact when it comes to progression in the workplace, specifically in the areas in which we operate; technology, financial and professional services and we undertook this research to validate that.

This thought-provoking research and the TRANSPARENT framework will be used to inform our own future activities and policies going forward within Mastercard. I hope they will also be of use to many other companies wanting to leverage it and tackle the issue within their organisations.”

The Inclusion Initiative (TII) at the LSE, Mastercard and the 30% Club hope to inspire firms to adopt these actions. Moreover, it is envisioned that companies will evaluate the effectiveness of these actions, making transparent the evaluation results.

This transparency allows firms to learn together ‘what works’ for the fair inclusion of Black women in finance, professional services and big technology. Given that the pay gaps experienced by Black women are the largest in the sectors studied, making Black women the benchmark for real change within organisations is appropriate. 

Training, recruitment, operations, promotions, procurement, strategies, and policies should be evidently inclusive of Black women. The call for greater transparency through reporting, audits and monitoring of the progress of Black women will help ensure firms are on track.

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Where we are

The 30% Club has come a long way from when it was set up in the UK in 2010.We now span six continents and more than 20 countries. We’re actively expanding into more G20 countries

Find out more

FTSE 100 meets Parker diversity target

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Parker Review

FTSE 100 hits 2021 target

The Parker Review target for the FTSE 100 to have at least one board director from an ethnically diverse background by the end of 2021 has largely been achieved. 

The latest update from the Review has confirmed 89 FTSE 100 companies achieved the target by the deadline of December 2021. A further five have announced new ethnic director appointments in early 2022 and another three report they are actively engaging in recruitment.

Across the FTSE 100, 16% of board directors are now ethnically diverse, and 49% are women. 

The Review states: “These numbers compare starkly and very favourably with the position back in 2016, when only 47% of FTSE 100 companies had people from minority ethnic groups in their boardrooms. The number of companies with minority ethnic directors has doubled.

“We are also encouraged to note that the number of people from minority ethnic groups on FTSE 100 Boards splits evenly between genders, with women comprising 49% of the minority ethnic directors.”

Across the FTSE 250, where the deadline is the end of 2024, 12% of board directors are now from ethnically diverse backgrounds and 44% are women.

At the executive level, there hasn’t been as much progress. The Review states: “As expected, the great majority of these board positions are as non-executive directors.” 

There are also only six CEOs and 12 other executive directors across the FTSE 100 who come from a minority ethnic group. And there are only three board chairs from a minority ethnic group background. 

At the launch of the Review’s latest update, Secretary of State for BEIS Kwasi Kwarteng, said: “Never has there been a more compelling evidence base for the value of building diversity into business, all the way up to the Boardroom.

“Never has it been more clear that British business is seizing the initiative, responsive to the fact that drawing in talent across the diversity of society drives increased value to companies and makes good business sense. 

Read THE report
Leaders for race equity

“Business and Government are united in our shared belief in equality of opportunity to deliver a business environment that rewards meritocratic achievement: discovering, developing, and rewarding talent — irrespective of background.

“Out of uniting around the common goal of excellence, I have every faith that British business and the UK economy will build back better out of this pandemic.”

The update comes just two weeks after the 30% Club UK Investor Group issued a statement addressing the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in UK business and outlined the action it is taking to make positive change.

Members of the group who have signed up to the statement have more than £11 trillion assets under management. 

In February, the group sent letters to the FTSE 100 companies its independent research suggested had yet to meet the Parker Review targets.  

The letter warned the companies that investors may consider voting against companies at their annual general meetings if they fail to take action.

If your company wants to take action to make its senior leadership team more diverse, we have teamed up with Change the Race Ratio and Moving Ahead to deliver the Leaders for Race Equity CEO development programme.

The nine-month cross-company programme for CEOs and minority ethnic group leaders who are in the Exco talent pipeline to share and learn from each other’s experiences and shape strategic action. To find out more, please contact our delivery partners Moving Ahead by emailing race.equity@movingahead.org.  

Where we are

The 30% Club has come a long way from when it was set up in the UK in 2010.We now span six continents and more than 20 countries. We’re actively expanding into more G20 countries

Find out more

Women in Leadership Scholarship Competition 2022

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The Women in Leadership MBA scholarship is a collaboration between Henley, the 30% Club and Financial Times.

Now in its tenth year, the Women in Leadership scholarship is designed to offer practical support for the development of strong female talent and reflects the shared mission of the three partner institutions to encourage gender balance in leadership teams.

The competition is open to both women and men who have relevant experience in the workplace either in managing a team, running a project or planning strategy.

Entries need to answer, in no more than 800 words, the question:

“Would efforts to tackle climate change benefit from more women taking the lead?”

Entries must be submitted using the official application form, which can be downloaded at the bottom of this article. The winner will receive a fully-funded place worth up to £39,500 on our part-time Executive MBA – Global or Flexible Executive MBA programme starting in September/October 2022.

Deadline for entry: 23 May 2022 at 5pm.

Judging panel


  • Dr Anne Dibley, Head of Post-Experience and Apprenticeshipprogrammes at Henley

  • Laura Whitcombe, Global Campaign Manager, 30% Club

  • Harriet Arnold, Assistant Editor, Financial Times Special Reports

  • Plus additional judges to be confirmed.
Copy of COVER IMAGE - INVESTOR GROUP STATEMENT (2)

Judging criteria


It is important that participants draw not only on data, research and other evidence to support their arguments but also their own personal experience, which could include examples of initiatives they have worked on, or are in the process of designing.

We want submissions which make us think differently – challenge the status quo and demonstrate a real understanding of the dilemmas faced.

Up to 10 finalists will be shortlisted from all entries received by the deadline.

Participants do not need to apply for an MBA place before entering this competition, but are expected to check that they qualify for entry on to the programme. 

DOWNLOAD THE FORM

Where we are

The 30% Club has come a long way from when it was set up in the UK in 2010.We now span six continents and more than 20 countries. We’re actively expanding into more G20 countries

Find out more

NEW: 30% Club Podcast – Episode 1 featuring Sharon Thorne

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More episodes coming soon!

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