ISSUE 11: December 2024
Reflecting on our achievements in 2024
2024 is nearly done as we head into the festive period, and we couldn’t go without an update from WiAS on another successful year.
Our Luxembourg chapter launched earlier this year under the stewardship of Myriam Aswad and Gaelle Bernard. The team have been very busy, holding several events already and gathering new members. Please accept our hearty congratulations for your success so far ladies, you rock!
Finding Your Voice
Finding your Voice was held in conjunction with Informa Funds Forum again, organised very successfully by Laura Bampfylde in conjunction with the team at Informa led by Karima Haywood. The participants successfully represented the networks (including LGBT Great) at Funds Forum in Monaco in June. Many congratulations to Laura who is shortly going on family leave, Kelly Burdett our worthy winner for 2024 and thanks to Karima as ever.
We are excited to share that Laura will be passing the FYV baton to Kelly for 2025 which we are already in planning for. More to share on that in the New Year!
Our podcast series, Talent Talks, in association with Her Future Bright was launched earlier this year too. Chimmy Ngoma and Laura Mann collaborated with Chanelle Pattinson to bring this new format to the network. We are now working on series 3 and the podcasts are available on all good podcast platforms including Spotify and Apple. The ones I’ve listened to are insightful, giving access to stories of careers and key changes across our industry and if you’ve not had a chance to listen, it’s great for those long winter walks with your air pods in.
Our next chapter...
We held our winter drinks on 25th November, thank you Schroders for being such generous hosts. I was delighted to speak to Kimberley Lewis, Head of Active Ownership, about her fascinating career journey and her work on sustainability. As we watch the world’s weather change dramatically, it’s good to reflect upon how important our industry is as we transition to a greener future.
At the Winter Drinks, we also announced our planned merger with Women in Platforms. Conversations started in the summer and as someone who has been very active in both, I am very happy to endorse the merger. The continuation of both networks is the work of a few dedicated individuals, who add time into their busy lives to deliver the events, podcasts and blogs. The Embark Group have signalled their intention to continue to support the newly merged network and we are delighted at this. We are finalising a name, which we hope to announce in the coming weeks and will then launch the merged network in Q1 2025.
Please do join us again in 2025, our first event of the year will be on 27th February at the Bloomberg offices in London with Gita Trevorrow-Seymour – The Possiblist. Save the date to follow shortly and look forward to seeing you at this.
I wish you the happiest times with loved ones over the festive period and if you are thinking of a New Year Resolution, why not make 2025 a year where you could lend a hand. We are always looking for volunteers as the network doesn't run without them!
Kind regards
Gillian Hepburn
WiAS Advisory Board Member
WiAS is a professional networking group, empowering women to achieve success by facilitating relationships and discussing topics that improve career opportunities for its members with an aim to optimise the gender balance across the industry. The group was founded by Kate Webber, who has worked in the asset servicing sector for over 25 years.
