ISSUE 7: September 2023
Autumn is calling!
It's hard to believe we are already in September, the summer months passed in the blink of an eye, but as someone said to me recently, 'summer is a state of mind' and that's not a bad place to be! Kate and I have been busy behind the scenes planning a series of exciting events to take us through to 2024 which I will touch on later in the newsletter. Our event in June to celebrate five years of WiAS was the perfect opportunity to take stock of how far we've come and how much we have all achieved together in such a short space of time.
It's been two and a half years since Embark Group began supporting the network and personally it has possibly been one of the most rewarding relationships I have had. I've met so many wonderful people, many of whom I now count as friends. It has also reminded me just how important and powerful our personal/professional networks are. Like any relationship, they need time invested in them and need to be nurtured to ensure growth. Belonging to a network is a great way to meet new people and learn from others and lean on when times are tough.
Five years of WiAS
I am excited to introduce our anniversary mini-series to celebrate five years of the WiAS network, each year represented by members of the WiAS advisory board and one of the friends and member of the network, Mark Freed from Men for Inclusion.
Over the next few weeks we will be sharing these videos with you, the first features the founder, Kate Webber interviewed by Gillian Hepburn of Schroders which you can view now! This series was made possible thanks to Schroders who also hosted our annual summer networking event in June. We are truly grateful and we hope you enjoy the videos and would love you to share them when they are posted on LinkedIn.
Expanding our horizons
Coming soon... we are opening a new chapter of WiAS in Luxembourg! Launching shortly on the website we are expanding our reach with a lovely group of women who will be taking the WiAS mission and creating their own local in person events to slowly grow the membership overseas. So if any of you are based in Lux or have an office located there, keep your eye on our LinkedIn to share the news.
Upcoming events for 2023
As I mentioned we are working on several events to take us to the end of 2023 and beyond, our September event is now taking registrations.
27 September 12.30-1.30pm
disABILITY: Let me define who I am
To coincide with National Inclusion Week, WiAS is pleased to be hosting its first event discussing visible and invisible differences, disability and neurodiversity and the barriers people face in the workplace. Paul Wilden, an experienced NED and disability campaigner will be our host and talking to Magui Santos Silva about how micro-labelling doesn't necessarily help in the way it is intended. He will also be joined by Lloyds Banking Group's Accessibility Manager, Ross Hovey who will talk about how we can all be better allies to the disabled community.
27 November 8.30am -10am
The Wise Leader – Breakfast session
Invites will be going out shortly for this event, where we will be welcoming Paul Lawrence and Suzi Skinner to talk more about their book, The Wise Leader. The book draws together insights from the world of wisdom and leadership. Offering practical guidance to leaders seeking to become wiser and leadership development professionals wanting to develop the capacity of their organisations in the content of an ever-evolving business environment. This will be a do not miss event , you will leave the session feeling empowered to create a positive culture in your own business.
In-person event:
Trailblazers in Financial Services (Date tbc)
It is estimated that 60% of UK wealth will be in the hands of women by 2025*. With this transfer of wealth in the pipeline comes innovation by women seeing the financial services industry through a different lens. Who are these trailblazers and how are they disrupting our industry and how do we encourage more female talent to join us?
We are working with several women working in this space to create an in person event towards the end of the year to create a showcase of female talent. Keep your eyes peeled on our LinkedIn page for when the event date is announced.
*Schroders' Female clients taking the reins.
Award Season
We are heading into that time of year when the award dinners are sneaking into the diary (there will be no complaints from me!) and I'm pleased to say that WiAS has been shortlisted by Investment Week's Women in Investment Awards for its Industry Contribution to Diversity, finalists announced 18 September – fingers crossed!
We have also been shortlisted for the Professional Adviser Women in Financial Advice Contribution to Gender Diversity award, winner announced at a gala dinner on 1 November. Several of our members are also nominated in both these awards – good luck everyone!
Extending our network
The network has grown exponentially in five years and I am excited to say that we are now at 868 members, which means we are only 132 members away from reaching our target of 1,000 by the end of the year.
I am confident that we can achieve that as we have a unique secret weapon... you! WiAS would love for you to help spread the word and share us with your own networks and encourage your colleagues to sign up to our distribution list. This will mean they will not only receive our quarterly newsletter, they will be the first to hear about any new events.
Kate and I recently presented to Citi's women's network about WiAS and how our strength lies in our professional connections. We are delighted to say we have received many new members from Citi as a result of that meeting and hope to work on a joint event in the near future.
Blog Content
Those of you that attended this year's Finding Your Voice will know what an amazing evening it was and how yet again, Alison Campbell worked her magic with five women taking a leap of faith. One of the participants, Millie Mather has written about her experience in our latest blog.
Building Better Workplace Cultures
Back in June, Kate and I had a really interesting chat with Jenny Segal, author of 'On Motivation: Building Better Workplace Cultures'. Jenny is an author, speaker and investment professional and passionate about people development. We talked about how culture and leadership have a huge impact on our motivation at work. How some organisations are getting it right and how some are not! Jenny's book explores what motivates people, what drives them to leave their organisations, and proposes some simple – but not necessarily easy – ways of fixing the problem.
I hope you enjoy the beautiful weather in the UK this week and hold onto that feeling you get when the sun shines, we might just need to draw on that memory as the days get shorter and the cold creeps in!
Best wishes
Sarah Sandle
Member of the WiAS Advisory Board
E: events@wias.co.uk
W: wias.co.uk
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.
