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The Forum UK programme is our most important platform for promoting women’s leadership and for enriching each other’s lives by sharing knowledge, ideas and intellectual capital. Our programme is the hub of all our activity and the key to providing and maintaining our sense of community.
The programme incorporates the core categories: breakfasts; behind the scenes tours; briefings; dine-arounds; special interest groups and the annual events: AGM; Jean Denton lecture; Summer Cocktail party; Christmas breakfast. In addition we look to promote the international agenda and benefits of membership of IWF through participation in the IWF programme. We hope our Forum UK 2007/8 programme will encourage networking, growth and the development of Forum for the future.
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| Board Dynamics: A Female Perspective | 6.30pm |
event £ 25
Our Launch event for the Women on Boards Initiative
Board Dynamics: A female perspective
This will be an evening of thought provocation, to start our new initiative, looking at the results of 2 reports. The 2009 Female FTSE 100 report (written by Susan Vinnicombe and Ruth Sealy) revealed a discouraging picture for women: the number of companies with female executive directors is down, as is the number of boards with multiple women directors. One in four companies now has an exclusively male board. Of the 156 new appointees to FTSE in 2008/9, only 23 (just 14.7%) were women: 14 of these had not previously held FTSE 100 directorships, and only 1 of these is a British National. There is one positive finding: the considerable increase in the number of women at executive committee level, signifying an increasing talent pipeline. Sue Vinnicombe will present the findings, and put forward her ideas as to what can be done to change the continuing male dominated Boardroom.
IDDAS, chaired by Helen Pitcher, decided to look into how women directors are operating in this male environment: how they got there, what they bring to the Board, how they view their success, and how they cope. They started their research at the height of the banking crisis, when questions were being asked about the macho, risk-taking culture which had fuelled the crisis. They set out to understand such issues as recruitment and nationality, the women’s approach to risk, what they view as important skills and experience, and what they had done, and can be done by others, to maximise success.
Hilary Sears interviewed almost a fifth of female board directors on FTSE 100 companies. The results, published as the report “Board Dynamics: A female perspective”, will be presented by Hilary and Helen. They are fascinating and highlight just how women change the Board dynamics.
The event is kindly hosted by BT at the iconic BT Tower. You will hear from 3 Forum UK members (Susan, Hilary and Helen) There will be ample time for Q&A , and for networking on the 34th floor of the Tower. The event will be chaired by Elizabeth Coffey, Forum UK Board member and Managing Director, Spark Leadership Ltd.
Biographies:
Susan Vinnicombe is Director of the International Centre for Women Leaders at Cranfield School of Management, and her particular research interests are women’s leadership styles, and gender diversity on corporate boards. Her Research Centre is unique in the UK with its focus on women leaders and the annual FTSE 100 Index is regarded as the UK’s premier research resource on women directors. She has written 9 books , has consulted organizations globally on how best to attract, retain, and develop women executives, and is a frequent media expert and conference speaker on women directors. She has judged Management Today’s annual “50 Most Powerful Women”, “35 Women Under 35 to Watch”, Asian Women of Achievement Awards, European Women of Achievement Awards, Future Women of Achievement Awards, and is Chair of the Judges for Women in the City Awards.
Hilary Sears is a coach and mentor, following a career in Executive Search, in which she advised and assessed Boards, and managed appointments at Board level across private and public sectors. During a secondment to the Cabinet Office, in the Leadership and People Strategy Directorate, she led on the Senior Women’s Network, looking at diversity issues at senior levels in the Civil Service. She has spoken at conferences on Women on the Board, has sat on the Boards of Forum UK and International Women’s Forum London, chaired City Women’s Network, and is now Chairman of KIDS (a national charity for disabled children) and The Association of MBAs (an international education charity). She is the final judge for the Women in the City Awards. .
Helen Pitcher is Chairman of IDDAS, a leading boardroom consultancy firm, specializing in individual director and boardroom effectiveness. She was the youngest ever board director for a division of Grand Metropolitan and subsequently went on to become CEO of CEDAR, which she built into one of the best-regarded consultancies in the human capital world. Helen is recognised as a leading organisational performance coach and mentor, who works at the most senior level in FTSE 100 and international companies, as well as the public sector. She is a panel member of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, member of the Selection Panel for Queen's Counsel and Chairman of KidsOut.
See the report at http://www.iddas.com/Research/charts/Board%20Dynamics-a%20female%20perspective-Executive%20Summary.pdf
Latest bookings / cancellation by 11 February 2010 03:00 PM
