Investment coalition launch accelerator for black female leaders in asset management

A coalition of asset management workers has launched a leadership accelerator for black women in the sector as latest figures show just 4% of FTSE 100 board positions are held by women of colour.

Black Women in Asset Management - launched in London in 2019 - has launched a six-month programme aiming to “provide participants with an evidence-based curriculum designed to support black women who aspire to break the concrete wall, and lead with impact”.

Less than 1% of investment managers in the UK are black, according to a recent report from industry body, The Investment Association. BWAM Chair and co-founder, Jacqueline Taiwo, said the programme “also offers organisations an amazing opportunity to invest in the black women within their workforce”.

According to latest data from BoardEx, as of February 16, just 4% of FTSE 100 board positions are held by women of colour, falling to just 2-3% across the smaller indexes.

Female executive-led campaign group, The 30% Club, is now campaigning to see “at least one person of colour on every FTSE 350 board… with half these seats going to women, creating 175 board seats for women of colour” by 2023.

It comes as the final report from the Government-backed Hampton-Alexander Review into gender and leadership in Britain’s biggest firms revealed that the number of women on FTSE boards has surged by 50% in five years. 

But the report stated that “significant progress remains to be made on the highest executive roles, such as CEO, and the review will reflect on these findings in order to chart a way forward”.

Sir Philip Hampton said: “There’s been excellent progress for women leaders in business over the last 10 years or more, with boards and shareholders determined to see change.

“The progress has been strongest with non-executive positions on boards, but the coming years should see many more women taking top executive roles.

“That’s what is needed to sustain the changes made.”

The 30% Club global chair and executive vice chair of Mastercard, Ann Cairns, said: “It’s important to realise that progress in female representation at the highest levels of British business remains fragile and slow.