On Friday 17th March, Moneycorp held an online event to celebrate Women’s History Month. The panel discussion was hosted by Moneycorp’s CEO, Marianne Gilmore, who was joined by Sara Weller CBE, Chair designate of Money and Pensions Service, and Non-executive Director of BT Group plc, and Virgin Money plc, Julia Duthie, author and partner at PEPCO, and Balshen Izzet, Director of Communication at the British Chamber of Commerce to discuss Female Empowerment in the workplace.

The discussion was open to everyone in the business and covered equity, allyship, mentoring, barriers to success, and formalising female empowerment before the floor was opened to the audience, who drove further insightful and thought-provoking dialogue with their own questions.

The panellists spoke about their personal experiences of being a woman in the workplace, touching on the challenges they’d faced and sharing their perspective of the workplace today and action for the future. Marianne also took the opportunity to informally launch Moneycorp’s Women’s Mentoring Programme, which kicks off this month with a UK pilot, before rolling out to other regions.

The Women’s Mentoring Programme forms part of Moneycorp’s ESG strategy and underpins the Female Empowerment pillar of activity. It aims is to improve gender diversity across all departments and levels of seniority and has been created to provide more equitable access to skill-building opportunities across the business.

You can find speaker profiles and a full list of questions discussed during panel below.

Watch the full recording here

Our Panel

Marianne Gilmore

CEO of Moneycorp UK International Payments

Marianne has worked at Moneycorp for over a decade, gaining expertise across the Moneycorp group in a number of roles. Prior to her appointment as CEO, Marianne held a number of positions including, Commercial Director, UK Managing Director, and Group Sales Operations Director, responsible for delivering a number of intrinsic projects. These included but were not limited to the US acquisition and integration, the UK/EU restructure, client migrations in the wake of Brexit, and the launch of our first fully-integrated white-labelled service offering. Her aim is always to ensure service and delivery are executed to the very highest of standards.

She graduated with a degree in aeronautical and mechanical engineering. Marianne has a keen interest in aviation, gaining her Private Pilot’s license (PA28) whilst studying for her degree.

Balshen Izzet

Director of Communications for the British Chambers of Commerce

Balshen is a communications and public affairs expert with over 20 years of experience. She has worked in government for multiple departments, including the Treasury and for the opposition’s Shadow Chancellor. Bal also has undertaken senior leadership roles for national charities, including being CEO of a charity for stammering children. Currently, Bal is the Director of Communications for the British Chambers of Commerce.

Julia Duthie

Partner at PEPCO, cost optimisation specialist, mentor & bestselling author

Julia is currently a Partner at PEPCO Services; a cost optimisation firm majority owned by Bridgepoint Capital. Prior to this, Julia held several leadership positions, including CEO of one of the largest music industry schools in the world. She is a bestselling author and her first book The House on Dogbone St. is her story of how she overcame childhood traumas and how it took a lifetime for her to understand who she is. She has two now adult children and lives in Surrey with her partner, Kathryn.

Sara Weller CBE

Chair designate of Money and Pensions Service

Sara is the Chair designate of Money and Pensions Service, and Non-executive Director of BT Group plc, and Virgin Money plc. She is a former Non-executive Director of Lloyds Banking Group plc and United Utilities plc. As an executive, Sara was Managing Director of Argos for seven years, and on the plc Board at J Sainsbury. She has also worked in Whitehall as the Lead Non-Executive on two Government Department Boards, DWP and DCLG (now DLUHC).

In 2009 Sara was diagnosed with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), which is still incurable, still largely untreatable, and relentless. She is determined to live each day to the full and raise as much money as she can for MS research. MS affects over 130,0000 people in the UK, many are young, and more are women than men. The Stop MS Appeal is raising £100m to fund the research that will lead to treatments to stop MS progression. The MSMustStop goal is to raise £500,000, and we have had donations from large corporations through to individual donors. Sara will be taking part in the London Marathon in April 2023 in her wheelchair (!) to further raise money for the MSMustStop campaign.

Panel Questions

• What does equity mean to you? What does being empowered as a woman mean to you?
• What have been the most impactful changes you have seen in the workplace that support gender equity?
• What does successfully tackling equity issues look like?
• How do you actively communicate with women at your workplace to make them feel included?
  • How can we expand women’s links to each other, for example, mentorship, coaching, and networking?
  • How can leaders and companies break down barriers that hold women back?
• What does it take to be a good ally?
• What are the concrete steps we can take to formalise female empowerment in employment?

None of the information contained in this webinar constitutes, nor should be construed as financial advice