I’ve been working with the Gender Advisory Council since its formation in 2006. Prior to joining PwC UK in 2001, I worked in IT as a PRINCE II project manager for a software house and a major UK retail bank. I joined PwC’s IT department and then moved to Human Capital, where I established the Contractor Management team and function; this is now a key part of the UK's central Professional Shared Services recruitment team and has brought commercial and legal discipline to a challenging part of the recruitment pipeline.
With my diversity hat on, I now serve on the advisory board of the not-for-profit International Women of Excellence group and I was one of the team instrumental in bringing Working Mother magazine to South Africa for the inaugural 2008 Global Advancement of Women summit. I also represent PwC Global on the Boston College Center for Work and the Family’s Global Workforce Round Table and am what is known as a “Sherpa” (meaning, leader, climber and one who makes things possible!) member of the World Bank’s Global Private Sector Leaders’ Forum working party on gender. Other organisations with whom we liaise and collaborate on gender related projects include the French based Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society and the Simmons School of Management in the USA.
My work on gender related projects for PwC includes researching and co-authoring the groundbreaking report on the loss of female talent “The Leaking Pipeline: Where are our female leaders? 79 women share their stories” and serving as the Executive Producer of the PwC film, “Closing the Gender Gap”, for which we identified, approached and interviewed leading business people, academics and politicians, who shared their views and hopes for the world in 2050 and how female talent can help to shape it. The film was showcased at the 2009 World Economic Forum in Switzerland and is available to view at www.pwc.com/women.
The Gender Advisory Council was named Opportunity Now’s inaugural winner of the 2009 Global Award for a diversity initiative covering three or more countries and PwC Global was also named the 2009 Number One company for global diversity by DiversityInc, again, the first time they have awarded this accolade.
On my travels, I have spoken on the topic of women in business and gender diversity at events in the UK, India, South Africa, Spain, France, Mexico, Sweden, the Netherlands and the USA and I’ve been quoted in media sources as diverse as The Times of India and on websites The Thin Pink Line and The Glass Hammer. As part of my “day job”, I oversee and provide much of the material for PwC’s external website, www.pwc.com/women, write the blog and also contribute articles and material on PwC’s global initiatives and diversity approach to publications which include Thomson-Reuters IDS Diversity at Work, Strategic HR magazine, the Opportunity Now website and the newsletter of the Australian Centre for Leadership for Women.
For more details of PwC’s award winning work in the field of gender diversity, please visit: www.pwc.com/women.
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