There are many examples of good practice, including bringing down ethnic barriers and empowering talent. We include success profiles for individuals who have become directors of FTSE 350 companies in recent years, giving insights on the barriers they faced and how they overcame them.
Non-Executive Director, St James’s Place
Lesley-Ann sits on the Boards of St James’s Place plc (SJP) and Workspace Group plc. At SJP she is a member of the Risk and Remuneration Committees and is the designated NED for Workforce Engagement. At Workspace she is Chair of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk Committees. Lesley-Ann also sits on the Boards of Homes England, the Government’s housing accelerator and Business LDN, a lobbying group promoting London as the leading business capital of the world.
Lesley-Ann‘s non-executive career is her third. Upon qualifying as an accountant, Lesley-Ann swiftly switched to Investment Banking where she spent two decades on the trading floor. She cut her teeth at UBS designing derivative linked assets for private clients and Swiss Cantons. Latterly, as a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley, she built and led a structured interbank business within the Global Capital Markets Division.
In 2013, Lesley-Ann left the private sector to join the Cabinet Office. During her seven years as a senior Civil Servant, she worked under three Prime Ministers and six different Cabinet Office Ministers. Against that turbulent backdrop, she was able to create meaningful change and significant value for the public purse.
Throughout her executive and non-executive careers, Lesley-Ann has worked hard and diligently to support and promote under-represented groups. She has a keen eye for talent combined with ambition and fosters equality of opportunity wherever she can.
Lesley-Ann is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and holds an MBA from City University Business School (formerly, CASS).
Non-Executive Director, Aviva Plc
I work as the President at Infosys Ltd — a global digital services and consulting firm with over US$ 16b in annual revenues and 275,000 employees. My career has spanned India, the US, Mexico and now Europe.
In the past three years, I grew interested in a NED role to complement my executive responsibilities. I felt that a NED role would allow me to get deep insights into how other firms managed their strategic and operational matters — it would also allow me to contribute meaningfully given my own global experience in running a large business. Technology and digitalization are powerfully reshaping businesses and I felt that my experience in enterprise technology would be a useful asset to a Board. I spoke with some mentors who had served on Boards and they recommended it as a useful tool to grow my network and to turbocharge my executive career. It would also allow me to develop a sharper strategic focus and hone my influence and persuasion skills.
In the year I have been on a FTSE 100 Board, these expectations have largely been realised. It has been a great opportunity to use a different lens from my executive role to look at a business, to learn from my Board colleagues and to contribute to the shaping of the business.
The onboarding process was very thorough — the reading material and the sessions with key executives allowed me to understand the business and it’s key drivers. The Chair and the CEO invested a significant amount of time in the selection and onboarding process and over the past year I have truly enjoyed working with my fellow Board members.
For me a NED role is not about a transition to a portfolio career. It is about using the NED experience to realise my full potential as an executive.
Non-Executive Director, Weir Group PLC
I grew up in rural Zimbabwe as one of nine siblings, moving to South Africa to join Anglo America South Africa as a graduate trainee. After ten years of working through the ranks and having held various technical positions, in 2006 I was appointed to the position of CEO Anglo Coal South Africa. During that time, I was also Chairman of Richards Bay Coal Terminal. In 2013 I left Anglo American PLC to become CEO of Lonmin PLC, a FTSE 250 company. I currently sit on three Boards.
I can ascribe my success to the depth and breadth of networks that I developed during my executive career. In addition, a head-hunter with a relevant database helped to match my values and experiences with the relevant companies in search of NEDs. I have secured all my three NED roles through head-hunters. So, it all comes down to networking and using good executive search consultants.
Global companies must embrace inclusion as a business imperative as their organisations will benefit from diverse thinking. Also, corporates should facilitate international experience opportunities for Black and minority ethnic employees.
Additionally, Boards have a duty to oversee the nurturing of internal diversity candidates via talent management and succession programmes specifically. White Board members also need to demonstrate leadership in diversity matters and not leave it to their Black and minority ethnic colleague.
Having mentors, executive coaches, and flagbearers in your economic sector of choice who can give you independent advice is important. I would also advocate exposure to industry associations where there are other global leaders that one can model oneself on and from which networks can be built.
I think reputation and integrity is critical and possibly many times more important when you are a Black role model. There is a perception that if you fail, it means the whole Black race is not good enough. Get the right support, be it from therapists or from executive coaches — I would say that you’ve got to do that even though it is daunting at times.
Non-Executive Director, WPP PLC
Tom Ilube CBE, Founder and CEO of London Stock Exchange AIM-listed Crossword Cybersecurity Plc, Chair of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and a Non-Executive Director of the global FTSE 100 advertising company, WPP PLC.
I previously served on the BBC Board and on the Technology Advisory Board of NatWest Bank. I have a strong, long-standing charitable interest in education, including roles as Founding Chair of Governors of Hammersmith Academy and Chair of the African Science Academy.
I knew that through my 50s and 60s I would want to continue to be involved in business life and that would mean, for me, moving beyond a purely executive role. I also wanted to test myself by gaining a seat around the table alongside some of the most successful and influential business people in the UK and globally.
A critical moment in my journey to being an NED was an early conversation with a senior Executive Director of a financial institution. He shared key advice which he had been given as he pivoted from Executive to Non-Executive, which was to treat his Non-Executive journey as a career and not as a position.
Chairs and CEOs should continue to put pressure on search consultants — indicate their serious intent to employ an individual from a Black and minority ethnic background (rather than just ‘longlist’ them as a tick box exercise). Exec search firms should listen out for bias and the idea of ‘risky hires’. Challenge the assumption that a traditional, mainstream career profile is the only path suitable for a serious NED position. Many suitable minority ethnic group (especially Black) professionals have had non-linear, zig zag paths (e.g., first corporate, then entrepreneurial/ charitable) and can offer value-add to business from those experiences.
In terms of offering advice, I would say see this as a career journey rather than an end goal; build your reputation and credibility in pipeline roles e.g., in smaller boards, the third sector; cut your teeth on important sub committees (Audit, Nominations, Compliance, Remuneration, ESG etc). And get to know the individual NED head-hunters in the exec search firms recruiting in your area of expertise.
Non-Executive Director, EasyJet PLC
Moni Mannings is a Non-Executive Director and Chair of Remuneration at FTSE 100 company Hargreaves Lansdown and NYSE Listed company Cazoo. She is Chair of Remuneration at both easyJet and Investec Bank where Moni is also the Senior Independent Director.
Moni is Founder of EPOC, a not-for-profit network focussed on increasing the number of people of colour on to Boards as non-executives and trustees. Moni is also a Trustee of health care charity The St Marks Hospital Foundation Trust.
Until March 2016 Moni was a senior partner in international law firm Olswang LLP having enjoyed a career spanning over three decades in legal practice as a Banking and Finance lawyer. Moni founded and led Olswang’s International Banking and Finance Division and served on Olswang’s Board for 13 years.
Moni describes herself as having a Pakistani Muslim heritage and a working-class migrant upbringing. Arriving in England aged 8, she was the first person in her extended family to attend a British University. Moni is married, has two adult children and is an enthusiastic traveller who recently fulfilled lifetime ambitions to visit Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands.