Championing Gender Equality in Leadership: The ‘Equality Across the Board’ Talk Series

The 30% Club’s partnership with Speakers for Schools launched with a debate on the theme of ‘Equality across the Board’, to encourage the ambitions and talent of young girls as the next generation of female leaders.

The campaign kicked off with a live panel event chaired by Helena Morrissey, CEO of Newton Investment Management and Founder of The 30% Club. Helena moderated a discussion between Sir Roger Carr (Chairman, BAE Systems), Douglas Flint (Group Chairman, HSBC), Sir Nicholas Montagu (Chairman, Financial Ombudsman Service), Fiona Dunsire (CEO, Mercer UK), Sarah Sadek-Attalla (Headgirl) and Samuel Wilson (Headboy) at the St Angela’s Ursuline School in Newham.

The 30% Club’s collaboration with Speakers for Schools was initiated with a fortnight of talks from top business leaders, encouraging girls to see their potential in leadership positions.

A host of leading industry executives delivered a series of talks on the theme of ‘Equality Across the Board’ to teenagers help encourage and make them aware that opportunities and workplaces are changing, especially for women, and gender should not prevent them from fulfilling their aspirations.

Top voices involved included:

• Sir Peter Gershon, Chairman of Tate & Lyle;
• Robert Swannell, Chairman of Marks & Spencer;
• Ian Powell, Chairman of PwC;
• Steven Lovegrove, Permanent Secretary for DECC;
• Sir John Parker, Chairman of Anglo American PLC and

A new collaboration between the 30% Club and S4S aims to help progress diversity from the schoolroom to the boardroom.

Each year Speakers for Schools runs a national talk series in state schools on a topic important to both young people and our speakers — to see more themes and talk series over the years see our Campaigns Page.