Vodafone is the overall winner of Financial Mail on Sunday’s inaugural Breaking the Mould awards, which celebrate firms doing most to encourage women.
The awards ceremony was held days after it was revealed that two of the seven companies in the FTSE 100 that still have no women on their board promised to address the issue after Business Secretary Vince Cable wrote to them.
Cable, who was keynote speaker at the awards at the Institute of Directors’ headquarters in Pall Mall, Central London, said there had been positive responses from mining giant Xstrata and chemicals company Croda.
Winner Tina Southall receives Vodafone’s award from Margaret Mountford.
BAE Systems, winner in the Large Corporate category, sponsored by BNY Mellon, was congratulated for attracting women to engineering.
The awards were held two years after the Davies Review set a target of 25 per cent female representation on boards by 2015.
William Hill took the award in the Medium-sized Corporate category, sponsored by John Lewis, while Withers Worldwide won the Professional Services category, sponsored by Nationwide.