Lisa Elliott writes.. Last week I attended the first ever Breaking The Mould Awards ran by the Financial Mail on Sunday in partnership with the 30% Club.
The awards, where Business Secretary Vince Cable was the keynote speaker, celebrated those firms doing the most to encourage women in the workplace, and came just days after it was revealed two of the seven companies in the FTSE 100 that still have no women on their boards have vowed to address the issue after being sent a letter by Cable.
The two companies, mining experts Xstrata and chemicals company Croda, both said that they were developing initiatives to tackle the issue after the Business Secretary contacted them at the start of the year asking them to outline how they were going to increase the number of female directors.
The awards were compered by Lord Sugar’s first lady of the boardroom Margaret Mountford. Such events do much to showcase the excellent work that many companies do to support and nurture their female employees.
Alongside Vince Cable and Margaret Mountford there were inspirational speeches from Lisa Buckingham OBE (Editor, Financial Mail on Sunday), Sir Roger Carr (President of the CBI, Chairman of Centrica and Chairman of the judging panel for the evening) and Helena Morrissey CBE (Chief Executive of Newton Investment Management and Founder of the 30% Club), all talking about their positive experiences and marking the work that is clearly being undertaken by many companies to support women in business. Indeed the issue of women on boards is one of growing interest.