The Women’s Accelerator Program aims to accelerate the progress of high-performing female talent through the business, eroding the gender disparity at mid- and senior-management levels to provide a clear path for career progression. As part of the financial services industry, Apex Group is taking accountability, putting this proactive initiative in place to play a part in addressing this inequity.

This merit-based program is part of the Group’s commitment to women’s empowerment and driving positive change in the industry. Women make up around 52% of the workforce across the financial services industry, but that percentage declines at each rung of the career ladder resulting in representation of 37% at mid-management, and just 16% in the C-Suite[1].

62 women from 16 locations across the Group have been invited to join the inaugural program in 2022. The Women’s Accelerator will provide discussion forums for members to share experiences, discuss challenges and celebrate successes to nurture development and encourage peer-to-peer learning and mentorship.

Members will be offered access to:

• Monthly closed-room roundtables and community forum
• Invitations to hear and learn from female speakers
• Networking and mentoring opportunities
• Additional tailored training and development courses
• Opportunity for fast-track career progression

The program will equip participants with additional resources to further their careers, faster. By sharing experiences with a community of peers, individuals will better build a better understanding of their strengths and weakness, helping them to develop and evolve as professionals.

Apex Group recognises that this program requires the assumption of a binary gender definitions in order to generate measurable outcomes against currently available datasets. In 2021, Apex encouraged and empowered employees to display their preferred gender pronouns in e-mail signatures as part of a Group-wide inclusivity initiative and will continue to focus on inclusivity in 2022.

This is the latest demonstration of Apex Group’s commitment to supporting diversity, equity and inclusion and driving positive change in the financial services industry. It follows the launch of the Group’s Shadow Executive Committee in 2019 which culminated in the appointment of Rosie Guest, Chief Marketing Officer, and Vikita Patel, Chief Human Resources Officer to its Executive Committee.

Rosie Guest, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Committee Program Sponsor comments: “This is a program we are really proud of and is completely necessary. Women are still underrepresented at management and senior leadership levels within financial services and although this is not an issue unique to our business, it important to us that we lead the charge in driving positive change. The program is not about quotas, or promoting women over men, it’s about nurturing our existing female talent and driving equity in progression. Diverse teams perform better, and we have an excellent pool of female talent across the Group so are passionate about accelerating their progression to erode gender disparity across more senior levels of our business.”

[1] https://www.skema.edu/skema-news/research-gender-diversity-in-banking-industry