Description

Fiona Hathorn is the CEO of Women on Boards UK (WOB), an organisation committed to accelerating women into non-executive director roles. She is also an expert in the areas of Governance, Regulation and Talent Management who has sat on marketing, audit and finance committees. Fiona is an advisory panel member for the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), an advisory board member of a gender pay gap technology company called Spktral, advisor to Peel Hunt (mid-cap stockbroker) and Chair of Hanx’s Nominations Committee (a relatively new FMCG sexual health start-up). In this episode of ‘Representation Matters’, Fiona discusses her decision to launch WOB UK, the leadership and company culture issues that hinder diversity in the boardroom and why data is so important in achieving greater diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Episode Highlights:

1. Fiona’s upbringing and her career journey so far.
   
2. How Fiona was inspired to found Women on Boards UK.
   
3. Why companies need to openly and transparently publicise Board roles to increase diversity.
   
4. What makes an effective C-Suite leader?
   
5. Fostering conscious inclusion in the workplace.
   

Quotes from the podcast:

1. ‘Most boards want diversity, they want inclusion, but they don’t want anybody they don’t know…so they fish in the same ponds.’ (9:52)
   
2. ‘If you really want to make a difference you need to fix the top, but you also need to fix the bottom and inspire people in society, no matter who they are, to make them understand that the boardroom matters, and that there is a boardroom position out there for everyone no matter what age you are.’ (7:43)
   
3. ‘Diverse teams better, but they only perform better if you have the right leadership in place.’ (16:20)