WOMEN ON BOARDS: HEALTHY FOR BOYS, GIRLS AND THE BOTTOM LINE
FOLLOWING the formation of the 30 Per Cent Club last month, which aims to get women filling 30 per cent of boardroom seats, shocking new research will hit City bookshelves this week, revealing what we at The Capitalist already suspected: upping the number of women in the boardroom is good for profits.
The findings are released in a new book called Coaching Women to Lead, written by White Water Strategies’ trio, Averil Leimon, François Moscovici and Helen Goodier.
They purport to show that a more even male-female balance at the top could make companies 11 per cent better-off, but only if women can be coaxed out of their demure shells with confidence-boosting methods and tips for addressing work-life-balance.
And companies might have to expand their sights outside the usual men in suits: with the baby boomers about to sail off into retirement, 650,000 senior posts will be left vacant next year alone – making it a good time for ambitious women with their sights set on the top.
MANDY’S SPARKLE
Surfacing after his recent appearance on BBC documentary, Mandelson: The Real PM? (fresh off the yacht in Corfu if his banter with chancellor George Osborne is to be believed) former business secretary Lord Mandelson will be doing the book promotion rounds in the heart of the City this week.
Perhaps in an attempt to recapture some of the “Mandelsonian sparkle” that documentary-maker Hannah Rothschild rather cruelly claimed he had lost at the end of the film, Mandy will be signing and selling his political memoir The Third Man at Daunt Books over lunchtime on Thursday.
The perfect accompaniment to a Pret sandwich, surely?
The Capitalist can’t help but wonder if RBS chief executive Stephen Hester, spotted by yours truly having a very friendly chinwag with the dark prince at the Finsbury annual party last month, will be popping by.
IN THE MUD
The Oxford-Cambridge rugby teams’ annual varsity match, sponsored by Nomura, will kick off on Thursday this week at Twickenham.
And you can expect to spy several top execs from the company on the terraces. Nomura chief of operations and wholesale president Jesse Bhattal will be joined by chief administrative officers of wholesale Paul Spanswick and John Phizackerley, hopefully keeping themselves safely away from the compelling mud and muscles combo on the pitch.
Time for City Oxbridge alumni to place their bets.