DiverCity Podcast: Talking Diversity and Inclusion in the Financial Services Industry

In this episode I interview Dr Catriona Wallace, named by the Australian Financial Review as Australia’s most influential woman in business and entrepreneurship. Dr Wallace is a much sought after speaker on leadership in times of crisis and last week Yahoo Finance published her article “Bushfires to Covid-19: What makes a good leader in a time of crisis?” She is a leading authority in Artificial Intelligence, Adjunct Professor of the Australian Graduate School of Management and Founder & Executive Director of fintech firm Flamingo.AI, the second only woman-led business to list on the Australian Securities Exchange.

In this episode, host Julia Streets is joined by Dr Nancy Doyle, Chartered Psychologist and founder and CEO of Genius Within CIC and Andy Gibson, award-winning entrepreneur, author and Head Gardener of Mindapples. They discuss how workplaces are not ideally set up to accommodate neurodiverse individuals in comparison to ‘neurotypical’ employees, attitudes towards mental health in the working environment and in general, the physical versus mental health prioritisation imbalance, the intersectionality of neurodiversity and mental health, and what financial services organisations must consider adopting to help people make the most of their minds.

In this episode, host Julia Streets is joined by Claire Calmejane, Group Chief Innovation Officer for Societe Generale, and Gemma Young, Founder of the DiversiTech Hub and Women of FinTech. They discuss the female global workforce, the importance of prioritising inclusion over diversity and how policy can be used as a lever to drive inclusion. They also explore innovations in banking, tech and digital platforms, how diversity sits on par with climate change as a business imperative, and the demands and expectations from the next generation around the future of work.

Host Julia Streets is joined by BBC presenter Jane Hill and partnership and sponsorship consultant Polly Shute discuss the lack of visibility of gay women in society. They consider why LGBTQ+ networks are failing to support and represent the female members of their community, addressing the central question, 'Where are the women?' This wide ranging discussion explores the connotations around language, how identity has changed over time, the reality of the double glass ceiling, what support rising executives need and how corporate and LGBTQ+ networks can become more effective for women, in terms of both gender and intersectional balance. In this episode recorded during LGBTQ+ History Month in the UK, the discussion charts the changes and progress of Pride, Diva Media Group's plans for Lesbian Visibility Week and how organisations can get involved.

To launch Series 7, Gavin Lewis, Managing Director at BlackRock and co-creator of The Diversity Project’s #TalkAboutBlack initiative joins host Julia Streets in the studio. Gavin explains how the initiative was formed, discusses the taboo subject of race in Britain today and offers many personal perspectives and insights. They explore the challenges of moving up the career ladder and highlights some obstacles that black and other ethnic minorities may face along the way. Gavin’s insights are further supported by advice from Raphael Mokades, Founder and Managing Director of Rare Recruitment. This episode is timed to align with The City A.M. Diversity Decodes Event ‘We have to talk about Race’ hosted by Julia and where Raphael featured as a one of four panellists talking about how to attract and retain ethnic minority candidates.

In this episode host Julia Streets interviews Dr Catriona Wallace, a leading authority in artificial intelligence and Founder & Executive Director of fintech firm Flamingo.AI, the second only woman-led businesses ever to list on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Recorded from Dr Wallace’s boardroom, we explore diversity and AI bias, war stories from her capital raising experience, Dr Wallace’s ‘Heroine’s Journey’ laying out the important stages of the female lifespan and what they mean for men and women alike, offering practical tips for ‘good men’ in supporting gender inclusion.

At a time when New South Wales is in the midst of raging bushfires, Dr Wallace shares profoundly personal experiences of the destruction of millions of hectares of farmland in Australia - including her own - and the role that disruptive technologies can play to tackle climate change.

We think this is a perfectly (and deliberately) timed episode for the holiday season: ideal for road trips; family discussions and general downtime, as much of this conversation challenges us to think about the financial services D&I discussion more deeply and beyond into the reality of our world at large.

We hope you enjoy this episode and from us all, thank you for all your support. We wish you all a very happy and healthy festive season and look forward to returning with more interviews with industry leaders next year. Thank you for listening.

This episode was recorded live at the Women in Payments Conference in Sydney, Australia on 20 November 2019.

Our host Julia Streets is joined by Jackie Kallman, Head of Payments Industry and Engagement at ANZ, Deanne Keetelaar, General Manager of Payments & Financial Services, Product & innovation for Australia Post, and Felicity Blake, responsible for ACI’s New Zealand client portfolio.

This discussion explores the changing and challenging dynamics of the recruitment process, what organisations can consider in order to appeal to entry level talent and retention over time, the importance of culture, changing leadership dynamics and why we must keep D&I on the agenda during more challenging economic times.

In this episode, Julia Streets is joined by Lee Willows, Founder and CEO of Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM), and Gavin Stewart, Associate Director at Grant Thornton UK LLP, discussing financial education and the transformation of regulation in financial services. In this candid discussion Lee Willows shares his personal journey of gambling addiction and recovery. The two share thoughts about digital resilience, privacy and security, RegTech and how financial services can help consumers and investors achieve better financial wellbeing.

In this episode we explore the important subject of disability with Diane Lightfoot, CEO of the Disability Business Forum. Disability isn't necessarily the preserve of the few. Given that some 83% of disabilities are acquired rather than present at birth, we may well be affected at some point in our lives. We discuss the business benefits and the organisational transformation potential for hiring disabled people and Diane helps define some of the language of disability. As always, we offer practical tips and set out a multitude of suggestions about how employees of all abilities can best work together to embrace employees with both visible and non-visible disabilities and long-term conditions.

From time to time we like to seek insight and opinion and expertise beyond our world of financial services. Recorded at the House of Lords, Lord Hayward of Cumnor and Trevor Phillips OBE discuss the pivotal legislative changes which paved the way for the Equality Act 2010. Looking beyond the Act and the Protected Characteristics, they discuss Artificial Intelligence, data, the significance of the digital universe and automatic decision making.