We’re inviting three panels of men from a range of industries and backgrounds to join us at this free event to discuss how, together, we can make this year’s International Women’s Day theme of “An Equal World is an Enabled World’ a reality.
Head of the SME for the North West at Barclays, Andrew Horner, will be joining us to share his views and experiences on our strategic panel.
We get to know a bit about Andrew ahead of the event:
What is your role/organisation?
I am Head of the SME North West Team which is a 75 colleague business looking after SME clients across the North West of England.
How diverse is your current leadership team – and/or what initiatives are in place that you support?
From a gender perspective my leadership team is very diverse. I have 5 Area Directors 3 of which are female and I have 8 Relationship Directors who manage my larger clients – 2 of these are Female and 2 of the males identify as BAME . As an employer we take diversity very seriously and run different talent programs to attract and retain the best talent from as diverse a spectrum as possible. Nationally I take the lead on engaging with our LBGT+ network and am a Spectrum Ally internally (Think Ambassador) Personally I believe it is my own responsibility as a leader to drive inclusion and actively seek out talent from areas where a standard approach to recruitment would not find it.
What career advice would you give your younger self?
Have confidence because there is no magic wand, if you have an opinion share it to start a conversation and be prepared to listen and learn.
Have you any role models that have inspired you during your career to date?
Role Models to me are a bit like mentors or coaches – they evolve with time and you get different things from them, One of the greatest line managers I ever had – Dave Allanson taught me to never ever give up and simply trusted me to do a great job, I don’t think I ever went above and beyond more than my time with him and I try and do the same with my teams now. I’ve had some quite humbling role models along the way and my reverse coach from within the LGBT+ community has taught me a lot about the fear of simply being yourself at work which really opened my eyes to the work still to be done on inclusion. If you ever want to put you own career in context spend some time with our Regional Chair of the IOD Sharon Ameusu who is also one of the DIrectors of Flourish Together and one of the most amazing people I have ever met in terms of her humility and her sheer determination to create change,
Join us and Andrew for an evening of collaboration, debate and lots of fun! Grab your free ticket today.
