DE&I – Understanding the Impact

An image of four women

It is widely known that a diverse workforce and leadership team bring huge benefits to organisations.  A 2020 report by McKinsey highlighted that more diverse teams are likely to financially outperform less diverse counterparts, whilst Deloitte has reported that diversity can significantly improve innovation.

In 2021, we made the decision to focus our Next Generation CFO events on raising the profile of female CFOs. There is still a large disparity in the number of females making it to leadership roles within finance (recent figures from Deloitte’s Women in the Boardroom report puts the number of female CFOs at 15.2% for the UK), so it has been hugely encouraging to be able to highlight the career paths of some female CFOs in Scotland and provide inspiration to the next generation of finance leaders.

Our three latest Next Generation CFO events featured Arlene Cairns of James Donaldson & Sons, Lindsay Dixon of STV, and Ashleigh Greenan of Calnex Solutions PLC.  At our next event we’ll hear from Alyson Donaldson, CFO at IVC Evidencia. Alyson previously worked for Diageo for a number of years before joining Vets Now as CFO in 2021.

We understand that DE&I goes much further than shining a spotlight on gender diversity. Through our membership with enei and our work with Diversity Scotland, Rutherford Cross is working hard to ensure that our organisation, and the recruitment processes we run, are as diverse, equitable, and inclusive as possible.