Following on from last week’s unveiling of the latest group of emerging female digital leaders to join the “Empowering Women to Lead Digital Transformation” program, the organisers have announced that Lloyds Banking Group has become the most recent high-profile company to pledge their support.
The parent group to Scotland’s oldest bank has been a long-term advocate of the need to address the gender disparity in technology roles and their decision to join The Scottish Government, ScotlandIS and Scottish Digital Academy in supporting the “Empowering…” program is just the latest example of their commitment in this space.
The Autumn program is running from September – November and brings together over twenty female digital professionals from across the public and private sectors, who have been selected from a Scotland-wide open application process which attracted record levels of interest. All places on the program are free of charge to participants, with the funding provided by a combination of government and industry partners.
The final make-up of the cohort has been agreed by the program’s panel of experts including Karen Meechan, chief executive at ScotlandIS, Roz Britton, Head of Talent Attraction and Capability for the Digital Profession at The Scottish Government and senior representatives from across industry, including Lloyds Banking Group’s own Lead Product Owner, Leslee Ross.
Leslee Ross and fellow Product Lead Gillian Henderson are spearheading the bank’s support for the initiative and when asked why the financial felt gender diversity was such an import issue for the digital profession, responded, “Lloyds Banking Group is on a journey to improve our senior female representation throughout our organisation. We are excited to be supporting the Empowering Women to Lead Digital Transformation programme this Autumn and believe that taking part in such programmes is a responsibility we should all shoulder as an industry. The more of us who collaborate to tackle the challenge of gender parity, the more we can continue to remove the barriers and enable women to succeed in the new digital world and inspire future generations to do the same.
“Holding a position of influence whilst developing your own authentic leadership style requires confidence that can be accelerated with the support of role models, mentors, and allies. We are really excited that this programme brings the opportunity to rise to the challenge with our industry peers, and grants us the privilege to really make a difference to a new movement of innovators, creators and leaders in the digital world.”
Further information on the “Empowering Women to Lead Digital Transformation” program in Scotland can be found at – EW to Lead Digital – Scotland | Empowering You (empowering-you.co.uk).