Accounting & Business: Promoting female leaders
Suzanne Locke 14 December 2022
In the campaign to have more than just a handful of women on board seats in the UAE, women leaders can themselves be one of the big drivers of change, says Accounting & Business (AB), reporting on ACCA’s recent ‘Women in Finance: Leading the Next Generation’ event in Dubai.
The event was part of ACCA Middle East’s Mending the Gap initiative to create more chances for women to succeed in the profession. It champions a united approach to building better paths for women.
Diana Wilde, founder of Aurora50, told the ACCA event attendees: “It’s about women asking different questions to men.
“When you have that diversity of thought, people ask different questions, which means IQ and knowledge is of greater value.
“As a collective, a mixed group, the intelligence goes up. You ask different questions, you are going to get better answers.”
It’s about women asking different questions to men.
Aurora50 co-founder Diana Wilde
Ms Wilde went on to say that Aurora50’s first initiative was to increase the number of women on boards in the UAE through its
Pathway20 accelerator.
“There’s a huge amount of talent here that is untapped. It’s just difficult to see it. Everybody plays a role in that, women included,” she said.
Ms Wilde added: “It has a trickle-down effect. If we see more women in boardrooms, we see more women in management, and that in itself encourages more women to go and work for those companies.
“It creates this virtuous circle, and this is incredibly important for us to do.”
More women in boardrooms creates this virtuous circle.
Aurora50 co-founder Diana Wilde
Ms Wilde put forward her own five-step plan to help speed up female inclusion in the boardroom.
The first step is for women to strategically plan their own careers, with the next step being the building of competency, experience, connections and soft skills.
Branding is the third step, with women leveraging their network, while step four focuses on developing an executive and board career while maintaining a good work/ life balance.
The fifth and final step is giving back.
Ms Wilde said: “It is vitally important that those at the top send the elevator back down and help more women take their seats within the boardroom.
“If you can mentor or coach you can support more women. You don’t have to wait until you are in the boardroom before you start driving that difference.”
