Meet The Members Event Review
October 26, 2021

On Thursday, October 4th The Power 50 held a “Meet the Members” virtual networking event to allow attendees to meet and network with the current members of the cohort.

After a short networking introduction on the Remo platform, the event kicked off with a fireside chat featuring Power 50 influencers: Ghela Boscovich, founder of FemTechGlobal and Dr Leda Glyptis, Chief Client Officer at 10x Future Technologies. The conversation started with Leda explaining that they have both been in the industry for a very long time, with herself focusing on the “plumbing” of banking. “I work in the plumbing and pieces of tech that connects all the bits together, the unsexy, the unglamorous but absolutely essential piece of digital services.”

Ghela on the other hand works on the data side of this equation, both regulatory and commercial, on what it can and can’t look like and how it should work.

“We very rarely get to talk about these things together,” said Leda, “but the two need to exist together and exist together well.”

Ghela continued: “What both of us look at is the interior and the exterior. For me, I’ve been living in the regulatory space, specifically looking at open banking policy. Inside of that policy, we’ve predicated things on consumer data, and everything expands from this particular point. How you’re then able to connect or have interoperable systems is a very different thing: from who owns the data to how can that data be used and how can it be moved. That’s the big question, which is the infrastructure question, and it's about looking at an approach that modernises the mobility and portability of data.

The pair continued their insightful discussion and took questions from the audience on the topic.

Women in Fintech

Next on the agenda was a panel discussion revolving around women in fintech. Hosted by Gina Clarke, Editor and Chief of The Fintech Times, the panellists were Joanne Dewar, CEO of Global Processing Services, Sam Seaton, CEO of Moneyhub.

With 30% of the fintech workforce made up of women, with that figure dropping to just 17% when it comes to women in leadership roles, Gina asked the guests why there is such a lack of women at the top of fintech.

Joanne said: “There are so many different reasons, both in terms of tech in particular - where there's a challenge all the way through - and in leadership across all industries there are challenges too. So you bring those two together in fintech and you’ve really got a very small cohort. It's a crying shame as those that are around are demonstrating that they’re both incredibly talented but also very strong leaders with progressive approaches benefiting the industry and the wider world.

“I’m desperate to make a difference, and in our organisation, I’m pleased to report we’re not on those stats. Helped by not only having me as a female CEO, but we also have a very specific agenda on diversity and inclusion and belonging specifically, with 40% of our wider leadership team are female, with 35% across the entire organisation.

Sam continued: “It’s really tough. Whenever we’re looking to hire developers or engineers etc it's very difficult to find women to fill those roles.

“I actually think it’s two key things: the lack of role models and the lack of what financial services as an industry does. Financial services is so broad, there are so many places you can start. Unfortunately for all of those areas, there aren’t enough role models in place to enable more women to be welcome.”

Gina continued to ask whether the burden of care women face make leadership positions inaccessible to them, with Sam saying “It's got to be about flexibility, and I really hope with the pandemic we’ve cracked that finally. I’ve always been a huge advocate of how it doesn’t matter where you do your work from.”

Joanne added: “There are many options on how to be able to balance child care and a career, but they’re not often spoken about. So for those making those decisions in their late 20’s early 30s and you can’t see the potential options, you make assumptions around work and family. Either you have to stop working or you’re full-blown back to work and have to rely on external child care support. And there's nothing in between, whereas actually there's a whole spectrum of options that we don’t talk about.”

Finally, the conversation turned to the future, with the panel looking at what the situation could be in 5-10 years “if we get it right now.”

“I’m very much hoping that it is quite different for men and women,” said Joanne. “Enabling women to have more senior roles with higher commitments isn’t just about women but a wholly supportive environment. I’m super fortunate to have a supportive husband that’s able to pick up the string. Outside of the pandemic, I do a lot of travel, and that just doesn't work without a support infrastructure. It's crucial that all jobs become flexible, not just jobs for women.

Sam concluded: “I agree it’s got to be equalised for both because that will mean that men who want to take a more active role in the home can, and if you prevent them from doing that you’re also preventing women from doing more in the workplace.

“The other thing we have to acknowledge is that you have to work out for you personally what you’re willing to give and what you’re not. There's nothing in life that doesn’t come with compromise, and you have to figure out where you are willing to compromise.”

The event then concluded with a chance for attendees to virtually network on the Remo platform.

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