Helena Morrissey DBE

Parliamentarian & Non-executive director of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office & St. James’s Place Wealth Management & Founder at 30% Club

Speaker

Helena has over three decades’ experience in financial services, including 15 years as CEO of Newton Investment Management, during which time the firm’s assets under management grew from £20bn to £50bn. She was Chair of the Investment Association from 2014-17. She is a non-executive director at FTSE100 company St. James’s Place Wealth Management.

Helena is well known for her work on inclusion and diversity. In 2010, she founded the 30% Club, a campaign for better gender-balanced boards. Since then, the representation of women on FTSE350 boards has risen from less than 10% to over 30%. There are now fourteen 30% Clubs throughout the world. Helena chairs the Diversity Project, aimed at improving inclusion and diversity across all dimensions in the investment industry.

Helena has recently been appointed the lead non-executive director at the newly merged Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. She enters the House of Lords in September 2020 and was appointed a Dame in 2017 for her work on diversity in financial services.

Helena was named Person of the Year in 2017 by the Financial Times at its Boldness in Business awards and one of ‘The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders’ by Fortune magazine. Her first book, A Good Time to be a Girl - don’t lean in change the system was one of Forbes’ five most empowering books for women in 2018.