Helen Weir: Lloyds Banking Group

Role: executive director of retail banking
Location: United Kingdom
Career highlights: becoming an executive director

Helen Weir is one of the few senior female executives in the FTSE100 group of companies.

As Helen points out, “most of the women at the top are in non executive roles.”

However - Helen believes the gender imbalance will be corrected gradually.

'Ten years ago, the percentage would have been much smaller. It’s not going to be a revolution, but an evolution. Nowadays, it’s a matter of choice and talent rather than prejudice.'

Helen says she has never encountered sexism. 'I’ve never felt that I’ve been treated as anything other than an equal.' 

She says that one of the great advantages has been her qualification as chartered management accountant.

'One of the benefits of a professional qualification like CIMA is that it provides a genuinely objective benchmark. It demonstrates that I have the core skills and abilities as a management accountant and it makes me equal to other people with the same qualification. It's a great foundation to build on.' 

When it comes to her personal outlook, Helen says she’s ‘gender blind’.

'It’s not something that I think about it terms of myself or my team. My focus is on looking for the very best talent.' 

She is confident that there is an encouraging amount of female talent in the pipeline. 'I’ve just put together a new leadership team and out of the 13 members, five are women  - which is pretty unusual in banking.'