PIMFA celebrates winners of its second Diversity & Inclusion Awards and previews ‘TIDE’ launch

20 October 2022

PIMFA celebrates winners of its second Diversity & Inclusion Awards and previews ‘TIDE’ launch

PIMFA, the trade association for wealth management, investment services and the personal investment and financial advice industry, toasted the inspiring stories and initiatives from across the advice and wealth management industry last night as it held its Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Awards.

Attended by nearly 300 people from across industry, the 2022 PIMFA D&I awards, held at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in central London, received a huge number of superb entries highlighting D&I initiatives that demonstrated excellence and best practice.

The awards were created last year by PIMFA to shine a light on the excellent, often untold, stories that exist across organisations and among individuals in wealth management and advice industry, and to use these examples to inspire others to continue to strive and innovate to ensure the wealth management and advice industry better reflects the clients it serves and can create a diverse and inclusive organisation and industry.

The winners in each category were chosen by a group of industry peers alongside experts in diversity and inclusion from charities that PIMFA partner with which include Richard Wilson, Chief Executive of Interactive Investor; Peter Moores, Chief Executive of Raymond James; Jennifer Mathias, Chief Finance Officer at Rathbones; Theresa Heaton, Head of Change at Brown Shipley; Matt Cameron, Global Managing Director at LGBT Great, and Bev Shah, CEO & Founder, City Hive, among others.

This year’s winners in each awards category were:

• Inclusive Talent Management Award – Sponsored by SEI

Winner: Rothschild & Co

• Best D&I Initiative Award – Small & Medium Firms – Sponsored by Interactive Investor

Winner: Raymond James Investment Services

Highly Commended: SEI Investments (Europe)

• Best D&I Initiative Award – Large Firm – Sponsored by Charles Schwab

Winner: Rothschild & Co

• Best Industry D&I Initiative (non-firms) – Sponsored by Morningstar

Winner: Career Masterclass

• Best Approach to Wellbeing Award – Sponsored by Clearstream

Winner: Peel Hunt LLP

Highly Commended: 7IM

• Best Supplier Award – Sponsored by Sesame Bankhall Group

Winner: Howden

• Rising Talent Award – Sponsored by Raymond James

Winner: Sandra Dailidyte – Brown Shipley

Highly Commended: Victoria Olanipekun – Themis

• The Overall D&I Champion Award – Sponsored by Royal London

Winner: Deon Pillay – Legal and General Investment Management

Highly Commended: Elena Koycheva – BlueBay Asset Management

The judges also asked for a special mention to Charlotte Phillips-Lynn and Sean Taylor for their particular work on disability and creating meaningful change for people in this area of D&I that is often under-represented and considered.

This year’s awards were held in partnership with Royal London, Interactive Investor, Morningstar, SEI Investment Europe, Raymond James, ClearStream, Charles Schwab, Sesame Bankhall Group, FIS and Howden.

Those attending this year’s D&I awards were also given a sneak peek at PIMFA’s new D&I project – TIDE (Talent, Inclusion, Diversity & Equality) has been created to help promote the value of the wealth management and financial advice profession and to encourage new talent to consider this industry for their future careers.

This is a strategic objective for PIMFA and to help achieve this PIMFA have created a series of engaging and impactful videos, featuring a variety of people across our industry, that discuss how they got into the profession, it’s wider value and the opportunities that lie within it.

These videos will sit on a microsite to act as an eco-centre of resource to allow collaboration and signposting to the excellent work happening across the industry. PIMFA will officially launch the TIDE website at its Talent, Diversity & Inclusion conference on 7 December.

Liz Field, Chief Executive of PIMFA, commented: “I am delighted, as ever, to congratulate both the winners, highly commended and special mentions of this year’s Diversity & Inclusion Awards but also all those who entered the awards this year.

“The business, moral and social case for diversity and inclusion remain clear and incredibly powerful, and the firms and individuals that entered this year’s awards are all excellent examples of how we, as an industry, recognise the talents of individuals from all backgrounds and ensure that all people feel involved, valued, respected, treated fairly, and embedded within the cultures of the organisations they work for.

“As an industry we know we still have much work to do but it is heartening to see just how much effort is going into making our industry as diverse and inclusive as it can be. But PIMFA can’t just recognise the work of our peers. It is important that we make our own efforts to improve diversity and inclusion in the industry.

“With that in mind PIMFA has been working on its own initiative and I’m pleased to have been able to give those attending tonight’s awards a sneak peek of our own Talent, inclusion, Diversity & Equality (TIDE) project which I hope will help encourage diverse new talent into our crucial profession.

“This new initiative and our awards tonight are just some of the examples of this ongoing effort and we look forward to working with you all to help achieve a brighter future.  As the voice of our industry, we will continue to make D&I a priority and look to collaborate across the sector to provide resources, support and co-ordination of efforts in the years to come.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS

About PIMFA – the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association

• PIMFA is the trade association for firms that provide wealth management, investment services and the investment and financial advice to everyone from individuals and families to charities, pension funds, trusts and companies.
• The sector currently looks after £1.65 trillion in private savings and investments and employs over 63,000 people.
• PIMFA represents both full and associate member firms. Full members provide a range of financial solutions including financial advice, portfolio management, as well as investment and execution services. They assist everyone from individuals and families to charities and pension funds, all the way to trusts and companies.  Associate members provide professional services to the PIMFA community.
• PIMFA  leads the debate on policy and regulatory recommendations to ensure that the UK remains a global centre of excellence in the wealth management, investment advice and financial planning arena. Our mission is to create an optimal operating environment so that its member firms can focus on delivering the best service to clients, providing responsible stewardship for their long-term savings and investments.
• PIMFA has made numerous recommendations to the FCA regarding the Future of Advice, the Future of Supervision and the FSCS levy – read more.
• PIMFA was created in 2017 as the outcome of a merger between the Association of Professional Financial Advisers (APFA) and the Wealth Management Association (WMA) with a history as a trade association since 1991 – read more.
• Find out more about PIMFA’s Diversity and Inclusion work – read more
• Further information can be found at pimfa.co.uk

Contact

For further information on this release or other press matters please contact:

Matthew West, PIMFA PR Manager – MatthewW@pimfa.co.uk, +44 (0)20 7382 0376 / +44 (0) 7843 903258

Sheena Gillett, PIMFA Communications & PR Director – sheenag@pimfa.co.uk, +44 (0)20 7011 9869 /