Role models are absolutely critical to encourage diversity in advisory firms. RSM UK’s national leadership team is made up of just under 50% women, with four out of the nine individuals being female, including Kirsty Sandwell – who has been a partner since 2005 and is head of transactions – while Diane Craig, a partner since 2008 and a member of the Corporate Finance Faculty board, is head of capital markets. The firm continues to promote women to senior positions in corporate finance. In April this year, Sarah Barry became partner, leading the M&A team in the south east of England. A year earlier, Helen Brocklebank was promoted to partner and heads up the M&A team in the West Midlands. 

“When I look at our leadership team at RSM, I think we are doing very well when it comes to female representation,” says Brocklebank. “And we are doing well in corporate finance. Our head of transactions is female and that’s been a great example for the rest of the team. I have come up through the firm and aspire to be a similar role model for our up-and-coming talent”.  

Wheels and deals 

Brocklebank trained as an ACA with PwC in Manchester, before moving into the firm’s transaction services team. While she enjoyed the work, she was frustrated being a small cog in a big wheel on large acquisitions. One that cemented the feeling was a multi-million dollar transaction for Tata Group: “It was a high-profile deal at an early stage in my career, but that assignment didn’t show what I could do and wasn’t going to develop my skill set in the way I wanted – I wanted to be the person conducting the orchestra. 

“I wanted to be dealing with individuals, where the transaction was a game-changer for them personally, delivering what would be the biggest thing in their life at that stage – for them, for their teams and their family. Helping them to get a great deal over the line and turn a life’s work into future family wealth, or to secure the funding to take their business to the next level – that was really what I was looking for.”  

She stayed in the north west, but moved to Baker Tilly’s M&A team in 2007. In 2015, Baker Tilly merged with RSM and her career continued its upward trajectory. 

In 2018, Brocklebank was promoted to director and in December 2020 she moved to Birmingham, tasked with growing the M&A offering across the Midlands. As defined by RSM, it’s a big area – north of Watford Gap and south of Stoke, near where she is originally from. And while this relocation, away from her regional professional network, was a significant step, the strength of the local offices across that region has been at the heart of her success. 

Home-grown 

Sarah Barry is even more of an RSM ‘lifer’. After completing a six-month internship in RSM’s M&A and private equity team in London, she was offered a graduate job. She joined the firm’s M&A team in 2007 immediately after graduating from the University of Bath with a business degree. Fifteen years and two children later, she was promoted to partner in the firm: “I’m an example of the RSM strategy of growing our own – taking on interns, converting them into graduate positions and keeping as many as we can on the journey.” 

Barry says: “When I first joined, professional services firms had far less women in senior positions and that was just a fact. Undoubtedly, we have seen a shift towards more women coming through, so there are now more senior female role models. Having someone who’s been there and done it before you is always a help. The more role models we have, the easier it is for men and women coming through to see what is possible – that you can be successful in your career regardless of your family choices.” 

Of course, diversity does not just apply to gender, and flexibility does not just mean accommodating children. “Some of my colleagues are caring for a parent or have other demands,” she adds. “It’s also about having open conversations – and a supportive environment so you know you can have those conversations. That comes from the leadership team. I have never felt there was a barrier to progression over the life choices I’ve made. We are equally supportive of our male colleagues if they want to take extended and shared parental leave.” 

Brocklebank echoes Barry’s sentiment that the culture has never been “alpha male-dominated” at RSM: “It’s about doing the right thing. Why would we not want to create a supportive environment? We want all of our employees to come to work and be themselves, to feel supported and enjoy where they’re working – and, as a result, work hard.” 

Diversity of thinking 

RSM took part in the 10,000 Black Interns programme this year. “We changed our graduate entry requirements and recruitment process a few years ago with a view to increasing the diversity of our applications and removing bias from the process. It is important to increase the diversity and the background of people coming into the firm. 

“We are actively trying to increase graduate applications into corporate finance and raise awareness around diversity more generally. We do well regarding senior women in M&A, but there are some areas where – like everyone – we have room for improvement. One of the challenges is making sure our graduate recruitment in corporate finance is 50:50 men and women. If it’s not an even split at that point, it’s not going to be in the middle or senior ranks. The same applies with ethnicity and social background.” 

Brocklebank says diversity of thinking is a big benefit and, crucially, it reflects the diversity of clients. “How can we best talk to and work with our clients if we are very narrow as a business? So it’s massively important for lots of reasons that we have a diverse business.” 

Long-term relationship 

While taking her English degree at Oxford University, Helen Brocklebank had to decide what career to explore: “My degree had been really enjoyable, but I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do with my life. I had no interest in academia, or going deeper into the literary world. I knew I wanted to do something in business and I could see that the ACA would open many doors.” 

She joined the audit team at PwC in Manchester and embarked on her professional studies: “After three years of being exclusively word-focused, it was a bit of a shock to the system. But as my career evolved, now that skill of literary understanding of what’s really going on underneath the surface and crafting a story is more valuable than pure number-bashing skills.”  

Brocklebank sees corporate finance as handholding businesses across the whole life cycle of investment: “We’ve supported people to get the first equity money in and worked with the business through multiple iterations of ownership and management, until finally leading the drive to realise their value in the business.” 

One such client she points to was Connect 2 Cleanrooms, which was sold to US private equity-backed competitor Angstrom Technology in 2021. Joe and Lizzie Govier founded the specialist cleanroom provider in 2002. “They grew an incredible business from nowhere. I have nothing but sheer admiration for the entrepreneurs who have really taken that  
risk and achieved what they did. They saw a market evolving, and created an innovative business, which led the way in the sector.”  

Under Angstrom’s ownership, the business is leveraging its global reach and rolling out the unique business model across a multi-national customer base.  

Get talent early 

Sarah Barry had no family background in finance. “I knew nobody in the City and was fortunate to find my career through my placement experience. A challenge we still face is attracting others into the industry when they haven’t come across it before. In my experience, universities these days are still teaching corporate finance modules that focus on the public markets, when the majority of M&A is very different. This is unhelpful from a recruitment perspective. 

“We want to get people from all backgrounds thinking: ‘I could be good at that. I’ve got the skills to do that.’”  

Although not unheard of, it was pretty unusual to get a corporate finance internship in 2007. The far more common route was to train as a chartered accountant in audit or elsewhere in the firm, then move into corporate finance. 

The firm has steadily increased its graduate recruitment straight into corporate finance, pioneered by the London office, then rolled out across the country. This year, the RSM corporate finance team has taken on 16 placement students and 37 graduates. 

Most of RSM’s corporate finance graduates study for the ACA. In the M&A team, they can take either the ACA or ICAEW’s corporate finance qualification (although the majority opt for the former). 

Some 10 years after joining the firm, in 2017 Barry went before the promotions panel to become a director, while eight months pregnant with her first child. Part of the case for directorship was to move out of the London office. She moved to the Gatwick office, had the first of her two children and began covering the wider south east region. 

“Being a female in corporate finance and having two children who are now three and five, becoming a director, moving to a region that was new to me, then becoming head of the region in 2020 and partner this year – it’s been a busy five years,” she says. 

Within the M&A team, three partners and three directors are women with children. “The firm has been very supportive of men and women, and offers the opportunity to work flexibly. That is really important in a supportive environment.” 

First published in Corporate Financier, Issue 247, November 2022