Janice Clement-Smith

M&A director, Forvis Mazars

“Corporate finance is still very male dominated, especially at senior levels, where there are still not many females. The biggest challenge is retention. There is decent representation at manager level and below, but this often coincides with starting a family. It’s not necessarily always the firm that creates the ceiling for women’s progression – the deal environment can be challenging because it involves long and often unpredictable hours. It is a balancing act to make it work, but it can be done.

“I’ve also had very supportive male role models, especially after having children. It is slightly easier when you are more senior as you have more control over your diary. We haven’t had juniors in that place yet. But it’s all about communication, so even in a deal advisory world where people are depending on you for lots of moving parts, it’s not going to fall apart because you’re away from your desk for an hour. 

“I sit down informally every quarter with the female staff in my team and we talk about what’s on their minds. For those who are not my direct appraisees, I try to act as a mentor. I also sit on the deals and financing committee, where there‘s good female representation. It’s important to stay visible.”

Cara Haffey

M&A deals partner and UK leader of industrials and services, PwC

“I have seen a big change in the make-up of teams in private equity houses. People have trained with accountancy firms and then moved across. In the main, if you look at the UK mid-market houses, they now have diverse teams and they have to put their values and purpose out there if they are to get anywhere at the start. 

“People have to want what that career will offer them, as well as what it demands from them. For us, we have proportional promotion on the basis of gender and minority ethnicity, and across the regions and London. 

“Work, though, is won through long-term relationships and if you’re off for a while that can be difficult. Corporate finance is not by its nature repeat work, even if engagements are with some of the same clients. There are different requirements for different deals and so it can be quite hard to stay close to that if you’re away for any length of time. But obviously that point is just as relevant to paternity leave, so it affects men as well as women. However, it’s one area we have certainly worked on. We now have a lot of structure around return from parental leave and the uptake by men is pretty good. 

“When women take maternity leave, it tends to be in that really difficult period when they are senior manager or assistant director. I remember those times and feeling really under pressure for delivery, plus origination, plus leadership. So it’s about giving those women the power to be in charge – and that needs flexibility every day. They need hands-on support and sponsorship. We are led in deals by a woman now. She talks about her children, how she has achieved a work balance and what the challenges were – that’s a positive role model.”

Louise Farrer

M&A partner and private equity and financial investors lead for UK strategy, risk and transactions advisory, Deloitte 

“As a junior, I felt diversity was primarily focused on gender, but as a firm and in the wider business community, the conversation is now much more about diversity in its broader sense. I felt my challenges became less about being a woman and more about: ‘Do I belong? Can I see myself in a senior role in this organisation?’ Of course, differences might exist due to gender or race, but they can also be due to character or socio-economic background.

“There’s often this expectation of senior women that by definition they should be role models. I often think that’s extra pressure on people who already have to deal with a lot of challenges to get there. There were not many women in senior positions when I joined, but on my very first job in transaction services there was a female director and a female partner – they were excellent with clients and adding value, and just happened to be women. There were also some male leaders I saw as role models. I learned from them how they balanced family and work life, and the team culture they built.

“At Deloitte, we have changed the director and partner promotion process. Women who have children often take time out of the business at a very critical part of their career, so we have flexed our processes to cater for that. I’ve always been a great believer that one of the best ways to level the playing field between men and women is equality around maternity and paternity leave. From the start of this year, we have offered equal parental leave to fathers and mothers.

“The more diversity you have, the less likely you are to lose talented team members who will leave if they can’t see leaders they can relate to. Being more diverse means we are a better reflection of the businesses that we’re working for, and of society. But fundamentally, to me, it’s about having the best people to add value to clients. You want diversity of thought at senior level and you really don’t want to lose that talent. 

Some clients demand it of us.”

Eleanor Lothian

Corporate finance manager, Price Bailey

“To get support across the board, it’s important that female appointments and promotions are made on merit. Women want to know that they are there because of the work they do, rather than because it helps some metrics. It’s an important element of encouraging women in corporate finance.

“Whether male or female, whoever works in the sector is aware of the nature of the work from the outset. It’s not necessarily 9-to-5 and there will always be a point in a process where they have to work around client expectations, business needs and the deal timetable. 

“Where there is a possibility for flexibility, that is beneficial to all. Colleagues, male and female, will sometimes finish at 4pm to do the school run and then pick up some work in the evening. That flexibility is something many appreciate and helps in many ways.

“We had some flexible working before the pandemic, but it’s more widely accepted now – there is now an expectation of flexibility. People are trusted to manage their own time and get the work done, but can keep their personal commitments as well.

“There might be some aspect of diversity bringing different perspectives and therefore helping achieve a better balance of advice that’s more reflective of the people that are impacted by a transaction, but I don’t think that’s necessarily gender specific. There are different qualities in everyone – it just might be that some people are more dominant than others.”

Nicola Sartori

Corporate finance partner and head of consumer industries, Grant Thornton

“There isn’t parity of male-females at senior level in the corporate finance market and we also see that in Grant Thornton’s corporate finance teams. But we are doing a lot to improve that, not least because of the huge female talent pool the industry misses out on. But I think within the corporate finance industry, it’s particularly complex and there are lots of different factors that need to be resolved to solve it. We have spent a long time looking at how we can improve that, from how we recruit, through to what the pipeline for promotions looks like and how we can ensure fairness at promotion stages. It is everything from role models through to flexible working. A big part of it is the outside perception of what corporate finance actually is. And I think that’s a big hurdle right at the start for women who are deciding whether to enter corporate finance or not in the first place.”

Tarifa Simpson

Partner and head of due diligence, Forvis Mazars

“I do find myself in male-dominated environments. However, a range of role models is a priority for me and this spans across many aspects of diversity. It is key to an individual’s reference point of how to progress and the potential for their own career, as well as a sounding board during challenging times. 

“I have worked in deals for more than 20 years and I’ve certainly met hurdles along the way. I’ve countered this through my own personal drive and wanting to push past barriers. M&A is such a fascinating and interesting part of our profession, which is why I’ve done it for so long. It has given me the opportunity to travel and work with a range of teams, leaders and businesses. That’s why I encourage other women to be open to similar opportunities. Sometimes there’s pressure to take advantage of every opportunity – which I am not proposing; just be open to them. That has led me to some roles that have helped build up my skill set, become a more resilient and pragmatic adviser and lean into my own personal management and leadership style. 

“I think boundaries and managing expectations are absolutely key at any level, but particularly when taking on more senior roles. In my time at the firm, I’ve been given the freedom to operate and that means that I haven’t needed to adjust my working hours. Clearly, reduced and flexible hour arrangements are important and valuable to our teams. But ultimately, we are trusted to do the right thing for our people, our clients and the business, and therefore have the discretion to do it in a way that works for the individual. 

“There has been a huge amount of opportunity to support initiatives beyond my client-facing role. While these lean into the aspects of diversity, inclusion and wellbeing that are hugely important to me and that I’ve supported for a number of years, my boundaries have also been respected. I have mentored many individuals in my career to date. The more structured routes, where you are assigned a mentor, are great and break down some of the boundaries if you are new to a firm or haven’t developed your own internal network. I have also benefited from these discussions and been somewhat reverse-mentored on what I could do better or differently.”

Helen Roxburgh

Corporate finance partner and head of public company M&A, KPMG

“When I became a partner in 2018 and moved from Leeds to London, the most senior female individual in the team was an associate director – there were no female directors or partners. I was KPMG’s first female M&A partner, but now in London we have many more senior members in the team and we’ve got a female partner in Manchester. 

“So it has been improving, but not as fast as I would like. I lead the Women in Corporate Finance group for KPMG and the challenge is always wanting to see results immediately. There is an inherent issue with the number of women actually in the market. We need to make sure we’re bringing in a gender balance at junior level and then retain them so that we’ve got the senior women of the future. That’s not a 12-month job. 

“Retention is key. Where we have struggled to retain women is not when they go and have children, but when they’re thinking about having a family and what their work style needs to look like. I don’t have children, so it’s very hard for me to hold myself up as a role model, but we have got quite a few senior women from partner level down who are working mothers and they can share their stories. 

“We have quarterly Women in Corporate Finance get-togethers to share our experiences and raise any issues – we felt it was really important to develop a sense of community. There is always at least one male partner in the room so they get a direct insight into the topics we’re discussing. 

“We have an external coaching programme for managers, associate directors and directors in the promotion process across KPMG and including the corporate finance service line, to give them the skills for the new position. We are trying to make sure women feel confident enough to push for promotion and, once promoted, that they have the right support in that initial phase. Having mentorship and sponsorship to support them when they are new in grade is so important. 

“Some of the best role models and mentors I’ve had have been middle-aged men. A good mentoring relationship works both ways – they’ve learned from what I’ve faced and I’ve learned from them. I always encourage people to look broadly across our advisory business.”

Hayley Brightmore-Cox

Partner and head of North West corporate finance, Saffery

“I founded Knight Transaction Services in Manchester in 2021 and in 2023 the team all moved to Saffery. I joined as a partner and during the conversations prior to joining, I found out I was pregnant. I had an honest conversation with them about whether it would work as I didn’t want their hands tied. Saffery were brilliant – they really are people focused. Ten years ago, I would not have been empowered enough to start my own firm and I definitely wouldn’t have been given a partnership role while pregnant – and I probably would not have a corporate finance team that’s mainly composed of women.

“I returned in August 2024 thinking I’d do two days for four months, then three, then four, but it quickly became obvious that this didn’t work and I had to increase my days more quickly. There are difficulties, but I don’t think it’s as a result of being a woman – it’s just having a family and doing a job where the workload is unpredictable. Post-COVID, it is acceptable to speak about your commitments outside work, for both men and women. And that helps women more as they are often the primary caregiver.

“It can be something of a cliché, but having more female representation definitely brings more soft skills into the team. I think conversations happen more openly. We don’t sit in a circle talking about our feelings all day, but fewer conversations are off bounds. I talk with people about when they are starting a family. Would that happen with a male boss? Would that happen with a woman boss who hadn’t just come back from maternity leave? I don’t know. But the more precedent-setting we can do, the more it becomes an open forum.”

Keely Woodley

Corporate finance partner and head of deals advisory and consulting, Grant Thornton

“Interestingly, I think that Grant Thornton has a healthier female-to-male ratio than the majority of the investment banking community, both in professional services and in boutique investment banks. With people having been there and done it first, maybe it makes it a bit easier for other people to see a pathway through. We’ve been really lucky in that going back many years, we had a female partner, Wendy Hart, who has been a corporate finance partner for 30 years and is at HMT now.

“It’s become progressively easier to have the opportunity, if you want it, to have a family and have a career in M&A – the two are not mutually exclusive. I think the more that people see that’s possible, then it becomes self-fulfilling, to a degree. As with all strands of diversity and inclusion, role models are really important. The other thing I certainly had the benefit of – and I think many of us have as well – is genuine allyship. So being allowed or enabled to come back part time into a profession that notoriously doesn’t even accept weekends and holidays as being off limits, let alone part-time working, was a game changer and something we’ve tried really hard to make work (while obviously not compromising client service). Historically. I think we have some great allies – people like former partner David Ascott, and currently Head of Corporate Finance Peter Jennings and Head of Transaction Advisory Services Dan Rosinke.”