St Mary's School Calne

Women in Corporate Culture

The third and now annual Women in Corporate Culture Conference, took place on Friday 29th February 2008 and proved as inspiring for our Lower Sixth Form as ever.  The panel of highly successful women, whose knowledge and expertise is wide and varied, provided our next generation of business women with goals and aspirations for now and the future.

St Mary’s welcomed Wendy Becker, Managing Director of TalkTalk, Tracy Clarke, Group Head of Human Resources at Standard Chartered Bank, Susan Murray, Non-Executive Chairman with Farrow & Ball, and Non-Executive Director with companies including Morrisons and Compass Group Plc, Caroline Pope, Partner in Construction Law at Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, and Sarah Smith, one of the youngest judges ever appointed. The day was expertly moderated by Josephine Chesterton Lam, who is a St Mary’s parent and Governor with a highly successful background in banking.

The morning was split into two sessions:  The first was an open discussion from the panel on “Working in Today’s Corporate Culture” and the girls were instantly involved with a steady stream of insightful questions. The second session focused on “Rising to the Top of the Corporate Ladder”, where the visiting speakers identified attributes and qualities which have helped them rise to the top of their business area.  

In the afternoon, sessions in Law, International Business, Management Consultancy and Banking & Financial Services took place in smaller groups, enabling the girls to ask more specific questions on the panellists’ areas of expertise.

The girls were very enthusiastic having found the day to be inspiring, thought provoking and enlightening and St Mary’s would like to say a huge thank you to all the visiting speakers.