Guild Event: Achieving Social Mobility in the Financial Services Sector

Join us at Schroders for what is set to be an interactive discussion about Social Mobility in the Financial Services.  We have speakers from the City of London taskforce and Impax Asset management discussing the importance of Social Mobility and the progress that is being made so far in the City.  This will be followed by an interactive panel session where you can ask questions and get handy tips on how other asset managers are approaching improving social mobility in their business and the successes and hurdles they have encountered on their journey so far.

The event aims to bring together investment professionals and colleagues from across the financial services industry to assess how our organisations can more effectively enable opportunities for social mobility across the workforce.  Registration is open to members and guests – so please bring along your HR/ Diversity and Inclusion specialists from your company!

Please arrive from 5.30pm for registration.  The discussion will start 6.00pm, and the subsequent networking and drinks session will finish by 8.30pm.

Photographs will be taken during the event to be used by the Guild for marketing and publicity in our publications and on our website/social media.

Speakers include:

Darren Johnson, Executive Director and Global Chief Operating Officer, Impax Asset Management, member of Impax Asset Management Executive Committee

Darren Johnson is Executive Director and Global Chief Operating Officer at Impax Asset Management and sits on the Executive Committee. Darren is a Director of Impax's Management Company in Ireland and also sits on the UCITS Fund Board.

Darren joined Impax in 2007 and during his tenure, he has driven technology and operational transformations, built teams and pioneered the company's transition into cloud services to support rapid growth.

In addition to his Impax responsibilities, Darren sits on the board of a number of charities and organisations, including St Mungo’s, the largest homeless charity in the UK and the investment advisory board of Comic Relief. Darren is also a prominent advocate of diversity issues across the financial services, is co-founder of TalkAboutBlack , sits on the CIC board of the Diversity Project, which aims to accelerate progress towards the inclusive culture within the investment and savings industry and is on the Standing Committee for Investment 20/20, an organisation which provides school leavers and graduates from non-traditional backgrounds with opportunities in asset management.

Michael Turner, CEO, Man FRM and Man Solutions, member of Man Group’s Executive Committee

Michael is CEO of Man FRM and Man Solutions, and member of Man Group’s Executive Committee. Prior to this, Michael was COO (2013 to 2017) and Head of Quantitative Research (2007 to 2013) at Man FRM. He has also held positions at Aspect Capital and Schroder Salomon Smith Barney.

Michael has been working on the Advisory Board of the Government sponsored taskforce on socio-economic mobility and has recently been appointed a non-executive director of Progress Together, a membership body focussed on socio-economic mobility at senior levels in the financial services industry.

Michael grew up in a working-class background in the north of England. He studied at a comprehensive school and went on to complete a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics at the University of Oxford and a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Southampton.  Throughout his life, Michael has worked extremely hard and been fortunate to have many opportunities come his way as a result. He has always found the guidance of mentors to be critical to his journey and feels passionately that others from backgrounds similar to his should have the same support and opportunities to thrive in our industry.

Eliza Hughes D’Aeth, Senior Associate, Leverton Search

Eliza graduated from John Cabot University, Rome in 2018 with a liberal arts degree in Art History. She pursued her passion of skiing and became a private chef, and latterly a ski instructor. She started at Leverton Search in 2021 and hasn’t looked back. She began as a Research Associate training under Rachael Ferguson, and now runs roles within Operations and Client Service. She has a keen focus on increasing female representation and retaining female talent within Investment Management, as well as working closely with clients to present more socio-diverse shortlists.

Sonia Jenkins, Global Head of Reward, Wellbeing & Inclusion at Schroders plc.

Following a fast-tracked career in consulting, Sonia now works in asset management, as Global Head of Reward, Wellbeing & Inclusion at FTSE 100 investment manager, Schroders plc.

Her interest in promoting socio-economic diversity within investment management extends to beyond her day-job: in 2021, her academic research on socio-economic diversity in investment management was presented to the Investment Association. Her research focussed on identifying demand and supply side barriers to achieving socio-economic diversity in the industry and partnered with Investment20/20 to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to address these barriers. She has also recently been asked to join the Board of The Brokerage, a social mobility charity.