International Women’s Day: Raising up Women in the Workplace

Joanne Murphy began her career in the early 1990s in London, working in television before transitioning into finance. She spent a decade at General Electric, becoming qualified in training and Six Sigma, and a further 10 years at RBS (now known as NatWest) in various roles. 

Joining the Chartered Banker Institute post-financial crisis, Joanne developed and led the implementation of the CB:PSB Foundation Standard, helping over 340,000 individuals globally achieve a common standard of knowledge and behaviours. She also collaborated with Nottingham University to create a professionalism index for banking resilience and with YouGov to produce detailed research on perceptions of UK banking. 

 In 2014, Joanne became the Institute’s first Operations Director and the first female member of the Leadership team. She introduced the Core Values—Collaboration, Integrity, Innovation, and Excellence—and established the Member One Forum, leading to ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) recognition for the Institute. Joanne also heads their global membership forum, aligning member views with the Institute’s strategy. 

After earning her MBA in Banking and Finance in 2016, Joanne pursued studies in Artificial Intelligence impact on Business Strategy with MIT Sloan School of Management. Her leadership and inclusive personality were pivotal during her tenure as COO and as Deputy CEO, especially during the global pandemic in 2020. 

Joanne recently won the Accomplished Leader, Women in Leadership Award at the CCA Global Excellence Awards. This prestigious honour recognises her exceptional leadership skills, visionary impact on business and people, and unwavering dedication during her tenure as COO. 

Joanne was appointed as Interim CEO of the Institute in May 2024. 

Iwi has worked in higher education for over 20 years in wide range of professional services and academic roles. She is a Fellow of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and completed an Executive MBA in 2010.  She worked as both a management and financial accountant for nearly a decade and wanted to be a Finance Director, before her heart took her into the brilliant world of accounting education.  

She is currently a Reader in the Accounting, Banking & Finance department and the department lead on Postgraduate Employability.  Her current research focuses on intersectionality issues impacting on the racialised experiences of students in the academy, with particular focus on student transition from higher education to the graduate labour market and closing degree awarding gaps.

Louisa's current role is Head of Legal (Litigation) at the Co-operative Bank Plc, where she leads the legal litigation department. As a team, they advise and support the business on a wide range of issues and disputes, including complex FOS complaints and trends, regulatory issues and projects, litigated claims, commercial disputes, and fraud.

She has been at the Co-operative Bank for 9 years, having trained at an international law firm, DLA Piper, within their Litigation and Regulatory department. After completing her training contract, she worked at DLA Piper for 8 years as an Associate and Senior Associate. She joined the Bank on secondment in January 2015 and then took up a permanent position in the legal team.

She represents the Co-operative Bank on the Women in Banking Finance (WIBF) Manchester committee and is keen to promote and grow the WIBF network in Manchester.

Outside of work, Louisa has two young boys so spends most of her spare time running around after them, but she also enjoys running, reading, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.

David is founder and Managing Director of the award winning learning and development company ABSTRACT. He has had extensive experience of both leading and working with major businesses, ensuring that they have the right people, exuding the right behaviours and within the right environment, for the benefit of the organisation’s goals and objectives. David has developed a highly-regarded reputation that has delivered superior and sustainable results for many organisations over more than two decades. 

David is the creator of ABSTRACT's career management development programmes, ACCELERATE and AMBITION, that have so far helped thousands of women in the UK, Ireland and worldwide to develop and manage their careers, developing the growth of talented people in business to lift others as they climb. ACCELERATE won the Diversity Initiative of The Year at the Women in Finance Awards and David was Highly Commended in the IOD Director of the Year Awards in the category of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion.