Just Apply: Gendered language and its broader effects

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. 

Dr Iwi Ugiagbe-Green has over 20 years’ experience of working in higher education and nearly 15 years’ experience of supporting and enhancing student success in higher education.  Iwi is Reader at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School and a (lapsed) accountant! Iwi describes herself as an academic activist, committed to equity in education.

Her work is inter-disciplinary and collaborative. Iwi has won several institutional and sector awards for equity, inclusion, belonging and has provided EDI consultancy to a range of national and international organisations.

Alexandra is a lawyer by background and practised finance law for many years, first for various international law firms and then for a global investment bank, managing legal and reputational risk. In 2017 she joined a first line of control team to manage conduct risk for the sales and trading division of the bank.  Her role involved designing and implementing controls for front office, mainly in response to remediation and incoming regulation. A key aspect of that role - and a particular interest of hers - is driving cultural change as a supplement to controls, in line with the FCA's Transforming Culture in Financial Services agenda. This aligns closely with her interest in EDI, honed by seven years as founder and co-chair of BNP Paribas’ Parents and Carers Network, being a steerco member of the Women’s Internal Network for over a decade and a further four years co-leading the Retention stream of the business-led initiative, Women in Global Markets, also at BNP Paribas.  

In 2021, Alexandra set up her own consultancy to focus on culture change full-time and now supports a range of different organisations in this highly complex and nuanced area. She combines the ability to navigate large and complex organisations and drive change and better business outcomes through effective stakeholder management with the rigour gained from over 25 years’ legal and control function experience both in law firms and in financial services.

Carolyn is an organisational development and talent management consultant with more than 20 years’ experience of providing consultancy to the private, public and third sectors. Graduating from Edinburgh University with an MA in Social Anthropology, Carolyn went on to qualify as a Careers Advisor and began her professional life providing careers education and advice to both adults and secondary school pupils in Tyneside. She then moved into resourcing and assessment, providing in-house consultancy to a number of large corporate organisations and start-up outsourcing businesses.  Carolyn progressed to senior manager with a FTSE 100 professional services organisation running a business psychology offering across Scotland, North East England and Northern Ireland, working on high profile government and public sector contracts.

With an MSc in Behavioural Science, Carolyn maintains a keen interest in organistional psychology, utilising her experience to support SMEs and third sector organisations with people and business related projects. She is a member of the British Psychological Society and a Test User: Occupational, Personality (formerly Level A and B) and has undertaken further training in psychometric tools relating to psychological safety, resilience, decision-making and strengths.

Amy is a Digital Content Specialist within NatWest Group’s Talent Acquisition function. She leads a team of digital content specialists who are responsible for creating engaging, inclusive and legally compliant job advert content for all NatWest Group jobs. Amy introduced the concept of inclusive job adverts for women a few years ago, and following the success they have seen in terms of increasing the diversity of applicants, her team is now implementing this across all NatWest Group adverts. While her team's focus so far has been on the ways NatWest Group can encourage more women to consider a career in financial services through their advert content, they have now extended their focus to encourage neurodiverse candidates to consider a career with NatWest Group too.