Changemakers: Helena Morrissey

When Helena Morrissey started the 30% Club in November 2015, she sent handwritten letters to the chairmen of every FTSE 350 company, stating her aim of achieving gender balance on boards and in senior management. The message would be better received this way than in a generic email, she figured.

By the time she had reached ‘H’ for Hanson, the replies started coming in from the As and Bs. They weren’t encouraging. “Even though I said that this had nothing to do with quotas, they said that they hated quotas”, says Morrissey.

One man even told her that she would destroy British business: “He’s still in a very powerful position, in another organisation. I’ve sat next to him at a dinner since then and we didn’t say anything about it, but we both knew.”

Through her stellar career at the top echelons of global finance, which has seen her move from the bond desks at Schroders in New York and London to slicing through the ranks at Newton Investment Management (where she became chief executive) and her current position as Head of Personal Investing at Legal & General Investment Management, Morrissey is used to being in a minority. But she has never felt that her gender has held her back.