Gender quotas only way to force change, says former Lloyd’s chief

Camilla Turner

Devarshi Lodhia

THE first female chief executive of Lloyd’s of London, has called for gender quotas as she fears she “will not see fundamental change” in her lifetime.

Dame Inga Beale, who stepped down from the role last year, said “quotas and targets in all sorts of areas” were needed to redress the gender balance.

Speaking at the Cambridge Union last week, she said she sometimes had “waves of enthusiasm” about gender equality in the City.

However, she added: “When I look at statistics … and see them go so slowly, I think that in my life I’m not going to see a fundamental change.”

She recalled attending a gathering at the Geneva Association of 80 CEOS representing the world’s largest insurance firms, where she was the only woman.

“So that’s the world situation, and I look at that and think, ‘God that’s really bad’, and I know when I started work there were more women so where have all these women gone?” she said.

Last week, a senior vice-president at Guy Carpenter, an insurance broker for Lloyd’s, was suspended after sending a sexually explicit email to colleagues on his birthday. In the email, James Conmy wrote: “There are doughnuts on Alf ’s desk as it’s my birthday today. I hope people like Krispy Kremes – I know [a female colleague] enjoys a glazed ring.”

A female colleague replied: “This is absolutely totally unacceptable James. There are limits to ‘jokes’ you can send at work copying in all colleagues – this is extremely rude and offensive. Please note that this will be forwarded to HR – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” A spokesman for Guy Carpenter said: “Those involved in sending and externally disseminating this email have been suspended from the firm pending further investigation.”

A spokesman for Lloyd’s said it was satisfied that Guy Carpenter was dealing with the issue “with all the urgency, determination and action that this serious matter deserves”.

Last week, it also emerged that two executives at Tokio Marine Kiln, one of Lloyd’s largest managing agents, had resigned in the wake of sexual harassment allegations.

Dame Inga told students at the Cambridge Union that quotas and targets were necessary to overcome “unconscious bias” in recruitment.

“We get on with certain people who have an affinity with us, so if you’re hiring people, you might hire people who are just like you. At one time I realised that I had hired all women and that’s just as bad,” she added.

‘When I look at statistics … going so slowly, I think that in my life I’m not going to see a fundamental change’