UKBAA Angel Investment Awards: award sponsor CMS put the spotlight on ‘High Growth Woman Founder of the Year’
The UKBAA Angel Investment Awards return on 8th June 2021 and we recently announced the finalists across the 11 categories. ‘High Growth Woman Founder of the Year’ is sponsored by international law firm CMS, who work across sectors and borders in more than 40 countries worldwide. With the awards just weeks away, we spoke to CMS Partner Katie Nagy de Nagybaczon to find out why they decided to sponsor the award and discuss the ways they have helped women to succeed in the investment ecosystem.
‘High Growth Woman Founder of the Year’ recognises the exceptional leadership of a woman founder or co-founder of a high growth business. Discussing the decision to sponsor the award, Katie shares:
“We wanted to sponsor the High Growth Woman Founder of the Year award as we care passionately about supporting and celebrating female founders. Much of the narrative around female entrepreneurship focuses on the challenges and how difficult it can be for female founders to scale their businesses; we want to focus on the positive stories. We believe that promoting and celebrating female founders is one step we can all take to help them succeed.”
The category has 11 finalists this year from a variety of sectors, selected by a judging panel from the nominations submitted. What attributes and achievements make some a strong candidate for ‘High Growth Woman Founder of the Year’?
“We are looking for a founder that inspires others through her leadership and vision – her team, her investors, her customers and the wider business community. She has grit and determination to succeed. She uses her influence to promote entrepreneurship. She has successfully driven growth in her business during one of the toughest periods of our lifetimes and we believe she’s only getting started.”
Research has shown that there are far fewer women investing than men, with several barriers and challenges identified that need to be addressed. Historically, conscious and unconscious bias has dissuaded women from investing and in the past wealth managers have encouraged women to save their money rather than invest it. The lack of gender diversity has been exacerbated by the pandemic as Katie explains:
“We care passionately about supporting and celebrating female founders.”
“With women taking on the majority of unpaid caregiving, many have found it impossible to continue working in their high-pressured roles in financial services. Women outside of financial services have been disproportionately hit by furlough and redundancy. They are overrepresented in the sectors that are worst affected by the pandemic (retail, hospitality, care and domestic work) and that reduction in earnings will have a long-term effect on their ability, and desire, to invest.”
Katie believes that business leaders and Government need to act now to remove the barriers facing women and push for gender equality. CMS takes an active role in helping women to succeed in the investment ecosystem, advising female investors on equity and debt fundraises. They have also launched a campaign called #LeadHers, which supports female founders through their CMS equIP accelerator programme and more widely raises awareness of the pro-active steps that can be taken to encourage more diversity within the tech start up environment.
“#LeadHers focuses on positive action and personal accountability. We contribute to research on diversity in investment. We support and run tailored workshops and (virtual) events for female founders. We make introductions to our network of contacts and we encourage our equIP members to make diverse hires.”
The campaign also includes a podcast, ‘Talking to #LeadHers’, which showcases the work of the female founders on the CMS equIP programme and the development taking place in their industries. The podcast discusses the key issues that female founders want to hear about, such as fundraising, scaling up, hiring, mentorship and focuses on how we can drive change in the ecosystem, with the aim of inspiring the next generation of female entrepreneurs.
CMS has recently been recognised as one of The Times Top 50 Employers for Women for the sixth consecutive year. Gender equality, diversity and inclusion is central to their business. Katie comments:
“At CMS, we know that gender equality and all diversity and inclusion lead to better business decisions. Our passion for making gender equality central to our business, with our people and our clients and in our communities is key to our success; it is in our DNA. Led from the top by The Senior Partner of CMS UK, Penelope Warne, and our Board which comprises 45% women, we prioritise women’s careers and all D&I. The culture at CMS is respectful and supportive, and this is reinforced by having robust policies and procedures in place.”
The benefits of placing diversity and inclusion at the centre of the CMS culture have been readily apparent. It has helped the firm to be clear about its culture and values, and its transparency has proven to be both important to employees and attractive to new recruits. CMS is hiring and promoting more women than ever before. In 2020, 58% of Trainee Solicitors and 80% of Solicitor Apprenticeships were women, and of nine law scholarships awarded eight went to female talent. Expanding on their promotions in 2020, Katie says:
“In 2020, 50% of UK partner promotions were women, 76% in 2019. Our senior associate population (those on the track for partnership) now comprises 62% women. With our fantastic training, development schemes and inclusive policies – flexible working, mentoring, maternity/shared parental leave support and coaching, enhanced family care, ‘Time Out’ (up to four weeks’ unpaid leave at any point during the year, no questions asked) – we expect to see even greater numbers of women entering leadership roles at the firm.”
As we approach the second half of 2021 and the pandemic restrictions are lifted, CMS is focused on building strong relationships with their clients, their people, their industry sectors and wider communities. They will continue to support their angel and VC clients on fund formation and fundraisings and to support the growth of start-ups through CMS equIP.
“For the remainder of 2021, we will focus on embracing all aspects of diversity and inclusion, leading the legal sector in social impact and sustainability. Our aim is to inspire, impact and support our clients and our people, helping them to maximise their potential and thrive. We will reimagine a better future beyond the current COVID-19 crisis.”
Find out more about CMS at https://cms.law/en/gbr/ and the CMS equIP accelerator programme at https://cms.law/en/gbr/insight/start-ups
Book your tickets for the UKBAA Angel Investment Awards at https://awards.ukbaa.org.uk/book-tickets/
