Manjit Wolstenholme is the Chairman of Provident Financial plc and is the only female BAME Chair of a FTSE 100 company.
Manjit has worked on establishing Provident Financial Group as a leader in the field of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). The starting point for this work revolved around ensuring that the business met the recommendations made in the Lord Davies review for female board representation to increase to 25%. Manjit extended this commitment and set a target of having 25% of women within the wider senior management group by 2015 – this was surpassed and the figure now stands at 30%. Building on this, Manjit recognised that there was more that could be done to improve performance across the EDI agenda.
Manjit championed diversity measurement across the Group and was a strong lead in the decision for PFG to adopt the National Equality Standard (NES). The NES has been developed by Ernst & Young with 18 other UK and global organisations. It is supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Home Office and the CBI as the first business-led equality and diversity initiative to tackle inequality and promote inclusion in the workplace. Manjit has been at the forefront of the company’s initiative to achieve the NES standard and strongly believes UK businesses should integrate equality, diversity and inclusion considerations into everyday business practice.