HSBC’s Head of Customer and Products in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man, Christina Liciaga, has been named as a ‘woman to watch’ in an annual list compiled by Cranfield School of Management.
Launched alongside the school’s ‘Female FTSE Board Report’, which provides an annual analysis of women on the boards of FTSE 350 companies, the ‘Women to Watch 2021’ list, published today (7 October), is intended to shine a light on the impressive talent pool of women in business and offer a snapshot of some of those considered potential board members of the future.
The list, which was introduced by Cranfield University’s Gender, Leadership and Inclusion Centre in 2009, spotlights 100 leading female professionals who the authors believe are ideally suited for consideration as non-executive directors (NEDs) now or in the near future.
Commenting on her inclusion, Christina said: “I am enormously proud and humbled to be included in this list of senior women. The list itself is evidence that there is broad and deep female talent who can thrive at the most senior levels of any organisation, and my hope is that it helps diversify C-suites and Boards across multiple industries. There’s no doubt that diverse teams build more successful businesses, enable companies to meet the needs of all their customers, and ensure they are able to attract the best talent. The last few years have shown significant improvement in gender representation, but there is still work to do collectively to make our places of work more inclusive and more reflective of the world we live in today.”
Hilary Sears, Visiting Fellow of Cranfield School of Management and author of the 2021 report, added: “Diversity in all its forms is increasingly on the agenda for forward-thinking businesses, and rightly so. As well as providing appropriate representation for an increasingly diverse workforce, it has been found that more diverse boards make better decisions. The challenge, though, is how in-demand diverse executives now are: where to find them, how to recruit them, how to retain them? Through this year’s Female FTSE Board Report and Women to Watch list, we hope to accelerate companies on their journey to better representation and a truly inclusive workplace.”
Earlier this year, Christina was also included in the inaugural EMpower Top 10 UK Black Role Models List presented by Google, whilst both Christina and Sue Fox, CEO of HSBC Channel Islands and Isle of Man, were featured in the EMpower ‘Ethnic Minority Role Model Lists 2021’, which showcase business leaders who are working hard to drive change for inclusion.
The full Women to Watch 2021 list compiled by Cranfield School of Management can be found here.
