St. Modwen hosts Guest Speaker Event for International Women’s Day

To celebrate International Women’s Day, we invited three inspirational women to join our colleagues and, for the first time, our wider supply chain and partners to tell their stories and discuss this year’s theme: Inspire Inclusion. 

Our special guest panel on the panel was former chiropractor and event rider Claire Lomas MBE. Claire last spoke to us in 2022 and was asked to come back to update us in what has been happening in her life since then. In 2007, Claire was involved in an unfortunate accident prior to competing in an event at the Osberton Horse Trials, leaving her paralyzed from the chest down. In the years since her accident, Claire has gone above and beyond to support the St. Nicholls Spinal Charity and help raise awareness for those with disabilities.  

During the event, Claire presented her story to the team – reflecting on her journey and the challenges she has overcome.  

If I carried on dwelling on all the things I’d lost, I wouldn’t have had the best days of my life. Let’s keep making it a more inclusive world and smash those barriers out of the way.” 

Claire Lomas MBE

When asked about what are the small things that could inspire positive change in the workplace, Claire said:

“In terms of inclusion around disability, simply bringing someone into the workplace who has a disability can really make an impact, because unless you’ve experienced it firsthand, it’s hard to know what is right.” 

“For someone who uses a wheelchair, you find that many workplaces aren’t accessible. Last year, I attended a speaking event where I was shocked to see two people with wheelchairs, as this was the first time in two decades that I had attended a speaking event and seen this. Having a space which is accessible to those with disabilities can inspire confidence for inclusion in the workplace”

Joining Claire on the panel we invited back Dr. Bianca Hermansen. Bianca is a representative of the non-binary community, an internationally recognised expert in the Inclusive Design and D&I field and has over 20 years’ worth of experience in business, academia, and NGOs. 

When asked what “Inspire Inclusion” means, Bianca said:  

“As a representative for the non-binary community I appreciated when we recognise that there are other types of women than biological women; there are trans women, non-binary women, gender fluid women, intersex women, and the first time I spoke to you all at St. Modwen, the gender non-conforming population in the world was 1% percent. That is about the same amount of people who are redheads like myself. Today, that percentage has risen to 3% percent, which equals the entire population of Australia. “ 

“To me, inspiring inclusion is really about not only the 50/50 split between male and female but also acknowledging that 3% of non-gender conforming people.”  

Dr. Bianca Hermansen 

Our final panellist was co-founder and chief executive officer of Cappfinity, Nicky Gracea. A chartered industrial and organisational psychologist, Nicky has worked for the last 20 years in the field of skills and strengths identification, recruitment, and development. Leading the way as an unapologetic advocate for underrepresented talent. 

“On days like International Women’s Day, there is often an additional lens of intersectionality. Claire is here as a female speaker, but she’s also got a disability. There are often times where there are additional factors that are contributing to how we go about work, and I think it’s important to identify that there are these other factors that can contribute to difficulties within the workplace,” she said. 

“We have a generation growing up, especially in safe countries like the UK, who question why we have days like International Women’s Day. I think it’s really critical that we recognise how far we’ve come, but also how much there is still left to do. There are still so many women who don’t receive the same privileges that we currently have in the UK.” 

Nicky Gracea, Co-CEO at Cappfinity 

During the speaker session, we also heard from one of St. Modwen’s own, Coco Shi. Coco has only been with St. Modwen for six months, but she provided insights that reinforced the importance of creating a positive culture of inclusion, and the impact that is having within our own business.

“Having worked in senior finance roles in large and smaller companies I just knew that the next working environment for me had to be the right one. So when I interviewed for St. Modwen seven to eight months ago I remember asking ‘What do you think you would do to ensure that in a male dominating industry, there are opportunities for women to grow into leadership roles?’ It was clear from the response that there’s a real commitment to building the kind of workplace we would want our people’s own children to work in, and I was encouraged that this was the right place for me. Even though I’ve only been here for a short while, I’ve had a really great experience in terms of feeling empowered, being trusted to lead my team, and being encouraged to speak my mind.”  

CoCo Shi, FP&A Manager at St.Modwen  

This year’s International Women’s Day event inspired thought and conversation at St. Modwen around what it truly means to “inspire inclusion” and how we can help create a workplace that has an environment which provides a place to be seen, supported, encouraged, and an organisation you can be proud to work for.  

Our Head of People & Culture, Becky Cund, reflected on the inspiring discussion:

“As an organisation we are extremely privileged that our D&I journey is supported and celebrated. Today’s event allowed us to share that privilege with our suppliers, customers and partners and shows how far we at St.Modwen have come on our journey. The reason our panellists today were so inspiring is that we can all relate to them with something that is so important when you are trying to make a difference. There is however, still much to do and  – to quote Bianca – we know we have got there when gender (or other protected characteristics) are not even a ‘thing’.