Hanneke Smits appointed as 30% Club's global chair

The CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management, Hanneke Smits, has been named the fourth Global Chair of the 30% Club, succeeding Ann Cairns.

Hanneke has long advocated for increasing sexual diversity within the workplace throughout her career. She helped co-found Level 20, a non-profit organization created to encourage women to excel in the leveraged buyout sector, in 2015. Hanneke is also the president of Real motivation, a corporate philanthropy organization that supports non-profit work to improve the lives of underprivileged children.

Since October 2020, Hanneke has served as CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management, one of the biggest asset investment managers in the world with $1.8 trillion in investments under management. She also serves as the Executive Sponsor of PRISM, the group's LGBTQ+ staff group. Hanneke has been a strong supporter of a number of initiatives, including Newton Investment Management's (Newton) employment with the Diversity Initiative to ensure that coming back female professional investors were able to maintain their equity track record, BNY Mellon's collaborative project with Exciting Girls through The Pathway to Integrated Result of these findings in 2022, and being an avid proponent of the UK's #10000BlackInterns initiative.

Ann Cairns is replaced as the 30% Club's global chair by Hanneke. Ann joined the campaign in 2019 as Co-Chair and collaborated with the late Brenda Trenowden until taking over as the campaign's sole worldwide Chair in 2020. Ann retired from her position as Executive Vice Chair of Mastercard at the end of 2022.

Commenting, Hanneke Smits, CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management, said: 

"It is a privilege to continue the 30% Club's aim of expanding the proportion of women in senior management and on boards once Ann Cairns steps down as global chair. As at its 2010 introduction, the 30% Club's function is still crucial today. Even today, many organizations around the world still struggle to meet the baseline goal of 30% of women in senior management or on boards. It will require a tremendous amount of work and money to achieve the campaign's ultimate aim of gender parity. I look forward to tackling a larger range of diversity concerns, both within and outside the boardroom, as the 30% Club expands abroad."

The 30% Club established new sections in Mexico, Colombia, and Chile under Ann's direction and welcomed Poland, Ecuador, and a French investor group to the campaign. The 30% Club, Melinda French-Gates, and the UN Foundation organized what is anticipated to be the world's largest gathering of CEOs and company chairs to address gender equality in May 2021 as a result of her work at UN Women's Outstanding Women's Leaders Group.

In addition, Ann expanded the UK chapter's mission to include racial equality, launching the Mission INCLUDE component of the 30% Club's industry-leading, a cross-company mentoring programme that welcomes participation from all underrepresented groups. Additionally, she introduced the Executives for Race Equity CEO training program last year in collaboration with Moving Ahead and Change the Race Ratio.

Ann Cairns, outgoing Global Chair of the 30% Club, added:

"We at the 30% Club are thrilled to welcome Hanneke as our new Global Chair on behalf of all of our members. At a time when many businesses are still fighting to achieve diversity at the board and executive levels, having a renowned leader of Hanneke's expertise and calibre join the worldwide campaign would be invaluable. For instance, in the UK, we might well have attained 40% women here on FTSE 100 boards, but the majority still hold non-executive positions; there are only 25% women on the executive committee, and there are only 8 female CEOs. Women of colour are still underrepresented in management and leadership positions. Diversity and inclusiveness must remain top priorities for us in the future." This is the 2nd time someone from BNY Mellon Asset Management has served as the 30% Club's head. Dame Helena Morrissey, then-CEO of Newton, one of the investment companies owned by BNY Mellon Investment Management, initiated the campaign in 2010.

Early backers of the campaign's objectives were Newton and BNY Mellon Investment Management, who helped persuade the chairs of many of Britain's largest corporations to commit to the first target of 30% women on their boards. In September 2019, the FTSE 100 as a whole achieved this goal, and 40% of boards now have female members.

 The 30% Club wants to express its gratitude to Karin Barnick, a consultant at the London office of the executive search and management consultancy firm Korn Ferry, who conducted the free-of-charge worldwide chair search on behalf of the UK steering committee.