NatWest and the Heard spotlight women in fintech with media training

The organizations have partnered with With to improve gender representation in the media.

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NatWest and The Heard, an advocate index for women and non-binary people in fintech, are taking the next step to help close the gender news gap this year with free media training for their members.

The organizations are partnering with corporate communications agency With to offer three entrepreneurs from the bank’s accelerator program and three members of Heard free training from With’s women’s senior management team.

With’s pilot program with NatWest will help women on its accelerator entrepreneurial programs in Cambridge and Birmingham, providing three female business founders with training – supporting them to speak on panels and give interviews.

With men still outnumbering women in the fintech industry two to one – and the majority of men not realizing it’s a diversity issue – it’s important that women are given the tools, confidence and platform to speak up.

“Our hubs turbocharge companies and this pilot is our latest initiative to help these entrepreneurs step up to media and panel opportunities,” said NatWest Regional Ecosystem Manager Debbie Lewis.

“We are tackling the current underrepresentation of women by adding to the pipeline of confident voices ready to take their place.”

Noting that NatWest is committed to supporting female founders, Lewis said it aims for 60 per cent of places on its free accelerator hub programs to go to women.

The aim of With’s initiative is to “improve the gender representation of voices in media to progress towards equality”, and it will work with three leading women and non-binary members of Heard to help them tell their unique stories, tackling specialist topics and build their personal brand.

Founded by Wise senior PR manager Chantal Swainston, Heard has now added more than 50 members since launching last August.

The free initiative brings together fintech experts with knowledge from across the industry, working with event organizers and producers to increase advocacy opportunities for women and non-binary people in fintech.

“While our index is one step in shining a light on underrepresented talent in the industry, the next goal is to deliver meaningful benefits to our members,” Swainston said.

“With is committed to helping close the gender news gap and I look forward to offering this to our members, helping to equip them with everything they need to tackle speaking to the media.”

According to With, it hopes to encourage all businesses to improve the diversity of media spokespersons and has seen success so far.

“We’ve already seen that this type of media training can help participants see their value as expert commentators and feel confident in front of the media,” said CEO Elizabeth Jones at With.

“Our ultimate goal is to encourage more organizations to appoint a diverse set of spokespersons for their businesses.”