Watch the 2026 Awards Announcement Video Presentation

BALANCE IN BUSINESS AWARDS 2026

Recognising Leadership.
Accelerating change.

This year set a new benchmark for ambition and pace. The combined improvement in FTSE Women Leaders rankings across tonight’s applicants is over 200 places — in three years. Not organic drift. Deliberate, sustained change.

6

Award Categories

200+

FTSE Women Leaders places gained across applicants in three years

1

Distinguished Fellow recognition

Three themes across this year's submissions

Leadership sets the pace

Every company that made step-change progress had a senior leader who made gender balance a personal, visible priority — not delegated, but owned.

Pipeline beats quota

The most sustainable results came from companies that built structured programmes years in advance. The payoff is only now visible in the data

Parental leave is the new frontier

Closing the career gap for women requires men to share the caring gap at home.

This is what it looks like when it is working

Policies and programmes from this year — a practical reference for any organisation serious about progress.

Balance in Business Awards 2026
Theme 1

Parental leave

Parental leave is the new frontier. The most sustainable gains come from organisations where leave is genuinely equal — and where men actually take it. You cannot close the career gap for women if men don't share the caring gap at home. Return-to-work rates are the acid test. This year's cohort passes it.

Halma plc
Winner — Trailblazer & Best Overall
Gender-neutral parental leave
14 weeks fully paid, introduced in 2020 with no distinction between primary and secondary carer.
900+ employees have benefited
St. James's Place
Winner — Outstanding Progress
26 weeks full-pay leave with near-perfect return rates
Full pay for all parents regardless of gender. 98% maternity return rate; 100% paternity return rate.
Lion Finance Group
Winner — Sector Excellence
Back-to-Work parental programme
Structured support for employees returning from parental leave. Male uptake increasing year on year — a shift that underpins the organisation's overall gender balance results.
1,340 on leave 2023–25 · 80%+ stayed 12 months post-return
Investec plc
Highly commended — Best Overall
Extended paternity leave
16 weeks fully paid paternity leave, introduced in 2025 — among the most generous in UK financial services.
Theme 2

Pipeline and talent development

Quotas shift numbers. Pipelines shift culture. The companies with the most durable results built structured development pathways years in advance — and the data is only now catching up with the investment.

Halma plc
Winner — Trailblazer & Best Overall
Catalyst graduate programme
Structured pathway from graduate entry to board placement, with a track record of delivery within seven years. Three current MDs are programme alumni.
Halma plc
Winner — Trailblazer & Best Overall
40–60% target across all 50 subsidiary boards
Gender balance targets extended beyond the group board to every subsidiary. Most organisations are still working on one board.
TBC Bank
Winner — Best Strategy
Leadership Academy
Women represent 53% of Leadership Academy participants. Internal promotions directed through the programme: 962 of 1,185 went to women in the most recent year.
Lion Finance Group
Winner — Sector Excellence
Leaderator programme
Running since 2017. Eight years of continuous data demonstrates compounding impact: 78% retention, 54% female 2025 cohort, 51.4% female alumni overall.
A.F. Blakemore
Winner — Most Impact; Runner-up — Trailblazer
Warehouse to Wheels
A direct, structured pathway from warehouse floor to HGV cab — a sector where women are virtually absent from the driving seat. A physical rerouting of opportunity, not a policy document.

Three years ago, below the FTSE Women Leaders Rankings, today 5th among the 50 largest private UK companies, 1st in their sector, third-highest improver in the country — a 12.1 percentage point leap in a single year
St. James's Place
Winner — Outstanding Progress
Senior representation built from 18.6% to 41.5%
A seven-year pipeline investment brought senior female representation from 18.6% in 2018 to 41.5% in 2025 — demonstrating that dramatic FTSE ranking gains are the result of sustained internal work, not headline hiring.
Theme 3

Pay equity

Reporting the pay gap is a legal requirement. Closing it is a choice. These organisations have linked executive accountability, internal incentives, and structural reform to make that choice irreversible.

Halma plc
Winner — Best Overall
Executive pay tied to gender balance targets
Remuneration explicitly linked to achieving 40–60% gender balance by 2030. Mean pay gap more than halved in four years.
25.9% (2021) → 12.1% (2025)
TBC Bank
Winner — Best Strategy
Middle-management pay parity
Gender pay gap at middle management is minus 3% — in women's favour. Women now represent 46% of roles in ICT, Risk and Finance.
Linklaters LLP
Runner-up — Best Strategy
Billable hours credit for inclusion work
Up to 100 billable hours credited per year for inclusion activity — removing the financial penalty for those contributing most to gender balance work.
47,000 hours logged globally · 66% charged by women
A.F. Blakemore
Winner — Most Impact
Decade-long pay gap reduction
A sustained, decade-long effort — not a single-year push — that has brought the mean pay gap to a historic low.
21.2% (2016) → 11.49% (2025)
Law Debenture
Runner-up — Most Impact; Distinguished Fellow
Bonus and upper-quartile parity
Mean pay gap of 12% against a Big Four average of 21%. Upper quartile held at exactly 50% female. Bonus receipt near-parity: 79% women versus 80% men.
St. James's Place
Winner — Outstanding Progress
Fastest pay gap reduction in wealth management
Median pay gap fell 6.5 percentage points in a single year — the fastest movement recorded in the wealth management sector.
Theme 4

Data, measurement and governance

What gets measured gets done. The most advanced organisations in this cohort have moved beyond annual reporting to continuous monitoring — embedding gender balance into operating rhythm, not just the annual report.

TBC Bank
Winner — Best Strategy
Real-time HR gender dashboard
Continuous monitoring of gender balance metrics with automated alerts. Described by judges as an operating system, not a diversity strategy — a genuine structural innovation.
Linklaters LLP
Runner-up — Best Strategy
Multi-year partner election tracking
Women maintained at 41% of new partner elections for five consecutive years — demonstrating that the result is structural, not circumstantial. Director group 52% female.
Investec plc
Highly commended — Best Overall
Governance committee leadership and target-setting
Three governance committees chaired by women. Board 54.5% female. Women in Finance Charter target set at 35%; achieved 42%.
St. James's Place
Winner — Outstanding Progress
Target met three years early — and a 72-place FTSE climb
A 40% senior female representation target set for 2028 was achieved in 2025. FTSE 100 ranking moved from 94th to 22nd in three years — one of the most dramatic climbs in the cohort.
Law Debenture
Runner-up — Most Impact; Distinguished Fellow
Sustained upper-quartile representation
Upper quartile held at exactly 50% female — not as a one-year achievement but as a sustained, monitored outcome. A benchmark for what consistent governance looks like in practice.
Theme 5

Advocacy, visibility and community impact

Internal progress is necessary but not sufficient. The organisations making the broadest impact use their platforms to shift norms beyond their own walls — through public events, networks, philanthropy, and visible leadership.

Law Debenture
Runner-up — Most Impact; Distinguished Fellow
WIN — Widening Investor Networks
A commercial programme with social purpose, designed to open investor networks to women. Won Shareholder Initiative of the Year 2025.
80% women at the inaugural event
Law Debenture
Distinguished Fellow
Public Expert Panel on gender balance
Hosted a public panel on gender balance in British business. CEO Denis Jackson participated as a panellist — not a sponsor — setting a standard for visible male advocacy at the most senior level.
A.F. Blakemore
Winner — Most Impact
Blakemore Foundation
Community investment supporting women and families far beyond the organisation's own workforce.
£550,000+ donated · 8,544 organisations supported
St. James's Place
Winner — Outstanding Progress
Female financial adviser network
Over 1,000 female financial advisers in a sector where women represent just 15% of client-facing roles globally — creating visible role models and shifting the profession's demographic.

The 2026 Award winners

Balance in Business Awards 2026

Three themes across this year's submissions

Leadership sets the pace. Every company that made step-change progress had a senior leader who made gender balance a personal, visible priority — not delegated, but owned.

Pipeline beats quota. The most sustainable results came from companies that built structured programmes years in advance. The payoff is only now visible in the data.

Parental leave is the new frontier. Closing the career gap for women requires men to share the caring gap at home.

Award 1
Trailblazer
Winner
Halma plc
  • ExCo 67% female · Board 55% female · Chair, Senior Independent Director and CFO all women
  • 40–60% gender balance target extended across all 50 subsidiary boards
  • Catalyst graduate programme: board placement within seven years — three current MDs are alumni
  • CEO recognised by INvolve for the second consecutive year
Runner-up
A.F. Blakemore
A first-time applicant. Three years ago, below the FTSE 350 average. Today: 5th among the 50 largest private UK companies, 1st in their sector, and third-highest improver nationally — a 12.1 percentage point gain in a single year. Their Warehouse to Wheels programme creates a direct pathway from warehouse floor to HGV cab in a sector where women are virtually absent from the driving seat.
Award 2
Best Strategy
Winner
TBC Bank
  • Real-time digital HR dashboard with automated alerts — an operating system, not a diversity strategy
  • 53% of Leadership Academy participants are women · 962 of 1,185 internal promotions went to women
  • Women now 46% of roles in ICT, Risk and Finance
  • Middle-management gender pay gap: minus 3% — in women's favour
Runner-up
Linklaters LLP
Up to 100 billable hours of credit for inclusion work. Three years in: 47,000 hours logged globally, with 66% charged by women — ensuring DEI contribution no longer comes at a financial penalty to those doing most of it. Women represent 41% of new partner elections, maintained for five consecutive years. The director group is 52% female.
Award 3
Best Overall
Winner
Halma plc
  • Mean pay gap more than halved: 25.9% (2021) → 12.1% (2025)
  • Gender-neutral parental leave since 2020 — 14 weeks fully paid · 900+ employees have benefited
  • Executive pay explicitly tied to gender balance targets · 40–60% goal by 2030, already ahead of schedule
Highly commended
Investec plc
Board 54.5% female. Sixteen weeks' fully paid paternity leave, introduced in 2025. Three governance committees chaired by women. Median pay gap reduced from 40% in 2014 to 19.4% today — a decade of consistent compounding.
Award 4
Most Impact
Sponsored by Pladis
Winner
A.F. Blakemore
  • Mean pay gap: 21.2% (2016) → 11.49% (2025) — a historic low, nearly halved over a decade
  • Blakemore Foundation: over £550,000 donated · 8,500+ organisations supported
  • 80% of new senior hires were women · pipeline is not leaking
  • CEO Carol Welch joined April 2023 — two years later: 5th nationally, 1st in sector, 3rd most improved
Runner-up
Law Debenture
The WIN (Widening Investor Networks) programme attracted 80% women to its inaugural event and won Shareholder Initiative of the Year 2025. Mean pay gap of 12% against a Big Four average of 21%. Upper quartile held at exactly 50% female. Bonus receipt near-parity: 79% women versus 80% men.
Award 5
Sector Excellence
Winner
Lion Finance Group
  • Bank of Georgia 2025: 71% of all promotions went to women · 60% of first-time managerial appointments female
  • Leaderator programme (since 2017): 78% retention · 54% female 2025 cohort · 51.4% female alumni over eight years
  • Gender pay gap on comparable roles: 3%, improving year on year
  • 1,340 employees took parental leave 2023–25 · over 80% remained 12 months post-return · male uptake rising
Runner-up
Halma plc
Ranked 4th in Industrial Goods and Services — a sector where women are structurally underrepresented at every level. ExCo 67% female. Board 55% female. Mean pay gap halved since 2021. Gender balance targets extended across all 50 subsidiary boards.
Award 6
Outstanding Progress
Winner
St. James's Place
  • FTSE 100: 94th (2022) → 22nd (2025) — one of the most dramatic climbs in this cohort
  • Senior female representation: 18.6% (2018) → 41.5% (2025) · 40% target for 2028 met three years early
  • Median pay gap fell 6.5pp in a single year — fastest movement in wealth management
  • 26 weeks' full-pay parental leave · 98% maternity return rate · 100% paternity return rate
  • Over 1,000 female financial advisers in a sector where women are 15% of client-facing roles globally
Runner-up
Investec plc
FTSE Women Leaders: 84th to 64th to 52nd across three consecutive years. ExCo female representation jumped from 15% to 25% in a single year. Women in Finance target was 35%; they achieved 42%. Median pay gap down from 40% in 2014 to 19.4% in 2025.
Special recognition
Distinguished Fellow — Law Debenture
Distinguished Fellow
The Distinguished Fellow is not a competitive award. It is conferred on a company that has done more than win — using its platform and leadership to advance the broader conversation on gender balance.
  • Hosted a public Expert Panel on gender balance in British business — CEO Denis Jackson participated as a panellist, not a sponsor
  • WIN (Widening Investor Networks) — a commercial programme with social purpose that won Shareholder Initiative of the Year 2025, with 80% women at its inaugural event
  • Denis Jackson is one of the most visible male advocates for gender balance in UK financial services
  • Treats gender balance as a business imperative and increasingly as a responsibility to the broader ecosystem
  • Mean pay gap 12% against a Big Four average of 21%. Bonus receipt near-parity: 79% women vs 80% men
  • Upper quartile held at exactly 50% female
200+
Places gained in FTSE Women Leaders rankings across this year's applicants — in three years
6
Award categories spanning leadership, strategy, pay, sector impact and progress
UK · Georgia · Armenia
Organisations spanning three countries — this is a global business imperative

These programmes were drawn from submissions to the Balance in Business Awards 2026. With thanks to judges Helen Pitcher, Stanislav Shekshnia, Anna Sofat and Lee Chambers, our partners Dawn Capital and the Institute of Directors and Pladis the Most Impact Award Sponsor.

Balance in Business Founding Partner

BiB Awards
Partner

Most Impact Award Sponsor

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