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“We created E2W because we had a unique solution to a common problem faced by women pursuing careers in financial services. We are as passionate today about solving the challenges women continue to face as we were 15 years ago.”

– Tina Freed, Co-Founder of E2W

Our story

The idea for E2W came when husband-and-wife team, Tina and Mark Freed, experienced first-hand the frustration of choosing between a career they loved and being the type of parents they wanted to be.

At the same time, they saw a clear opportunity in the business, social and economic folly of letting so many talented parents reluctantly leave city careers behind them because they felt they had no other choice.

2002: Founding of E2W

In 2002, they founded E2W to offer a solution. This took business-as-usual and project work from the financial services industry and made it possible for it to be carried out in a flexible, agile and family-friendly way, in an office environment close to women’s homes and their children’s schools.

2008–2011: Global expansion

The service became increasingly popular and led to us opening a US office in 2008 and a Singapore office in 2011. It remains a core revenue stream for E2W today.

2015: Building a community

As our business developed, we recognised that women needed a professionally run, active and supportive place to network, share, collaborate, be inspired and be represented. We created our community to be the first choice for women in financial services – and we now have links to over 10,000 women working in mid and senior positions in London.

2016: Launching our recruitment, contractor and consultancy businesses

With encouragement from the Government, organisations began to recognise the economic and social benefits of ensuring women are economically active. This created new opportunities for us, as banks wanted a more diverse workforce and we had access to a vast network of women with the skills and experience they needed. So, we launched our recruitment, contractor and consultancy businesses, which became the go-to place for banks to collect the gender dividend and for women to manage their financial services careers.

Today: Creating connections throughout the industry

More and more financial services firms are recognising the business and social case for improved gender diversity. As they do, we move from being a niche supplier to a strategic partner who works with them to help meet their gender targets.

E2W have signed the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter, a pledge for gender balance across financial services.

By signing the Charter, E2W have committed to implement four recommendations to improve gender diversity in financial services. The charter asks financial firms to support the progression of women into senior roles, set internal targets to improve diversity in the workforce, and publicly report on these goals.

As the go-to place for women to manage their financial services careers and for financial institutions wishing to claim the Gender Dividend, our gender diversity challenges are different from most firms.

By the nature of our business, each individual member of the E2W team is responsible and accountable for promoting gender diversity and inclusion to the industry, and ensuring our members maximise career opportunities.

We have set a target at board level to consider how we encourage men into our membership, and to promote and understand how their requirements can be addressed to build towards the long-term goal of a gender-neutral society.

Our internal diversity targets are to ensure that 75% of our senior management team remain female.

Our external targets are to:

  • Support 50 women into senior management/board level roles at the financial services clients we are working with.
  • Support 100 women who wish to continue their financial services careers to be retained in consulting, contracting and other permanent positions in the sector.
  • Support 50 women, who would have otherwise been lost to the industry, to continue or return to careers.

We will publish progress against these targets on this website. Tina and Mark Freed are the accountable executives responsible for meeting these targets. The management team and other staff receive bonuses for progressing towards these targets.

WIFC update 30 August 2017

We set a target at board level to consider how we encourage men into our membership, and to promote and understand how their requirements can be addressed to build towards the long-term goal of a gender-neutral society. Little or no progress has been made against this target.    

Our internal diversity targets were to ensure that 75% of our senior management team remain female. This target has been met.  

Our external targets have been met. E2W are now supporting in excess of 200 women in the sector through our membership programme.


Read about how we met our 2017 targets and our new 2018 targets

WIFC update  August 2018

Our internal diversity targets were to ensure that 75% of our senior management team remain female. This target has been met.  

Our external targets have been met. E2W are now supporting in excess of 400 women in the sector through our membership programme.

WIFC update  August 2019

Our internal diversity targetswere to ensure that 75% of our senior management team remain female. This target has been met.  

Our external targets have been met. E2W are now supporting in excess of 800 women in the sector through our membership programme.

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