Senior female accountants and finance directors are well placed to secure board positions, according to research from Cranfield International Centre for Women Leaders.
The list of 100 Women to Watch, prepared by recruitment specialists Sapphire Partners, identifies women currently on the executive committees of FTSE 350 companies or in significant roles at other major institutions, who are judged ready for a board position and should be considered by search consultancies and nomination committees.
This year's potential board candidates include several with a background in the Big Four, such as Liz Bingham who is a restructuring partner and managing partner for people in the UK & Ireland at Ernst & Young, where she also sits on the UK executive board.
Alison Halsey is a former senior partner at KPMG in both the financial services practice and the corporate social responsibility and charity practices who is the founder of Super Duper Farm, an enterprise providing training and employment to young people with learning difficulties.
Mary Dolson has been a PwC partner since 1996, working closely with the International Accounting Standards Board and the PwC network of firms on the application of IRFSs and is a non-executive member of the UK Financial Reporting Review Panel.
Henrietta Irving, who previously led KPMG's PFI tax practice, is now PFI tax manager at John Laing, while Patricia Jackson is head of financial regulatory advice across Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) at Ernst & Young. In 2008 she chaired a global industry working group for the Institute of International Finance looking into the causes of the financial crisis.
Heather Hancock is managing director brand & communications and managing partner for talent and brand UK at Deloitte, following a career in the public sector including being private secretary to three Home Secretaries and accounting officer for The Millennium Commission.
Other potential board candidates with a background in the public sector include Mridul Hegde, the current executive director for strategy at the Financial Reporting Council. Hedge was previously director of financial stability at the Treasury.
Hunada Nouss, who has most recently been the CFO for the Department for Work and Pensions and has held senior finance and commercial roles in multinational consumer businesses, is also up for consideration.
Also on the list is Tania De Welzim, group finance manager and chief accounting officer at Randgold Resources, who has in depth experience of the mining industry and trained at PwC, along with Anne Bulford, OBE, the former finance director of BBC Productions who is now chief operating officer at Channel 4.
Anne Hyland, the CFO at Vectura features, together with Penny James, who is director of group finance at Prudential and is a member of the audit committees of Jackson National Life, M&G Asset Management and Prudential UK. Pam Walkden, who is group treasurer at Standard Chartered is another tipped for a board position.
Being named in this research can improve the prospect of winning a seat on the board -- seven of the women identified in the equivalent 2012 list now have a FTSE 350 board position.
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