Melanie Seymour, Head of Global Client Service at BlackRock, never intended to have a career in financial services. “When I graduated from college I moved to Canada to show jump and thought that was going to be my career,” Seymour says. However, after a year she returned home to the UK and decided to try a job valuing bonds at a bond house. “It wasn’t a career choice by any means, I had promised my father that I would try working for a year and it was supposed to be temporary,” Seymour recalls. “However, once I started earning money and enjoying life in London, I decided I wouldn’t go back to show jumping.” That was just the beginning of an unconventional career journey for Seymour. She’s held a number of senior roles in technology, operations, and change management at major financial institutions. Seymour also spent nearly a decade as an entrepreneur, running a successful startup that she grew to a team of over 200 with over £20 million in annual revenue. Seymour’s entrepreneurial spirit has paid dividends in her time at the world’s largest asset manager. Prior to taking her current role, she was charged with building the firm’s innovation hub in Budapest. When she arrived in Hungary it was just her and a laptop, but when she left it was an office of almost 800 people and an integral part of BlackRock’s global operating model. Seymour credits her time as the founder of a startup to her success at BlackRock. “When you own your own business, you can't just think about what you’re doing today. You have to anticipate the impact of everything around you and what's coming up,” says Seymour. “I think that's definitely helped me as I've moved into different roles, having that peripheral vision of a whole business.” Now Seymour is focused on transforming the firm’s digital client experience across the globe. She’s seen first-hand not only how the pace of technology has increased, but how much clients are asking for it. “Clients used to look for products and now they are looking for partners to help them deliver solutions. The companies that have been really successful have all truly embraced technology and their offerings today, compared to even 10 years ago, are unrecognizable.” Seymour predicts her eclectic experience will also become the norm in the industry. “When I started in financial services, there was a belief that you needed to be a deep subject matter expert to succeed,” Seymour says. “However, I think more and more breadth is just as important as depth. Having lots of different experiences is key to unlocking opportunities.” Looking at her own career, she thinks that some of the sideways moves and things that weren't stops on a traditional career path have helped to shape her the most. For the past nine years, Seymour has sat on the Advisory Board of Women in Banking and Finance where she has mentored women of all levels in the industry. Drawing on her own experience, the key piece of advice she gives to young women is to build a breadth of experience. “I talk about having a metaphorical backpack and over the first 10 years of your career, fill that backpack with skills, experiences, and people because as you move through your career, you're going to need a number of tools to be successful. I think this is true now more than ever because with the pace of technology today, everything is evolving so quickly.”

Melanie Seymour, Head of Global Client Service at BlackRock, never intended to have a career in financial services. &ldquo;When I graduated from college I moved to Canada to show jump and thought that was going to be my career,&rdquo; Seymour says. However, after a year she returned home to the UK and decided to try a job valuing bonds at a bond house. &ldquo;It wasn&rsquo;t a career choice by any means, I had promised my father that I would try working for a year and it was supposed to be temporary,&rdquo; Seymour recalls. &ldquo;However, once I started earning money and enjoying life in London, I decided I wouldn&rsquo;t go back to show jumping.&rdquo;&nbsp;
That was just the beginning of an unconventional career journey for Seymour. She&rsquo;s held a number of senior roles in technology, operations, and change management at major financial institutions. Seymour also spent nearly a decade as an entrepreneur, running a successful startup that she grew to a team of over 200 with over &pound;20 million in annual revenue.
Seymour&rsquo;s entrepreneurial spirit has paid dividends in her time at the world&rsquo;s largest asset manager. Prior to taking her current role, she was charged with building the firm&rsquo;s innovation hub in Budapest. When she arrived in Hungary it was just her and a laptop, but when she left it was an office of almost 800 people and an integral part of BlackRock&rsquo;s global operating model. Seymour credits her time as the founder of a startup to her success at BlackRock. &ldquo;When you own your own business, you can't just think about what you&rsquo;re doing today. You have to anticipate the impact of everything around you and what's coming up,&rdquo; says Seymour. &ldquo;I think that's definitely helped me as I've moved into different roles, having that peripheral vision of a whole business.&rdquo;
Now Seymour is focused on transforming the firm&rsquo;s digital client experience across the globe. She&rsquo;s seen first-hand not only how the pace of technology has increased, but how much clients are asking for it. &ldquo;Clients used to look for products and now they are looking for partners to help them deliver solutions. The companies that have been really successful have all truly embraced technology and their offerings today, compared to even 10 years ago, are unrecognizable.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Seymour predicts her eclectic experience will also become the norm in the industry. &ldquo;When I started in financial services, there was a belief that you needed to be a deep subject matter expert to succeed,&rdquo; Seymour says. &ldquo;However, I think more and more breadth is just as important as depth. Having lots of different experiences is key to unlocking opportunities.&rdquo; Looking at her own career, she thinks that some of the sideways moves and things that weren't stops on a traditional career path have helped to shape her the most.
For the past nine years, Seymour has sat on the Advisory Board of Women in Banking and Finance where she has mentored women of all levels in the industry. Drawing on her own experience, the key piece of advice she gives to young women is to build a breadth of experience. &ldquo;I talk about having a metaphorical backpack and over the first 10 years of your career, fill that backpack with skills, experiences, and people because as you move through your career, you're going to need a number of tools to be successful. I think this is true now more than ever because with the pace of technology today, everything is evolving so quickly.&rdquo;

BlackRock’s Head of Global Client Services on her non-traditional career path and why building a breadth of experience is important than subject matter expertise. 

Women in Asset Management: Melanie Seymour

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Ronit Ghose

Ying Qin

Ronak S Shah

Amy Thompson

Today, women participate in entrepreneurship at 80% the rate of men, according to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). This marks a significant improvement over the past 20 years: the equivalent report in 2001 found that women participated in entrepreneurship at roughly half the rate that men did across the countries included in that year’s data set. However, while the pick-up in the simple participation rate is welcome, it masks the fact that women still face many more challenges than men in starting and growing a business. Moreover, much of the growth in participation has been in developing economies where women often start businesses with minimal capital as solo-entrepreneurs in part because they find it even harder to access suitable employment in the formal economy. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that, in 2021, women’s participation in employment was 63% that of men, meaningfully lower than the participation rate as entrepreneurs. There is sadly no shortage of worrying statistics to demonstrate the barriers that many female entrepreneurs face. Lack of access to finance is one of the greatest challenges that women entrepreneurs face around the world. The barrier is perhaps best documented at the venture capital stage: global venture capital funding that went to women-led businesses reached 2.8% of all VC funding in 2019 and fell to 2.3% in 2020.[1] On other statistics, women-owned micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) make up 23% of the total number of enterprises but account for 32% of the total MSME finance gap. While critical in itself, access to finance is only part of the story, and simply improving access to finance is no guarantee that the entrepreneurial gender gap will close. Women’s entrepreneurial capacity is also materially under-leveraged. The ILO, for example, estimates that 50% of women’s entrepreneurial potential is underused, compared with just 22% of men’s.[2] And, according to the World Bank, 104 out of 190 countries still have legal barriers to women's entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneurs face a series of other barriers in accessing the full business ecosystem. These barriers come with different considerations in different countries, especially in developing economies, but range across legal, cultural and practical limitations on women’s participation in commerce; the difficulty of accessing national and international markets; challenges in building personal networks, with links to mentors who can help navigate the business ecosystem; less access to education and training, especially in business and digital skills; and disproportionate caring and domestic responsibilities, especially among married women. In aggregate, our analysis finds that closing the gender gap in business growth globally could add up to $2.3 trillion to GDP and up to 433 million jobs on a conservative estimate of the substitution effect in the labor market. In addition to simple gains in economic growth and output, women’s economic empowerment also drives much wider social and economic multiplier benefits across families and communities. Women-owned or led businesses generally employ more women employees, which can help drive a virtuous circle in further boosting women’s economic empowerment. In addition, women tend to invest more of their income than men in the health, education, and welfare of their families and communities. Women entrepreneurs can also play a decisive role in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals more broadly. Empowering women entrepreneurs is itself an exercise in development as they will create jobs, generate income, build human capital, and drive growth while reducing inequalities leading to reductions in poverty and hunger, and improving health and wellbeing. In addition, women are also an underused source of knowledge, perspective, and innovation, and the businesses they create can provide innovative solutions to global challenges. Having surveyed the global entrepreneurial landscape, we set out a series of recommendations for legislators and also for both public and private capital to help promote more gender-balanced outcomes. Financial institutions, including microfinance initiatives, banks, venture capital and private equity firms, and institutional investors, will be key to unlocking the opportunities around women entrepreneurs. We are here encouraged by two growing trends: the rapid transfer in wealth to women and the rise of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and gender lens investing. We discuss these trends throughout this report. Unlocking the potential of women’s entrepreneurship requires micro-level interventions alongside a dismantling of macro-level constraints. It also requires concerted actions across the law, public policy and the private sector. Only by partnerships can we put all our resources to productive use and achieve scalable and sustainable impact. [1] Ashley Bittner and Brigette Lau, “Women-Led Start-Ups Received Just 2.3% of VC Funding in 2020,” Harvard Business Review, February 25, 2021. [2] International Labour Organization, Women at Work Trends, March 8, 2016. Authors: Ying Qin,Amy Thompson,Ronit Ghose, CFA,Ronak S Shah,

Today, women participate in entrepreneurship at 80% the rate of men, according to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). This marks a significant improvement over the past 20 years: the equivalent report in 2001 found that women participated in entrepreneurship at roughly half the rate that men did across the countries included in that year&rsquo;s data set. However, while the pick-up in the simple participation rate is welcome, it masks the fact that women still face many more challenges than men in starting and growing a business. Moreover, much of the growth in participation has been in developing economies where women often start businesses with minimal capital as solo-entrepreneurs in part because they find it even harder to access suitable employment in the formal economy. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that, in 2021, women&rsquo;s participation in employment was 63% that of men, meaningfully lower than the participation rate as entrepreneurs. There is sadly no shortage of worrying statistics to demonstrate the barriers that many female entrepreneurs face. Lack of access to finance is one of the greatest challenges that women entrepreneurs face around the world. The barrier is perhaps best documented at the venture capital stage: global venture capital funding that went to women-led businesses reached 2.8% of all VC funding in 2019 and fell to 2.3% in 2020.<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" data-link-source="tiny">[1]</a> On other statistics, women-owned micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) make up 23% of the total number of enterprises but account for 32% of the total MSME finance gap. While critical in itself, access to finance is only part of the story, and simply improving access to finance is no guarantee that the entrepreneurial gender gap will close. Women&rsquo;s entrepreneurial capacity is also materially under-leveraged. The ILO, for example, estimates that 50% of women&rsquo;s entrepreneurial potential is underused, compared with just 22% of men&rsquo;s.<a href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" data-link-source="tiny">[2]</a> And, according to the World Bank, 104 out of 190 countries still have legal barriers to women's entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneurs face a series of other barriers in accessing the full business ecosystem. These barriers come with different considerations in different countries, especially in developing economies, but range across legal, cultural and practical limitations on women&rsquo;s participation in commerce; the difficulty of accessing national and international markets; challenges in building personal networks, with links to mentors who can help navigate the business ecosystem; less access to education and training, especially in business and digital skills; and disproportionate caring and domestic responsibilities, especially among married women. In aggregate, our analysis finds that closing the gender gap in business growth globally could add up to $2.3 trillion to GDP and up to 433 million jobs on a conservative estimate of the substitution effect in the labor market. In addition to simple gains in economic growth and output, women&rsquo;s economic empowerment also drives much wider social and economic multiplier benefits across families and communities. Women-owned or led businesses generally employ more women employees, which can help drive a virtuous circle in further boosting women&rsquo;s economic empowerment. In addition, women tend to invest more of their income than men in the health, education, and welfare of their families and communities. Women entrepreneurs can also play a decisive role in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals more broadly. Empowering women entrepreneurs is itself an exercise in development as they will create jobs, generate income, build human capital, and drive growth while reducing inequalities leading to reductions in poverty and hunger, and improving health and wellbeing. In addition, women are also an underused source of knowledge, perspective, and innovation, and the businesses they create can provide innovative solutions to global challenges. Having surveyed the global entrepreneurial landscape, we set out a series of recommendations for legislators and also for both public and private capital to help promote more gender-balanced outcomes. Financial institutions, including microfinance initiatives, banks, venture capital and private equity firms, and institutional investors, will be key to unlocking the opportunities around women entrepreneurs. We are here encouraged by two growing trends: the rapid transfer in wealth to women and the rise of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and gender lens investing. We discuss these trends throughout this report. Unlocking the potential of women&rsquo;s entrepreneurship requires micro-level interventions alongside a dismantling of macro-level constraints. It also requires concerted actions across the law, public policy and the private sector. Only by partnerships can we put all our resources to productive use and achieve scalable and sustainable impact. <a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" data-link-source="tiny">[1]</a> Ashley Bittner and Brigette Lau, &ldquo;Women-Led Start-Ups Received Just 2.3% of VC Funding in 2020,&rdquo; Harvard Business Review, February 25, 2021. <a href="#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" data-link-source="tiny">[2]</a> International Labour Organization, Women at Work Trends, March 8, 2016. Authors: Ying Qin,Amy Thompson,Ronit Ghose, CFA,Ronak S Shah,

Gender Gaps in Entrepreneurship Women engage in entrepreneurship at a lower rate than men (11% vs. 14%) and the gaps grow wider through each stage of entrepreneurship. The International Labour Organization estimates that 50% of women's entrepreneurial potential is underused, compared with 22% of men's.

Women engage in entrepreneurship at a lower rate than men (11% vs. 14%) and the gaps grow wider through each stage of entrepreneurship. The International Labour Organization estimates that 50% of women's entrepreneurial potential is underused, compared with 22% of men's.

Gender Gaps in Entrepreneurship

Barriers to Women Entrepreneurship Women entrepreneurs face two types of barriers: (1) access to finance, and (2) full participation in public life and the business ecosystem. These barriers appear at different stages of the entrepreneurial lifecycle.

Women entrepreneurs face two types of barriers: (1) access to finance, and (2) full participation in public life and the business ecosystem. These barriers appear at different stages of the entrepreneurial lifecycle.

Barriers to Women Entrepreneurship

What Opportunities Could Gender Parity Bring? Supporting women entrepreneurs (financially and non-financially) in growing their business is just as important as supporting them in starting their business. Women entrepreneurs are key to tackling global challenges, including catalyzing the post-COVID-19 recovery and addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Supporting women entrepreneurs (financially and non-financially) in growing their business is just as important as supporting them in starting their business. Women entrepreneurs are key to tackling global challenges, including catalyzing the post-COVID-19 recovery and addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

What Opportunities Could Gender Parity Bring?

Key Actions to Unlock Potential Unlocking the potential of women entrepreneurs requires purposeful action and collaboration across all sectors. We recommend several key actions for financial institutions, government, and the private sector, including those below. IGOs and NGOs are key stakeholders and hold great influencing power and reach from policymakers to individual women and their communities.

Unlocking the potential of women entrepreneurs requires purposeful action and collaboration across all sectors. We recommend several key actions for financial institutions, government, and the private sector, including those below. IGOs and NGOs are key stakeholders and hold great influencing power and reach from policymakers to individual women and their communities.

Key Actions to Unlock Potential

Today, women participate in entrepreneurship at 80% the rate of men, according to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). This marks a significant improvement over the past 20 years: the equivalent report in 2001 found that women participated in entrepreneurship at roughly half the rate that men did across the countries included in that year’s data set. However, while the pick-up in the simple participation rate is welcome, it masks the fact that women still face many more challenges than men in starting and growing a business. Moreover, much of the growth in participation has been in developing economies where women often start businesses with minimal capital as solo-entrepreneurs in part because they find it even harder to access suitable employment in the formal economy. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that, in 2021, women’s participation in employment was 63% that of men, meaningfully lower than the participation rate as entrepreneurs. There is sadly no shortage of worrying statistics to demonstrate the barriers that many female entrepreneurs face. Lack of access to finance is one of the greatest challenges that women entrepreneurs face around the world. The barrier is perhaps best documented at the venture capital stage: global venture capital funding that went to women-led businesses reached 2.8% of all VC funding in 2019 and fell to 2.3% in 2020.[1] On other statistics, women-owned micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) make up 23% of the total number of enterprises but account for 32% of the total MSME finance gap. While critical in itself, access to finance is only part of the story, and simply improving access to finance is no guarantee that the entrepreneurial gender gap will close. Women’s entrepreneurial capacity is also materially under-leveraged. The ILO, for example, estimates that 50% of women’s entrepreneurial potential is underused, compared with just 22% of men’s.[2] And, according to the World Bank, 104 out of 190 countries still have legal barriers to women's entrepreneurship. Women entrepreneurs face a series of other barriers in accessing the full business ecosystem. These barriers come with different considerations in different countries, especially in developing economies, but range across legal, cultural and practical limitations on women’s participation in commerce; the difficulty of accessing national and international markets; challenges in building personal networks, with links to mentors who can help navigate the business ecosystem; less access to education and training, especially in business and digital skills; and disproportionate caring and domestic responsibilities, especially among married women. In aggregate, our analysis finds that closing the gender gap in business growth globally could add up to $2.3 trillion to GDP and up to 433 million jobs on a conservative estimate of the substitution effect in the labor market. In addition to simple gains in economic growth and output, women’s economic empowerment also drives much wider social and economic multiplier benefits across families and communities. Women-owned or led businesses generally employ more women employees, which can help drive a virtuous circle in further boosting women’s economic empowerment. In addition, women tend to invest more of their income than men in the health, education, and welfare of their families and communities. Women entrepreneurs can also play a decisive role in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals more broadly. Empowering women entrepreneurs is itself an exercise in development as they will create jobs, generate income, build human capital, and drive growth while reducing inequalities leading to reductions in poverty and hunger, and improving health and wellbeing. In addition, women are also an underused source of knowledge, perspective, and innovation, and the businesses they create can provide innovative solutions to global challenges. Having surveyed the global entrepreneurial landscape, we set out a series of recommendations for legislators and also for both public and private capital to help promote more gender-balanced outcomes. Financial institutions, including microfinance initiatives, banks, venture capital and private equity firms, and institutional investors, will be key to unlocking the opportunities around women entrepreneurs. We are here encouraged by two growing trends: the rapid transfer in wealth to women and the rise of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and gender lens investing. We discuss these trends throughout this report. Unlocking the potential of women’s entrepreneurship requires micro-level interventions alongside a dismantling of macro-level constraints. It also requires concerted actions across the law, public policy and the private sector. Only by partnerships can we put all our resources to productive use and achieve scalable and sustainable impact. [1] Ashley Bittner and Brigette Lau, “Women-Led Start-Ups Received Just 2.3% of VC Funding in 2020,” Harvard Business Review, February 25, 2021. [2] International Labour Organization, Women at Work Trends, March 8, 2016. Authors: Ying Qin,Amy Thompson,Ronit Ghose, CFA,Ronak S Shah, Gender Gaps in Entrepreneurship Women engage in entrepreneurship at a lower rate than men (11% vs. 14%) and the gaps grow wider through each stage of entrepreneurship. The International Labour Organization estimates that 50% of women's entrepreneurial potential is underused, compared with 22% of men's. Barriers to Women Entrepreneurship Women entrepreneurs face two types of barriers: (1) access to finance, and (2) full participation in public life and the business ecosystem. These barriers appear at different stages of the entrepreneurial lifecycle. What Opportunities Could Gender Parity Bring? Supporting women entrepreneurs (financially and non-financially) in growing their business is just as important as supporting them in starting their business. Women entrepreneurs are key to tackling global challenges, including catalyzing the post-COVID-19 recovery and addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Key Actions to Unlock Potential Unlocking the potential of women entrepreneurs requires purposeful action and collaboration across all sectors. We recommend several key actions for financial institutions, government, and the private sector, including those below. IGOs and NGOs are key stakeholders and hold great influencing power and reach from policymakers to individual women and their communities.

Supporting women entrepreneurs and women-led businesses is not just the right thing to do socially, it is one of the smartest things to do economically.

Women Entrepreneurs - CitiGPS

Catalyzing Growth, Innovation, and Equality

Demonstrating and championing the economic case for gender equality in the global workplace has been a consistent feature of the Citi GPS series over many years. In this new report, we have turned our attention to advocating the business case for supporting women entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses. As the world seeks to build back from the pandemic, transition to a low carbon economy, and achieve the potential of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we believe that building a gender-balanced playing field for entrepreneurs is critical. Supporting women entrepreneurs and women-led businesses is not just the right thing to do socially, it is one of the smartest things that governments, corporations, and the finance community could do economically.

Women Entrepreneurs

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How does Citi build new products for our clients? By bringing innovation and empathy to market.  This #InternationalWomensDay learn the best practices from a diverse team of women at Citi who are breaking barriers to deliver next-generation cash management solutions.

Women in Innovation: Breaking Barriers and Delivering Banking Modernization

Women entrepreneurs face barriers to entry and business growth. In our latest report, CITI GPS: Women Entrepreneurship - Catalyzing Growth, Innovation and Equality if we close the gender gap in business growth, there’s the potential to add up to $2.3 trillion to the global GDP leading to substantial job creation, with up to 433 million jobs created globally. Leading women in the world of FinTech share their thoughts. Interviewed by Ying Qin, Global Thematic Analyst, Citi Global Insights.

Women entrepreneurs face barriers to entry and business growth. In our latest report, CITI GPS: Women Entrepreneurship - Catalyzing Growth, Innovation and Equality if we close the gender gap in business growth, there&rsquo;s the potential to add up to $2.3 trillion to the global GDP leading to substantial job creation, with up to 433 million jobs created globally. Leading women in the world of FinTech share their thoughts.
Interviewed by Ying Qin, Global Thematic Analyst, Citi Global Insights.

Women Entrepreneurship – Paving the Way for the Next Generation

Women Entrepreneurship: Paving the Way for the Next Generation

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Women Entrepreneurship: Paving the Way for the Next Generation

Women Entrepreneurs

Women in Asset Management: Melanie Seymour

Women in Innovation: Breaking Barriers and Delivering Banking Modernization

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