Brewin Dolphin has appointed another woman to its board, bringing the total number of female representatives on the board up to four out of a total of nine directors.
With five men on the board currently, this means the national wealth management firm now has a 44 per cent female representation.
This is far above the industry average of 23 per cent cited in the 2016 Women in Financial Services Report, and more than the target 30 per cent, as promoted by the 30 Per Cent Club, which aims to boost female representation on boards to at least that level.
The latest recruit for Brewin Dolphin is Siobhan Boylan, who is set to join the board as finance director - subject to regulatory approvals - in early 2019.
Ms Boylan is currently chief financial officer of Legal & General Investment Management, a position she has held for the last five years.
Before that, she worked at Aviva for 12 years, where she held several senior roles, including chief financial officer (CFO) for Aviva North America, and CFO of Aviva Investors from 2007 to 2011.
Before Aviva, Ms Boylan worked for 10 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers where she qualified as a chartered accountant.
David Nicol, chief executive of Brewin Dolphin, said: "Ms Boylan has a tremendous track record at several high-profile institutions.
"She will bring her in-depth knowledge of the financial services industry, as well as management and technical skills, to Brewin Dolphin at a critical stage in our growth trajectory.”
In March this year, Megan Butler, director of supervision - investment, wholesale and specialists - at the Financial Conduct Authority, lamented the lack of female representation in financial services.
She told the audience at the Women in Finance Summit: "Only around 13 per cent of FCA-approved individuals in trading firms are women. A figure that rises, slightly, to 16 per cent in investment management.
"The best is approximately 19 per cent in general insurance and 18 per cent in retail banking."
The strength of Brewin's diverse board however gives credence to comments made last week in FTAdviser by Keith Richards, chief executive of the Personal Finance Society (PFS), who said: "Overall the PFS membership is seeing a positive trend of growth in female advisers and we have increasingly seen a higher percentage of women qualifying at advanced levels which will continue in line with the increasing demand for professional advice services."
Simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
