International Women’s Day: Convey365’s female-led Board #BreakTheBias

Today’s Conveyancer reports:

Four of Convey365’s six female Board Directors have spoken about what International Women’s Day means to them and why they are so proud of their achievements.

Over 80% of the Convey365 workforce is female as are six of the nine Board Directors, making the company unusual in having a female-led Board.

Operations Director Jess Smith, Training Director Sophia Ramzan, Legal Director Laura Burkinshaw and Director Nikki Fuller, part of the Training and Leadership team, talk about their own paths to success and challenges they have faced as well as valuable advice they have been given along the way and thoughts on how women can support each other.

Laura Burkinshaw, who recently joined Convey365 as a Legal Director, said she became a Board Director at the age of 29, and said International Women’s Day meant a lot to her as a way of recognising “the previous generations who really struggled even to get into managerial positions”. She also advised: “You’re always going to hit some barriers but we need to learn to deal with those barriers as we come to them.”

Training Director Sophia Ramzan said: “It is a day to celebrate women, a day to celebrate diversity and a day to recognise women’s achievements in their everyday lives.”

Nikki Fuller, who has worked with Convey365 for 16 years and became a Board Director in 2019, said: “It is a chance to celebrate the huge steps our ancestors made in helping to achieve a gender equal world”, while Operations Director Jess Smith said it was a “celebration of all women in our live, both from a work perspective and in our personal lives as well”.

The four also talked about their proudest personal and work moments, with Laura choosing her membership of the Society of Licensed Conveyancers as a pivotal work achievement, Nikki choosing her fellowship of CILEX, and Sophia choosing her qualification as a lawyer and joining the Convey365 board.

They also talked about how important it was to support each other in the workplace. Jess Smith said: “We celebrate our successes together and we learn from each other in all different ways and I think that that also goes for learning from our mistakes and faults.”

Legal Director Laura Burkinshaw added: “At Convey365, we support each other by listening, by helping and sometimes just by sitting with a cup of coffee and a piece of cake. Convey365 has a large number of women and it’s very nice to see that it’s very supportive.”

March 16, 2022