London's lord mayor Fiona Woolf takes aim at the glass ceiling
Fiona Woolf, the first female lord mayor of the City of London in 30 years, and only the second in 800 years, is on a mission to push for greater diversity
Fiona Woolf is shooting high with her ambitions to promote London's financial markets, but her aim is just as sharp on a priority close to her heart: boosting career opportunities for women and minorities.
History reminds Woolf that being only the second woman to serve as lord mayor of the City of London in more 800 years means there is plenty of catch-up required on the diversity front.
Woolf, a lawyer who was elected to the high-profile post in November last year, has been a global ambassador for the financial hub, visiting key overseas centres such as Hong Kong.
Like her predecessors, she has been busy talking up London's strengths as a centre for yuan trading, Islamic finance and a capital-raising centre for clean energy. But her tenure in the mayoral post is distinguished by her push for greater diversity in the workplace.
"I would definitely like to promote to all companies the need for a diversity hiring policy so that they can access a wider pool of talent," she told the South China Morning Post on a recent visit to Hong Kong.
Woolf cites the long wait - since 1189, when the lord mayor's post was established - until Mary Donaldson's election win in 1983 as lending sufficient urgency to the task.