The Alliance is delighted to welcome Alison Rose as our new Board Chair. Alison Rose is currently a senior advisor to Charterhouse Capital Partners, an advisor to Mishcon de Reya LLP, is on the Board of Trustee Directors for BITC and Help for Heroes. She served as CEO of NatWest Group, a major retail and commercial bank until 2023.
During her tenure at NatWest, Alison Rose was invited by the UK Government to lead a review of the barriers to women starting business. The resulting Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, published in March 2019, led to the establishment of the UK’s Investing in Women Code. With 250 signatories, this ecosystem-wide effort has led to the UK tripling the number of women business start-ups from 50,000 per year in 2019 to 167,000 in 2023.
Throughout her career, Alison has been a strong ambassador for diversity and the progression of women and female entrepreneurs. During her time at NatWest, she championed the firm’s entrepreneur accelerator program by establishing 14 free accelerator hubs across the UK and providing an extensive program to support entrepreneurs. She was appointed Dame Commander (DBE) in 2023 New Year Honors for services to the financial services sector.
To mark the start of her tenure as Chair of the Alliance, Alison sat down with us to discuss her seminal work on the UK’s Investing and Women Code and why more bank CEOs should focus on supporting women-led businesses.
You recently became the new Board Chair for the Financial Alliance for Women. What motivated you to join the leadership team, and what’s your vision for advancing our mission to unlock the full value of the Female Economy?
Alison Rose: I am absolutely delighted to take on the Chair role. I have been following the work of the Alliance and delighted to see the focus on action to help unlock the enormous value that can be created by improving support for women and enhancing their contribution.
I have always been an active supporter of helping drive value in the economy and having a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. Building businesses and creating jobs and value is so vital to ensure economies thrive, and there is often too little support. The ability for women to access this support is also a challenge and yet the opportunity and ambition is there.
Supporting women to be part of this vibrant ecosystem is vital. Seeing the global coordination and the intervention and practical support that the Alliance offers as well as driving real change is incredibly inspiring and I am delighted to be able to contribute to this work.
You were central to creating the UK’s Investing in Women Code, which serves as the blueprint for the WE Finance Code now being rolled out in 28 countries with the support of the World Bank. What are you most proud of in terms of what the Code has achieved so far in the UK? What is one area where you see more work to be done?
Alison Rose: The Investing in the Women Code was a recommendation made as part of the review I undertook into female entrepreneurship which identified a real disparity in the level of support being offered to female entrepreneurs and an enormous opportunity left untapped. Less than 1 percent of VC money was being awarded to female entrepreneurs versus men and yet I could see enormous ambition and demand from female entrepreneurs. The free accelerators I established across the UK have 47 percent female entrepreneurs on average, based purely in selection of the entrepreneurs. They have highlighted that getting access was a huge barrier—-not knowing where to go for help and being excluded from usual networks and access. The Code was able to highlight where funding and support was available.
The opportunity was stark. Based on our research and a global review, we found that if women could start and scale businesses at the same level as best-in-class countries, there would be £250 billion contribution to the UK’s economy. The Code, which now has over 250 signatories, was one of eight recommendations the Rose Review made. 47 percent of women surveyed for the Rose Review cited not knowing where to go to get started or get support as a main deterrent from starting a business—and so creating an ecosystem where there is support and they know where to find it is critical.
In terms of more work, ensuring there is access to funding – and the right funding at the right stage of the journey – is key. So is ensuring there are deep and viable pools of capital for start-up to scale-up, in the UK and elsewhere. And, providing the correct support and advisory to avoid the perils of too much debt or equity given away too soon. A comprehensive platform that can support entrepreneurs with the right advice as well as access to deeper pools of capital, with the right incentives to invest and scale is vital to support a thriving economy
Under your leadership, NatWest consolidated its position among commercial banks as the market leader in supporting female entrepreneurs. What advice would give to fellow CEOs looking to build their business with WSMEs?
Alison Rose: This is an enormous commercial and business opportunity. Investing in the infrastructure, support and partnerships to enable entrepreneurs means we have invested well and will see greater success rates. As those business grow and scale, they will contribute to the economy, create jobs and business opportunities. An economy needs a thriving entrepreneurial economy. For bank CEOs, helping to fund, scale and deliver that growth is a highly viable business opportunity as well as a long-term investment in the economy.
