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FEATURE
EMEM USORO
Regional Head, Lagos 2
women in a room full of men. Having said that, overtime, some key factors have propelled me forward in the job and helped to distinguish my decisions as a woman in leadership. Humanity, affection and kindness – do not forget yourself because you are leading. For me manage- ment experience has also developed my skills in building teams and over time valuing people with tough decision skills.
Leaders are made and not born, not everyone is a leader but everyone has the capacity to be one, so investing in your personal journey to leadership is worthwhile. Leadership is about character and competence, women in high level positions must have the ability to listen, build trust and build alliances. As women in
management positions: we should ask ourselves steadily; are we accessible? are we candid?
Also, Gender is just a word; be part of the team, network, sponsor and connect with co-workers in multiple ways. Do not spend their emotional energy on fears, they should just step in there and do what they believe in and most of all, communicate constantly. Win the hearts and minds of your employees and instil confidence into your staff.
My wishes for UBA are that it should remain a truly customer centric bank, stay as a top bank in profitability across all regions and remain a systematically important bank in all the coun- tries that we operate from.
FIONA CHRISTIANSEN
Chief Financial Officer,
United Bank for Africa (UK) Limited
I am the CFO at UBA UK and an associ-
ate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants with 25 years
of banking and finance experience within small and medium sized international banks with a focus on emerging markets. I am responsible for the strategic direction of the bank in terms of finance and I embed robust financial discipline to ensure accuracy in
all our reporting for management, statutory and regulatory reporting and tax.
Technical ability, resilience, confidence and emotional intelligence have been tools I have used to succeed in a male dominated field.
Gender discrimination is an issue for many professions including banking. In my 25 years working for a number of financial institutions I have witnessed gender discrimination, how- ever, the current momentum for change is making a difference but there is still more to do.
I would like to congratulate the bank on its 70th anniversary and celebrate its achieve- ment of being the highly successful organ- isation it is today. I also wish the bank a
long and exciting future and I look forward to playing my role, alongside all the other lionesses and lions, in adding value to ensure success, longevity and prosperity.
70 | The Lion King | Commemorative Edition | January - April 2019