The document provides an overview of the activities of Executive Women, a charity organization, over the past year. It discusses progress made in areas like executive development, communications, charities work, and internal relationships. Key achievements include hosting various events, expanding membership, strengthening the organization's brand and image, and supporting charities like Street Cred and Womankind through workshops and donations. The organization aims to further develop its mentoring programs, expand its reach to other locations, and continue its work on diversity and gender equality initiatives in the coming year.

1. C H A R I T I E S
1
Annual Report 2008
...it’s all about YOU!Executive Women

2. 2 3
Message from
Chris Ainslie
BT as an employer should be
Gender transparent, and as the
Gender champion. I am striving
to make this idealism reality.
We have plenty to shout about
with the appointment of Sally
Davis as the first female CEO in
BT Wholesale and some of
the highest maternity return
rates in the industry, …BT is
doing alright, but we are
far from brilliant.
B t ge n der cham p io n
Gender has become an essential part of the
suite of HR and Diversity policies which mark
out progressive companies that are attractive
places to work. But there are serious issues
that still need to be tackled beneath the gloss
of good recruitment brochures and policies on
shelves. Too often, good candidates for senior
positions are overlooked before their chance
has started because of their gender.
Such a limited view on talent clearly
segregates the employees and produces its
own, self-fuelling, cycle of discontent.
Suspicions remain that some roles, or some
types of jobs, are less suited to specific
genders and this has to be stamped out.
Women in executive roles should be seen as
more than an exception but a normality, a
strength and an equal. Our clients have
gender diversity and we should be listening to
them, mapping to the same mix in our
employees at what ever level, it is they who
pay our salary.
Neither should we positively discriminate on
gender. The key to making change in BT on
this issue is to have great candidates from all
genders and to select on ability. That is when
we move towards brilliant.
...it’s all about YOU!Executive Women
Annual Report 2008

3. 4 5
Message from
our Chair
I am really pleased at being able to add
this message to our second annual
report. It is less than a month since
Jane Swift stepped down as Chair of
Executive Women and I took her place.
Jane’s passion, enthusiasm, energy and
leadership have made such a difference
to Executive Women and I would like to
say a big thank you to her for all she
has done. I have been involved with
the network since shortly after it was
founded therefore have seen the
progress and changes made over the
past 5 years (Yes it is 5 years since the
network first started and this year we
will be celebrating our success with an
event in December) and now as Chair I
am astounded by what a team of
volunteers can achieve over and above
their ‘day job’.
As you will see from this report not only has
our membership increased by 18% since last
April, but the events held have increased also.
Our external reach has developed with the
continuation of the Co-Coaching scheme,
mentoring with Manchester University, and
our charities work.
All of these events enable us to share the
wealth of experience of Executive Women and
encourage the cross fertilisation of ideas and
opportunities with and between
organisations. The internal focus, with our
ongoing programme of lunch events, have
been fully supported by our members and
continue to be hosted by senior men and
women in BT. Thank you to them for all their
continued support.
This year, along with the other BT Networks,
we have continued to work on increasing
diversity of Leadership in BT. During Diversity
week we hosted multiple events in order to
bring diversity to the fore. There is still a long
way to go but we will continue to support and
influence this agenda – with your help. You
will have seen the questionnaire on the
Hidden Brain Drain – this work will continue
and be benchmarked against the external
global experience. The feedback from this will
assist in creating the strategy for gender
equality.
Every event delivered by Executive Women
takes many months of preparation and
organisation. Our volunteers work hard to
deliver to your needs. With your support we
could do so much more. If we wish to continue
to ‘Make A Difference’ and move forward with
many of the priorities we have set for the
coming year, we need your help. Make 2008
your year to MAD – make a change, volunteer,
as our new 2007 strapline states...
‘It’s all about YOU’!
DeeShelford•CHAIR
Over the last year Executive Women has gone
from strength to strength and that has only
been possible through the incredible effort
that you have all put in on top of already
demanding day jobs.
Our volunteer team has grown from an
impressive 40 people to an amazing 80 plus
people who are all doing their bit to support
and encourage women within BT and outside
of BT. We continue to impress people with the
breadth of activities and development
opportunities that we have created for our
members. People outside of BT continue to be
amazed at our willingness to support and
nurture women especially new women
business start-ups.
We have come such a long way in five years,
but part of me still thinks we’ve got so much
further to go. And all it takes is a little belief.
Belief in ourselves. Belief in each other. Belief
that we can make a difference by doing the
small things that we do – the things that
matter. Women are at the core of life no
matter where we look.
We know we are the ones that can change the
world, change the way we do business and
change BT into the customer centred company
it is aspiring to be – both for the sake of the
customer and our people. We know we are the
ones that can change the way things are in our
teams, in our families and amongst our
friends. We just have to believe.
You are now in Dee’s very capable hands so
get stuck in and work out how you can take
Executive Women to the next stage of its
journey. I’ll still be here willing you on and
doing my bit when I can. Thank you all for the
support you have given me personally and
Executive Women.
JaneSwift•LASTINChair
Message from
Outgoing Chair
I have been involved with Executive
Women since the very beginning and it
has been a huge passion of mine over
the last five years.
I have loved being part of everything
that we’ve done and I have learned so
much on the journey, both from things
that have gone well and things that have
been a challenge.
M E S S A G E F R O M T H E C H A I RM E S S A G E F R O M T H E outgoi n g C H A I R

4. 6 7
Trustworthy:
We do what we say we will
Helpful:
We work as one team
Inspiring:
We create new possibilities
Straighforward:
We make things clear
Heart:
We believe in what we do
Our values Introduction
Welcome to Executive Women’s
second Annual Report where we take
a look back at our achievements over
the last 12 months, review where we
are today against our agenda and
look forward to what the next
12 months holds for us.
It has been another action-packed
year during which we have hosted a
series of fabulous events fronted by
some excellent speakers. In addition
there has been much taking place
behind the scenes and this report
provides a view of the various
activities within Executive Women in
support of our strategy.
We hope you will find it an
informative and enjoyable read.
Why Executive Women?
Our vision and mission has been
reaffirmed and the various strands of our
strategy crystallised. Similar to the
BTWN, we provide networking,
development and support through our
network, specifically with our audience
– senior women – in mind. In addition
we research, lobby, build external
relationships and create commercial
opportunities.
Research•
Externally facing•
Commercials•
Our Vision
Dedicated to inspiring senior
women to achieve their
aspirations and to help other
women inside and outside of BT.
Our Mission
To be the company where senior
women want to work and where
more and more people, women
especially, want to do business
with us.
Our 7 Pillars of strategy are:
Development•
Support•
Networking•
Lobbying•
i n troductio n

5. 8 9
vacancy•pastoral
care
vacancy•DeputyChair
Esther
Canonico•
Commu
nicatio
ns
DeeShelford•Chair
KATEGREGORY•Executive
Develo
pment
Michelle
Trickett
-Smith
•
ExternalRelatio
nships
Our Committee
HeldanaAfework
•
Secretary
Jackie
Jones•strategy
&
Research
Anitaherbiso
n•internal
relatio
nships
E X E C U T I V E W O M E N C O M M I T T E E
WendyAbbott
•Membershi
p
Secretary
christi
nepoole
•Events
SamMcDonald•Charities
Katheri
nepennell•
TREASURER
JillGrainge•Chair
BTWN
JaneSwift•LASTINChair
Can you fill
these shoes?

6. C H A R I T I E S
10 11
E X E C U T I V E D E V E L O P M E N T
2008 has been another successful year and
here are just some of the things achieved by
the team:
participation in Co-coaching schemes with•
external companies and hosting end of year
event in July this year
Internal mentoring tool – pilot is being•
tested with a view to moving forward to
launch – Executive Women have been key in
obtaining development funding for this
Manchester University Graduate Mentoring•
– scheme launched – volunteer mentors now
being assigned graduates. Due to the
overwhelming response from EW members
this will now be expanded to other
universities
Gender diversity experience from other•
companies
Engage Celia Sandys (Winston Churchills•
Grand-daughter and founder of the
company ‘Churchill Leadership’) to be
involved with Executive Women
Training and development questionairre –•
feedback received and consolidated to feed
into events for 08/09
Priorities for Executive Development
2009
Co-coaching proposal for BT•
Website development –to show what•
development options are available
Working with new companies to gain•
agreement to cost effective/free
development options for EW
Define proposal for mentoring of small•
businesses (such as the ELBA initiative)
KATEGREGORY•Executive
Develo
pment
Executive
Development
Until her recent appointment as
Chair of Executive Women
Dee Shelford led the team
dedicated to Executive
Development.
Kate Gregory now leads this team.
Esther
Canonico•Commu
-
nicatio
ns
The team set out to develop and launch a•
fresh brand and new more modern image for
the Network. This exercise included
renaming the network from The BT Women’s
Executive Network to Executive Women plus
identifying and agreeing as a Board a clear
vision and mission statement that rightly
reflected Executive Women’s goals. To neatly
sum it all up they also threw in a a strapline
‘It’s all about YOU!’ which seems to be
catching on as we come towards the end of
the year!
To reflect the brand the team have revamped•
the intranet and this is continually growing
with more and more interesting and
informative content for members
In May 2007 they delivered a first annual•
conference and a professionally designed
first Annual Report
To meet the requests of a number of•
members they have identified proposals for
spreading the news of the network at key BT
buildings in other geographies with the hope
of putting the plans into action in the
coming year
Grapevine, the new seasonal newsletter•
launched late 2007 is helping keep
members interested and summarises each
quarter’s achievements
Priorities for Communications 2009
We will strengthen our brand by ensuring•
we communicate the things we’ve
promised to do to the right people!
We will ensure our members understand•
the benefits of the network through
various communication outlets e.g.
Grapevine, Websites, Annual Report,
other Publications (internal and external)
We will support the members of the•
Executive Women Board with dedicated
communication expertise and support in
their individual areas
We will seek opportunities for wider•
coverage of our ambitions for the
network and the benefits of being
involved (as members, volunteers, senior
support or external support)
Communications
(previously Louise D’Sylva)
The communications team have
had a busy year and here are just
some of the things achieved in the
last 18 months.
commu n icatio n s

7. 12 13
C H A R I T I E S
The team regularly brings to the table many
varied professional and personal skills.
Recently, an article was published in the
national Philanthropy UK newsletter which
shared the aims and ambitions of Executive
Women. Working in the area of Charities has
and continues to be truly rewarding.
Street Cred
Street Cred is a regeneration charity working
with communities in the East End of London.
It was set up in 1999 by Quaker Social Action
and it is a micro credit project which provides
advice, support and business training to
women on low incomes or who are
unemployed and wishing to start their own
business.
Executive Women have held two workshops
this year, both sponsored by BT Business; the
first workshop took place in February and the
second in April. The theme of the first
workshop was communications and
presentation skills. Jane Swift, Executive
Women chair said...
“The feedback showed the workshop
helped build their confidence and
understanding of customer needs. At the
end they were able to look at things
through the customer’s eyes rather than
focusing on what they were selling”.
Guest speaker Chris Roberts (Director of
Customer Service) provided attendees with
valuable information on customer expectations
and techniques on building the customer
experience, keeping it simple and clear.
Feedback from those who attended was very
positive. Comments from the attendees
included “I’ll be listening to what customers
want”, “The workshop has given me
confidence” and “This has been an
inspiring day”.
This year the Charities element of
our network strategy has grown
considerably. This is great news on
two counts: one, we are helping a
wide range of people across the
country and secondly, many
charities are eager to get involved
and work with us and to share
our skills.
This is clearly evidenced through
the sheer hard work the team
have undertaken so far and the
behaviours they have
demonstrated.
Charities
SamMcDonald•Charities
The second workshop in April concentrated on
‘Marketing your Business’. Again, a massive
success and organiser Sam McDonald
commented...
“it was truly inspiring to see women
encouraged and enthusiastic about building
their business whilst at the same time
having the opportunity to share the skills BT
has given us. This event demonstrated to
these women the power of online
marketing using the BT Tradespace web
based tool”.
Geri Sancho a Tradespace manager presented
the benefits and demonstrated the flexibility
and ease of set up, and later in the afternoon,
each attendee had the live opportunity to
build their own business on the web. Jennifer
Mowat, Director On-Line Business, was the
guest speaker. She provided the women with
focus and encouragement and key vital tips
and techniques on how to make the most out
of marketing their business from both a
professional and personal viewpoint.
WOMANKIND
WOMANKIND is the only UK based charity
dedicated solely to improving the lives of the
world’s most disadvantaged women.
The amount of work this charity undertakes is
a real inspiration to us all here at Executive
Women. Their absolute dedication to women
in developing countries – women who are
silenced or isolated by harmful traditions,
conflict, violence and intimidation, not to
mention the sheer exhaustion of day to day
living and surviving in poverty is, in our view,
caring at its best.
Womankind is a unique charity as it works to
help women globally and therefore most of its
clients are spread across the world. Executive
Women have donated a laptop to the charity
to help them gather and share information
when their team members are on field trips
abroad. They are very grateful for the
donation as it will help them enormously.
If you would like to help this charity then
please consider ‘payroll giving’ details of
which can be found via the BT Corporate
Responsibility homepage or the BT A-Z under
‘P’. Every little helps and your contribution
would be helping women worldwide.
Street Cred Workshop held 2nd April, team seen
here with Jennifer Mowat, Director of On-Line
Business and Geri Sancho Community Channel
Manager from BT business
C H A R I T I E S

8. C H A R I T I E S
14 15
i n ter n al relatio n shi p s
Anitaherbiso
n•Internal
RELATIONSHIPS
Internal
Relationships
Priorities for Internal Relationships
2009
To identify the key influential managers•
(male and female) across the business
To contact, meet with and gather their•
opinions, understand their requirements
and galvanise support and action which
will help us to:
Enable and facilitate an increase of•
women in senior roles
Raise the awareness of the decline of•
women in senior roles
Identify barriers for women to progress•
their careers
Ensure that key stakeholders visibly•
support corrective action
Collate ideas for career opportunities•
and events
To execute a programme plan which will•
ensure that key senior executives are
aware of the work that we do ad have
the opportunity to feedback their ideas
and opinions to the network.
Regional Participants Sponsorship
Central 115 £7,340
Central East 76 £7,052
London & South 159 £20,135
North & East 51 £5,345
North West 89 £5,688
North/NI/Scotland 119 £9,820
South West 81 £4,495
Priorities for Charities 2009
Build and Publicise the ‘Race for Life’•
Initiative
Continue to support the charities linked to•
Executive Women
Increase the members within the•
Charities team
C H A R I T I E S
WellBeing of Women (WOW)
Half of all women in the
UK will experience a
reproductive or
gynaecological health
problem during their lifetime, be it trouble
conceiving, painful periods, or
gynaecological cancer. WellBeing of Women
is dedicated to changing this by funding
medical research that will benefit these
women and the healthcare professionals
diagnosing and treating them. With your
support, WellBeing of Women will be able to
fund more medical research and enable
women and their families to get more out
of life.
Executive Women have teamed up with
WellBeing of Women to host a Purple WOW
Day to help provide people with information
on women’s health issues and adding a
splash colour... purple of course – to the
event! Teams of Executive Women from
both Edinburgh and Glasgow set up their
own WOW days and all were extremely
successful raising money.
Check out the WellBeing of Women
webpage at this url:
wellbeingofwomen@rcog.org.uk
which you will find most interesting with
some amazing examples of how best we can
take care of ourselves.
Liz Campbell, Director of WellBeing of
Women said at the time of the events:
“We are delighted to have been chosen as
a charity partner by BT’s Executive
Women network and are excited by the
Purple WoW Day they are hosting in
support of our cause. We hope that as
many BT people as possible get involved
and they enjoy the event”
Race for Life 2008
Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life 2008 was
the UK’s largest women only fundraising event
where women of all ages and fitness levels
were invited to come together to walk, jog or
run 5 kilometres and raise money to help beat
cancer. A huge thank you to everyone who
put on their trainers and made the effort! –
THANK YOU!
A total of 690 women from BT participated
registering with Tesco whilst providing our
team with their race numbers and, as you can
see, a fabulous response from all over the
country and a total of £59.876 was raised.
Overall an impressive result.
Well Done to everyone and remember YOU
have made a difference to someone’s life –
Be proud of that achievement.

9. C H A R I T I E S
16
C H A R I T I E S
17
christi
nepoole
•Events
Public Speaking
These events were aimed at providing our
members with tools and techniques to
become a more accomplished and confident
public speaker.
There were three events in this series:
1. Six Steps to Successful Speeches,
4th May 2007
2. Making it Stick, 14th September 2007
3. Calling People to Action, 10th January
2008
Each of these events was led
by Speakers Academy’s Andy
Clark who, with over
20 years experience, is well
equipped in engaging
audiences of various sizes
and backgrounds.
In the first two events Andy shared his six
steps to successful speeches and
demonstrated how to craft presentations that
stick in people’s minds. He also explored
delivery strategies which increase retention.
In the third event Andy shared his skills of how
to take control of the emotional and the
intellectual content of your presentation so
that your audience will actually go out and do
what you require of them.
“What a fabulous use of my time – best half
day I have spent this year”
“A ‘wow’ event”
“It was excellent – inspirational, fun and
practical too. I will definitely be putting the
tips into practice.”
Our Executive Women themed
events for 07/08 were based
around the following themes:
• Public Speaking
• Politics
Events
(previously Anita Herbison)
E V E N T S
Politics
We also ran three events around the theme of
Politics with a capital (P) and a small (p).
1. Being Politically Savvy, 19th June 2007
This was a lively interactive session with
invited guest speaker Michelle Brailsford of
Jupiter Consulting who has more than twenty
years experience as an organizational
development consultant, trainer and manager.
Michelle is passionate about supporting
leaders to embrace their strengths and
leverage their authentic leadership style. In
addition, she coaches and teaches leaders how
to navigate through political waters with
integrity and ethics.
2. Politics, making it work for You!
24th October 2007
In October we welcomed Helene Martin-Gee,
Special Advisor on Diversity Inclusion to
Lord Ahmed and founder of Pink Shoe Club,
Meryl Bushell, out going Chief Procurement
Officer for BT Group and Neil Rogers, new
Chief Procurement Officer. This session was
about recognising it is not an ‘either’ ‘or’
decision, you can be political and still be ethical.
“One of the best sessions ever, a real insight
into how Senior Executives handle politics”
“A very interactive event that reinforced the
need to make networking and internal
politics formal activities during the
working week”.
3. Politics... In Action ! – 24th April 2008
This final event saw us wrap up this hugely
successful series when we welcomed Ray
Churcher, Director Service Assurance in BT
Retail and by Caroline Persson, BT’s European
Policy Adviser who is ex-Newcastle City
councillor and ex-Westminster borough
LibDem executive member and is running for
a seat at the European Parliament in 2009.
Attendees gained an understanding of politics
with a small ‘p’. Ray gave an inspiring insight
about what politics at work is all about and
Caroline provided a fascinating insight into
European politics. The session was very
interactive and participants shared their own
perspectives on politics and situations
“An excellent event to network with
like-minded people. Politics doesn’t always
have to be ugly and it affects all of us –
better to know how and to understand it
than to be overwhelmed by it.”
“Ray Churcher has an amazing wealth of
knowledge and know-how. He is an
incredibly inspiring leader – just wished all
our leaders were like this! ”
08/09 Themes
This year we have been exploring the theme
of Happiness.
Happiness
The objective of this series of events was to...
“help individuals understand what
happiness means to them, and provide
them with the confidence to take steps to
achieve this.”
The first event took place on Tuesday 13th
May 2008 and was hosted by Neil Davidson
from the Wellbeing Network. It was a thought
provoking and inspiring event. At this event
participants gained an understanding of how
to manage work and life and achieve a sense
of wellbeing rather than stress. Neil also
helped people see the power of positive
thinking.
E V E N T S

10. 18 19
eve n ts membershi p
WendyAbbott
•Membershi
p
SECRETARY
Membership
Executive Women membership has
increased by 45% since April 2007.
Our Total membership as of 30 September•
2008 was 809
96% of our members are Female (813)•
4% of our members are Male (36)•
We also have a base of 120 external•
contacts
Priorities for Membership 2009
Progress the switch of our membership•
registration process to the People Portal
Produce an annual survey so that we can•
gather useful data about our members
Explore external membership registration•
Read more about Neil and the Wellbeing
network here:
http://www.wellbeingnetwork.co.uk/
Following on from the Wellbeing event, the
second event was hosted by Richard Jackson,
founding member and Director of Mancroft
International Consultants, a leading group in
personal development and motivation of
Mancroft. This took place on Tuesday 16th
September.
Richard has worked closely for more than
20 years with BT and he has seen all of the
major changes and challenges we faced.
Richard lead us on maximising our ability to
create a positive work and life balance, which
should play a role in greater happiness.
The session will be based around the two
foundation models for Mancroft’s Winning
Edge programme, Thinking to Results and the
Choice Model, and seek to establish other
concepts such as Dominant Thought theory,
choosing our mood and who is responsible for
our stress.
“It’s not what you think about, it’s how you
think about what you think about”
Participants generally liked Richard’s
non-conventional style and felt it was
appropriate for the audience in question. He
had such a lot to put over in such a short space
of time but managed to do so in a way that we
all understood. Richard also engaged the
audience and involved them in the event so
that they felt confident in contributing’
“To remember that what I think about isn’t
nearly as important as the way I think
about what I think about! To pull together
a list of 50 things to do before I die. To
have a card with 5 values and 5 goals and
look at it twice a day.”
Jane Shipway
“That I am responsible for my own
happiness and that I can positively change
my attitude to life. The two hours I spent
at this event re-energised me and made
me feel much more positive about things
in general.”
Wendy Abbott
“You should never be frustrated at someone
as you are making yourself frustrated by
how you think about it.’
Natacha Robert
“We can and should choose to direct our
thinking better in order to control/drive
our emotions towards producing better
outputs – aim for success, not to avoid
failure – useful tip on maintaining the
momentum for thinking positively towards
our goals over time.”
Claude Grigon-Galpin
“The focus on the positive, the way we need
to look forward and plan in order to have a
happy outlook and how to remember
your keys!”
Katherine Pennell
Richard has agreed to host our third and final
Happiness event and will build on the output
from event two. This event will be hosted on
28th January 2009 Look out for more details
coming soon.
Join us
Please feel free to contact
us with your ideas or
offers of help!
Executive Women is run by
a group of volunteers
General enquiries and comments
can be addressed to
btwen@bt.com
Internal: http://
executivewomen.intra.bt.com
External: http://
executivewomennetworking.
bttradespace.com/default.aspx

11. 20 21
2. A Moment of Truth
Typically hosted by our top male executives
these lunches offer a male perspective on the
subject of diversity. In addition to
understanding more about the host’s career
background each session is based on a
particular theme – past themes have included
career progression, industry insight, work-life
balance and equality in the workplace. These
events are open to Executive Women
members.
Tim Smart, President, BT
Global Services UK hosted a
lunch on 26th September
2007. This was an
interactive session and a
great opportunity to
understand more about Tim’s successful
career background, the challenges he faces in
his current role and future aspirations.
“A real eye opener!”
Sam McDonald
“Tim was frank and blunt with his views
about what allows you to progress at BT –
a very useful, honest, interactive session
where we openly discussed potentially
controversial issues.”
Elena Karpathakis
“Completely unexpected. It was really
honest and funny and extremely useful!”
Angela Mensah-Poku
“Executive Lunch events are a rare
opportunity to meet top Executives and
ask those questions that you always
wanted to ask, but never had an
opportunity to do so. It’s a great chance to
obtain useful contacts too!”
Maria Yurenok
3. Graduate Lunches
Executive Women (with support from the
BTWN) has developed an initiative directed
towards graduates in BT. The activities within
the programme offer 1st and 2nd year
graduates access to role models and
opportunities for them to share views,
experiences and ideas. The lunches also aim to
help graduates improve their business
contacts through networking.
On 9th October 2007 Mark
Quartermaine, Managing
Director Government Services
hosted one of these lunches:
“It was a great chance to
speak to someone with experience from
different companies and learn his top tips
to success. It was also great to meet
graduates from other lines of business.”
“This Executive Women’s event gave me a
good chance to network across the
business and a real incite into the career of
an inspirational leader. I was impressed
with the honesty with which Mark
answered questions.”
In January 2008 Janet
Entwistle Managing Director
BT Fleet hosted one of our
Graduate events:
“Very frank honest account
of Janet’s experience within BT, both in
terms of being female and ambitious”
“An excellent opportunity to meet a senior
member of management team who was
willing to have an open and frank
discussion.”
4. A Hand Up The Ladder
The Celebrating Success lunch formula has
been so successful that we’ve extended it to
the BT Women’s Network and these events are
hosted by one of our senior women (outside
of the top 20-30) whose role and level in the
business may appear more attainable. These
lunches are open to anyone and are an
opportunity for female senior managers to
share how they have managed their careers,
explain the paths they have chosen and how
their experiences can help us, providing
valuable learning experiences.
Dee Shelford, Business Operations Manager,
BT Global Services hosted a lunch on 3rd
October 2007
5. Meet the BT Board
This is an opportunity to understand more
about what it takes to be a BT Board member
and understand their personal and business
aspirations along with learning about the
challenges the BT Board face in the day-to-
day running of our business. These events are
open to Executive Women members.
E V E N T Seve n ts
This programme has several strands:
1. Celebrating Success
Typically hosted by our top 20-30 senior
female executives these lunches offer the
opportunity for our members to meet with
their role models, learn more about their
successful careers, their personal and business
aspirations and the challenges they face in
their day jobs. These events are open to
Executive women members.
Emma Gilthorpe, Group Director Industry
Policy Regulation hosted a lunch and open
forum discussion on 23rd January 2008.
This provided a key opportunity, in a small
group, to understand more about Emma’s role
in the business including the challenges and
opportunities she has faced in her career both
inside and outside BT.
An excellent informal event, which gave an
opportunity to gain real insight into
Emma's views on a wide range of issues.
Neena Rupani
“A very refeshing meeting with frank ideas
about how the company should move
forward with regards to personnel
management and developing skills”
Emma Finney-Lambert
Executive Lunch
Programme

12. 22 23
eve n tseve n ts
Other Events
In addition to our themed events Executive
Women hosted and ran the following events:
Annual and Half Year
Conferences
The first annual conference took place on 31st
May 2007 and saw more than 200 members
and their guests hear about the network’s
achievements and plans for the future.
Speakers at the conference
included BT futurologist Ian
Pearson – who discussed the
future of women in business,
Rebecca Luff Jessica
Luong form the Oguntê
Global Tribal Network who
spoke of their personal
experiences – and BT’s
non-executive director
Deborah Lathen.
“Deborah Lathen session was truly
inspiring, powerful, strong and yet
intensely humane”
“Well planned event, Deborah’s story was
inspirational”
“It was extremely enlightening, listening to
the futurologist and his insight into the
future technology”
“Full of surprises, inspirational, left me
wanting to come back for more”
Following the huge success
of our Annual Conference we
hosted our Half Year
Conference on 21st
November 2007 alongside
guest speakers Helen
Simpson (VP for GS –
currently on secondment to the East London
Business Alliance); Susan Turrell (CEO for
Womankind, Executive Women’s nominated
charity for 2007/8) and Pauline Crawford
(Founder Corporate Heart).
Diversity Week
Diversity week took place 19th – 23rd
November 2007 and Executive Women joined
forces with various other networks to actively
participate. These events included:
21st November
Dynamic Diversity! Executive Women with
Kaleidoscope the Ethnic Diversity Network
held a webinar to demonstrate how differing
communication styles can liberate your own
personal power to influence and harness the
dynamics of diversity!
How I manage my career
This was a webinar hosted
by Anne Heal (Managing
Director, Sales, Products and
Marketing, Openreach) who
shared hot tips and ideas for
managing your career.
Dee Shelford (Executive Development, BT
Executive Womens Network), provided details
on what the network is doing to support its
members in career development.
22nd November
Lunch with Margo James and Anne Heal
Executive Women in conjunction with BT
Kaleidoscope, Anne Heal (BT’s Senior
Champion for Lesbian, Gay, Bi Sexual
Transgender people) hosted a lunch with
Margo James (Vice Chair of the Conservative
party) in BT Centre. Margo has responsibility
for Women, as well as being openly lesbian.
For this reason Margo will be talking about the
issue of being open about one's sexuality in
public.
23rd November
How Diversity effects me. This was a webinar
hosted by Alison Mitchell discussing how
Diversity is a key part of everyone’s role.
Executive Women provided updates on
Pastoral Care and Internal relationships.
Change is the day job. A webinar hosted by
John Doherty (Head of Business Improvement,
Global Professional Services UK)
John is an experienced business professional,
who has worked with clients and internal
stakeholders. John has led and been involved
with a number of change initiatives, the most
recent being with a large pharmaceutical
organisation and together with the integration
of a recent BT acquisition.
29th November – Diversity Awards
Dee Shelford and Michelle Trickett- Smith
were short listed for awards.
5th Birthday celebrations
With the title ‘Our Christmas Gift to You’, this
event is Executive Women Committee’s
opportunity to thank its members for their
support throughout the past year. It is
designed to provide you with a few more tips
to add to your ‘tool kit’, listen to inspirational
speakers and have some fun too! It is on
Tuesday 2nd December, Birmingham. Guests
include Patricia Hewitt – BT Non-Executive
Director, Joy Fletcher – Head of Business
Operations (Fast Track), Helen Yates – CEO of
Multiple Sclerosis Research Centre. Patricia
Hewitt will be providing with an insight to
Networking, Joy Fletcher will be talking about
Planning for Success and Helen Yates will
provide an ‘Inspirational’ session.
Events Calendar
Ian Pearson
Deborah Lathen
Pauline Crawford
Anne Heal Priorities for Events 2009
Deliver 2009 Events schedule•
Continue to build and develop Events team•
Reinvigorate the lunch programmes•
Increase number of online events to meet•
country wide audience
Increase attendance via taster events and•
special offers
Develop an online payments system•
Ensure the events section of the website has•
up to date content and registration details
Leadership and Politics
January 2009
Happiness Event – No 3
28 January 2009
Managing Change
February 2009
Meet Olivia Garfield – Webinar
March 2009
Speed Networking
April 2009
Aaron McCormack – Webinar
May 2009
Personal Branding
June 2009
Innovative Speaking
September 2009
Innovation – how to work
in a different way
October 2009
Loose Women – Debate
November 2009
A Christmas Gift to You
December 2009

13. 24 25
f i n a n cePA S T O R A L C A R E
vacancy•Pastoral
Care
However, since we are not set up to offer
direct support of a professional nature, we
agreed that by putting in place a Pastoral Care
support infrastructure we could raise more
awareness and better meet this need for our
members.
Executive Women has developed a framework
of support for its members to help at an
individual level. There is a wealth of
information already available to all BT people
which provide a host of support services. For
instance, did you know that BT provides
information and support for stress (and how
to deal with it), help and advice to manage
harassment and bullying situations, mental
health issues and advice on achieving the right
balance between work and home life plus
managing pressure; and these are just a few of
the types of help available.
Executive Women has created a website
summarising the vast range of support
available to all BT.
Further information can be found at :
http://btwomensnetwork.intra.bt.com/home/
pastoral_care.html
BT also offers one of the leading UK company
advice lines – free to use for you and your
family, available 24 hours a day and manned
by independent, trained professionals. The
range of advice on offer is extensive and
covers areas such as: employment,
bereavement, children, substance abuse,
financial matters, depression, relationships,
care homes, stress, family, legal, bullying,
housing disputes, state benefits, adoption etc.
If you are based in the UK call 0800 917 6767
(people outside the UK should call on +44
1865 397076). Trained counsellors are also
available from this number and will offer
personal counselling sessions if they believe
that they are required.
Executive Women and the BT
Women’s Network (BTWN) work
collaboratively on a number of
initiatives and this includes
having Pastoral Care firmly on
the agenda.
Many of our members come to
our networks looking for help,
support and advice for both
work and more personal-related
issues.
In addition to these services, feel free to
contact any member of the Executive
Women Committee if you wish to talk to
someone in confidence. Although we are
not trained counsellors we are aware of the
professional help available and we are
committed to providing support wherever
possible to our members.
Priorities for Pastoral Care 2009
We will instigate new themes•
We are currently looking at dyslexia and•
isolation
We will expand our communication•
strategy to ensure a wider audience is
aware of the help and support available
We will ensure that everyone who is in•
need of help knows that it is available and
where to get it
We will talk to our members and identify•
where they think we can add real value
Pastoral Care Finance
Executive Women is pleased to
announce that Katherine Pennell
has been appointed treasurer of
the network.
Priorities for Finance 2009
The most important role for the finance•
team is to ensure the financial
accountability, stability and future of
Executive Women.
Our aim is to be transparent with our•
accounting and innovative with our ideas
and approach to obtaining, using and
managing the funds Executive Women
receive.
katheri
nepennell•finance
PA S T O R A L C A R E
Can you fill these shoes?

14. 26 27
S T R AT E G Y R E S E A R C HS T R AT E G Y R E S E A R C H
Jackie
Jones•Strategy
Research Over three days in Ljubljana, Slovenia, unions
from across Europe gathered to draw up an
action plan to change the face of the ICT
workforce and bring diversity to the industry.
Jackie, who leads the Openreach Gender
Diversity Plan and is also the Executive Women
Committee member for Research, was
supported at the conference by the CWU’s Bill
Taylor who presented on the situation of
women in ICT in the UK today and particularly
the challenge of attracting more women into
telecoms.
Jackie then went on to present on how
Openreach, with the backing of the CWU, has
increased the number of women recruits into
its telecom engineering workforce through
training recruiters, innovative advertising and
promoting culture change. Jackie was keen to
point out that Openreach is also working on
retaining its women engineers. “To retain our
women engineers we have to change the
culture and smash stereotypes in
engineering,” Jackie told the conference. “To
do this we are continuing across Openreach to
promote the business case for diversity and
fostering a culture of zero tolerance of
negative attitudes via our diversity training
programme. We are also promoting positive
role models of women engineers by running a
successful media campaign placing women
engineers into press and magazine lifestyle
features in order to highlight to women the
opportunities
available to
them in telecoms
engineering.”
The Hidden Brain Drain
Also in the last 12 months,
Director for Wales, has
worked with colleagues from
the BT Executive Women
Network and BT’s own
People and Policy team, to
produce a questionnaire to understand more
about the experience of BT women in the
workplace. The questions were based on the
external research published by the Hidden
Brain Drain in the Harvard Business Review.
The purpose of this research is to allow BT to
benchmark the employee experience with the
external global experience. We will then
develop a strategy to embed gender equality
within the BT culture.
Ann said...
“This is not only the right thing to do for its
own sake but also because there is a
growing understanding that it is an
essential factor in the recruitment and
retention of talented executives: a
business imperative in an increasingly
competitive global market.”
This Hidden Brain Drain, together with other
research which BT has been involved with, has
provided us with valuable insights into the
issues and trends in the global market and is
based on both quantitative and qualitative
research so that conclusions can be evidence
based. The Hidden Brain Drain has also
provided us with useful case studies of work
being undertaken by other large corporations
among its membership, companies such as GE,
Lehman Brothers, Johnson Johnson and
Goldman Sachs. BT’s ground breaking
approach to agile working has also featured in
the Hidden Brain Drain publications and is
seen by the membership as global best
practice in this area.
Another key publication that Executive
Women monitors is the Female FTSE:
These were the key points from the Female
FTSE Index for 2007:
In top• place is J Sainsbury, with three female
non-executives, making up 30% of their
corporate board, closely followed by
Astrazeneca, British Airways and ITV plc with
three female NEDs at 27.3%. Alliance
Leicester, HBOS and Pearson are in joint 5th
place with a 25% female board: Alliance
Leicester has three female NEDs, HBOS has
one executive female plus three NEDs, and
Pearson has two executive females plus
another female NED. Marks and Spencer,
Royal Sun Alliance and Sage Group are in
joint 8th position with over 22% female
boards.
BT has moved from 64th place last year to•
joint 34th place this year following the
appointment of Deborah Lathen as a second
female NED, making up 13.3% of the BT
corporate board.
The number of female-held directorships in•
the FTSE 100 increased to 123, up from 117
last year.
A landmark has been reached in that these•
123 seats are now held by 100 women.
Of the 152 new appointments over the last•
year, 30 were taken by women, an all time
high of 20%. Five of these women had
previously not held a FTSE 100 directorship.
The number of female CEOs remains at two,•
and there is still only one female chairman.
The number of female executive directors fell•
to 13, and this is out of 362 executive seats.
Overall women hold 11% of FTSE 100 board•
directorships.
24 companies have no female board•
members.
Strategy
Research
Last year, Executive Women
went global when Jackie Jones,
our Research Lead, presented on
how Openreach is successfully
attracting more women into
telecoms engineering, to 120
delegates from across the world
at the UNI-Europa ICT
conference.
BT’s Jackie Jones with UNI’s Gerd Rohde
Priorities for Research 2009
• Continue exit surveys for senior women
• Review the Hidden Brain Drain Research
to identify what the Network can do to
promote the recommendations and best
practice emerging from it
• Support the development of a BT Group
strategy for Gender Diversity

15. 28 29
An alumnus for ex-BT women has
been formulated during 2008
and Executive Women will be
working with the Alumni in the
forthcoming months to establish
what their requirements are and
how these can be supported by
Executive Women and BT.
E X T E R N A L R E L AT I O N S H I P S
What we will also need is the support of the
current Executive Women’s network to get the
message out to their friends and former
colleagues and get them to register
themselves as an alumni member so we
capture all interested parties.
Externally, Executive Women now has a
presence on Tradespace http://executive
womennetworking.bttradespace.com and the
external presence will be developed further
during 2009. We now have an integrated
communications policy between the two web
sites and a strategy on how we can align these
more in the future. Traction we will now be
made as we look to implement this early
within the fiscal and develop this further.
In addition we now have external members
who are willing to participate on a regular
basis to add material to the web site to keep it
current and fresh.
On 22nd April 2008 BT hosted an Aspire event
‘Successful Networking for Female Leaders’.
This session provided a unique opportunity to
‘kill two birds with one stone’ by
simultaneously enabling candidates to mix
and network with like-minded, inspiring peers
and to learn and implement best practice from
others on the topic of Networking itself,
through practical, discussion-based group
sessions facilitated by expert Aspire Executive
Coaches.
In June 2008 Michelle attended the 3rd
annual diversity workshop at BT Diegem/
Brussels office. Where there was a lively
debate around how both organsations
managed the diverse people and corporate
needs. Sharing best practice and insight into
how to make a difference.
Members of the BTGS Diversity Forum chaired
by Tim Smart were in attendance as well as
Michelle
Trickett
-Smith
•
ExternalRelatio
nships
External
Relationship
Strategy Links
E X T E R N A L R E L AT I O N S H I P S
several senior management and executive
sponsors from both companies.
We will continually review our achievements
to date with the BT-Cisco diversity partnership
since our meeting which will include the
creation of a Memorandum of Understanding
on Diversity Management, and discussing our
plans for the upcoming year. Enabling further
collaboration on the plans needing to develop
best practices.
We will publish more around the diversity and
inclusion aspect during the forthcoming year.
Priorities for External Relationships 2009
Expansion of the external relationships team•
Produce and agree an external relationships•
strategy and focus areas for forthcoming
year that compliments and synergises
current activities
Work with our strategic partnerships on•
harnessing a collective activity of knowledge
share and look for common areas to affect
change
Support establishment of other networks•
through support packs et al
Develop and shape the Alumni•
Agree and implement a comprehensive and•
integrated web strategy across internal and
external sites
Agree and Publish a joint BT/ CISCO MOU on•
the next stages and focus areas we as
strategic partners wish to focus on
Dress for
Success
This is a charity activity dear to
the heart of Michelle.
It started small where through family and
friends she started to work in conjunction
with local women’s refuge centres; low
income families etc where she helped
with self-sufficiency skills and
practical help.
That help took the form of providing
these women with some support as they
went for job interviews. This provided
them with the right attire; skills and
confidence to be able to gain their place
on the ladder of success regardless on
available funds.
Now Michelle wants to expand this
further with your help as she has now
gained a central co-ordinator who can
help with the logistics of distribution to
the right people in need.
All we need is your support by looking
through your wardrobes for any clothes,
suits, handbags, shoes, accessories etc.
and doing one of the following:
Sending all donations to:
Michelle Trickett-Smith
DRESS FOR SUCCESS
C/O Peterborough Security
Telephone House
Wentworth Street
Peterborough
PE1 1BA

16. 30 31
O U R T E A M S
Support
Secretary
Heldana Afework
Committee Member
Membership Secretary
Wendy Abbott
Committee Member
Volunteers Co-ordinator
Angie Jackson
Communications
Liz Walker
Our Teams
Communications
Head of PR
Communications
Esther Canonico
Committee Member
News and Grapevine
Joanne Davies, Lead
Websites Manager
Christine Hembling
Graphic Design Specialist
Lesley Streatfield
Photographer
Charlotte Wiig
BT Today News
Jo Ann Sweeney, Lead
Annual Report
Karen Wild
Pastoral care
Pastoral Care Lead
Vacancy
Committee Member
Claire Higson
Kalpana Kanani
Karen Rees
Events
Events Lead
Christine Poole
Committee Member
Deputy
Kalpana Kanani
Online events
Faith Wheller
Face-to-face Events Leads
Anna Sugden
Emma Finney-Lambert
Face-to-face Events
Jenni Carberry
Claire Jackson
Sophy Hough
Lynsey Law
Ioanna Tsirogianni
Katherine Parker
Sarah Kerr
Celebrating Success Lunches
Vanessa Goddevrind
Meet the BT Board Lunches
Anna Watch
Graduate lunches
Rachel Service, Lead
Dominic Hovell
Lucy Smith
Haley McGarity
Frances Smith
Internal
Relationships
Internal Relationships Lead
Anita Herbison
Committee Member
Deputy
Kate Kay
Internal Stakeholder Plan
Sarah Thompson
External
Relationships
External Relationships Lead
Michelle Trickett-Smith,
Committee Member
Deputy
Karen Wild
External Contact Team
Christina Knapp
Network of Established
Networks
Alison CooperFinance
Treasurer
Katherine Pennell
Committee Member
Strategy
Research
Strategy Research Lead
Jackie Jones
Committee Member
Hidden Brain Drain
Ann Beynon
Returning Women
Susan Feasey
Executive
Development
Executive Development Lead
Kate Gregory
Committee Member
Deputy Co-Coaching Lead
Meena Sheth
Co-Coaching
Sarah Archibald
Coaching
Sarah Capper
Questionnaires
Daxa Minott-Chotalia
Executive Development
Website
Sarah Kerr
Our Christmas Gift to You
Gillie Evans
Richard Major
Joanna Bunbury
Nicola Hutchinson-Mitchell
Internal Mentoring
Emily Smith
Ulrike Sauter
Employer Mantoring Scheme
Karly Crewe
Ioanna Tsirogianni
Everywoman Mentoring
Sharon Ritchie-Simmons
Raising Cultural Awareness
Laura Sibley, Lead
Jennifer Broom
Communications
Daniela Schilling
Charities
Charities Lead
Sam McDonald
Race for Life
Rebecca Swann, Lead
Joanne Davies
Karen Thorn
Beverley Gaynor
Vicky Smith
Wellness of Women
Elaine Miller, Lead
ELBA
Lisa Parker, Lead
StreetCred
Deborah Hamilton
Womankind
Janice Hailwood
Social Leadership
Kathy Reid
Communications
Bindi Norwell

17. C H A R I T I E S
32
informs YOU – our aim is to keep you right up
to the minute with what’s affecting women in
business today as well as how women are
handling the everyday pressures whilst
working towards and from within senior
positions. The Research and Special Features
area in our web site is a useful first port of call
to keep abreast but you can always Ask Us and
also Tell Us if we haven’t already got it covered!
asks YOU – in our opinion your opinion counts!
So we’ll often be calling upon you for your
views via our opinion polls, at our events, via
our research and through the formal feedback
you provide.
invites YOU – to all our events. These are
well-structured and tailored events to meet
the varying needs of women (and men)
striving to climb the career ladder and
fantastic opportunities to network with
likeminded people.
welcomes YOU – to Executive Women and all it
has to offer. Networking, events, research,
training and development, knowledge and
sources of information. We also welcome
hearing from you in all these areas!
shares with YOU – the findings of our research
and our links and associations with other
networks and key contacts.
helps and guides YOU – in as many aspects as
we can possibly think of in furthering your
career, whether it be an introduction to
another member, information in a specific area
of interest, training... whatever... If we can
help we will help of that you can be sure!
values YOU – as a member who makes up the
sum of parts and who puts in as much as you
take out of the network. We value your loyalty
to the network, your uniqueness, your
experiences and of course, your opinion! We
like to say thank you for your contribution
– sometimes simply with words and at special
times with something more tangible, like with
our Christmas Gift to You.
learns from and for YOU – we’ll do our bit;
researching women’s careers, finding the right
types of self-development, shaping events so
you can hear from others who are already
making it happen for them. We work with the
BT Board to open up more opportunities for
women in senior positions and will continue to
do so. And what we learn from you before,
during and after these events is vital to making
it happen and making right for all we do in
the future.
inspires YOU – the feedback we have gathered
over the past few years clearly states how
inspired many of our members are by the
network. If as a network Executive Women can
do even more to raise the bar, then we’d like to
hear about it because we want to continue
inspiring you in the future.
In a nutshell...
Executive Women
...it’s all about YOU!
Executive Women...
Design: Lesley Streatfield • Contact: studio@lesleystreatfield.com • 01442 828 043