The midway point of FinovateEurope falls on a notable holiday– International Women’s Day. This combination makes it the perfect time to celebrate all of the women who have graced the Finovate stage over the past two days.
Out of our 68 demoing companies, 21 were represented by women presenters– that’s 31%. This figure is 35% higher than at FinovateEurope last year, when 23% of the presenting companies were represented by a woman on stage. And it’s 55% higher than at FinovateEurope 2016, when 20% of the companies featured a woman on stage; more than 2x higher than FinovateEurope 2015, where 15% of the companies had female speakers; and a huge leap from our first event in 2007 with zero (see note 1).
These numbers spell out definitive progress. And with this in mind let’s celebrate women in fintech today– and every day, recognize how far we’ve come, and make an effort to foster a more inclusive environment within our industry.
The companies appear in demo order:
Bernadett Nagy and Agnes Magyar
Lisa Ann Caringi
Diana Winstanley
Petrina Grady and Deniz Oran
Esther Kaufmann
Lisa Terziman-Gutu
Yulia Clarke and Lina Perez
Janice Diner
Paula Costea
Patricia Diez Diez
Stephanie Feight
Sonal Rattan
Eileen Turner and Sarit Kozokin
Iwona Ziolkowska and Ewa Szerszen
Jo Howes and Eszter Vass
Inna Kaushan and Fatima Ayoub
Wincie Wong
Dr. Anna Elmirayeva
Katalin Kauzli
Olga Feldmeier
Luisa Silva
Editor’s Note: While sadly it’s true that no women were on stage during the 20 demos of the first Finovate. One company, iPay Technologies, was founded by Dana Bowers, but she chose not to speak that day. And Finovate might not even exist if it wasn’t for Melanie Flanagan, then Marketing Manager at Yodlee (also co-founded by a woman), who was the first person to agree to demo. Finally, Susan Hawkins, then SVP at Metavante,was instrumental in getting both her company and Monitise on stage. So there you have it, woman called the shots for at least 20% of Finovate v1.0’s content, even if they ended up delegating the on-stage pitching to men. Thanks Melanie, Dana and Susan! — Jim Bruene, Founder