The AllBright, a recently launched London-based women’s networking club, has startled its supporters by appointing a man, Allan Leighton, as its chair. To the surprise of the club’s founders, Debbie Wosskow and Anna Jones, although not to anyone else’s, this is widely regarded as bonkers.
This is a club that claims to be inspired by the first female US secretary of state, Madeleine “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women” Albright. It has that Virginia Woolf quote (“A woman must have money and a room of her own”) by the front door, the artwork is all by women, even the wine comes from women-run vineyards. It would be fair to say that it has gone to some lengths to establish a brand as the promoter of women in business.
So Leighton, despite his record as a promoter of women’s networking initiatives and his experience as chairman of the Co-operative Group, and former boss of Asda and Royal Mail, is going to send a conflicting message. Wosskow admits she is “a little bit surprised” by the reaction. But she has a defence: “There’s a very important factual point here. Allan Leighton is not the CEO of AllBright. Anna Jones and I are the co-founders of AllBright. We appointed him – and it really matters.”
Wosskow’s case is that the group is operating amid the uncomfortable realities of scarce finance, where men still control the majority of startup capital, so men have to be brought on board. And on to the board, come to that. “We have raised £9m to drive the growth of the business … we’re hugely grateful to the men who have backed us to change the conversation for women,” she said on the BBC’s Today programme.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
