Second Women’s Business Forum is aiming to make a difference

The second annual event, aimed at both women and men, is being held on September 29 at Rudding Park in Harrogate.

Centred around the theme, It’s Time To Make a Difference, the speaker line-up includes: Chris Sullivan, chief executive of corporate banking at RBS, Tim Solso, chairman of Cummins, which designs, manufactures, distributes and services engines, Carla Stent, chief operating officer of Virgin Management, and Allan Leighton, chairman of set-top box maker Pace.

Mr Leighton was appointed non-executive chairman of Saltaire-based Pace earlier this year. He will deliver a speech in which he will examine why the corporate world needs “sprinters and endurance runners”.

He is probably best known for transforming the fortunes of Asda in the 1990s. In 1999 he oversaw the sale of Asda to US giant Wal-Mart for £6.2bn.

There will also be speakers from McKinsey, Google, Ernst & Young, IBM, Morrisons, and BP as well as networking opportunities throughout the day.

The event, which is expected to attract 650 business leaders, will discuss ways of ensuring more women get to the top in business.

Last year’s event, at Harewood House, near Leeds, played host to more than 500 of the top eight per cent of the UK’s most skilled and driven business women, representing a range of different sectors – from finance to retail, to law and accountancy.

It included contributions from Alliance Boots chief executive Andy Hornby and former MP Virginia Bottomley, who is now director of executive search firm Odgers Berndtson, along with Kate Bostock, executive director of clothing at Marks & Spencer, and Judith McKenna, chief financial officer of Asda.

A message of support from Prime Minister David Cameron for the conference was also read out.

Speakers tackled issues including the obstacles to women reaching the top of the FTSE 100 companies and noted the businesses which embrace diversity and encourage women at board level.

Earlier this year, the Davies Report called for firms to more than double the number of women on their boards by 2015, or face government measures.

Former minister Lord Davies of Abersoch urged FTSE 350 companies to boost the percentage of women at the board table to 25 per cent by 2015.

The most recent report from the Cranfield School of Management on female representation in the boardroom found that in 2010 women made up only 12.5 per cent of directors of the FTSE 100 companies.

For more information about the forum, visit www.thewomensbusinessforum.co.uk