Business schools, universities and even engineering schools: over a dozen types of top-notch training institutions were represented, including Centrale Nantes, Paris Dauphine, Emlyon, EDHEC, Ensimag, Skema, Sciences Po and the Paris Versailles and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Universities.

At the end of this stand-out day which received a rating of 4.8/5, the students underscored the “incredible diversity across the business lines”, the “unrivalled organization” and the “super experience”.

Our priority for the next few years is to see more and more women in our business lines, beginning with our circles of leadership and in the finance sector more generally. 

As far as gender balance is concerned, we have made some solid commitments out to 2020 which have been implemented by each business line, namely to have

• 50% of women in our work-study programs and a 50% female intern rate
• Perfectly mixed talent development programs, which is the case, for example, of our Graduate EMEA Program and the Natixis Leadership Program
• 30% of women in Natixis Global Leaders, our first circle of leadership after the Executive Committee, and 40% in the Purple Leaders circle
• Last, we have set ourselves the target of appointing women in 30% of Managing Director positions and women in 35% of Executive Director roles.

During the past ten years or so, a raft of surveys has demonstrated the link between diversity and performance. Diversity is a source of creativity and innovation. It helps people think “outside the box” and enhances decision-making.

We at Natixis want our talent to flourish.

That’s why we are constantly introducing new actions to encourage diversity. The Shadowing Women in Finance Day is one of them. Its aim is to encourage young women to join the finance sector, to carve out a career in our business lines through practical experience and stimulate career interest by their meeting role models in our company.

Last, we have officially pledged to fight discrimination in all its forms and at every stage of our employees’ careers by signing the Corporate Diversity Charter.

This commitment has been reviewed regularly, particularly as far as gender balance is concerned, with the signature at the end of 2015 of 15 pledges to promote better work-life balance as part of our Work and Life at Natixis program. More recently in 2016, Natixis was awarded the label certifying professional equality between women and men.