Like the Oscars, the Memcom Excellence Awards continue to grow, evolve and adapt with the needs of the sector, and regular attendees will know that from time to time, our esteemed panel of judges feel that a particular entry in one of the categories is worth a special mention. 2023 has been one such occasion, resulting in a never-before-awarded trophy, the Memcom Special Recognition Award.
To earn this accolade, the application on behalf of an individual, team or organisation has to demonstrate how their chosen nomination made a tangible difference – whether to their organisation, profession or wider society. This could be over an incredibly short period of time, or in this instance, over such a long period of time that the judges felt that a special recognition was needed.
The recipient of the 2023 Memcom Special Recognition Award is Ann Francke OBE CMgr CCMI, Chief Executive of the Chartered Management Institute. Ann has championed equality for more than a decade, and was awarded an OBE for services to Workplace Equality in the 2020 New Year Honours list.
Since her appointment as CEO in 2012, some of Ann’s achievements at the CMI include:
- 135 new education partners and a record 55% growth in CMI’s learner community;
- A seat at the top table advising the Government Equalities Office on gender pay gap regulations;
- Regular publications on gender and diversity, such as Blueprint for Balance;
- Inclusion Hubs with senior leadership representation and financial support (employee resource groups) on Ethnicity, LGBTQIA+ and Menopause, with further plans for disability, socio-economic, age and gender hubs in the coming months.
An acknowledged expert on gender balance in the workplace, Ann has spoken frequently at conferences and in the media on this topic, as well as the gender pay gap, and women in the corporate world. In 2022, she was recognised as one of Fe:maleOneZero’s inaugural “40 over 40 DEI Champions” among honourees from around the world.
Somehow, in addition to all this, Ann finds time to sit on the Social Mobility Commission employer advisory group, chairs the diversity and inclusion board for the Engineering Council, acts as an ambassador for the 30% Club, sits on the Work Foundation’s advisory board and the government’s Help to Grow: Management initiative advisory committee, and is a visiting professor at Aston University.
She is also the author of ‘Financial Times Guide to Management: How to Make a Difference and Get Results’ (2014) and ‘Create a Gender-Balanced Workplace’ (2019) in Penguin’s Business Experts series – and of course, a previous recipient of the Memcom CEO Leadership Award in 2016.
Please join us in celebrating Ann Francke, a true sector champion and the embodiment of the power and influence of the membership sector – and adding to that list of accolades, the inaugural recipient of the Memcom Special Recognition Award.
