Meet Bianca. Bianca Richardson is a Senior Search Consultant at Westpac.
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The following is a transcript that has been created using AI technology. Please forgive any grammatical imperfections it may have.
Bianca Richardson
Because I always took the view of if I can understand the process, I can apply that to any other topic if I can understand the framework.
Camilla Love
Welcome, everyone back to another episode of Shares Not Shoes an Insider's Guide to Careers in Finance. I'm your host, camilla Love, founder of F. Three future females in finance. Chersal Shoes is a podcast whereby I interview some of my favourite people, all with one thing in common they work in finance. We lift a lid on who they are, how they came into a career in finance and arm you with some knowledge about why a career in finance could be a good fit for you. I will promise that all my guests will share some amazing personal stories, will be open and honest and will inspire you. So let's go.
Camilla Love
In today's episode of Shares Not Shoes, we are joined by someone who has a role that truly changes the course of the investment management industry here in Australia every day. And there's not that many people who can say that they can do that in their role. Not only does she have a law degree and is formerly our financial advisor, but she's also won awards for her advocacy for better regulation of the industry. Welcome Bianca Richardson.
Bianca Richardson
Thank you, Camilla. That was very nice and very generous of you.
Camilla Love
I am super keen to find out.
Camilla Love
How you started in finance, all the twists and turns that you've had in your career, because I think that you've changed and pivoted quite a lot and I really want to delve into those and I'm really keen to find out.
Camilla Love
How you can find purpose in your role today.
Camilla Love
And I know through the intro that you really do have your thumb on.
Camilla Love
The really important issues that hits the investment management industry and finance in general on behalf of the FSC members. But we'll come back to that. So thanks for joining us. To start off, Bianca, tell me a little bit about you, who you are and what you do in your role.
Bianca Richardson
So I've had a very interesting Korean financial services and I think my story is not like many other people who I've talked to over the years, which is I fell into financial services. It wasn't the first career choice in that I initially went to university, I had visions of being a psychologist, studied Bachelor of Arts in psychology, decided I wasn't quite ready to finish uni and go into my career for the next 2030 years, and then did a law subject, really enjoyed commercial law, did well at it, and then decided that I was going to be a lawyer. Now, having successfully completed commercial law and unincorporated associations and trusts, when I saw a job ad come up for a corporations lawyer at a financial services firm, I did a very bold thing. And now I look back at it and I think, I can't believe I did that. But I'm so glad I did. And I applied for the role of the corporate lawyer and said, I'd like to apply for this position. Unfortunately, I don't meet your requirements. But I did just get a HD in commercial law and in unincorporated associations and trust.
Bianca Richardson
Will you give me a role? And surprisingly, four weeks later, the CEO of that advice business and the head of legal call me in for an interview. And I started working there as a corporate legal assistant, so similar to a paralegal within the legal team. And then that kind of side of my career in financial services.
Camilla Love
That is so good because you hear.
Camilla Love
Stories all the time about girls who go, I don't tick every ten points of the job ad, so therefore I'm not going to do only pick nine of them. And in this circumstance, you tick and then I'm going to go for it anyway. Love that. What made you think about doing that?
Camilla Love
Do you just take a risk?
Camilla Love
What is it?
Bianca Richardson
I have to give a lot of credit to my dad. My dad was very much a believer in inspiring his kids. I have a brother and a sister and he used to encourage us to read the Finn Review and he gave us books about thinking positively and having a growth mindset. So Napoleon Hill think and grow rich. Bridge dad, Poor dad.
Camilla Love
You had a book list like this.
Bianca Richardson
Longset and being Positive and Shoot for the Stars. And so I've been working in hospitality while still at university, didn't like the late nights and the weekends, and I thought, I'd really like to be able to get some work experience before I finish my degree. And I just went for it and I thought, what's the worst that could happen?
Camilla Love
What's the worst that could happen?
Camilla Love
I still got a job.
Bianca Richardson
Yes, well, much better. It led to basically my career in financial services. That one job ad.
Camilla Love
So do you give that advice to.
Camilla Love
All those girls out there who think they only tick eight out of the ten? You like, Just throw your hat in the ring.
Bianca Richardson
Anyway, that's key. Absolutely key. That's the first step. You have to at least be in the game, and so you should have a go. And it's been interesting. I've also had a very short sense as a recruiter. I had a year living in the UK. And on the recruitment side, you can see that you're really looking at, do people fit the box and pick all the criteria in order to even get someone through the first hurdle? But over the years, what I've also learned in business is what actually is more important is attitude, because you can teach someone the skills and the technical aspects. And so even if you don't fit the box, I would encourage people to put your receiving in, pick up the phone, have the conversation, go and meet people and get yourself out there, because you actually don't know what opportunities will arise. And I'm casting point for that.
Camilla Love
That is a superb answer because it just gives so much joy and opportunity and somebody else did it. Somebody else did it. So I have a funny story that actually somebody egged me on or suggested that I needed a mentor and that I should really start from the top.
Camilla Love
And so I wrote to Gail Kelly.
Camilla Love
She was the CEO of Westpac at the time, and said, hey Gail, will you be my mentor?
Camilla Love
She came back and said, no, but.
Camilla Love
I tell you what I know from.
Camilla Love
Subsequent conversations with people I've met along.
Camilla Love
The way, that question was actually discussed in executive meeting with Gail in it and whether she should be my mentor or not. And again, the answer was no. But I tell you what, you've got to be in it to win it. You've got to ask, you've got to put yourself forward. So tell me about what you do today.
Bianca Richardson
My role is a policy role, which means that I work with our fund manager members to really shape the future of what our industry looks like. We might identify an issue or a problem that we would like to solve in the broader funds management industry and we might come up with a policy position. One of the pieces of work that I've been really enjoying working on and that I met you, Camilla through is the work of trying to improve gender diversity in investment management and trying to get more women into roles of running money. Women are underrepresented and we all know the benefits of diversity and we've been looking at this issue. And so as a collective in policy development, for example, we came together with our members, saw that we have a problem here that we'd like to address, and then really explored how can we support business and how can we support industry to help shift the dial in a meaningful way. And then we've developed some resources that businesses can use, guidance notes and suggestions around what things to look for when they're recruiting people, what policies help with retention of staff, and then gone the next step from developing guidance to developing a charter where firms who want to shift the dial can sign up to the charter.
Bianca Richardson
They track how they're going around gender diversity in those investment management roles and then hopefully over time, they will be able to see that they're increasing the female representation in their relevant teams. And so you get to do some really practical things like that, as well as participate in regulatory reform if the government or the regulators such as ASIC is looking at changing the way they regulate the industry. In the work that I do, we can basically use all of the knowledge and the insights from all of our members to develop provisions and make recommendations for how we can basically shape the future landscape of the industry.
Camilla Love
That landscape of the industry has changed substantially.
Camilla Love
I've been in the industry for nearly 20 years, and I know that the Financial Services Council has been really at the forefront of guiding the industry through.
Camilla Love
A lot of regulatory change.
Camilla Love
And we've seen a lot of stuff, whether it be through the Banking Royal Commissions or changing advice rules, even through.