Law Debenture is pleased to report that its debate, which took place on the evening of Monday 9th May – after a 3-year covid imposed absence - was a great success drawing 200 guests in one of the first industry events of its kind since the pandemic.
The full debate can be viewed here.
The motion for this year’s debate was: “This House believes that increasing diversity and inclusion on pension trustee boards is best achieved through use of quotas.”
Speaking for the motion were Dawid Konotey-Ahulu (Redington, Mallowstreet and 10000BlackInterns) and LaasyaShekaran (Lane Clark & Peacock) who challenged the audience to consider why all the talk about diversity is yet to lead to meaningful change. They argued that the introduction of quotas would hold pension trustee boards accountable for improving diversity and drive the change that is needed.
“Change is simply happening far too slowly and whatever we’re doing at the moment, just isn’t working. Introducing quotas is the quickest way to accelerate our industry towards achieving that goal of improved diversity” commented Laasya.
Speaking against the motion were Daniel Gerring (Travers Smith) and Lauren Peacock (Scottish Widows). The opposition spoke passionately highlighting, as Daniel articulated, that “what you see is only a tiny portion of what each of us is…put plainly no quota can capture who I am, nor who any of us are.”
Lauren and Daniel were on the winning side ‘against quotas’ but Laasya and Dawid improved their share of the vote (from 35% to 44%), arguing ‘for quotas’ in order to improve diversity and inclusion on trustee boards.
Vicky Paramour, Managing Director of Law Debenture’s pensions division chaired the debate which inspired lively and thought-provoking discussion from both sides.
In the interest of promoting diversity, LawDeb also took the decision to live stream the event for the first time in its history, with 90 guests joining online.
