Shard Credit Partners (SCRP) is pleased to support WWC (Women in Working Capital) by sponsoring their first podcast, featuring Louise Cooper. Louise Cooper, a Chartered Financial Analyst, is a Senior Lecturer in Finance at Kingston University. She began her career at Goldman Sachs as an equity research salesperson before moving into broadcasting, spending nearly a decade as a presenter and senior economics journalist at the BBC World Service on programmes such as Newshour and Europe Today. Following Louise’s time at the BBC, she worked as a markets analyst, wrote a column for The Times, and made regular appearances on BBC Radio 4 and 5 Live. In 2011, while serving as a Senior Financial Analyst at BGC Partners, Louise came to wider public attention for delivering economic insight across major broadcasters including BBC News, ITV News, Al Jazeera, Sky News, CNBC, and others.

SCRP recognises the importance of initiatives like WWC, particularly within the finance industry, where gender diversity has improved but the space remains largely male-dominated. As a strong advocate for women in business, Shard promotes female entrepreneurship, ownership, and board representation, actively encouraging diversity across its portfolio companies.

Shard Credit Partners was an early mover in embedding support for gender diversity into its lending model, including offering financial incentives to borrowers who improve female representation at board level and within ownership structures. As a result of this focus, over 90.9% of Shard’s portfolio companies have at least one female board member, two-thirds have some degree of female equity ownership, and 28.5% are led by a female CEO.

Women in Working Capital is a professional community created to support and connect women working across the working capital space. WWC provides a platform for women to come together, share experiences, and build meaningful professional relationships.

The community was founded to foster an inclusive environment where members can network, exchange ideas, access new opportunities, and support one another throughout their careers. It recognises the value of peer connection, knowledge sharing, and collaboration in the working capital and wider finance industry space, where women remain underrepresented.

As a grassroots, not-for-profit initiative, WWC is free to join for its members. This ensures accessibility for women at all stages of their careers, from those in the early stages to experienced professionals and industry leaders. While its focus is on those active in the working capital sphere, WWC also has members from related fields such as different areas of finance, legal, media, and insurance, that touch this product space. WWC has a growing network of members and welcomes women from across the globe as it continues to expand its reach.

For more information about WWC, or if you are a woman involved in the working capital space and would like to join, please feel welcome to get in touch at: info@womeninworkingcapital.com