“It was difficult to break that mould despite performance, enthusiasm and energy.”
Discussing diversity and inclusion, Browning said it needs to be people that think and behave very differently to really create that environment.
“I noticed this through my recruitment, when I started managing teams and I’d left recruitment to people.
“People recruit in their own shape and form and it's a very natural human nature thing to do but I've attended various courses that helped me.
“We need to break up the thinking and the behaviour patterns that we get there. So it is nice to be conscious and aware, and I'm still completely aware that there's so much more I need to be listening, learning, thinking about.”
Old Mill move
Prior to Old Mill, Browning was at Evelyn Partners which said “was not intentional”.
“The intention was to move to Smith and Williamson which was very much like Rathbones which is where I was before,” she said.
Browning said moving to Smith and Williamson was definitely a progression for her career as it was a move into more senior management, with a much more responsibility.
It was a relatively big team with about 48 in the office at that point, and then lockdown came and the merger with Tilney occurred.
“The major challenge began with integrating different cultures, different practices, different ways of working all into one single unified happy family,” she said.
“I was desperately trying to keep hold of the culture and the essence that we had in Smith and Williamson, and then bringing together what was then 100 people and the way we did that, so it was successful. But it took a lot of work making people meet together and of course it was all in lockdown.
“We were fortunate to be the first office to combine out of the countries because they were on the floor below us coincidentally and so it was really rewarding.”
However, she said her role was to be divided into two and she elected to be made redundant over having her role split.
“That was the motivation for me to go,” she said. “I was only one of five managing partners of 44 in the new merged business.
“Having been in a really nicely diversified office in Smith and Williamson where almost half of my financial planners were women - it's really rare."
sonia.rach@ft.com
