Women Mean Business: ‘I had to protect staff from Philip Green’s bullying’ alleges former Topshop chief

The former boss of Topshop has lifted the lid on working for the “bully” Sir Philip Green, claiming she spent years protecting her team from him.

Jane Shepherdson was brand director of the high street chain when Sir Philip bought its parent company in 2002. She later quit because she “couldn’t bear the thought” of working closely with him.

“There is no question he was a bully. Everybody knows he was a bully,” Ms Shepherdson told The Telegraph’s inaugural Women Mean Business Live event. Speaking openly for the first time about her five years working with the billionaire, she said: “I had brought in this incredibly talented team of people to work at Topshop.

“There was absolutely no way that I would have them be exposed to that kind of behaviour and the way Philip ran his business.

“I felt it was my duty to protect the team from that. If he came on to the buying floor somebody would come and get me and say, ‘Jane, Philip’s here.’ And I would go and get him and take him to my office, we would talk and then I would take him to the lift. I just absolutely thought it was inappropriate in a workplace to bully people in that way.”

Sir Philip was named in the Lords last week as the businessman at the centre of Britain’s MeToo scandal. He has taken out an injunction preventing this newspaper from publishing his alleged victims’ stories and denies any “unlawful” behaviour.

Asked why Sir Philip attracted celebrity friends including Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, who have declined to distance themselves from him despite the scandal, she said: “Why do you think? He’s a billionaire. Money talks.”

Ms Shepherdson said she had witnessed him yelling at everyone from junior staff to City executives, but said she had not let him bully her. “When I first came across him I was very fortunate that Topshop was successful so therefore there wasn’t the power imbalance that there was with a lot of other people,” she added.

“He did bully people but he didn’t bully me. He tried to – he would get very angry and shout a lot, and I would then get very angry and shout a lot. I wasn’t properly angry, I just knew the way to talk to a bully was to pretend to get very angry, to shout at them and then every time I did that he would back down.

“It was really exhausting doing it. It takes its toll on you. You have to constantly be making yourself aggressive.”

She said she personally saw no evidence of him sexually harassing staff.

When she quit in 2006, it was said that she objected to Sir Philip’s decision to hire Kate Moss as a designer. But Shepherdson explained: “Philip wanted to run the business ... and I couldn’t bear the thought of it.”

She is now free to speak about her time with Sir Philip because she did not sign a non-disclosure agreement. The businessman has used gagging orders to prevent former employees from speaking out over allegations of sexual harassment and racial abuse.

Earlier in the day, Mary Portas, the retail expert, claimed Sir Philip felt he was not accountable to anyone.

“This is just hierarchical power,” she said. “This is ‘I own the business so I can walk into this shopfloor or I can say to you sweetheart and talk to you how I want because I’m not accountable to anyone’. What should have happened in that huge Arcadia Group is someone saying ‘why don’t we change the culture here?’”

Backlash means men ‘scared to talk to female colleagues’

Women are being denied career advancement because the MeToo movement has left men scared to spend time with junior female colleagues, the most senior woman at Facebook believes.

Nicola Mendelsohn said: “One CEO told me recently that when he meets a woman he keeps his door open, and he won’t hold a meeting with a woman after five o’clock or go for dinner or a drink any more with a female colleague.”

She also pointed to “shocking” research in which 30 per cent of male managers said they would feel uncomfortable working alone with a woman, and were five times more likely to hesitate before going on a work trip with a junior female colleague rather than one of her male counterparts.

Ms Mendelsohn, Facebook’s Vice-President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said that “quite rightly women are concerned that this will deny them professional opportunities”.

She said that if women lost out on mentoring from men, “fewer women will rise to the top”.

MeToo was not to blame and should not be abandoned, she insisted, but “we need to find ways to encourage men to have a different response”.

360 review would have halted Savile, says Balding

Businesses must stop rewarding aggressive behaviour in the workplace, Clare Balding has said, citing Jimmy Savile as an example of an alpha male who was left unchecked, reports Eleanor Steafel.

Savile could have been stopped if he had been subjected to a 360-degree review in which colleagues and junior staff are invited to speak up about their concerns, the presenter told The Telegraph's Women Mean Business Live event.

The BBC and Channel 4 presenter said: “When I first started in the media industry there was definitely a fear that they would only have one woman on this show. So basically: I’ll need to kill you or it’ll be me.

“We have generally rewarded aggressive behaviour. I think one of the things we need to introduce into all media is the 360 review. Jimmy Savile wouldn’t have happened if there had been that.”

Balding was part of a panel that included Mary Portas, the retail consultant, and Dame Helena Morrissey, the diversity campaigner and financier.

Portas called on British businesses to put women “at the centre”, saying better childcare support and more opportunities for flexible working would make the workplace a better environment for both women and men.

“It’s time to put the power of the goddess at the centre,” she said. “We couldn’t offer a year off [for maternity], it would drastically affect my business. So we have a list of things you can choose from.”

Portas, her business, offers employees a maternity nurse, on-call nannies, and a crèche on site, so that women can come back to work more easily. “That leads to change,” she said. “Why aren’t we in business doing that more? It would be marvellous. Apple built a state-of-the-art head office and no one thought to put a bloody crèche in it.”

Portas also supported shared parental leave, saying: “If we are allowing men to free up time to share that leave right at the beginning, imagine what a difference that would make.”

Dame Helena spoke of the “great opportunity” women have at the moment as the preconceptions around what makes a successful business leader begin to change. “Now there isn’t a certain formula for being successful,” she said. “It’s about inclusivity.”

She called for flexible working to be the default, as in Australia, adding: “We need to move to this idea that it’s not how many hours you work. You want to pay a person for doing their job.”

Resilient working mothers should be seen as models for business success, says Mordaunt

The women’s minister has said working mothers should be studied by business schools, reports Sophie Barnes.

Penny Mordaunt, minister for women and equalities, said working mothers are “resilient, resourceful and remarkable leaders and I wish our great business schools, would spend more time studying them”.

She told the largely female audience that she spent some of her childhood in a single-parent family “and I can tell you, you will see just as much physical leadership in the heart of British households, as you will in any wealthy corporation”.

“Don’t tell working women who are left to juggle the bread-winning and the childcare, about logistics and procurement,” she said. “Don’t tell these people about hard work. They are often working two or three jobs whilst getting a business going.”

She said for too long women had “endured” a working culture where they are “at best patronised and at worst casually insulted by a generation of men that elevated confidence to entitlement”. Outside of politics Ms Mordaunt was previously a director of Diabetes UK and the Big Lottery Fund.

She said working mothers “reinvent the world one day at a time, and they do it quietly”. “Financially fragile women, women with multiple caring responsibilities, women whose partners’ careers have been the priority.”

The government has recently announced that Alison Rose, chief executive officer for RBS Commercial and Private Banking, will lead an independent review into the barriers faced by women entrepreneurs.

Ms Mordaunt said the Government needs to do more in this area and “learn from other nations like the United States” where, she said, the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs were black women, running about 2.4 million businesses between them. However, she said this group also has the least access to capital.

She cited a famous comment about Ginger Rogers – that she did everything her dancing partner Fred Astaire did “but backwards and in heels” and added that, for modern working women, “it is more likely to be with no back up and in debt”.

5:10PM

That closes the conference

Features Director Victoria Harper and Women's Editor Claire Cohen have thanked the sponsors, Natwest, Facebook and BT and the audience erupts into applause.

Thank you to everyone who came to the Telegraph's first Women Mean Business conference, and to everybody who engaged on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and beyond.

Inside the Hilton Bankside hotel business cards have been flying around like confetti and the white wine bottles have just been opened.

From Clare Balding to Touker Suleyman, Mary Portas to Penny Mordaunt and Nicola Mendelsohn to Jane Sheperdson we have been treated to insightful debate, essential business tips and plenty of advice for entrepreneurs and businesswomen across the spectrum.

The Telegraph is campaigning for the government to address the funding inequality faced by female founders. The Treasury research should act as a catalyst for change.

Read the story of our campaign so far.

I'll be posting a summary of the day shortly and you can read all about the day in tomorrow's Telegraph.

4:58PM

The future of the high street

In 2016, Jane Sheperdson became CEO of clothing brand Whistles. She believes that the high street is going to change radically.

"All of the bricks and mortar retailers are struggling. Also at last people are taking sustainability seriously. 

"I'm very tempted to start another brand. Something ethical, something sustainable, something bringing tech into it. 

"The British high street is going to change radically. If you go into Selfridges - it's incredible. And then you go into Debenhams and you're like go figure."

4:45PM

"Philip Green was a dealer, not a great retailer" says former Topshop director

Jane Sheperdson, who worked with Philip Green at Topshop says: "I felt that if you produce something that is absolutely gorgeous and wonderful, then success will come.

"His view was if I screw the supplier enough I can get the price up enough and then i can rip off the customer. 

"He was a dealer, he wasn't a great retailer in any sense, and knew very little about fashion."

4:37PM

"Philip Green was surprised when I left" says former brand director

"I think he was very surprised.

"I didn't think it was a surprise at all. I thought the writing was on the wall.

"I think he thought I was going to stay forever, I don't know."

4:34PM

"Philip Green bullied people," alleges former Topshop director

Jane Sheperdson was the brand director for Topshop, working directly under Philip Green. She alleges that he bullied people and that she would try to protect her team from him.

"There's no question he was a bully everyone knows he was a bully. When I first came across him in 2002 I was very fortunate that Topshop was very succesful so there wasn't the power imbalance. 

"He did bully people.

"He didn't bully me, he would try to he would get very angry and shout a lot. And then I would get very angry and shout a lot. Every time I did that he would back down, bearing in mind I was in a very good position. 

"It was really exhausting dong it. It takes its toll on you. You have to continue to be very aggressive. 

"I had brought on this incredibly talented team of people to work at Topshop. There was absolutely no way that I would have them exposed to the way Philip ran his business. 

"I felt it was my duty to protect my team from that. 

"If he came onto the buying floor someone would come and get me and say 'Jane, Philip's here' and I would say what do you want to talk about? And then I would take him to the lift. 

"I just thought well if they're working for me, why should they have to be shouted at? 

"There was an awful lot of bullying and I think there still is. I think it's become acceptable in the fashion industry in a way it shouldn't be. But I think his behaviour was worse than most." 

4:29PM

Philip Green's behaviour "worse than most" says former employee

Jane and Lisa are discussing the allegations of harassment against her former boss, Sir Philip Green.

Jane Sheperdson: "When I was there I didn't see him harass anyone sexually. That's not to say it didn't happen, but I didn't see it."

Lisa Armstrong: "When you have a culture at the top that is very forceful is it difficult to keep your departments happy?"

Jane Sheperdson: "Yes. You don't get the best out of people when they are scared of being shouted at."

"It is easier to talk about the number of bosses I've had that haven't been bullies. I think his (Green's) behaviour was worse than most."

4:24PM

Keynote interview: Jane Sheperdson

Jane Sheperdson is a retail expert who worked in a senior position at Topshop and Arcadia.

She is in conversation with The Telegraph's head of fashion and style, Lisa Armstrong.

4:19PM

How to pitch

Lara Morgan:"You've got to have a proper elevator pitch. A lot of the time you're facing someone and you haven't got your pitch right."

Jenny Tooth:  "The ladies toilets are a very good place for a pitch. I've been pitched at so many times in the loos. "

4:13PM

Are women more risk averse?

Jenny Tooth: "It's an overblown myth about women being risk averse. I think many women are taking risks in all different areas of their lives. 

"As women we like to really understand things so we get to the bottom of everything before we go for it. That's not about them being risk averse it's about them being really sensible."

4:10PM

Women considering themselves as investors

Jenny Tooth: "Women I meet are not aware that they can get a massive tax break if they are an investor. Even £5k as part of a syndicate, you can start to build up a portfolio.

"The UK Business Angels Association website has all those details."

Tom Fleming: "Our winners have come from the founders' ability to build and keep good teams.

"On the pitch, if you bring someone with you like a board member don't let them talk over you, because that is a red flag."

4:03PM

"You can't be wishy-washy with what you're going to do"

Lara Morgan: "You can't be wishy-washy with what you're going to do [...] This is a numbers game and you have to put forward your plans. You've got to have the ambition but it's also got to be commercially viable."

Francesca Warner: "There are so many free resources out there to help you, and all this knowledge allows you to help you come in and blow investors away."

3:56PM

"Don't be put off by men in suits."

Lara Morgan:"I talk about mindest because that gut feel and intuition is something I believe women see differently. There needs to be more of a community vibe. You shouldn't sit back and wait for someone to ask you, go and sell yourself."

Tom Fleming: "Half our employees are female and that's mainly because we invest in consumer so we don't see discrimination at work because we are so focussed on returns and compelling founders."

Francesca Warner: "If you can come in and know your markets and audience then you have an opportunity to blow investors away."

Jenny Tooth: "We don't have enough people talking about their investment journeys or enough women talking about their investments. Men are much more likely to discuss their investments.

"Don't be put off by men in suits. Don't be frightened. Double what it is that you want and see what happens.

3:38PM

Panel: Boosting the UK economy by investing in female founded businesses

The Telegraph's Business Editor Ben Wright is taking to the stage and exploring the benefits of investing in female businesses.

• Identifying opportunities with investors to maximise funding opportunities and expertise to benefit female entrepreneurs

• Catapulting female founded businesses to the next level through efficient usage of funding

Speakers: Jenny Tooth, Chief executive officer, UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA)

Lara Morgan: entrepreneur

Francesca Warner: co-founder, Diversity VC

Tom Fleming: partner, Ventrex

Moderator: Ben Wright, Business Editor, The Telegraph

3:08PM

Men can be the role models for the next generation

"The men that show their commitment to tackle fairness, gender bias and equality. They too are the role models for the next generation.

"One CEO told me recently that when he meets with women he keeps his door open, that he won't hold meetings with women after 5pm and won't go for a drink with them. 

"Mentorship is under threat and it is critical for women and for women's success across all industries. 

"We need men to react to movements like #MeToo not by thinking: "that's now a risk in my life that needs to be managed".

3:01PM

#MeToo is "a point on our timeline of female empowerment"

Nicola Mendelsohn says that the MeToo movement has revealed so many instances of women supporting women. 

"I make sure that wherever I travel and whatever I do is bring women together at different times and different eays because something special happens. We inspire each other and get better connected.

"It's not just women we can rely on to make progress. Men have to be part of the solution and the progress as well. If we're going to make this progress quicker and prevent the abuses of the past, we need to challenge the institutional biases that are still prevalent in our workplaces and our communities."

2:53PM

Keynote Speech: Nicola Mendelsohn CBE, vice president EMEA, Facebook

#MenToo: Men's crucial role as allies for women

• Keynote speech discussing the need for men to champion and support women, as October marks just over a year since #MeToo became a global movement

2:52PM

What's the best thing about being an older woman?

Joanna Trollope: "Confidence. It has come on gradually, but I don't get put down anymore, I just think 'X' thinks differently."

Jane Kellock: "Being the oldest person in the room makes me think 'I might know more than you because I'm older."

Julianne Miles: "In my 20's and 30's I thought everything was life and death but they're not that important. There is always a plan B."

2:47PM

The panel discuss menopause

Allison Pearson: "Menopause can be a very very volatile time. I didn't know what was happening to me. I thought I was madder than usual. Seek help." 

2:47PM

What advice would you give your younger self?

Joanna Trollope: There is infinitely more time than you think. We are well able to work for longer and longer. Stigmas are fading. They're out of the window now. Society is more fluid, opportunities are greater. There is far more flexibility and variety.

Jane Kellock: "I would tell my self to be more confident and speak up. Also, feel less guilty about your kids."

Julianne Miles: People get stuck in their job and think this is who i am and what I do. Think of yourself as this wonderful mix of skills and experience.

Allison Pearson: "Guilt is to motherhood is what rain is to Swansea. You might as well buy a bloody good umbrella and ignore it."

2:38PM

Ageism in the workplace

Jane Kellock, the founder of Unique Style Platform says "If I'd have gone into fashion in my 20's I'd have been terrified. Older women in the workplace have so much to offer. We need to encourage breadth of age groups in the workplace.

"When you bring up kids you're out of your comfort zone all the time. Launching something when you're older, you don't have the same fears you do when you're younger. 

"Some of my friends have been put out to grass by the age of 55. You can go into design studios and everyone is under 30. 

"If we are ashamed of how old we are we are making ourselves invisible."

Allison Pearson: "The world is not full of older women. We don't have many 80 or 70-year-olds on television." 

Victoria Harper: "Women over 55 only account for 7 per cent of women on the screen."

Joanna Trollope: "Age is less and less of a taboo. It's a huge plus."

Julianne Miles: "Don't write yourself off because you're 45 or 50. You've got a huge amount of your career left. There are still opportunities there. Its a case of believing in yourself."

2:24PM

Panel: Are British business having a midlife crisis?

Up next is a panel chaired by Telegraph features director, Victoria Harper.

• Is the workplace losing out on a midlife workforce?

• Creating a supportive culture for those returning to work

Speakers: Joanna Trollope, author

Allison Pearson: author, columnist and chief interviewer, The Telegraph

Jane Kellock: founder, Unique Style Platform

Julianne Miles: co-founder and managing director, Women Returners

Victoria Harper, Features director, The Telegraph - Moderator

2:21PM

That speech went down a storm

Laughter abound and some very serious points made by the eloquent Christine Armstrong.

2:14PM

We have a system in place where carers can't afford childcare for their own children

"On the day I got back (to work)  I said that I was looking forward to catching up with my biggest client, only to be told there weren't enough seats in the meeting.

The audience erupts in laughter when Armstrong says: "People keep telling me I should do yoga. Of course I should bloody do yoga! But when?!"

"We have a system in place where carers can't afford childcare for their own children. When women throw the towel in, senior men shrug their shoulders and call it a 'lifestyle decision'.

"If this is depressing then what do we do about it? We need to tune out and ignore the 'you just need to work harder bull****'.

"Women need to help other women get to the top.

"We have to bring men into the situation. I wish we were having these conversations in mixed groups within business.

"We have to find a way to manage the technologies that have broken into our homes and left us vulnerable to work.

"If we want the dual income economy we have to have a system that works for both parents."

1:54PM

Keynote speech: The absolute truth about working parenting

Up next is a keynote speech discussing the consequences of not being honest and what we need to do to make working work better for everyone including what business needs to do but also what we should be calling for in terms of public policy.

Christine Armstong, the author of "the mother of all jobs" is on hand to give her advice.

Christine is a writer, speaker and adviser to business leaders on the future of work. She is the author of the recently published The Mother of All Jobs: how to have children and a career and stay sane(ish) (Bloomsbury) and a contributing editor of Management Today. She has three daughters and is, against her own advice, a member of the PTA.

1:20PM

Keep up the tweets

There has been a fantastic amount of feedback and support from the event so far. Here are some highlights from an engaged audience.

1:00PM

Craig Tracey MP

Craig Tracey is an MP and chair of the Women and Enterprise All Party Parliamentary Group. This morning, he wrote a piece for the Telegraph: Men have a huge part to play in changing things for women at work

He says we should bring men along on the journey to facilitate change. When he looks around parliament, he says that MP's are more receptive to these ideas than a lot of other organisations. With a female Prime Minister now is the best time to act.

12:56PM

Is this a Men vs Woman battle?

Panel: Is the focus on promoting women holding men back?

• Are the conversations around promoting women putting men at a disadvantage?

• Is the discussion around inclusivity making men feel excluded?

• The importance of male allies in the workplace and home

• Identifying what stands for inappropriate behaviour and providing support to female colleagues

Speakers: Craig Tracey MP, Member of Parliament for North Warwickshire and Bedworth

Lauren von Stackelberg: UK head of client strategy, JP Morgan

Soulla Tsioupra-Lewis, Chief People Officer: The Telegraph

Douglas Murray: Author

Moderator: Harry de Quetteville, journalist, The Telegraph

12:48PM

Touker Time at the Telegraph's event

 And... #WomenMeanBusiness is trending in London! Join the campaign and tweet us @telegraph

12:43PM

Trinny Woodall speaks about her 'Trinny tribe'

Speaking of her reinvention from TV star to owning her own business Trinny London. 

"I had wanted to start a business for years. Susannah would always say you're the accelerator and I'm the break. We're like ying and yang. 

"I went from earning a lot of money to no money. I was living in a property which I couldn't afford to live in. I sold 80 per cent of all my clothes. I went on Emily's List and raised £60,000 which kept me going for two years. 

"That first year was really difficult. There was me and an intern. 

"[My followers] give me my energy and my sense of purpose. They're called the Trinny Tribe. 

"I don't think it's ever too late to start something, but what you need is energy. That feeling inside can be excitement."

12:42PM

Gabrielle Bertin describes the collapse of David Cameron's premiership after the EU referendum

The panel were asked to describe a big failure in their career and how they coped with it. 

Gabrielle Bertin, the youngest member of the House of Lords and David Cameron's former advisor talked about her devastation after the EU referendum: "The crashing out of number 10, which clearly had huge ramifications for the country and that worried me sick, but personally speaking it had such a big impact on me. 

"Overnight my relatively gilded career suddenly came to a dramatic end. I had to get out of the car and try to mend myself because I was so unbelievably upset and I didn't want that failure to completely poison the well of the achievements from the past ten years. I had to try to turn this enormous disappointment into a self learning exercise."

12:40PM

Panel: Feel the fear - and just do it anyway

We have multiple panel discussions running at the moment, and will do our best to bring you updates from all of them. Eleanor Steafel is at: "Feel the fear - and just do it anyway"

• How my worst idea became my best idea

• How to fail well

• The importance of role models

• Are female entrepreneurs holding themselves back?

Speakers: Trinny Woodall, founder and chief executive officer, Trinny London

Touker Suleyman, entrepreneur and Dragon's Den investor

Gabrielle Bertin, Director of Strategic Communications and Campaigns, BT

Patricia Bright, Vlogger and author

Moderator: Elizabeth Day, journalist, The Telegraph

12:26PM

Is the focus on promoting women holding men back?

Panel: Is the focus on promoting women holding men back?

• Are the conversations around promoting women putting men at a disadvantage?

• Is the discussion around inclusivity making men feel excluded?

• The importance of male allies in the workplace and home

• Identifying what stands for inappropriate behaviour and providing support to female colleagues

Speakers: Craig Tracey MP, Member of Parliament for North Warwickshire and Bedworth

Lauren von Stackelberg, UK head of client strategy, JP Morgan

Soulla Tsioupra-Lewis, Chief People Officer, The Telegraph

Douglas Murray, Author

Moderator: Harry de Quetteville, journalist, The Telegraph

12:23PM

Clare Balding calls on business to stop rewarding aggressive behaviour to allow women to rise to the top

Eleanor Steafal has written this from the first panel of the day:  Clare Balding calls on business to stop rewarding aggressive behaviour to allow women to rise to the top

12:05PM

Should companies have female quotas?

There are resounding no's for quotas across the panel.

"I would rather have a framework people can aspire to. I am not convinced that quotas is the answer," says Vanessa Vallely

"I don't think people should be forced to do anything. I am against quotas," added Avril Palmer-Baunack.

11:55AM

Advice from Negotiation coach Wies Bratby

11:45AM

Avril Palmer-Baunack earned a bonus of £29m last year

Avril Palmer-Baunack is the CEO of British Car Auctions which owns WE Buy Any Car  and auctions around 750,000 used cars in the United Kingdom every year. She is the former chairman of Stobart Group and reportedly earned a £29m bonus last year.  

Her group has a 'reverse' gender pay gap, when women out-earn men.

"We have a lot of senior women in professional positions and we have around 850 HGV drivers," she said.

"Believe me, if I could have 400 female HGV drivers, I would have them!

"It’s not just about gender, it’s about social inclusivity. I think your character drives you more than your gender. People will always put you down, whether its social class or gender. I look back where I came from and I just believed in myself. I didn’t care what people said to me."

11:36AM

Panel: Closing the gender gap

Our next session, hosted by Telegraph feature's director Victoria Harper looks at what is driving the gender pay gap.

• Changing the perception and image of women in the workplace

• The social conditioning of what makes for successful traits in business

• Closing the gender pay gap

Speakers: Avril Palmer-Baunack, executive chairman, BCA

Vanessa Vallely OBE, founder, WeAreTheCity

Sarah Churchman OBE, Chief Inclusion, Community and Wellbeing Officer, PwC

Wies Bratby, Women in Negotiation

Moderator: Victoria Harper, features director, The Telegraph

11:34AM

Twitter is abuzz with #WomenMeanBusiness

We have had dozens of tweets so far this morning. Here are just a few. Keep using the #WomenMeanBusiness Hashtag.

11:12AM

Sexual harassment in the workplace

Devika Wood, the founder of Vida Care has opened up about her experiences of sexual harassment. Members of the audience audibly gasped as the 28-year-old told her stories.

Devika Wood:  "I have imposter syndrome. I saw Clare Balding, Mary Portas earlier and now on this panel, I feel like an imposter.

"Today, I put a dress and heels on for the first time because I am used to making myself feel and look less attractive.

"I was put in sexually compromising positions by shareholders. I was told that I could take someone’s money if I did something in return. I have friends who have been in exactly the same situation. I am so passionate about what I’m going to do, but I shouldn’t have to do that to get it.

"I had a domestic abuse relationship when I was 18/19 and had no confidence in myself. I found it very hard to address men in a boardroom."

Michael Cole-Fontayn: "The privilege of being able to mentor is making sure that you are able to understand some of the issues being faced. What Devika demonstrated is that she is stepping up to her own power. The point about being as early as possible in the journey to help young women declare ambition and say ‘It's ok to want to be in the boardroom’."

11:09AM

What can workplaces do to benefit women?

Nuala Walsh:"It's time to give people reasons to incentivise this change."

Brenda Trenowden:  "I look at organisations where women are more empowered by being more successful and the leaders always prioritise this to make it happen.

Men tend to be oversponsored compared to women. Women don’t have as many natural sponsors, that’s to say people putting them forward and praising them in group scenarios."

11:00AM

The next panel: What are the real roadblocks to women's success?

• Exit strategies: knowing if/when to leave the corporate/entrepreneurial world

• What initiatives can be introduced to benefit women?

• Is moving away really moving forward?

Speakers: Devika Wood, founder, Vida Care

Nuala Walsh, vice chair, UN Women

Michael Cole-Fontayn, independent chairman, Association for Financial Markets in Europe

Brenda Trenowden CBE, global chair, 30% Club and Head of FIG Europe ANZ

Moderator: Julia Llewelyn Smith, journalist, The Telegraph

10:33AM

Jill Pay talks about her time in the House of Commons

Jill Pay: "As luck would have it, I read a copy of the Daily Telegraph and saw the advert for Serjent at Arms at the House of Commons. Every person who had the job before me was in the military, and the one that wasn't, was a diplomat. I was down to the last two in January 2008 and the other person was a Brigadier, so they had a choice to make."

"One of the highlights of my time there was the visit of Nelson Mandela to address Parliament.

"The day Nelson Mandela made the address, at about 6:00am, a tall grey-haired man in a tracksuit jogged up to a policeman and asked if he could have a look inside parliament. The policeman said: 'I'm very sorry sir, we've got a huge event here today, there's no way you can get in."

The man then said: "I know about the event, I'm Nelson Mandela." He was duly let in to have a look around and then jogged back to his hotel.

"He made a very different entrance at 11am for the speech."

10:13AM

Julie Baker, from NatWest speaks to Jill Pay about becoming the first female and non-military Serjeant at Arms at the House of Commons.

Julie Baker, Head of Enterprise & Community Finance at NatWest speaks to Jill Pay about how she broke the glass ceiling to become the first female and non-military Serjeant at Arms at the House of Commons.

Through Pink Shoe network Jill has also been supporting women achieve their ambitions and leads on the development of the UK Economic Blueprint for Women, designed to stimulate the growth of women-owned businesses.

10:10AM

Flexible working

Question around flexible working and unconscious bias.

Dame Helena Morrissey: "We need to move to this idea that it's not how many hours you work. You want to pay a person for doing their job. We look at law firms who get paid by the hour, but you could be paying for incompetence."

Clare Balding: "It's important to make it desirable to be like that." 

Natalie Cummins: "We did a big survey in our agency and their was overwhelming support at every level for flexible working. The least enthusiastic were line managers running big groups of people. I think it's really important that if you do move to a flexible working model, everyone has to embrace it, it's not optional."

10:04AM

Questions from the floor

Question: At a junior level, sometimes it feels like the only option is to lean in and not attempting to change the culture. What are your thoughts on that?

Dame Helena Morrissey: "You have more power than you think. People want young pwople to tell them about digital and about young people's consumer trends. You need allies. You can't do it by yourself."

Mary Portas: "Use the power of a group and go to a boss together saying 'this isn't working, this is what we'd like to change'."

9:58AM

Clare Balding: "We have generally rewarded aggressive behaviour"

Dame Helena Morrissey: "There isn't a certain formula for being successful. I think that's a great opportunity. It's about inclusivity. "

Clare Balding: "When I first started in the media industry there was definitely a fear that they would only have one woman on this show. So basically I'll need to kill you or it'll be me. 

"We have generally rewarded aggressive behaviour. I think one of the things we need to introduce into all media is the 360 review.  Jimmy Savile wouldn't have happened if there had been that. 

Mary Portas: (who has introduced the 360 review in her business) "You just behave better. 

Referring to the allegations against Philip Green, Mary Portas said: "This is just hierarchical power. The idea that 'I am not accountable to anyone.'  Someone at Arcadia should have said 'Why don't we change the culture here so everyone is accountable?'

"It's time to put the Power of Goddess at the centre. If we do that we get into the seats of power. If I was the BBC I'd stop the Apprentice because that's the antithesis of all this. 

Natalie Cummins: “We are giving coaching women to park the lean in attitude - you don’t need to be pushy and aggressive to get ahead.”

9:48AM

How Work Needs to start working for women

Our first panel is addressing the following points:

• Why the 9 to 5 isn’t working

• Are the challenges facing men and women really so different?

• Is helping women in the workplace hindering men?

• Are women their own worst enemy?

Speakers: Mary Portas, founder and executive creative director, Portas

Dame Helena Morrissey, head of personal investing, Legal & General Investment Management

Clare Balding, broadcaster, BT Sport

Natalie Cummins, chief executive officer, Zenith Media

Moderator: Claire Cohen, associate features editor, women's editor, The Telegraph

9:45AM

"Don't tell working women about logistics"

The Rt Hon. Penny Mordaunt has hailed the Telegraph's Women Mean Business event as being "really important". Mordaunt said the business world should look to working mothers to learn something about natural entrepreneurship.

"Don't tell working women about logistics or procurement," she said. "Don't tell these people about hard work. These entrepreneurial mothers are the invention of necessity and I want them to thrive.

"I wish our great business schools would spend more time studying them."

Mordaunt hailed a new era for women in the workplace where they should no longer have to endure being "patronised and at worse being assaulted by a generation of men that elevated confidence to entitlement". 

9:32AM

Penny Mordaunt, International Development Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities

"This is a really important event. We could have £95bn added to UK economy by 2025" if we address the inequalities in men and women starting businesses.

"We talk about entrepreneurship because its always a choice. These people don't do it to appear on the front cover of Forbes or fortune magazine. They do it because they have to. 

"The fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the US is black women. They run 2.4 million businesses. And which group has the least access to capital? Yes, you guessed it."

9:19AM

The Chair's welcome

Telegraph Managing editor Jo Morrell is on the stage and opening the summit.

"Today, together, we will examine issues through interviews, panel sessions and seminars. We will look at glass ceilings, ageism, the start up funding gap, male allies in the workplace and making the workplace work better."

Jo introduces Penny Mordaunt.

9:07AM

On the agenda

Today we have a jam-packed schedule of business leaders, leading female voices and Telegraph journalists talking about a range of subjects including 'What are the real roadblocks to women's success?' 'Is the focus on women holding men back?' and 'How to boost the UK economy by investing in female-founded businesses'.

The conference room is starting to fill up...

9:01AM

The Telegraph's campaign so far

8:41AM

Good Morning!

Good morning, and welcome to The Telegraph's Women Mean Business live event.

On International Women’s Day this year, The Telegraph launched Women Mean Business - a campaign to boost female entrepreneurship in Britain.

In UK public life, we have women in high-profile positions: Prime Minister, First Minister of Scotland, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and President of the Supreme Court. But in a year when we have been celebrating the roles of women in public life - marking the centenary of the right to vote - the truth is that true equality is still a way off. There are still only 26.6 per cent women on the boards of British companies, and we have a 8.6 per cent median pay gap. Plus, there are as many men named David leading a FTSE 100 company as there are women

Even less attention tends to be paid to the difficulties confronting women seeking to start a business. The funding gap between male and female entrepreneurs is clear: The Entrepreneurs Network has found that just nine per cent of funding for UK startups goes to women-run businesses in the UK every year. They also found that men are 86 per cent more likely to be funded by venture capital and 56 per cent more likely to secure angel investment than women who seek it.

Our campaign was  designed to shine a light on the problems, and find solutions that will help not only women, but the UK economy as a whole. Deloitte estimates that targeted help for female founders could provide a £100 billion boost to the economy over the next ten years, and according to Treasury minister Robert Jenrick, untapped female entrepreneurship “may be the greatest economic opportunity of 21st century.”

Today, we are hosting a live event at Hilton's Bankside hotel, with guest speakers including Cabinet Minister Penny Mordaunt, Facebook's Vice-President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa Nicola Mendelsohn and fashion retail expert Jane Sheperdson.

There will also be panel sessions with Clare Balding, Mary Portas, Dame Helena Morrisey, Trinny Woodall, Touker Suleyman and many more. 

Stay with us for live updates throughout the day and if you haven't already, go and buy a copy of the paper! Inside, we have a special Women Mean Business pull out section, with interviews, analysis, opinion pieces and the story of the campaign so far.