“Female Networking Breakfast” in Milan. Anna Tavano, Head of Global Banking at HSBC in Italy, gives precious advice to 50 lucky female students from Bocconi University: “Never give up and be brave even in the most difficult moments of your working life”.

Anna Tavano at the “Female Networking Breakfast” in Milan

“Always be yourself and never give up on your dreams, be brave even in the most difficult moments of your working life”: these are Anna Tavano‘s inspiring words delivered to the 50 female students from Bocconi University, who took part in the “Female Networking Breakfast” in Milan. Anna Tavano is Head of Global Banking at HSBC in Italy: together with selected colleagues from London, she took part in this meeting with promising students. The girls had the opportunity to witness the professional experiences of these successful women working in the financial sector. “HSBC is interested in inclusion and gender equality. Because of that, the bank has developed a specific program in order to reach the 30% of women employed in managerial positions by 2020”, Anna Tavano said. To do so, there are three basic ways of acting, in order to change the situation in favour of female employment: “The adoption of inclusion and equality criteria starting from the employee selection phase, internal promotion and organization of dedicated events, as well as a strong commitment from the bank’s top management”. There is an important imbalance, which has to change: only 28% of top positions are covered by female figures and men still have the most relevant roles. To overcome this trend, meetings such as the “Female Networking Breakfast” are becoming very important in order to raise awareness and give useful advice to the future female workers of the financial sector.

Anna Tavano’s career: from Citigroup to HSBC

Anna Tavano is an economics and finance graduate of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. With over 22 years-long working experience, she has been employed in leading financial institutions. She lived in London from 1997 until 2004 and then moved to Milan. Anna’s professional experience is based on deal origination, advisory and execution. Anna is now working in HSBC in Italy: since December 2018, she has been Head of Global Banking, a relevant role for which CEO Gerd Pircher chose her. Her professional career began with Citi in London in 1997: prior to joining HSBC, Anna Tavano was Managing Director at Citigroup, working in particular in the Corporate and Investment Banking division. She was also Vice Chairman for the Corporate Bank in Italy and Head of Public Sector, covering large corporate and public sector clients. Starting 2000, she worked in Fixed Income – Capital Markets division heading the origination and execution team through a wide range of structured finance and principal finance transaction for financial institutions, corporate and central governments in Southern Europe. The Italian Public Sector welcomed Anna Tavano as Director General for four years: in her last role, she was in charge of the infrastructure and public transportation department for Lombardy Region. During this time, she managed a team that involved over 140 people. Since the very beginning of her career, Anna has been strongly committed to helping women to achieve relevant professional roles: in particular she devoted herself to the broader issues of diversity and inclusion in the financial and corporate sectors. In accordance to this, she participated in the inaugural “in the Boardroom” one-year training programme on board membership for top women managers, sponsored by ValoreD and GE Capital. Anna also attended “The CEO School”, whose aim is to train a selected panel of women to become future CEOs.