Close Brothers

Our celebrations for National Inclusion Week are underway. On Monday we held our virtual training session on “Developing inclusive colleagues” to learn more about allyship and practical actions to advance diversity and inclusion at Close Brothers. On Tuesday, we held our annual Network Fair at our Crown Place office. Colleagues were invited to join representatives of our group-wide Diversity and Inclusion Employee Networks and Working Groups to find out how our networks have moved the dial this year and how colleagues can support their work. Yesterday, we announced the winners of our first ever group-wide Diversity and Inclusion Awards. These awards recognise colleagues and teams who actively promote diversity and inclusion in our organisation. A huge congratulations to our winners: ·        Rising Star Award – Tyrese Johnson and Isabella Bond ·        Role Model Award – Marc Barnard-Naulls ·        Changemaker Award – Jon Dytor ·        Initiative of the year – Professional Women of Colour Working Group ·        Team of the year – MenoForum Working Group With further events scheduled throughout the week, we look forward to continuing to engage, learn and celebrate together during National Inclusion Week. #CloseBrothers #DiversityAndInclusion #NationalInclusionWeek #ImpactMatters

Today marks the start of National Inclusion Week 2024, a time dedicated to celebrating inclusion and taking action to create and maintain an inclusive and psychologically safe workplace. This year’s theme is #ImpactMatters and we have a host of activities and events planned for colleagues to engage with, learn and celebrate together during this week. These include our Network fair, Diversity and Inclusion awards, a webinar, training and insight sessions, and our Diversity and Inclusion celebration finale. We look forward to celebrating the week with colleagues alongside our Diversity and Inclusion teams, networks and working groups. #CloseBrothers #NationalInclusionWeek #DiversityAndInclusion 

On Tuesday, to mark South Asian Heritage Month, celebrated in August, and its theme “Free to be Me”, our Professional Woman of Colour Working Group hosted a watch party for the film Bend It Like Beckham at our Crown Place office. “The film Bend it Like Beckham was chosen as we feel it accurately portrays the experience of growing up with dual (or more) heritage and trying to pursue your dreams whilst also still trying to retain who you are and connections to your community. When the film was released, it was amongst one of the first times we saw a woman of colour take the lead in a film and play a character of the same faith and background as the actress. I know this sent a positive message to all of us growing up. We hope the watch party provided a space for all of us to come together and appreciate how much more inclusive our society is becoming.” Suman Dann, Professional Women of Colour Working Group Chair #CloseBrothers #DiversityAndInclusion #ProfessionalWomenOfColour #SouthAsianHeritageMonth

This morning, we released our Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 July 2024. Click here to read the latest update on our financial performance. https://lnkd.in/e-qkPrhd #CloseBrothers #FinancialResults #YearEndResults

On Wednesday our newest Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, the Intergenerational Working Group, hosted its launch event. The Intergenerational Working Group has been set up to unlock the collective wisdom of generations to drive innovation, success, and growth.  The in person and virtual event gave colleagues an opportunity to learn more about the group, including how to get involved and their aims and objectives for the coming year. The event included a quiz to aid networking and to test general knowledge across the generations. “We launched the Intergenerational Working Group with the goal of understanding generational differences and how they can help create effective teams by leveraging the unique perspectives and skills of each generation.” Sandra Davis, Intergenerational Working Group Chair #CloseBrothers #Intergenerational #diversityandinclusion

We are delighted to announce Close Brothers won the Most Open Culture Award at last night’s Menopause Friendly Employer Awards 2024. The award for “Most Open Culture” celebrates the organisation that fosters open dialogues about menopause, demonstrates visible support from senior leadership and actively encourages everyone to participate in sharing their personal stories. “I am so incredibly proud of our team for winning this award. We have worked so hard and come some far over the last two years. The support we give to each other and allyship of our colleagues has been awe inspiring and a massive benefit to loads of us.” Tara Kilduff, member of the MenoForum Working Group The awards ceremony, hosted by Lisa Snowdon, celebrated the achievements of organisations dedicated to establishing supportive environments for individuals managing menopause at work. Congratulations to all award winners and finalists. We hope everyone who attended online and in person had a fantastic evening. The Menopause Friendly Accreditation  #CloseBrothers #MFEA24 #MenoForum #MenopauseInTheWorkplace #menopausefriendly 

At Close Brothers, we believe our knowledge and deep expertise of the industry sectors and asset classes we cover enables our specialists to make informed lending decisions, allowing faster access to funds when our customers and clients need it most. Incremental Engineering Ltd - Additive Manufacturing, an industrial 3D printer, has seen its business double since taking possession of a HP Jet Fusion 5210 3D Printer through Finance for Industry with Close Brothers. “Having a funder that prefers to work in partnership with its customers really suits us because we can draw on their expert knowledge, and know that they will advise and challenge, when necessary.” Jerry Sutton, Managing Director and Founder, Incremental Engineering Find out how our deep expertise helped Incremental Engineering take the next step exactly when they needed to. https://lnkd.in/eFhmP4b6 Close Brothers Asset Finance #CloseBrothers #AssetFinance #SupportingSMEs #Expertise #CaseStudy

On Wednesday we hosted a closing event for the 2022 intake of our Graduate Scheme. Back in 2022 we welcomed our largest ever intake of 24 graduates, with 18 graduates undertaking a two-year placement and six joining the three-year Finance placement. 16 graduates will now continue in permanent roles at Close Brothers, and the six Finance graduates enter their final year. At the event our graduates were joined by Louise Ryan, PhD, ex-IT graduate and now head of operations at Novitas, who shared some words of advice with the group. The graduates then participated in a task in which they reflected on their time on the scheme, proudest moments, milestones, and qualifications they have achieved. Our chief executive, Adrian Sainsbury, closed the event and recalled his experience as a graduate in his early career. Congratulations to our 2022 graduate intake. We wish you every success in your ongoing careers. Good luck to all our graduates moving into their final year on the scheme. #CloseBrothers #Graduates Suman Dann, Samuel (Elisha) Dytch (Assoc CIPD), Madelena Perdoni

At Close Brothers, we recognise the value of building strong long-term relationships with our customers and clients. Briahaze Village Homes, a Yorkshire based family business, started using Close Brothers over 30 years ago after they were referred to us in the early 1990s. “We have been through three recessions with Close Brothers and they have always been there for us. It is a great working relationship, and they understand the property market and how it fluctuates.” Jonathan Kitching, Owner, Briahaze Village Homes Find out how our commitment to building long-term relationships helped Briahaze Village Homes build plans for the future: https://lnkd.in/eFhmP4b6 Close Brothers Property Finance #CloseBrothers #SupportingSMEs #LongTermRelationships #CaseStudy

We are pleased to share that Close Brothers has been shortlisted for “The Culture & Inclusion Award” by the Collaboration Network. The Culture & Inclusion Award recognises the organisation that has delivered the best culture and inclusion initiative, building a workplace that ensures better outcomes for customers and/or colleagues through better conditions of work, engagement, acceptance, understanding, empowerment, and involvement. Being shortlisted for this award is recognition of our commitment to creating a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. The awards ceremony takes place on 2 October 2024. #CloseBrothers #DiversityAndInclusion #Culture