City Hive Cross-Company Mentoring Scheme 2025
Back by popular demand, the City Hive Cross-Company Mentoring scheme aims to empower your employees to professional success.
The nine-month mentoring programme aims to support women and those who identify as women and/or professionals from an ethnic minority background. In 2025, we are extending access to include mentees from socio-economic backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in our industry. This inclusion aims to support the objectives of the City of London Socio-Economic Diversity Taskforce, on which our co-CEO Mandy Kirby sits, in boosting diversity at senior levels across Financial and Professional services.
The programme
Our comprehensive schedule of support for both mentors and mentees includes group workshops, engaging resource materials and regular check-ins to support mutual learning and growth, whilst the cross-company format allows for a greater choice of senior mentors, each with different but industry-specific perspectives, experience and skills to guide mentees.
The scheme returns due to client and individual demand; every year, we turn candidates away.
Across three cohorts, the scheme has matched and supported:
300+
Financial firms represented
95
Mentors and Mentees
Sponsor firms will be able to offer places to employees wishing to be mentees or mentors. Furthermore, sponsors will also fund spaces for those unable to access mentoring through their own individual firms. By investing and engaging with this scheme, investment firms are demonstrating their commitment to developing the talent pipeline for the good of the wider industry.
The importance and relevance of mentoring should not be underestimated, coming just months after a study by the New Economic Foundation found the amount employers are spending on training has dropped by almost a fifth in 10 years. The study raised concerns that a lack of training opportunities could impact productivity.1
1. New Economic Foundation Study 2024 https://neweconomics.org/2024/03/employers-spendingafifthlessonemployeetrainingthanadecadeago#:~:text=The%20amount%20employers%20are%20spending,Foundation%20(NEF)%20published%20todayTraining that supports Consumer Duty requirements
A diverse and inclusive investment industry with democratised access to investing is no longer just an ethical consideration. The FCA’s Consumer Duty now mandates that that all consumers, regardless of their circumstances, receive equal outcomes, and recognises that a diverse and inclusive industry is crucial for achieving these desired outcomes.
To comply to these regulations, and continue to future proof our industry, we need to commit to cultivating the investment industry’s diverse talent pipeline, and ensure that our teams are reflective and representative of the wider range of clients we serve.
Yet this is not a challenge that can simply be addressed by individual firms - an industry wide response is needed.
By investing and engaging with this scheme, sponsors will demonstrate their commitment to developing the talent pipeline for the good of the wider industry.
Sponsor firms will be able to offer places to employees wishing to be mentees or mentors, whilst also funding spaces for those unable to access mentoring through their own individual firms.
Only City Hive member firms are eligible to participate as sponsors.
Sign up as a 2025 Sponsor
We can only continue to support empowering and developing this talent with the support of our sponsor firms.
Only City Hive member firms are eligible to participate as sponsors in order to continue to align with a shared commitment to democratise access to investing and investments.
“By September, my mentee had succeeded in moving from a technical to a people management role. This felt like a huge win for both of us.
A few weeks later, I received an award from Black Women in Asset Management. My mentee was there. She seemed extremely proud and happy with our experience. She even said her mum knew my name. It was quite a moving moment.”
Sponsored by:
Sign up as a 2025 Sponsor:
Additional impact
Together, we can make a greater impact beyond our own individual firms by funding places for those unable to access mentoring support within their own firms.
In 2025, we’re working with EnCircle Mentoring to help develop these individuals. EnCircle Mentoring is aimed at supporting professionals looking to take the next step in their career.
“True leadership in the investment industry is about more than managing assets; it’s about cultivating the human capital that will drive our future success. Through this mentoring initiative, we are creating a pipeline of diverse talent equipped to navigate the complexities of tomorrow’s financial world with fresh perspectives and enduring values.”
- Justin Onuekwusi, founder of EnCircle and Chief Investment Officer at St James’s Place