Investment bank Lehman Brothers is to spend £1.75m to establish a research facility to help businesses attract and retain talented women.
The company has agreed to pay the money over five years to create the Centre for Women in Business, in partnership with London Business School.
The research agenda for the think-tank will begin with a benchmarking exercise of women in business in Europe. It will go on to examine how higher and further education in the UK could be improved to offer women better choices and opportunities for training.
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Ellen Miller, European head of graduate recruitment at Lehman Brothers, said: “We need to exploit a broader talent pool and to do this we need to know what the issues are that inhibit women from progressing in business.
“Once [women] are in the workforce, we then need to know the factors influencing their retention.”