Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
As CEO of Virgin Money, she is one of the UK's most influential female bankers and led a government review into women in finance.
On the island
Eight records
Canon in DFavourite
Every time I hear it, I remember how it changed my life. It was all about how leadership requires us to step out of our comfort zone. And as I told my story and gave a vision of what I thought the world could be like, I thought, gosh, never knew I had that vision in me. And I was given a cassette to play back in the car on the way home. And I think this music was something that lifted me and inspired me. And I feel that inspiration every time I hear it.
I've loved Queen for a very, very long time. Discovering Freddie Mercury and all the excitement that he brought to the stage was something that marked a transition for me between my childhood I think and my late teens. And although it's a bit predictable, it's still absolutely magnificent.
I remember the first time I left the UK. I was 18, my parents took me and my best friend Liz to Paris for a weekend. Paris felt like the most exotic place, was the most exotic place that I'd ever been.
I was really taken by this particular new life and I knew that this was the beginning of something really special.
That's our song. We don't play it ourselves at all, really, that'd be a bit cheesy, but whenever it comes on, we go, That's our song.
Klaus Badelt, Hans Zimmer, Lisa Gerrard
It reminds me of Scotland, and I love Scotland.
My friends said it would be the act of the utmost treachery not to include Donny Osmond.
(Everything I Do) I Do It for You
It was played at Mark's funeral. Every time I hear it I think of him and everything that he brought to all of us, customers and staff and his team and to his family.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:49What qualities do you think you personally possess that have meant that the doors have managed to be opened by you in particular?
I think that I've always loved people and loved chatting to people. And so wherever I've been, I've been keen to meet new people, talk about what they do and understand more broadly how their lives are and how organisations work. Balance sheets and numbers are just the output, but it's the people that make the business, serve the customer and do great things.
Presenter asks
2:35Why did you focus the review on banking specifically?
It's worse in banking than everywhere else. That was the thing that shocked me. And I felt ashamed by that. Why on earth would we have created a financial services industry that was more close to women than anywhere else? So we've come up with the Women in Finance Charter that the Treasury, HM Treasury, support and lead. And what that says is we want CEOs in financial services to properly put this issue on their agenda, set themselves targets and make sure they've got the right balance of men and women in their business.
Presenter asks
9:10Tell me about your childhood and the stories where you would call yourself Jane Ann the Fighter and you would come out on top.
The keepsakes
The book
Victor Hugo
because we love the musical as a family. And then perhaps when I get off the island, I can know whether or not that musical's really true to it.
The luxury
a very colourful sari that would make me cheerful. I'd probably use it as a hammock if it was uh strong enough. I might be able to use it as a flag to bring in my rescuers, and it would always make me think of India, its colour, and how much I love my husband and my family.
Oh, I'm an only child and definitely grew up in a sort of working class family that was trying to better itself. I was born in the sixties, money was short and travel was non-existent really. And I liked my books. And as I went to sleep, I would always imagine myself in some sort of difficult I used to like Robin Hoodwright and I could imagine myself in the Sherwood Forest fighting off these baddies and being the person that was leading people. Those were chartered stories but oddly they've sort of stayed with me and you do have to be very resilient don't you in the world and in the jobs that we do in order to take the knocks and sort of bounce back and I think that when I need that resilience some of these stories come back and remind me that actually however tough things are you can always find a way through.
Presenter asks
10:11You said you were properly duffed up by the boys at school. What happened?
Yeah, not actually physically, but I was in the first year of girls there, so it had been a boys' school forever. And from memory there were about seventeen of us. I suppose I would have been fourteen or fifteen when I went there, and I was over six foot tall. And of course boys aren't over six foot tall normally at the age of fourteen or fifteen. And so from the moment that I arrived, I would be screamed at by these boys who'd hide behind corners and dash out at me screaming. You know, I was the freak show. And although that continued throughout my time there till I left in the sixth form, in the end I'd sort of won them over, I guess, and it was more in fun than it was in horror. Nevertheless, I still remember my school days with a lot of warmth. The school was great, the teachers were good, and you know, I was blessed with a good education.
Presenter asks
16:50Tell me how you met [Ash].
Uh we so I uh ended up going to London University and I arrived on Freshers Week and uh went on the first night down to the bar and um one of the guys came over and that turned out to be Ash. But because you know, in Indian men, he's the oldest son and was expected to have an arranged marriage because of that he would go and see people that his family thought would be good for him to marry, arranged wives in other words. And so I was kept a a big secret for quite a long time. So it was it was a an interesting and colourful and new experience in in so many ways.
Presenter asks
27:38How did you deal with postnatal depression?
Um I think I tried to deny it for quite some time. So I I was completely stupid. I thought that, you know, I was so in control of my life that I'd be able to add a baby to it. And of course within the few hours of her being delivered I realized that that of course was not going to be in any way feasible and indeed neither did I want it to be. I'd suddenly fallen in love with this little thing in a way I'd never thought possible. Ash had given up his job in order to look after her and me, because I was the main breadwinner. And so I felt completely trapped. It felt like, having read the Harry Potter books, the Dementors had come into the room for me. It felt like a black cloud was over me and my soul was being sucked out. And I had never experienced anything like it. I couldn't listen to music, which was definitely a sign of my depression. And I couldn't be at home anymore. And so we'd take ourselves off to a variety of friends or my mum's. I remember coming down to a hotel in London, which was the last drawing. And I think that must have been a sort of acknowledgement that things were different and that we had to make a real decision to change things. And so I decided the way I'm going to cope with this is I'm going to work nine till six and I'm only going to work five days a week and I'm not going to stay away from home at night. And at the end of that year, Norman, my boss, told me I'd had my best ever year and I said, that's ridiculous. How can that be? I've struggled with being a mum and all of this. Illness and he said, Do you know what, Dianan? Having something in your life that's more important than work has made your judgment much better. You've had a brilliant year.
“I was the freak show.”
“Character first every time.”
“I remember myself and my finance director at the time, we didn't know what that was. And I mean, we felt stupid, right? And I promise you, Kirsty, we scratched our heads and said, well, how does that work then?”
“I felt completely trapped. It felt like, having read the Harry Potter books, the Dementors had come into the room for me. It felt like a black cloud was over me and my soul was being sucked out.”