Nazia Chowdhury is the Senior Vice President of Finance at PolySign in the US.

Polysign build cutting-edge scalable infrastructure so banks & other financial institutions can fully leverage their digital assets. In short, helping drive the use of digital assets by creating the foundation to make them simpler and safer to use. They describe their team as Silicon Valley meets Wall Street, so have amazing working knowledge of banking institutions, but equally have the experience in the crypto/fintech space needed to take banks into the future.

Nazia Chowdhury has over a decade's experience at leading Financial & Audit institutions, including PwC, Deloitte and SAI360. We were delighted to hear her thoughts, including on equality in the recruitment process, why companies should embrace multiple, diverse perspectives.

"Transparency within the hiring process is crucial to combatting gender bias in the long term"

How can companies combat gender bias in the long term?

Transparency within the hiring process is crucial to combating gender bias in the long term. An important aspect of the gender pay gap is that many of us find it difficult to navigate the topic of compensation. Negotiating is not something that comes naturally, nor is it encouraged in our upbringings & education. Posting jobs that display the compensation band for the role will not only attract the right talent but also enable a more candid conversation between applicants & employers.

What do we gain by being more diverse and inclusive?

The ability to play where no one is playing. We live in a time where disruption is key to success, and what better way to obtain that than by bringing in a different perspective? Diversity enables organizations to play to a strength that likely does not already exist. I have seen a notable difference in having not only a globally inclusive team, but a strong representation of gender and cultural identities. We all have our blind spots and they are truly revealed when we are confronted with what is missing.

"We live in a time where disruption is key to success, and what better way to obtain that than by bringing in a different perspective?"

What diversity initiatives are having the largest impact?

On a macro level, above all I believe in introducing these diversity concepts as early as possible. Introducing and encouraging children to these concepts will ensure the continuation of the dialogue for years to come, and give a greater likelihood that over time we will continue to break down barriers. I recently came across a coding bootcamp for young girls which was amazing to see and I wish I had that growing up!

On a micro level, it starts with each of us taking accountability to think differently and push our teams to think differently. Encouraging them to acknowledge blind spots & see them as opportunities for innovation.

"Encourage your teams to acknowledge blind spots & see them as opportunities for innovation"