Senior finance women take major non-executive roles

Two of the UK's most senior female finance professionals have taken large corporate non-executive roles.

Former Kier group FD Deena Mattar has joined Invensys as a non-exec.

Mattar served as FD at Kier until 2010, having joined the business in 1998 as FD of Kier National. She left three months after her husband, chief executive John Dodds.

"Her strong financial skills and experience with long-term contracting businesses will bring an added dimension to the deliberations of the board and the audit committee," said Sir Nigel Rudd, chairman of Invensys.

Meanwhile, Helen Weir (pictured), group executive director (retail) at Lloyds Banking Group until May this year, has joined SABMiller as a non-executive.

Weir joined Lloyds in 2004 as group finance director, taking over responsibility for the retail bank in 2008.

She previously held a series of major corporate FD roles. Between 2000 and 2004, Weir served as group FD of Kingfisher and before that as FD of B&Q.

CIMA-qualified Weir is a previous member of the Accounting Standards Board and has held non-exec posts at the Royal Mail and City of London Investment Trust.

Also joining SABMiller as a non-exec is senior company executive and solicitor Lesley Knox.

"Their appointments reflect our continued commitment to the process of progressive renewal of the board and to the benefits of diversity of background, gender and experience at board level," said SABMiller chairman Meyer Kahn.

"With these appointments, one-third of our independent non-executive directors will be women and we will be well positioned in terms of the future balance of the board."

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