West Ham vice chairman and star of the Apprentice Karren Brady is backing a new mentoring firm which aims to get more women working in top boardrooms.
Mentore is a firm which is looking to train and advise women in order to help them reach director level.
Brady joins 15 other founding partners of the firm, which include Lord Davies, the former boss of Standard Chatered who wrote the recent report on women in the boardroom for the Government and Sir Mike Rake, chairman of BT.
READ OUR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH KARREN BRADY
The firm has been seed-funded using a six-figure sum and Sophie Hodges, a former performance expert at Ernst & Young, is the chief executive.
The company will offer a 12 month mentoring programme.
Studies have shown that women are still underrepresented in top boardrooms despite the introduction of government quotas.
Although there are equal numbers of female graduates and junior managers, the number of women reduces once they reach executive level.
Hodges says: 'At Mentore we want to ensure the fast-track women get to executive level.'
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