Coutts Woman

An interview with Sarah Deaves, Chief Executive, Coutts & Co

Sarah Deaves has certainly done her apprenticeship. The chief executive of Coutts started her career at former owner NatWest manually printing the chequebooks and even had a spell as a teller behind the counter in the Bloomsbury branch.

‘There was one day when I realised everybody had pulled their shutters down, and I was the only one serving. Then the fishmonger arrived in front of me, with his money covered in scales, and I quickly learned why,’ she recalls.

‘I must admit that I did then think ‘where is the international banking career that they mentioned in the brochure?’’

Deaves, 44, joined the Fast Track graduate trainee scheme at NatWest after gaining an MA in geography at St John’s College, Oxford.

‘I loved geography. It was very varied. You could do everything from surveying, which was very mathematical, to humanist anthropology and in between look at rainforests and glaciers,’ she explains.

‘But I wanted a career that had stopping points that might allow me to grow and develop. I wanted something with a lot of variety. I investigated the banks and realised they had a lot of careers within them, although the uninitiated person might think it was just the branch bank and a counter.’

Deaves describes her career at NatWest, and subsequently Royal Bank of Scotland, as ‘a path with huge variety that has weaved around, but there is structure to it and different levels at which you break off and start to specialise’.

“There was one day when I realised… I was the only one serving. Then the fish monger arrived with his money covered in scales.”

Deaves, a mother of two small children, admits her promotion in 2002 came at a time when women were, in general, holding more senior positions in many industries. She sees this as a reflection of changing times, and also the trailblazing attitudes of her predecessors.

‘It was the women who joined banking five or six years before me that made the real waves. They made a path and we have been able to take advantage of that,’ she explains. ‘They were the first group of women who were really able to make significant career shifts and come back after children.’

‘The economics are increasingly compelling. There is a scarcity of talent and the fight for that talent is enormous. Why not try to hold onto people once you find them? You have spent a lot of money investing in them.’

Deaves believes technology is playing its part to help professional women balance work and family life. ‘The whole idea of being in the office from 9 to 5 is now radically out of date. Technology allows us to move about and has created new ways of working,’ she adds.

‘My attitude to both women and men, looking to work flexible hours is ‘look, you are a very capable person and available to us. Sort out what home life is, and then we will try our best to work with that.’’

She adds: ‘We would never say ‘Great! You’re female. You’re in!’ Unless the woman is the right person for the job, she won’t do well and that doesn’t help anybody.’

But Deaves is aware that as the first chief executive of Coutts (although two generations of women did own and front the bank for 70 years during the 19^th century), she is a role model.

‘I am not a trailblazer. But if you are the first one, you can’t escape setting the tone for how people see ‘women’ performing in that role. It is a responsibility. But I just aim to do the job well and in my own style. And that hopefully should mean other women will be given the opportunity too.’