Monique Legair is well-versed in numbers.

The founder of governance consultancy Legair & Associates Limited has spent years working for various FTSE 100 companies, and is a partner at Cornerstone Partners, a UK angel investor network established to invest in businesses owned and run by Black and diverse founders.

So yes, she knows numbers - and how to see them in context. Earlier in her career, she found herself working for a large international bank and remembers thinking, “Where are the Black senior people within this organisation?” She looked around and found that a significant number were in junior positions or support staff. “Many organisations will say that they have a certain percentage of Black staff working for them”, she explains, “but what they're not doing is identifying where those people work – often, it is not middle or senior management.”

Monique is all about action – it is her number one tip to combat overwhelm - so she did not hesitate to act. Over the course of her career she established both the Multicultural Professional Network, and Board Apprentice (BAME), which sought to improve ethnic diversity within UK boardrooms. And whether through her own work, or her passion for mentoring others, she is contributing to changing the face of Finance.

We speak to Monique about the importance of networking, why she loves ‘to-do’ lists, and how being a child of immigrants shaped her work ethic. Let’s meet Monique…

With so many projects on the go, do you ever deal with feelings of anxiety or overwhelm?

I'm not a particularly anxious person, but I definitely deal with feelings of overwhelm at times. One of the things that really works well for me is to create a to-do list. I’m then able to see more clearly what needs my urgent attention and what can wait. Once I’ve put my list together, I get to work - I gain great pleasure in ticking things off my to-do list. I find overwhelm can be managed by taking action, because once you complete tasks, you feel so much better.

And I often say this: execution, execution, execution. You can have all the great ideas in the world, but if you don't execute on something, then you're never actually going to move forward. Sometimes you need to fail fast. And then you go on to the next thing, if it doesn't work. I am a big advocate of taking action.

You're an angel investor with Cornerstone, and I want to know a little bit about your experience as a woman of colour in the finance industry. What challenges do women and people of colour face when looking at raising investment?

In terms of my corporate career, I'd say that I have had a very good corporate career to date and worked for some great firms. My most memorable roles were within firms with a global footprint – they were the most diverse. At those firms, I was given incredible opportunities which helped propel my career forward.  In terms of my experience as a woman, and as a woman of colour, I think that you definitely need to have good managers and good sponsors to help push your career forward. I have seen average men excel quicker than incredibly capable women. This is often  because men have male sponsors who say, ‘Oh, bring Michael into this meeting, because I'd like for him to get exposure’. Sometimes they say it about women, but I hear it more often said about men. More recently, I see the tide has begun to turn. Leaders are becoming more aware of the importance and the need to support women and diverse talent. 

I set up Board Apprentice (BAME) because I questioned why I had never come across another Black person, whether they be on the board or presenting to the board. The people who present to the board are usually senior execs. So why is it that, within industry, there were so few Black board members or senior execs? My last corporate role was for a bank with a large footprint in the UK. I remember thinking ‘where are the Black senior people within this organisation?’. I looked around and a significant number were in junior positions or support functions like security staff or workers in the corporate restaurant. When you hear the narrative, “We have X percentage of Black staff working for us”, you find that the numbers are not reflected in senior or middle management levels. Things of course might have changed since I was there.

I feel organisations are happy to improve their diversity numbers at junior levels and increase their figures this way, but actually what we want to see is people excelling in their careers and progressing to senior levels, and progress is slow on that front. However, in the UK, certain organisations have signed up to a Race Charter to improve outcomes for diverse staff. Hopefully, in the next 3 to 5 years , things might change. But I've been working for 20 plus years, and it surprises me that things haven't changed very much since I started work. We are still having the same conversations that we had back then, which to me indicates a reluctance to change. 

I joined forces with some friends who worked for banks and advisory houses and we set up the Multicultural Professional Network (MPN) in 2008. That network has since disbanded, but we still have a LinkedIn presence. When we set it up, I was heartened by just how many Black professionals there were in the city.  When we started hosting networking events, I met very capable and well qualified Black professionals - it always surprised me that I never saw people like them in the boardrooms. One of the benefits of the MPN was it allowed me to expand my own network amongst other Black professionals. Due to my expanded network, I met people that I could then say, ‘I see this organisation is looking for a board member, would you be interested in putting yourself forward?’ So I've managed to recommend people for board roles and other roles that might be of interest to them. This is my small contribution to improving boardroom diversity.

The importance of network is everything, isn't it?

It is. And that's one of the things that I fully appreciate now - when you're at university you're trying to get the best degree you possibly can, thinking that will ensure a successful career. However, when you start working, you need to make sure that you network and find a sponsor who will advocate for you and mention your name in certain rooms. Or, if they hear of a position that might be of interest to you. One of the things I try to do is mentor younger people and help provide them with introductions to people within my network, because I think it's so important to help them to develop solid networks at the start of their career. One of the things we do within Cornerstone Partners is provide internships for young adults – we help them to develop their skills and network, and hopefully this will have an impact on their future careers.

Often women in male dominated industries feel the pressure to perform exceptionally, just to match up to, as you say, ‘capable’ men. Do you feel a sense that you can't afford to put a foot wrong, and as a Black woman, is there another layer to that?

That's a really good question. Cornerstone Partners is formed of 20 Black British partners, whose parents or grandparents were not born in the UK.  As a child of immigrants from the Caribbean, it was instilled in me from a young age that I must perform well in school and get a good education. My parents had very high expectations for me, and these expectations inspired me to always put my best foot forward regardless of the environment. I carried these expectations into each organisation I worked in. This work ethic is common in those from a minority background because we’re told from an early age that we’d have to work twice as hard to get anywhere. 

I remember a quote I read a few years ago, “Comparison is the thief of joy”. As I’ve gotten older, I have found it helpful to ask myself ‘Am I better today than I was yesterday? Am I better today than I was last year? Am I moving forward with my career and my life the best way I possibly can?’ When you focus on what you are doing you will find joy in knowing that you are improving.

External things might happen and people may try to derail you at some point, but sometimes you just have to say, ‘well, actually I'm in control here’. So long as you know that you’ve performed to the best of your abilities, then show yourself some grace and accept that occasionally you might put a foot wrong. We are human! We are allowed to make (and hopefully, correct) mistakes.

As an investor, what are you looking for when you're deciding whether or not to invest?

We have certain criteria that we want our investee companies to meet. At Cornerstone Partners, we invest in Black and diverse founders. Black and diverse founders are typically overlooked by your mainstream angel investors or VC firms (they receive less than 1% of funding). This dire statistic is too big to ignore so we want to fill that gap, and we've done so quite successfully to date. We've invested in a number of companies, mainly Black companies set up by Black founders, but we recently invested in an underwear brand set up by an Asian woman. 

Our criteria for the companies that we've invested in is that they must be UK-based companies. They must be post revenue, ideally within the range of £30,000 – £50,000 or more, and a senior member of the team must be from a Black or diverse background. 

If they meet our criteria, we invite them to pitch to us. We assess the financial expectations of the product or service being offered and the strategy that is in place to expand the business. We take a vote as a 20-strong team and that will push that particular company forward into the next stage of due diligence - if they receive a majority vote.

Are there any red flags that you watch out for, or common mistakes that you see in pitches?

We really like people who are 1) very well-prepared; 2) understand their sector and their product/service; and 3) can prove that there is traction in the demand for their product or service. 

Sometimes our risk is mitigated by the fact that we look at post-revenue businesses, so we know there's a demand for their product or service. But just having a handle on the numbers of their business - we'd probe into that. From a personal perspective, when I'm looking at investments, I'm looking at whether it's something I, or other people, will want to use or buy.

To date, I’ve not seen a bad pitch to be honest. Most of the people who pitch have an established business and often they will have spoken to an investment team before meeting us. From a positive point of view, being well prepared, thoroughly understanding your product/service, the customers you want to attract and also the numbers, are all important.

We recently launched a report on access to venture capital. We found that Black and ethnically diverse groups were the worst represented in venture capital funded cohorts. I feel that the tide is turning, because you've got lots of institutions that are now wanting to invest in Black and diverse founders. It’ll be interesting to see what the next five years brings. 

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