We believe that diversity and inclusion are critical to business success and we are committed to attracting, supporting and promoting a workforce that represents the diverse communities in which we operate.
We pride ourselves on respectful working partnerships that are intrinsic to how we do business with our members and clients, and how we interact with our colleagues. We have a number of initiatives in place to help support and develop our diversity and inclusion agenda.
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We are proud to have achieved our Stonewall Bronze Award – recognising our commitment to being an LGBTQ+ inclusive employer.
We introduced the LME Women in Tech initiative in 2025. This is a dedicated campaign aimed at fostering gender diversity, inclusion, and empowerment within technology at the LME and LME Clear. Our strategy for increasing women's representation in technology is represented by three key actions: Recruit; Retain and Reward & Recognise.
The LME Women in Tech community also provides a platform for women across all levels to connect, share experiences, and support one another in navigating the unique challenges and opportunities of working in technology.
As part of our commitment to driving meaningful change, we’ve partnered with Coding Black Females and Code First Girls to expand access to learning, mentorship, and career development opportunities for women from all backgrounds. Together, we’re building a more inclusive and equitable future in tech.
If you would like to join our community or enquire about partnerships, please contact us at LMEwomenintech@lme.com.
For more information about current job opportunities, please visit our careers page.
Attracting, nurturing and retaining female talent continue to be key priorities for us at LME Group. When we signed up to the Women in Finance Charter in September 2020, LME Group had 31.9% representation of females across its senior management positions (SVP and MD level). Since then, we are proud to have progressed a number of initiatives detailed below, focused on fostering a gender-balanced talent pipeline and empowering more women to push for promotion. So far, the results of these initiatives are promising. Overall, the proportion of female staff as a percentage of the total workforce is up from 37.9% last year, and 34.9% in 2024 to 38.5% this year and the LME Executive Committee remains at 63.6%.
With our overall gender balance across senior management at LME Group standing at 34.7% as of 6 September 2026, there is still more to do but we are encouraged by the progress we’ve made on embedding our four-pillar strategy for gender equity, and expect to see these efforts bear fruit in the coming years.
Nearly half our workforce is in the IT function – a sector that has historically faced challenges with gender diversity. Recognising this, we identified IT as a key area for improvement. In June 2025 we launched the “LME Women in Tech” initiative, aligning with our LME IT strategic objective to “transform into a more diverse and world-leading engineering organisation”. This initiative has been implemented to increase the representation of women in technology roles and foster a more inclusive culture within IT teams.
Over the last 12 months we have continued to work on four key areas to drive a more balanced representation of women in senior management roles:
Attracting talent
Encouraging a diverse range of applicants through our inclusive recruitment process remains a cornerstone of our attraction strategy. We continue to build a strong and diverse junior talent pipeline through our apprenticeship programme, which is entering its sixth term – attracting candidates from diverse backgrounds.
As part of the LME Women in Tech initiative, we have partnered with two external organisations, Coding Black Females and Code First Girls. These partnerships provide access to mentorship opportunities. In addition, we have sponsored training programmes with both organisations, creating a direct pathway to hire female participants into our tech teams. We have recently offered our first role through our partnership with Coding Black Females with plans to hire more women through this channel and are actively recruiting for a number of roles with Code First Girls.
Retaining and developing talent
Across the combined LME and LME Clear Executive Committees female representation has increased to 47.4% from 44.4% last year, with the LME Executive Committee having 63.6% female representation. A third of both the LME and LME Clear boards are women with the recent appointment of a new female chair to the LME Clear Board and female INED to the LME Board. Increasing senior female representation not only provides strong role models for more junior colleagues but also drives diversity of thought in key decision-making processes for the organisation.
We continue to be active members of the 30% Cross-Company Mentoring Programme, with 14 female participants enrolled in 2026, 10 female mentees and four female mentors as well as a further five senior males acting as mentors to women outside of the organisation. As part of our learning and development programme, we also offer targeted training for females with a view to support their progression within the firm.
Education
Over the past 12 months, our employee networks have continued to raise awareness and drive engagement through events, speaking opportunities and internal communications. A highlight this year was taking part in the World Federation of Exchanges’ “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” initiative marking International Women’s Day followed by record-breaking adventurer and bestselling author Bonita Norris giving an inspirational talk that provided an uplifting take on resilience and ambition.
Reporting and governance
We have continued to report progress towards our target on a quarterly basis to the executive committees for full transparency. In addition to our Women In Finance Charter submission, we also publish our Gender Pay Gap each year, which currently stands at 12.1% for the LME Group. While we recognise there is still more to do, we continue to work closely with colleagues and stakeholders to ensure we foster a culture of inclusion for all employees across the LME Group. We look forward to expanding on our current initiatives and making further progress towards our charter target in the 12 months ahead.
30% Club cross-company mentoring
The LME is taking part in the 30% Club cross-company mentoring programme. This programme provides women with the opportunity to enter into a mentoring relationship with more senior individuals from outside of the LME, with the aim of providing additional personal development.
The 30% Club cross-company mentoring programme is the world’s largest cross-company mentoring programme, having supported more than 9,000 mentors and mentees since its inception in 2014.
Diversity and Inclusion Forum
The LME is committed to creating an inclusive, supportive and open environment for all of its employees. Our forum, sponsored by our LME Clear CEO, aims to drive forward initiatives to recruit, develop and engage employees from the greatest possible pool of available talent in order to ensure that our business can benefit from a cross-section of experience, ideas and knowledge. Our employee-led diversity and inclusion programme is aimed specifically at ensuring that all employees are able to thrive at the LME.
Internal networks
To ensure we are hearing everyone's voice and to make people aware of the different perspectives we have at the LME, we have a number of employee networks that are employee-led. These groups include:
- LGBTQ+ Network
- Gender Diversity Network
- Race and Ethnicity Network
- Social Mobility Champion Group
- Disability and Mental Health Champion Group
The LME’s apprenticeship programme is designed to introduce recent school-leavers to the fundamentals of working in the commodity-trading sector and within a recognised investment exchange (RIE). It encourages applications from under-represented groups in our industry and in doing so is building a diverse junior talent pipeline for the LME and the sector more broadly.
Our apprentices will gain experience across the operations function within the LME while also studying for a CISI investment operations certificate. We currently have four apprentices enrolled on the programme, who will potentially stay on at the LME in junior roles or may move on to a member firm at the end of their two-year LME placement.
If you are interested in finding out more about our apprenticeship programme and how to apply, please contact our Resourcing team at recruitment@lme.com.
Since 2018, the LME has published its Gender Pay Gap Report, and we are pleased to do so, as we believe that the transparency created through gender pay gap reporting is a critical tool in understanding, managing and addressing perpetuating gender equality issues.
We are also voluntarily reporting the figures for LME Group (the LME and its clearing house, LME Clear), which aligns with our commitment to transparency in our efforts to bring greater gender equality to our business and the wider industry.
LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2025 - published April 2026 (PDF)
LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2024 - published April 2025 (PDF)LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2023 - published April 2024 (PDF)
LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2022 - published April 2023 (PDF)
LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2021 - published April 2022 (PDF)
LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2020 - published April 2021 (PDF)
LME Gender Pay Gap Report 2019 - published March 2020 (PDF)