Carolyn McCall on the board of Lloyds TSB - Building Gender Balanced Business

Carolyn McCall, the Chief Executive of the Guardian Media Group, adds another string to her bow. As well as managing two major newspaper brands – The Guardian and The Observer (both of which exist in declining markets) and a hugely successful website, Guardian Unlimited (which she launched when in an earlier management position), McCall now sits on the board of Lloyds TSB Group and Lloyds TSB Bank as a Non-Executive Director.

This could hardly be a more stormy time to enter the banking world. But the fit seems perfect. McCall is also the Chief Executive of Opportunity Now, a lobby organisation devoted to the issue of promoting gender equality and diversity at work. She is joining an organisation known for its enlightened view on gender.

Lloyds TSB is one of the few banks to come out of the present financial crisis smelling of roses. Once regarded as somewhat boring it is now seen as a bastion of strength and hope for the future. In mid-September, the company began negotiating with the UK government to take over the other huge UK bank, HBOS, which was faring less well in the financial meltdown. It was at this time that the company announced McCall’s appointment.

The other less well known fact about Lloyds TSB and its present Chief Executive Eric Daniels is the bank’s long-standing commitment to gender diversity. A recent report, the Female FTSE Report 2007, produced by the International Centre for Women Business Leaders at Cranfield Management School, revealed that Lloyds TSB had the highest number of women executive directors at 44% of the Group Executive Committee.

Last year, the journalist Andrew Davidson interviewed McCall for Management Today, a UK monthly magazine. The two elements that stood out were her toughness and her ability to charm people. As regards the toughness, Davidson pointed to the fact that she broke with precedence at the media group and brought in an outsider to the key role of managing its two national newspapers. This sort of role would normally have gone to an insider. To the consternation of many on the inside she went instead for the person she regarded as the better candidate. As regards her charm and highly people-focused approach, Davidson quotes Alan Rusbridger, the powerful editor of The Guardian on how McCall and one of her mentors, Caroline Marland, went about their highly effective work.

“Both women have a smiley, unconfrontational approach, happier to rule by charm than by fear. ‘They have a winning way of taking you into their confidence,’ says Rusbridger, ‘and telling you things you don’t expect.’ Indeed, for years, some outside the organisation found it difficult to tell Marland and McCall apart – both tall, bobbed, striking, friendly and flirty.”

In 2008, McCall also received an OBE for her services to women in business and was named the Veuve Clicquot business woman of the year.