At Women in GRC, we’re proud to partner with organisations that truly embody the spirit of inclusion, leadership, and positive impact in governance, risk, and compliance.
This month, we sat down with Lucy Montague, Head of Marketing at CoreStream GRC, to learn why supporting women in GRC is so important to their team, how they’re fostering a culture of empowerment, and Lucy’s inspiring advice for those starting out in the industry. Dive in to discover how CoreStream GRC is helping to drive meaningful change and celebrate the remarkable women shaping the future of GRC.
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Lucy: I'm Lucy Montague and I work at CoreStream GRC and I am Head of Marketing and I was working closely with Rachel when we made the decision to sponsor and be a partner through the Women in GRC awards.
Why did Corestream GRC choose to support the women in GRC awards this year?
Lucy: So, it all began when I attended #RISK London in 2024. We were actually one of the vendors sponsoring and I was attending various speaking sessions throughout the day and at the very end of the first day there was the Women in GRC panel - which personally I think should kick off the day, because for me it was the standout presentation.
It had various winners from the awards previous year, and they were talking about their different experiences and answering questions from the audience.
It was just a really thoughtful, well delivered presentation. Exploring topics like transferrable skills, allyship, confidence building, and stakeholder engagement from a female perspective.
And I just thought I really want Corestream GRC to be part of this because we're all about value exchange and making sure that everything we do/produce/support has a positive impact for our community. We want to do things that truly drive value for businesses and improve people's lives, whether it's from the technology that we produce or the conversations that we have or the partnerships and sponsorships that we do and Women in GRC seems to be a very thoughtful organization and that's how it all started.
What does championing diversity and inclusion in GRC mean to you and your team?
Lucy: I think Governance, Risk and Compliance is a huge thing and it touches every aspect of a business, or it should do at very least because everything you do has some form of interaction with risk, with regulation, compliance and ultimately, it's governed by your governance, your values and objectives. So, because of that, you need a team and stakeholders behind it, who represent the full picture of your business. It can't just be this sort of, really niche persona that looks after GRC, because then you won't be able to communicate it effectively. You won't be able to engage stakeholders and truly achieve 360 governance, risk and compliance. While I appreciate Women in GRC is about women, I also recognise that there are other aspects to DE&I like race and social economic status to consider as well, so it's really important that when you hire, obviously you hire the best people, but you also consider the gaps in the team, what's missing, what voices are we not hearing round the boardroom or in the team meetings, that should be here to help challenge and ensure that we're getting the best output from our GRC programs.
How is your organization working to support and empower women in governance, risk or compliance roles?
Lucy: I've worked in the GRC industry for a number of years and there is a difference working at Corestream GRC. One of our (Corestream GRC) values is, “we care!” A lot of businesses will say that they care but day to day operations/actions suggest otherwise, but here at CoreStream GRC, they really do!
We have a number of women in Senior Roles and Heads of positions, as well as in junior positions too, it's across the board and what it means is when we're having discussions, it's diverse and multiple things are considered. For example, the flexibility we have with being able to work from home or come into the office, we have complimentary lunches and we do social activities. We did an International Women's Day event and everything is very considered for everyone in the team as opposed to maybe in the past a particular demographic who would just lead the conversation and everyone else followed.
So when the Women in GRC Awards came up in discussion and I brought it to the Senior Leadership team and said, “I really would like us to sponsor”, there was no discussion, just 100% agreement with everyone straight away.
My manager, Paul Cadwallader is a man but is a real ally! When I come to him with different things like the Women in GRC Awards, he just completely understands and completely backs it and I think that's really important. I don't think the answer is just to have a complete subversion and women dominating every agenda/discussion, but bringing truly equality. It's about including men in the conversation and also championing the men that champion as well and give kudos back to that.
I had a male colleague ask me the other day what's the best thing to do to help women? And I said, “things you can do is like if someone interrupts them or speaks over them in a meeting, just hold space for it and say, hey, let's go back to what she was saying.” Just being asked that question of like “how can I help”, that in itself is huge. CoreStream GRC has a very positive, empowering environment and I'm really proud to work here.
We also had a lot of backing into nominating various different women in our team and we've been really lucky to actually secure 5 shortlisted nominations, which everyone's incredibly proud of. I put it on the team channel and everyone celebrating and supporting.
The awards have also helped us to even attract new talent. Recently I was interviewing for the Marketing Assistant position, and it came up a number of times because we're promoting the Women in our team shortlisted on our social media. The Women in GRC awards actually helped to even kind of emphasize the kind of positive movement that we have internally, and it's helped us to grow that even more. So, I'm appreciative for this event and to be part of this, it's really important.
Finally, what advice would you give to women starting out in GRC or looking to progress in their careers?Lucy: My advice to women starting out in their career is always to just go for it, if you're given an opportunity, take it. If you're got any interest in something that might not be related to your educational background or something you've done before, but you get offered it, do it. And that's the thing with governance, risk and compliance, there's a wealth of skills that you need to have, and there's a plethora of different people that you work with across the organization, so there’s so many potential hooks in.
With GRC work, you have oversight of the business and how it works on multiple different levels and at the start of your career, there's nothing better because you can really sort of narrow down and start to understand where it is you really want to go. So if you're unsure, have a go with governance risk and compliance and I think you could find the career that you didn't even know you wanted, and it can be very rewarding!