“But if you lay on top ethnicity and gender, there is even more disadvantage,” she added.
At grassroots level, efforts are being made to tackle these barriers.
Andrien Meyers is Anglo-Indian and Gavin Lewis is black.
They noticed each other at a conference in 2010 as they were the only two people who were not white in the room.
They began talking about how they could make change – 10 years later, the Catalyst Education Programme was born.
Andrien, an independent councillor for City of London Corporation, said: “We’ve been in the industry for more than a decade, and we’re not seeing enough diverse individuals come through.”
He says bringing in people from different backgrounds improves decision making and is good for business.
“Having a diverse pool of talent around the table helps, make better decisions.”
He hopes that bringing more people in at a lower level will help progress careers “all the way up to the executive suite”.