IN the aftermath of the crisis that has gripped the organisation following several claims of sexual misconduct, the Confederation of British Industry will be renamed, according to the organisation’s new director general.
Rebranding, according to Rain Newton-Smith, is an effort to regain credibility following allegations of sexual misconduct. More than 50 large businesses, including John Lewis and NatWest, suspended or cancelled their membership in recent days.
Newton-Smith said: “Personally, over time, I’m sure we’re going to see a new name for the CBI, but that’s just the wrapper that goes on the outside. What matters is what we do, what we deliver and our purpose.
“The CBI that emerges from this is not going to be the CBI of the past, that is clear. It needs to be a new, a different, organisation.”
She admitted to the BBC in a separate interview that while she was a former employee of the CBI, she had complained about sexual harassment.
“Whenever I have seen sexual harassment, I have acted and I raised those issues,” she said. “I supported staff who needed to raise them, and I think that’s … absolutely critically important,” she said.
“I wouldn’t be coming back into this job if I thought there were things that I had done or hadn’t done or hadn’t acted thoroughly on it. So that’s what’s really important to me.”
Newton-Smith said that during her previous tenure, she did not feel there had been a toxic workplace atmosphere.
“That’s not how it felt when I was here, but at the same time I, like everyone else, have read the stories of the survivors of rape in the papers from the outside, and I know that something has gone badly wrong,” she told the BBC.
She was formerly the CBI’s chief economist with the longest tenure; she left the position just in March to temporarily join Barclays as a managing director working on governance strategies before being invited back to take over the scandal-plagued organisation.
From August 2014 until March 2023, Newton-Smith was Chief Economist at the CBI where she led its economic policy, analysis and survey teams and the CBI’s work with HM Treasury.
She also led the international team, focused on global business leadership around the B7 and B20, and championed the CBI’s work to support the transition to a low carbon, sustainable economy. She was instrumental in shaping the CBI’s work to help business navigate through the Covid pandemic.
Prior to joining the economics team at the CBI, Newton-Smith was Head of Emerging Markets at Oxford Economics, where she was the lead expert on China.
“I am not for a moment saying that the rebuild of our culture and our organisation is going to be complete by early June. But what I need to do and show is that we have done enough to earn back trust from businesses,” she said.
“People are hurting in this organisation, and they also need time to heal. My plea to businesses is these things take time.”
Gaining back the trust of businesses will be essential for the lobbying organisation, which depends on membership fees, which accounted for £22 mn of its £25 mn in income in 2021.
The organisation, which stopped doing its regular business last week, will inform members of its progress during an urgent meeting in early June, according to the director general.
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