Open until 09/03/2026

The Santander Women Business Leaders’ mentoring programme

The programme created for the next generation of fast-growth ambitious female founders and business owners.

Supporting women and entrepreneurship

We've run our Women Business Leaders' mentoring programme since 2019. It’s a key part of our commitment to the Government's Investing in Women Code. The Code supports the advancement of female founders and business owners in the UK. It does this by improving access to tools, resources, and finance.

Find out more about the Government's Investing in Women Code.

Santander Women Business Leaders' mentoring programme 2025 - close event

The 7th successful year of our Santander Women Business Leaders’ Mentoring Programme has drawn to a close. Our cohort of 151 female entrepreneurs and their mentors were invited to join in person and virtually at Santander's Head Office, Unity Place in Milton Keynes, to celebrate connections, success and peer recognition of their mentoring investment. Hear from some of the closing event attendees – including entrepreneur and investor Sarah Willingham – on what the programme means to them.

2 ways of participating in the programme

Become a mentee and get access to highly experienced experts or become a mentor and support growing small to medium sized businesess owned by women.

If you want to be a mentee

To get a place on the programme you’ll be:

a Santander business customer, or interested in becoming one
a female founder, owner or majority shareholder of a business
registered as a UK company and trading for a minimum of 18 months.

To get the most out of the programme you'll need to:

be prepared to take responsibility for progressing your business
be open to feedback and challenge from your mentor
have a clear ambition to scale up your business. This could include growing your network or your team.

If you want to be a mentor

Here’s what we look for in a mentor:

experience of having run or owned your own business, or
a business leader with corporate experience
Knowledge of small to medium size businesses is also required.

We take on both female and male mentors.

What's important is that you want to make a difference and support ambitious female business owners.

To be a great mentor you'll need to:

understand how small and medium size businesses work
be prepared to share insights based on your experiences
be a positive role model
be committed, reliable and maintain discretion
have great listening skills and be easy to talk to
be happy to complete mentor training.

If you get a place in the programme you'll have access to a set of benefits

Mentoring relationship

We’ll match you with a suitable mentor. Our mentors come from a wide range of sectors and have at least 5 years leadership experience.

New perspective on your business

We’ll help you think in different ways about your business. Your mentor will have the skills and experience to guide you through this.

Additional resources

You’ll be given the resources to make sure you get the most from the programme.

Networking opportunities

You’ll be part of an active network of female founders.

Commit to growing your business

You’ll commit to meeting with your mentor on a regular basis. With them you’ll decide on your business objectives and the help you need.

Hear from our alumni

In the videos below you can hear from our alumni on the impact the programme has had to support with accelerated business growth, increased resilience and increased connections.

2025 alumni video
2024 alumni video
2023 alumni video
2022 alumni video

Our commitment

Banco Santander maintains a firm commitment to progress with a pioneering and consolidated commitment to education, employability and entrepreneurship, which it has been developing for more than 27 years and which distinguishes it from other financial institutions around the world.

It has been recognized as one of the companies that is contributing the most to changing the world for the better, according to the list 'Change the World' 2023 of Fortune magazine. The bank has allocated more than 2.3 billion euros and has supported more than 1.5 million people and companies through agreements with more than 1,200 universities in 26 countries.

Moving Ahead is a specialist award-winning mentoring and development organisation. Our mission is to accelerate business growth and innovation by advancing high-performance, inclusive cultures where all talent thrives.

We offer structured development programmes – from mentoring to sponsorship and inclusive leadership – that are designed to spark the conversations that matter. To date we’ve reached over 40,000 participants globally, from 478 unique organisations across over 43 sectors, including one third of the UK FTSE100 companies.