Women in Collaboration is holding a finance leadership gathering in London for senior female finance executives, focused on funding pressure, AI adoption and finance transformation.

More than 100 women in roles including Chief Financial Officer, Finance Director, FP&A and finance transformation leadership are expected to attend the closed-door session at Oracle NetSuite’s Helicon building in Moorgate.

The programme centres on the pressures finance teams face as leaders balance financial control with growth planning, board expectations, tighter reporting timetables and greater regulatory scrutiny.

Sessions will examine how finance leaders manage constrained funding environments, address fragmented systems and improve confidence in reporting and audit preparation. A separate breakout session will explore the use of AI and data within ERP systems, while another panel will discuss changes in finance technology.

One keynote interview will feature Catherine Turner, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of SearchHive, discussing lessons from finance leadership and from building a technology business in a strained funding environment.

Women in Collaboration, formerly London Women’s Collaboration, is a cross-industry collective that brings together senior women’s networks across payments, fintech, automation and emerging technology. It was formed to encourage collaboration between communities that often operate separately and has previously run executive and policy-adjacent forums.

The gathering is being delivered by London Women Groups with Rsult, a NetSuite alliance partner, and backed by a wider group of industry networks including European Women in Payments Network, Women in Automation, Women in Open Banking and fintech community organisations.

Finance pressures

The agenda reflects the widening remit of senior finance executives, whose responsibilities increasingly extend beyond reporting and cost control into transformation, systems oversight and technology decisions.

One panel on funding pressures will explore how finance leaders can balance day-to-day stewardship with strategic growth and investment planning. The discussion will cover indicators to watch, common failure points and ways to make the case for finance functions under pressure.

Another session will focus on the risks created by disparate systems and weak data confidence. It will examine how finance departments can improve real-time reporting, strengthen audit readiness and reduce operational risk through better data architecture and integration.

A further panel on innovation in the office of finance is intended to move beyond broad claims about AI and focus instead on current tools and measurable efficiency gains.

The format will prioritise peer discussion over formal presentation, with structured networking designed to encourage exchanges between executives facing similar operational and strategic constraints.

Zhenya Winter, Co-founder of Women in Collaboration, outlined the rationale behind the agenda.

“The role of the CFO has expanded significantly, often without equivalent increases in time, resource or certainty,” Winter said.

She said the event would focus on practical examples rather than theory.

“This event is designed to give senior finance leaders practical perspectives on funding, data, systems and AI that is grounded in real experiences rather than theory,” Winter said.

AI and data

AI adoption and data integrity have become more prominent issues for finance functions as companies seek faster reporting, stronger controls and better visibility across operations.

The AI and data breakout is expected to centre on how an integrated ERP system with embedded AI may change forecasting, controls and operational visibility. That will sit alongside wider discussion of the challenge of maintaining confidence in financial data while modernising legacy systems.

Winter said those tensions are becoming more central to finance leadership.

“Finance leaders are increasingly expected to lead transformation while maintaining absolute confidence in the numbers,” she said.

“Hearing how peers are addressing these tensions, particularly around AI adoption and data integrity, is invaluable.”

The emphasis on peer exchange reflects a broader pattern in executive forums, where finance leaders often seek practical information from counterparts dealing with similar budget, staffing and systems constraints rather than general commentary on technology trends.

Winter described that peer-to-peer element as the main benefit for participants.

“For many CFOs, the most valuable insights come from peers facing similar constraints,” she said.

“Our goal is to create an environment where those conversations can happen openly and productively.”

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East between the US, Israel, and Iran has resulted in a recent spike in fuel prices.

Many airlines have felt the effects, and now Hertfordshire-based Ascend Airways has reportedly entered liquidation.

The UK company offered aircraft for other airline carriers, such as Tui Airways, Oman Air and Air Sierra Leone and operated at Southend Airport and Gatwick Airport.

UK airline Ascend Airways goes into liquidation

Ascend Airways is set to return its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 8s to lessors and surrender its air operator’s certificate (AOC), Flight Global reports.

The company was originally founded as Synergy Aviation as a small charter and management firm.

It was acquired by Avia Solutions Group in 2023 to serve as its primary UK-based operator.

It obtained its UK AOC two years ago and has been operating an all-737 Max 8 fleet.

Its inaugural commercial flight took place in April 2024, operating from London Southend Airport.

The ongoing Middle East conflict and the rise in fuel prices have resulted in a “challenging outlook” for the summer season, the carrier told Flight Global.

It said: “These external pressures have compounded the structural challenges of operating a UK AOC within the European [wet-lease] market.

“A lack of reciprocal wet-leasing rights for UK carriers, combined with a higher cost base, has made the UK certificate a more expensive and less agile option compared to EU AOCs.”

The airline describes its surrender of the AOC as “strategic” but said that it has met contractual obligations through the winter, or exited agreements in an “orderly” manner, and it is supporting employees ahead of its AOC return.

“By working closely with stakeholders, a managed wind-down of operations has been achieved to minimise disruption to customers, consumers and aircraft lessors,” it adds.

However, reports also suggest that the company has gone into liquidation, according to The Sun.

An insider said: “It’s gone bust today (April 28), we got the news this afternoon.

“We’ve all been given the letters that it’s all going into liquidation.”

They added: “It’s to do with the economy, we couldn’t get contracts, the UK is a lot more expensive than Europe.

“The fuel situation had a massive effect on it as well.”

Ascend Airways and Avia Solutions Group have been contacted for comment by Newsquest.

Several major airlines have already responded to this rise in fuel prices due to the conflict in the Middle East.

This has been done by increasing fares, adding or increasing fuel surcharges, and cutting flights.

UK airline Skybus announced previously that it had ceased all flights between Cornwall and London due to “the huge rise in the global cost of fuel” and “a significant drop in new passenger bookings”.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has also warned Brits to book their summer holidays “as quickly as you can” to avoid rising costs.

Airlines that have entered liquidation or administration in 2026 (so far)

Several airlines entered liquidation in 2025, according to the UK Civil Aviation Authority , including:

• Blue Islands Limited (UK) – November
• Air Kilroe Limited t/a Eastern Airways (UK) – November
• Play Airlines (Iceland) – September

Three airlines have entered administration or liquidation in 2026 (so far), resulting in the cancellation of more than 4,000 flights:

Airlines are not the only travel businesses affected, with four UK travel companies having also ceased trading in 2026, resulting in the cancellation of flights and holiday packages to destinations around the world.

The four UK travel companies that have closed down in 2026 (so far) are:

• Regen Central Ltd
• Gold Crest Holidays
• Asiara UK Ltd
• Simply Florida Travel Ltd

All four have ceased trading, according to Companies House, and have lost their Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL).

Have you been impacted by any flight cancellations or airfare price hikes caused by increased fuel prices? Let us know in the comments below.

TomTom has chosen HowNow to support its move to a skills-based organisation, with the partnership centred on TomTom Academy, an internal learning platform for its workforce.

TomTom Academy launched in December 2024, with its full skills functionality rolled out in July 2025. The platform is intended to link employee development to changing business requirements as part of a two-year people strategy.

Based in the Netherlands, TomTom provides geolocation technology, including maps, real-time traffic information and navigation services, to carmakers, businesses and governments. The group employs more than 3,300 people worldwide.

A key factor in selecting HowNow was its AI-based skills-mapping technology, which is designed to give TomTom a current view of workforce skills and gaps while directing employees to relevant learning opportunities.

The partnership also reflects TomTom’s effort to reshape learning across the business by giving employees skills-led development paths aligned with shifts in customer demand and market conditions.

Other factors behind the decision included product alignment, integration with other systems and ease of use. The partnership also fits TomTom’s wider internal approach to work and employee development.

One early aim has been to widen access to content creation inside the company. Employees in different markets can now create learning materials for colleagues, broadening the flow of knowledge across the business.

For HowNow, TomTom joins its list of technology sector customers. For TomTom, the project forms part of a broader effort to organise learning around business needs rather than fixed roles.

Aneta Milosierna-Santos, People Product Lead at TomTom, said, “[HowNow’s] AI skills mapping functionality was a big selling point for us, as was the strong sense of partnership we felt during those initial conversations. Like TomTom, HowNow is an agile, fast-growth company…because of that, we could see their potential to evolve with us, and that really resonated.”

Milosierna-Santos also highlighted the platform’s effect on internal knowledge sharing: “In just a few short months, HowNow has enabled us to democratise learning. Any one of our employees, in any of our geographic markets, can now become an internal content creator. This is already multiplying knowledge across and between our employees at speed – and in a way that is quick and easy for them.”

TomTom’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Arne‐Christian van der Tang, linked the project to the company’s broader workforce model: “At TomTom, our people strategy is built around what we call the now of work – creating the conditions for our teams to have impact today. Academy gives us real-time visibility into skills across our organisation and enables our people to learn, grow and deliver value with agility. In a world where the pace of change is relentless, this partnership helps us stay responsive, flexible and focused on empowering TomTom’ers to do their best work, every day.”

Nelson Sivalingam, co-founder and chief executive of HowNow, described TomTom as a business moving towards a different organisational model: “TomTom is a progressive organisation that continues to create world-class products and services. By becoming a skills-based organisation, the company has demonstrated a strong commitment to its people and future success – and we’re delighted to be supporting TomTom on that journey.”