The 2026 edition of the Women Leading the Way magazine is now available,. With it, we have rethought what the magazine should be. Initially, Drofa Comms launched this project to make female expertise in financial services more visible. This year, we reconsidered what a magazine with that goal should look like. And it happens at a time when the industry itself changes so quickly.

So, we redesigned Women Leading the Way into a full-fledged industry publication. Inside, women lead the conversation as experts, executives, founders and specialists. They discuss gender inequality and analyse the questions that will define financial services over the next decade. The issue is fully digital, bringing together experts from around the world and giving them a way to share their knowledge with readers everywhere.

Why We Changed Women Leading the Way in 2026

Women Leading the Way began with the idea that the industry has never lacked female expertise — it just did not have an equal chance for other to hear it. Our interviews and podcast series have been confirming this, and at the same time, they show that the women we speak with want to be judged for the quality of their work. All our work, ultimately, aims to support exactly that.

As Valentina Drofa, Founder and CEO of Drofa Comms, stresses in her opening letter, the project was never meant to tell women which topics they should discuss. This is why in the 2026 edition, our experts write on AI, the financial industry, regulation, and many other burning topics. And, notably, gender is only one of the subjects, even though it remains the central lens in the 2026 issue.

What’s Inside Our 2026 Magazine

The 2026 edition combines different formats. We published original research by our team, analytical features, infographics and exclusive interviews. Our goal was to cover the most important topics that shape the finance industry.

1. Original research

The research piece “The Missing Half of the Record” by Nigar (Niya) Ibrahimova is our original research that sets the central question for the journal: what happens when new technologies learn from a world where expertise and visibility have never been equally distributed?

The research shows that women are much less visible in AI search results when users ask for leading experts in finance.

As more people turn to AI to find experts, sources and speakers, this imbalance can shape who is seen as an authority, and, eventually, who receives the next opportunity.

2. Exclusive interviews with women in finance

On the following pages, we introduce exclusive interviews with women changing the financial industry itself. Experts such as Bianca Zwart, Chief Strategy Officer at bunq, Sonia Shaw, CEO of OneAsset, and Holly Atkinson, CPTO at 1inch, bring the view of leaders who run strategy and product and describe what finance will look like in the future.

3. Infographics on women in financial leadership

We also use infographics to set out the numbers behind the debate, from women's 26% share of AI hires in the US to their representation in C-suite roles across AI, fintech and commercial banking.

4. Analytical articles

The issue also features in-depth articles built around our analysis, strengthened by the expertise of contributors from the financial industry.

Their experience helps us test our arguments against what is happening in the market, and bring meaningful context to the themes we explore.

Key Topics in Women Leading the Way 2026

The analytical section covers five themes that are shaping financial services:

• AI in money management

• Generational wealth transfer

• AI-driven fraud

• Leadership and careers in the age of automation

• The future of finance

These topics seem broad, but the underlying idea they share is the same and states that financial decisions change due to advances in technology. Deals are executed at the speed of light, but the institutions and career paths around them are still adjusting. This difference makes it more important than ever that someone remains accountable for outcomes, because the industry needs to know whose judgement it can rely on.

The women in this edition state that the more finance runs on automated systems, the more trust depends on people who can make a final decision and defend it.

Different Voices Across the Financial Industry

Women Leading the Way exists to make female expertise more visible as well as it strives to highlight that the financial industry develops thanks to the combined efforts of all participants. That is why this issue also includes perspectives from men. Their visions exemplify the analysis by adding another view on many of the same problems explored by women throughout the magazine.

Many men in the industry have supported the project from the very start, often by recommending female colleagues for interviews. Their contributions reflect that shared commitment and show how the industry develops through the ongoing ideas' exchange.

The Next Stage for the Project’s Community

Previous editions were printed, so copies mostly reached people we met in person at major events. However, this time the issue is entirely digital, which gives readers in any market the opportunity to open it and share it with colleagues and peers. After all, for a project whose goal is to give more people access to strong expertise, the format should not be a barrier for those who want to read it.

Women Leading the Way 2026 marks the next stage for the project, which over the past year has grown into an international community with a written interview series, a podcast and partnerships with major industry events such as TOKEN2049 and RWA WEEK.

We believe that people should first judge professionals by their knowledge and ideas. And every named contribution in this issue adds to that record and helps female expertise receive the recognition it has lacked.