Bain & Company and Cambridge Judge Business School announce a new partnership, as part of Bain’s Stratos Initiative. An inaugural global leadership forum bringing together over 50 CEOs in financial services will take place at Cambridge Judge on 23-24 April.
Stratos is a global, invitation-only leadership platform developed by Bain for the most senior executives. At the apex of financial services, Stratos convenes CEOs and senior leaders in a confidential global forum to engage with the realities of power, capital allocation, and decision-making under uncertainty. Anchored in Bain’s global reach, Stratos prepares leaders for the demands of enterprise leadership at scale.
The partnership combines world-class scholarship with deep industry insight to support the women leaders shaping the future of financial services.
“At a time of profound geopolitical uncertainty and unprecedented acceleration in AI and technology, this collaboration brings together Bain’s deep industry perspective with Cambridge Judge’s world-class thought leadership,” Bain and Cambridge Judge said in a joint statement. “The ambition is both simple and bold: to create the space for global financial services leaders to step back together, challenge orthodoxies and redefine what growth and leadership should look like in the next era.”
Empowering women in financial services
Cambridge Judge Business School is committed to empowering the next generation of women leaders, providing a first-class education, unrivalled professional networks and practical leadership skills. From our Executive MBA programmes to our specialist Executive Education programmes – Cambridge Rising Women Leaders Programme and The Cambridge and Financial Times Women in Leadership Programme – and the IWF Leadership Fellows Programme, we equip women to accelerate their careers and achieve their ambitions.
Underpinning our degree and Executive Education programmes, the Wo+Men’s Leadership Centre has for a decade acted as an inclusive hub for research, networking and outreach activities on women in leadership on a global scale. Our powerful events series promotes gender diversity and the Centre has produced impactful reports that address pertinent topics on gender diversity.
What the partnership’s leaders are saying
The operating context for financial services CEOs is being fundamentally rewritten. Power is shifting between markets and states, technology is reshaping the economics of the industry, and the pace of decision-making at the top of global institutions has never been greater. Stratos is designed to create a rare environment where leaders can step outside the immediacy of the quarter and engage in serious, strategic thinking about the future architecture of financial services and the responsibilities of those who lead it.
This partnership with Bain brings together the best of academic insight and industry leadership at a pivotal moment for global financial services. At Cambridge Judge, we are committed to developing leaders who can navigate complexity and shape the future of their industries. Convening senior women executives from across the world reflects both that mission and our long-standing commitment to advancing women in leadership.




