PWN Norway: Gender Balanced Leadership Event

PWN Norway was delighted to co-host a major conference on Gender Balanced Leadership in Oslo on June 4th. We partnered up with Yara International (main host of the event), Storebrand and Mercer Norway to bring together industry leaders, such as Yara’s CEO Svein Tore Holsether, topic experts like Tove Selnes, CHRO at Storebrand, and Jan Erik Saugestad, CEO Asset Management at Storebrand, and opinion leaders like Birgit Liodden, Director of Sustainability for Ocean and Communication for Oslo Business Region. 

In the presence of 60 attendees from over 30 major organisations, all interested in strengthening gender-balanced leadership, PWN Global Co-President Robert Baker and Senior Partner of Mercer, presented the international context and the rationale for why gender balanced leadership is crucial to future success for women, men, businesses and society. Together, best practices were shared and possible solutions to the major challenges discussed. The official speakers covered major topics such as:

• How gender diversity can optimise the potential for the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Myths and realities of gender balance in Norwegian business
• Actions from the FiftyFifty programme and the power of ownership by asset investors
• Why gender balanced leadership is critical for future success.

During 5 interactive workshops after the plenary session, the attendees took a deep-dive covering unconscious biases, engaging men, authenticity in leadership, the role of pay equity, and success criteria. These workshops focussed on moving from vision to action and discussing what can and needs to be done.

The conference was a major success, as some of the feedback received already highlights:

“I really enjoyed the session and the outstanding engagement from the audience. It is rare to see that degree of involvement and I want to give credit to the organisers for the format of the program”

“I really loved the program - so inspired and lots of new thoughts!”

“It was a really inspiring event and I was amazed by the energy and enthusiasm of all participants. It felt like I was sitting beside those who have the power to really start a change in Norway”.

Get an even better insight into the first Gender Balance Leadership event co-hosted by Yara International, Mercer, Storebrand and PWN Norway here. 

The organisers agreed that this would be the first of a number of follow up events to track progress towards gender balance in Norwegian business.

Author: Aleksandra Orekhova, PWN Norway

Date: July 2018