SG50 Champions of Change
23 September 2015 – BoardAgender inaugurated its SG50 Champions of Change, an incremental initiative from the 100 Champions initiated previously to commemorate the 100th year of the International Women’s Day.
The launch, held at Tower Club Singapore was supported by Goldman Sachs, and has garnered the support of 51 Champions from across industries which include distinguished names from the government, SGX, DBS Bank, Hyflux, Shell, Accenture and more.
Law and Home Minister, K Shanmugam, who was the Guest of Honour, said that the importance of women’s involvement in every corporate hierarchy cannot be overstated. In line with BoardAgender’s SG50 Champions’ Statement for Change, Minister Shanmugam emphasized five of the following points, calling on every corporate leader to make the change for gender-balance business in Singapore:
1. Raising awareness in the business community about the benefits of diversity: gender-balanced business promotes better decision-making in the boardroom, better corporate governance, and better financial performance.
2. Encouraging boards, CEOs and nominating committees to increase female representation on every corporate board in Singapore: by calling on prominent men and women to champion gender diversity in their own workplaces and in the wider community.
3. Facilitating the advancement of more women in leadership roles: recommend widespread adoption of mentoring and work-life balance initiatives to develop the pipeline of management-ready women who can take up leadership opportunities and in turn create space for more women.
4. Equipping women to serve as board directors: in collaboration with SID, promote professional directorship training to develop the pool of board-ready women who can “sit at the table”.
5. Enhancing the case for diversity through information and research: develop research into local and global diversity trends and statistics, including publishing the Singapore Diversity Report in conjunction with leading business education institutions.
The SG50 Champions of Change aims to bring together a group of influential male and female leaders from across industries in Singapore. These Champions will use their individual and collective influence to ensure that the issues of gender diversity and representation at senior levels of the corporate world are elevated on the national business agenda in Singapore.
Media coverage:
Lianhe Zaobao, 24 September 2015 (for subscribers only)
Berita Harian, 24 September 2015 (for subscribers only)