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Women in the boardroom: The tide is well and truly turning

Saturday July 04 2015
muchene

Charles Muchene is chairman of the EABL board.

The origin of East African Breweries Limited Ltd goes back to 93 years ago. It is a long history made possible by many generations of talented people who have nurtured and shaped the business.

Women have long played a key role in our success, even when societal norms meant their talent was less visible than was deserved.

A decade ago, we challenged those norms, when the EABL board appointed Wanjiku Mugane then aged 38, as the first woman director. Ms Mugane’s appointment in 2001 showed that EABL recognised talent rather than gender.

Over the years since, we have seen other leading and respected female business leaders such as Constance Gakonyo, Susan Wakhungu-Githuku, Jane Karuku, Siobhan Moriarty, Tracey Barnes and Ruth Ngobi play their full role on the EABL board.

Women are leading and contributing to our business, from our board to brands and across our production chain. This progress has been enabled by a sustained and continued commitment to equality and a steadfast recognition that diverse thinking and styles bring immense value to our communities, our employees and our company.

The recent Female in Boards AfDB survey shows that we are not alone: Many companies are now working to ensure women can contribute fully to the economy and society at large, opening up career paths across all industries.

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As indicated by this report, it is gratifying that the trajectory for board-level gender representation in Africa suggests that women will comprise at least 25 per cent of directors of listed companies on the continent in the near future.

While EABL currently has well in excess of the target ratio of women in board positions, we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. There is a need to ensure there is a strong pipeline that will sustain progress in the longer term. Collectively as Kenyan companies, we have made progress but there is work still to be done.

As an organisation, we are determined that we will play our part in building that pipeline. The past three years have seen a steady progress towards our gender goals for women in leadership, outlined in our HR Balanced Scorecard.

Last year was a tremendous year for action, with many companies stepping up and setting targets to measure the progress of women across Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed companies.

At the Chairpersons’ Forum on Leadership and Diversity organised by the NSE earlier this year, chairpersons of listed companies were unanimous that gender balance was one of the key board diversity priority areas (the others being skills diversity and age profiles).

The tide is turning as we see senior women in every sector and across all industries, breaking through the barriers to succeed at the highest levels. We are seeing an increasing number of male leaders championing this agenda, putting measures into place to identify talent and nurture it.

However, we need many more champions, to truly deploy the widest search criteria, reach across all sectors and tap into yet unexplored talent pools, such as academia and the public sector.

Diversity thrives where great leadership, vision and transparency values are respected. As a country, we need to deliver fully upon the initial target of 30 per cent government quota, if we are to enhance Kenya’s reputation for responsible governance, competitiveness and ability to attract talented men and women in the global marketplace.

We are keen to show the rest of the world we can do this on our own and in doing so, we will achieve long-term sustainable change in the boardroom and wider workplace.

Generations before us have challenged inequality, enabling significant societal and economic change over the past 93 years as a result. It is incumbent upon us now to continue with that legacy and ensure women are an integral component of organisational leadership – at every level.

Everyone deserves to achieve their full career potential. Everyone deserves to participate equally in growing our future economy.

Charles Muchene is chairman of the EABL board.

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