Gonzalo Gortázar, CaixaBank's CEO, gathered with the regional and national winners of Spain and Portugal at the presentation of the latest edition of 'CaixaBank Women in Business Awards', which for the past six years have driven recognition of the achievements and talent of women executives.
At the event, held at CaixaBank’s all-in-one branch in Madrid, Gonzalo Gortázar congratulated the winners, noting the high quality of the nominations, with the awards having taken root in Spain for promoting equal opportunities and diversity in the corporate world. “The CaixaBank Women in Business Awards are particularly important to the Bank, since they combine talent, diversity and entrepreneurship. It is an honour for CaixaBank to be able to support these trailblazing women business leaders who, through their achievements and strategic vision, are helping to drive social change".
The CEO underscored the value of diversity as a pillar of sustainable progress. “It is no coincidence that in the last two decades, we have seen major advances in the corporate diversity and sustainability agendas. Women are acting as catalysts in the development of sustainable transition", he noted.
At the gathering, which featured various representatives of CaixaBank's executive team, the CEO was able to discuss and share his thoughts with the winners from each of the entity's regional offices, as well as with the national winners of Spain and Portugal (Premio Mulher Empresária BPI): Maite Casademunt, chairwoman and creative director of LOLA CASADEMUNT, and Isabel Azevedo, chairwoman of the FRICON Group, respectively.
The IWEC International Awards
During the session, Maite Casademunt and Isabel Azevedo were able to share their experience as the representatives of their respective countries at the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC) Awards. These awards, which recognise and support women entrepreneurs all over the world, were presented as part of the annual IWEC conference, which was held in Madrid between 13 and 15 November under the title ‘Connecting women entrepreneurs in the world: the transformational power of women in business’.
In this year’s edition, the IWEC Foundation rewarded the achievements of 41 businesswomen from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and America. The companies run by these women represent highly diverse sectors and have a combined global turnover of more than US$3.3 billion.
‘Women’s Leadership’, the first in-person gathering of the CaixaBank Women in Business Award Community
The presentation ceremony of the sixth edition of the CaixaBank Women in Business Awards coincided with the 'Women's Leadership' forum, the first in-person gathering of the CaixaBank Women in Business Community. This community, created in 2020, is a virtual network of the winners of every edition of the awards in Spain, and provides a platform and a meeting point for the award winners to exchange know-how, ideas and experiences.
The ‘Women’s Leadership’ forum brought together more than 40 award-winning women and featured CaixaBank's CEO, Gonzalo Gortázar, and many of the bank's executives. This was the first time that the network met in person, after the possibility to do so was hindered by the pandemic over the last two years.
During the meeting, the participants were able to learn more about the role of women in boosting diversity and inclusion in organisations and took part in various workshops on female community and leadership, before concluding the session with a joint discussion on the role of companies in today's society.
Wengage, CaixaBank's commitment to equality
Diversity, meritocracy, equal opportunities and talent recognition are some of the pillars of CaixaBank's corporate culture. Under these premises, the bank is committed to working to be a pacesetter for its employees, promoting inclusion and participation, and bolstering projects that promote equality, both within the company and across the whole of society. In fact, 41.6% of managerial positions at CaixaBank are held by women, and 40% of its Board of Directors are women, one of the highest percentages in the sector.
CaixaBank runs its Wengage diversity programme, a cross-cutting project developed by people from across the company. Based on meritocracy and promoting equal opportunity, it works to promote and implement every aspect of diversity: gender, functional, generational, LGBTI, cultural, etc. Wengage includes internal measures to foster flexibility and work-life balance, to raise awareness regarding diversity and strengthen the role of women, with training programmes and female mentoring plans, through which female managers will guide other professionals in developing their careers.
Wengage also undertakes external initiatives for customers and society that rely on encouraging diversity and equal opportunity in four areas of activity: leadership and enterprise, innovation and education, sport and rural areas.
In addition, CaixaBank has an Equality Plan to promote the principles of equal opportunity and the diversity of its teams, enhance the presence of women in managerial positions, and reinforce measures to balance personal and professional life. The plan includes the gender perspective in managerial development programmes and in recruitment and training processes, and the fostering of remote working and flexibility.
CaixaBank is associated with the international programme, Target Gender Equality, and the Women’s Empowerment Principles of the United Nations; the 'More women, better companies' voluntary agreement of the Ministry of Health, Social Services And Equality; and the Diversity Charter, promoting equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory measures.
Furthermore, since 2018, CaixaBank has adhered to the EJE&CON Code of Good Practices for Talent Management and the Improvement of Company Competitiveness, committing itself to fostering the presence of women in managerial positions. It is also part of the STEAM Alliance for Female Talent "Girls on the Science Stand", an initiative led by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training to promote STEAM careers in girls and young women. In the field of mentoring women, for example, CaixaBank has been working with the Vital Voices international NGO since 2019 to organise the Global Mentoring Walks in Spain.
As a result of its commitment, CaixaBank is among the world's top five companies according to Bloomberg's 2022 Gender Equality Index.
