It is with pleasure that we announce the new Chairwoman of European Women on Boards, Ms. Paivi Jokinen from Finland. Ms. Jokinen has joined EWoB in May 2019 as a representative of Board Professionals Finland, an association with some 180 members sharing the mission of promoting diversity in the workplace. Board Professionals Finland was a founding member of European Women on Boards in 2013 together with Women on Board Belgium, Femmes experts-comptables of France (prev. AFECA) and the Norwegian Institute of Directors.
Ms. Jokinen is taking over from Monique Lempereur after her two-years-term. Ms. Lempereur introduced EWoB to senior executive association EJE&CON in Spain, which is the newest member of the Association. We thank her for setting in motion the European Gender Diversity Index and the Women Empowerment in Leadership Program (WELP) including significant financing by the European Commission’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship program.
The WELP Program is already delivering its first results, supported by a highly motivated team, delivering on the objectives of WELP to improve equality in decision-making across the European Union.
Ms. Monique Lempereur will continue to support EWoB as an independent director.
“I am very excited about the new role. There is still a lot to be done in the area of gender parity and in ensuring that both men and women have equal opportunities for advancement. My goal is to expand the European Women on Boards network further to other national associations so that best practices can be spread far and wide within the EU. Our current membership of Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Finland could greatly benefit from non-profit member associations from other Nordic countries, Eastern and Central Europe as well as Portugal, Austria and Switzerland. We will continue the good work around the three WELP initiatives of C-level school, cross-border mentoring and gender diversity research and look to partner with other associations with similar goals of promoting women and creating the bases for solid female leadership“, says Paivi Jokinen.