WeQual: Eight Exceptional Women Executives Honoured in EMEA Diversity Awards
15.12.2020 18:17:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
Eight businesswomen holding prominent executive roles in leading companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa have been named as winners in the annual WeQual Awards (www.wequal.com/awards).
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201215005796/en/
WeQual EMEA 2020 - Winners (Photo: Business Wire)
WeQual identifies and recognises world-class women executives, one level below the group C-suite, and is designed to promote diversity and gender equality within the group executive committees of EMEA’s largest companies.
The eight winners were selected from a shortlist of 24 finalists. The successful award holders are employed in Aryzta, Bayer’s Consumer Health Division, Bureau Veritas, Fresenius Medical Care, Ooredoo Qatar, Sodexo, Standard Chartered Bank and Unilever.
Katie Litchfield, Founder and CEO of WeQual, says: “WeQual identifies already successful senior women who are qualified to be appointed to the group C-suite. Our mission is to tackle the slow progress in appointing diverse women to executive roles and highlight successes where they occur.
“The glass-ceiling concept has been an issue for decades, and the drop-off is steepest just below the group C-suite, so it is important to champion gender equality at the top.”
The awards come at an important time for women in business. The global Covid-19 pandemic is in danger of pushing back opportunities for women to be appointed to the most senior positions. “The fact that we are able to celebrate the achievements of these women in major companies at this time sets a shining example to others,” says Katie Litchfield.
The winners are:
− Bola Adesola: Senior Vice-Chairman, Africa, Standard Chartered Bank, Nigeria. Head of Region Category.
− Dr Cora Koppe-Stahrenberg: Executive Vice President, Global Head of Human Resources, Fresenius Medical Care, Germany. People Excellence Category.
− Munera AL-Dosari: Chief Strategy Officer, Ooredoo Qatar. Strategy Development Category.
− Patricia Amaro: Digital Hub and E-commerce Director, Unilever, Spain. Digital Impact Category.
− Patricia Corsi: Global Chief Marketing and Digital Officer, Bayer’s Consumer Health Division, Switzerland. Brand Innovation Category.
− Nathalie Pousin: Chief Financial Officer, France, Africa, GSIT, Bureau Veritas, France. Finance Category.
− Petra Melander: EMEA Account Director, Sodexo, Finland. Commercial Performance Category.
− Rebeca Navarro: Chief Transformation Officer for Europe and Head of Procurement, Aryzta, Switzerland. Transformational Leadership Category.
The 24 finalists were assessed against seven criteria: Leadership, Cognitive Ability, Integrity, Drive and Resilience, Equality, Knowledge of the Business, and Personal Development. All candidates were assessed blind with no name or company revealed in their application.
To choose the winners, eight executive interviewers held 30-minute interviews with the three finalists in each category before each choosing a category winner. The judges were:
− Sir Ian Cheshire, Chairman, Barclays UK
− Viswas Raghavan, CEO EMEA, J.P. Morgan
− Warren East, CEO, Rolls-Royce
− Dame Inga Beale, Chairperson, Mediclinic
− Chris O'Shea, CEO, Centrica
− Ron Kalifa OBE, Chairman, Network International
− Tamara Box, Managing Partner EME, Reed Smith LLP
− Tulsi Naidu, CEO, Zurich Insurance Company UK
All the 24 award finalists have been given access to a range of WeQual support services and networks designed to help them make the step up to the group executive level. A quarter of WeQual award winners in the UK and USA have since been promoted to the global executive committees of FTSE and Fortune 500 companies. There are now 96 senior women involved with WeQual globally.
(Ends)
Notes to editors
About WeQual
WeQual's mission is to make businesses more inclusive by identifying exceptional women executives and address the gender imbalance across the world's Group Executive Committees. Katie Litchfield, founder and CEO of WeQual Awards, devised the new platform which calls for women senior executives to build their case as to why they deserve to be appointed to the Group Executive Committee.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wequal-awards
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeQualGlobal
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBpixTLeUsQVjwrivAP9-KA
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeQualAwards
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wequalglobal
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201215005796/en/
Contact information
Katie Litchfield
katie@wequal.com
Mobile: + 44 7796 147466
UK office: +44 20 3290 3389
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Fenchurch Advisory Partners to Combine With Broadhaven Capital Partners, Creating the Preeminent International Investment Bank Serving the Financial Services Sector16.6.2026 17:30:00 EEST | Press release
Fenchurch Advisory Partners has entered into a definitive agreement to combine with Broadhaven Capital Partners, a leading independent advisory firm to the financial technology and financial services sectors in North America. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260616214669/en/ Fenchurch is one of the most respected investment banking advisory firms dedicated exclusively to the financial services sector. With offices in London, New York and Paris, Fenchurch provides trusted, independent advice to corporates and financial sponsors across insurance, asset and wealth management, banking, and specialty finance. In 2025, Fenchurch advised on 27 transactions, ranking as the number one adviser to the financial services sector in the UK and Europe. Founded in 2009, Broadhaven has established itself as a premier investment bank advising corporates and financial sponsors on M&A, capital raising, and strategic transactions,
AIRS Medical Welcomes Strategic Growth Investment from TA Associates to Accelerate Global Growth in AI-Powered MRI Solutions16.6.2026 17:00:00 EEST | Press release
AIRS Medical (“the Company”), a global leader in AI solutions for medical imaging, today announced a strategic growth investment from TA Associates (“TA”), a leading global private equity firm. The investment will help fuel AIRS Medical’s next phase of global expansion, advancement of its AI-powered radiology technology solutions and ongoing product innovation. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260616325248/en/ Founded in 2018, AIRS Medical develops AI-native magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”) acceleration and reconstruction software designed to support MRI speed, image quality and workflow performance. Healthcare organizations and leading academic institutions are adopting AIRS Medical's technologies to expand imaging capacity and improve patient access. Today, the Company supports more than 1,700 healthcare institutions across over 40 countries, with its AI technologies utilized in more than 6 million MRI exam
Svante’s Solid Sorbent Filter Technology Named to Fast Company’s 2026 World Changing Ideas Awards List16.6.2026 17:00:00 EEST | Press release
Svante Technologies Inc. (Svante), a purpose-driven integrated carbon management company, today announced that its nanoengineered solid sorbent filter technology has been named to Fast Company’s 2026 World Changing Ideas list, one of the world’s most selective recognitions for innovations tackling climate and sustainability challenges. The honour recognizes Svante’s proprietary filter platform, which enables high-performance capture and removal of CO₂ from industrial emissions and the air, as well as other critical gas separation applications, particularly where chemical processes do not perform well. This year’s awards, featured on fastcompany.com, highlight 191 outstanding projects across 14 categories. A panel of Fast Company editors and reporters evaluated more than 1,500 entries based on their impact, sustainability, design, creativity, scalability, and ability to improve society. “This recognition underscores the commercial and societal importance of Svante’s approach to carbon c
Gurobi's Research Leadership Recognized Across Leading Scientific Organizations16.6.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Gurobi Optimization, LLC, the leader in decision intelligence technology, today announced recognitions received by Dr. Edward Rothberg and Dr. Andreas Wächter from leading academic and industry organizations for research that has had lasting impact on the field of optimization. “Gurobi was founded on a commitment to rigorous, applied optimization research,” said Dr. Oliver Bastert, CTO, Gurobi. “And these recognitions are a reflection of that legacy. The foundational work that Ed and Andreas produced continues to shape the field, and that same spirit of scientific innovation drives everything we do today.” Dr. Edward Rothberg, co-founder and Chairman of the Board at Gurobi, was recently honored with the INFORMS Test of Time Paper Award for his paper, “An Evolutionary Algorithm for Polishing Mixed Integer Programming Solutions.” The paper introduced a novel approach to finding high-quality solutions to difficult MIP problems — expanding what was possible within the MIP framework and inf
New CSC Report Illustrates How AI Is Affecting Enterprise Security Leaders16.6.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
CSC, an enterprise-class domain registrar and world leader in mitigating brand, fraud, domain, and domain name system (DNS) threats, today released new research on how chief information security officers (CISOs) are adapting to an evolving artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem while managing traditional cyber threats, such as DNS outages. According to CSC’s CISO Outlook 2026 report, 73% of respondents say AI presents more of an opportunity than a risk for cybersecurity. However, these security leaders continue to face challenges in addressing attacks, including AI-powered domain generation algorithms (DGAs), which 86% of respondents cite as a threat. To thoroughly understand the CISO perspective on today’s cybersecurity landscape, CSC surveyed 300 senior executives—including CISOs, chief technology officers (CTOs), chief information officers (CIOs), and heads of cybersecurity—in Q1 2026. Key findings from the CISO Outlook 2026 report include: Respondents ranked the top three threats i
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom