Coface joins 30% club

Jacqui Jooste, CEO of Coface South Africa.

Coface South Africa, a subsidiary of the international trade credit insurer, has become a member 30% Club, a global campaign to increase the representation of women on boards.

The 30% Club launched in the UK in 2010 with a goal of achieving 30% women on FTSE-100 boards. It has expanded into an international organisation located in the UK, USA, Canada, Ireland, Australia, GCC, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia and Southern Africa.

Globally the 30% Club runs a number of targeted initiatives that look to broaden the pipeline of women at all levels, from ‘schoolroom to boardroom’. Whilst each chapter undertakes their own initiatives based on the specific local requirements and available resources, gender mainstreaming remains the common theme.

Jacqui Jooste, CEO, Coface South Africa, said: “The 30% Club is working to bring about real transformation by encouraging and supporting chairmen, CEO’s and senior partners to appoint more women to their boards and provide information and help for businesses trying to improve their diversity at all levels – sharing innovations that work and devising new collaborative actions.”

““The 30% Club Southern Africa chapter has a number of programmes in place to encourage and broaden the local pipeline of female board candidates. One example is The Board Walk, a recurring event that bring together aspiring and existing directors to share insights and challenges,” said Ms Jooste.

This collaboration aligns with the Coface Group’s focus on gender mainstreaming. This year’s Coface leadership meeting saw guest speaker, Emilia Bunea, country manager for MetLife Romania, stress the clear advantage to businesses of ensuring gender diversity at all levels of their organisations. Introducing the insightful session, Coface’s Carine Pichon announced the launch of a new Coface-wide initiative in this area, called Women to Win.

“The aim of the 30&Club is to raise awareness of gender balance issues, and we are leveraging female talent everywhere. Coface’s Piere Bevierre outlined some of the planned initiatives which include e-learning on unconscious bias, a mentoring process for female talent, and an award for diversity that will be introduced next year,” said Ms Jooste.