Latin America. Sodexo was distinguished by the Organization Women's Empowerment Principles (WEP's), a joint initiative of UN Women and the UN Global Compact, as one of the companies that has the best practices in terms of gender balance worldwide.
In particular, the UN recognized Sodexo's initiative called SWIFT (Sodexo International Forum for Women's Talent), on which the company's strategy to improve gender equality within the group is based. Launched in 2009 by Michel Landel, SWIFT is made up of 35 senior executives of the company representing 15 different nationalities and all business segments of the company, and aims to increase the number of women in positions of greater responsibility, identifying and implementing the strategy and actions to promote the advancement of women.
"Gender balance and, even more, diversity, are sources of wealth, greater creativity and collective performance I am proud of the work done at Sodexo and our commitments to increase the number of women in senior leadership roles, and to foster a culture of inclusion, who serve as advocates for gender equality within our industry and the clients and communities we serve, remain steadfast." said Michael Landel, CEO of the Sodexo group.
For her part, Janet Awad, Regional Chair of Sodexo LatAm and Country President of Sodexo Chile, stressed that "Sodexo is guided by the vision of creating added value in a lasting way. For this, organizations must place people at the center of their thinking. This belief has become the basis of our gender balance strategy. By harnessing the full potential of women and men, we are stronger, more innovative and can deliver better service to our 75 million consumers around the world every day."
In addition to the programs established through SWIFT, Sodexo has also announced its commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative to spend $1 billion on goods and services in small and medium-sized businesses, including 1,500 women business owners.
