EDUCATION COMMITTEE

5 Questions to the LEAD Network Education Committee

1. Tell us about yourself and what motivates you to be engaged with the LEAD Network.

My name is Christina Taylor and I have been leading the Education Committee as Chair since late 2017. Over the last 2 years, I’ve had the pleasure to work with a highly engaged team of volunteers to create value for our partners and members through education and development. The energy and passion everyone brings to the table has been phenomenal and it’s enabling us to really make a difference and create value for our partners and members. Every meeting we have brings new insights on the topic of Diversity and Inclusion and I enjoy the richness of perspectives and experiences each of our committee members brings to the table. Creating a platform and opportunities to share and learn from each other is what excites me. It’s all about Doing, not Trying as we work together to make a difference.

2. Who is part of the Education Committee?
Current Members of the Education Committee are:

  • Maria-Teresa Addison, NPD Principal Development Scientist at GSK
  • Maren Gerhäuser-von de Fenn, Head of Leadership Development at METRO AG
  • Putri Realita, Global Global Diversity & Inclusion Lead at Danone
  • Emmanuelle Roman, Global Marketing Director, Consumer Products & Retail at EY
  • Maaike Leene, Chairwoman Young Ahold Delhaize Global & Mass Promotions Week Coordinator at Albert Heijn
  • Thomas Allmark, Director Inclusion & Diversity EMEA at CHEP
  • Anke Sunaert, Interim – Learning & Development at Vandemoortele
  • Christina Taylor, OD Consultant and Owner of Learn to Grow – Education Committee Chair

3. Tell us a bit about the Education Committee, its mission, and the activities you’re involved in.

The mission of the Education Committee is simple, it’s about creating value for our partners by helping them to progress towards Gender Equality and to create value for our members by helping to develop the next generation of inclusive leaders in our sector. For our partners, the focus is very much on identifying and sharing best practices that really have an impact on organisations’s D&I agenda and are moving us towards a more gender equal workplace. We do this through webinars, virtual round tables and our best practice library. Also, our LEAD Network D&I Maturity Self-Assessment tool is a great way for organisations to learn where they are on their journey and plan the next steps.

For our members, we in the process of building a more holistic offering throughout 2020 and are currently building an Inclusive Leadership Development offering that will be piloted this year and deployed at scale in 2021. Throughout the year we are also offering a variety of personal and career development webinars.

4. What will the Committee focus on in 2020?
Our key strategic focus areas for 2020 are:

  • Support our local Chapters with content ideas, speaker and virtual offerings.
  • Scale up our Mentorship Programme to provide more access to partner members
  • Develop & pilot the Inclusive Leadership virtual curriculum
  • Offer regular webinars to support our members in their personal & career development
  • Offer D&I Best Practice webinars and content on three different focus topic (communication, recruitment & talent development) and grow our library of best practices
  • Work with our partners to expand the use of the LEAD Network D&I Maturity assessment tool

5. Where the Committee has been most proud of in 2019?

In 2019, the Education Committee has really been able to solidify its offerings and scale up it’s contribution to partners. We hosted over 15 webinars for our partners and members on D&I Best practice topics like “All about Confidence”, “Flex for the Future” and “The new face of Leadership”. We also introduced a number of personal development topics and supported a number of our chapters with their virtual events.
Furthermore, we launched the D&I Maturity Assessment tool and 10 of our partner oganisations are already gaining value from this, as well as our newly established D&I Best Practice library.
We were also increase the Mentorship Programme again and offered 32 pairs to participate in this unique learning experience. The feedback has been very positive indeed and we’re excited to expand the programme even further in 2020.
A huge thank you goes to all the members of the Education Committee for their support, ownership and drive!