“At PepsiCo, we believe that Inclusion and Diversity makes us stronger together. As such, we celebrate what makes each of us unique and we look to continuously foster a diverse workplace in which everyone can truly be who they are, have a sense of belonging and an opportunity to thrive. LEAD is a key partner in this mission to connect, inspire and enable our PepsiCo people to create a future of inclusion and gender equality on all levels.”
Interview with David Souperbiet
Chief HR Officer, PepsiCo Europe
Taking steps to reach #EachforEqual
International Women’s Day grows in momentum every year, and it’s inspiring to see so many events across PepsiCo that celebrate and recognize the contribution and achievements of our female colleagues. Awareness days serve a great purpose, but how do we ensure this focus is sustained beyond one day, or a moment on LinkedIn?
International Women’s Day is a time I choose to pause and reflect on the year before and how far we’ve come. As a society, we’re making real strides around gender equality all the time and yet across the globe, we unfortunately still see so many instances of imbalance. The theme this year of #EachforEqual reminds me that to drive for equality we all have to personally commit and use our influence to effect change.
I am lucky that I am in a position where I can professionally influence workplace equality; I am proud to work for a company which greatly values and harnesses the diversity of our associates and puts inclusivity at the heart of our culture.
International Women’s Day gives me an opportunity to reaffirm my personal commitment to equality and for me that is about being a great ally.
Allyship starts with building relationships, and fostering trust. Both of those are built, not in a moment, but over many months and years. For me it’s about inspiring confidence – helping people to share their stories and make their voices heard.
With this in mind, I’m committed to building an inclusive world, where equality acts as a spring board to anyone wanting to reach their goals.
That’s a big part of why I’m involved in the LEAD Network in Europe, which aims to advance, retain and attract women across the Consumer Goods and Retail Industry. More and more employees across PepsiCo Europe join LEAD each year – and every new voice, every shared experience, makes this movement bigger. So ahead of March 8th, I am personally stepping up to do more – and am proud to announce that I’ll be joining LEAD’s newly formed Champions Network – which sees senior and C-level executives from across our industry join forces to take action and drive real results through being vocal allies.
As we move forward, I’m excited to see what more we can do as a company to really drive female representation and equality across the board, and take every possible step to becoming #EachforEqual.
