Deloitte partners named champions of women in business

David Sproul, Senior Partner and Chief Executive, Deloitte North West Europe and Deloitte UK, Emma Codd, Managing Partner for Talent Deloitte North West Europe and Deloitte UK, and Rana Ghandour Salhab, Deloitte Middle East Managing Partner for Talent and Communications, have been recognised today (Wednesday 27th September) in the FT and HERoes Champions of Women in Business Lists. The lists are a ranking of the leading champions of women in business.

David Sproul was named as one of the FT HERoes Top 30 Male Champions of Women in Business in the UK. Since his appointment as chief executive, David has put gender equality at the forefront of the UK’s firm’s agenda. David received the United Nations 2016 Women’s Empowerment Principles award for his commitment to gender equality. He is also an active supporter of the Women’s Business Council and was included in its ‘Male Agents of Change’ list.

Emma Codd, recognised as one of the Top 50 Female Champions of Women in Business in the UK, has designed and implemented a series of actions - focused on culture and targeted interventions – aimed at achieving gender balance in the UK firm. These include the firm’s award winning ‘Time Out’ programme, its focus on Respect and Inclusion (including the award winning “Ask Yourself” film) the introduction of a working parents transition programme and an industry-first return to work internship. Emma has been on the Business in the Community Gender Equality Leadership team since 2016 and in 2015 was named a Woman of Achievement by Women in the City.

Emma Codd said: “David and I are delighted that the firm has been recognised for its work in championing women in business. Gender equality is a critical business issue for us and we are working hard to achieve our target of 25% female partners by 2020. We are encouraging diversity and nurturing female talent through a relentless focus on culture, making sure that our firm offers everyone the chance to be successful while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. We have also been reporting our gender pay gap since 2015 and were one of the first large firms in the UK to report under the new regulations, giving us the opportunity to show not only that we fully understood why we have a gap but also to share the significant actions we are taking to close it.”

Rana Ghandour Salhab, recognised in the Top 10 global champions of women in business list, is the first woman to be elected to the Board of Directors of the Deloitte Middle East firm. Under her leadership, the firm designed and implemented an award winning women advancement initiative, DRAW, at Deloitte in the Middle East. Rana sits on the boards of professional bodies and other non-profit organisations that work at identifying challenges facing Arab women. She was appointed by presidential decree to the Executive Board of the National Commission for Lebanese Women, which advises ministries in Lebanon on gender equality laws and practices. She also serves on the advisory boards of Reach, a non-profit organization incorporated in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) designed for mentoring and supporting women in Finance, and the 30% Club – GCC, an initiative that aims at increasing the number of women on corporate boards.

Suki Sandhu, founder of HERoes, said: “While there are a number of role model lists celebrating successful women, the FT and HERoes Champions of Women in Business Lists are different. They recognise those individuals who are using their personal success as a springboard for others, working to address the lack of gender diversity at all levels in business.”

End

Notes to Editors
All of the 2017 Champions of Women in Business were nominated by peers and colleagues. Nominations were then reviewed by the FT & HERoes judging panel. Champions were scored on their seniority and the influence of their role, their work done internally and externally to champion women, their recent and significant business achievements and the testimonial provided with their nomination.

Return to Work internship programme
Deloitte’s ‘Return-To-Work’ programme launched as a pilot in September 2015. The firm was the first professional services firm in the UK to launch this type of programme. While open to all it is primarily aimed at helping senior women return to work after a career break of more than two years. The first cohort of eight women completed the 12 week pilot programme in December 2015, with over half going on to take a permanent or contract role with the firm. Following the success of the pilot programme, the scheme was extended in 2016 to 17 women for 20 weeks, 11 of whom have remained with the firm. The 2017 programme has been further extended to include roles in our regional offices.

Agile working
We have worked hard to ensure that we provide a working environment where our people can balance a successful career with their daily lives, whether that be for family commitments or other outside interests. While we had previously offered agile (flexible) working options to our people, we realised that they frequently were not taking advantage of them. We thus worked hard to not only design agile working options that would work for both our people and our firm but also to ensure that any cultural barriers were removed. From a programmatic perspective we introduced Time Out, which enables our people to take a month’s unpaid leave at a time that suits both them and the business – no reason is required, and our people are encouraged to share the benefits of the experience when they return. To date over 700 of our people have either taken a Time Out or are in the process of applying to take one.

Working Parents Transitions Programme
On notifying the firm of pregnancy or adoption, all parents, and line managers of primary care givers, are invited to join our Working Parents Transitions Programme (WPTP) with the aim of ensuring a smooth transition to and from parental and adoption leave. Delivered by external coaches, sessions conducted pre, during and post leave help build peer support networks, share experiences and explain the wider support the firm offers. Line managers of primary care givers attend separate mandatory sessions to understand challenges that can be encountered by those returning from longer forms of parental leave and best practice support that can be provided throughout the transition. 

About Deloitte
In this press release references to “Deloitte” are references to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (“DTTL”) a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of DTTL and its member firms.

Deloitte LLP is a subsidiary of Deloitte NWE LLP, which is a member firm of DTTL, and is among the UK's leading professional services firms.

The information contained in this press release is correct at the time of going to press.

For more information, please visit www.deloitte.co.uk. For more information, please visit www.deloitte.co.uk.

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About OUTstanding and HERoes:
OUTstanding is an LGBT+ membership organisation for global businesses. It provides professional, peer‐to-peer connections for its members and helps businesses create diverse and inclusive work environments. To catalyse change, OUTstanding focuses on driving cultural change through authentic leadership. Corporate members include BP, Barclays, EY, Google, American Express and BAE Systems. http://www.out-standing.org/.

In 2017, OUTstanding launched HERoes, a gender equality focused initiative, celebrating female leaders and those working to support and encourage the female talent pipeline. https://www.out-standing.org/heroes/