Gender equality is and has been a hot topic in Scandinavian countries for quite some time now. A decade ago, the Women’s Board Award (WBA) was launched in Norway. Sweden followed in 2012, then Denmark in 2014, Finland in 2016 and Switzerland in 2019. The purpose of the WBA is to give spotlight to competent, female board candidates in order for election committees and other relevant stakeholders to see that the pool of female candidates ready to take chair responsibility may be larger than we think. The WBA actively strives to encourage and empower more qualified women to serve on boards of directors or to serve as their Chair.
Earlier this fall, the Women’s Board Award 2020 was presented in Zurich, Switzerland. We are proud to say that MU is a partner supporting the event alongside KPMG, Baloise Insurance, Vontobel Bank and the law company Lenz & Stähelin. Christian Schaffenberger, Partner and Director of MU Switzerland, has played a big role in this event as he had the pleasure to organise it. Christian wrote the concept for the WBA for Switzerland, put the jury together for the award consisting of well-known board members in Switzerland and was part of the jury without having a vote. He met the nominated female board members personally and wrote a report which then served the jury as a basis for their interviews with the nominees, he worked out the list of female board members in Switzerland and much more.
Working out the long list with qualified female board members in Switzerland is the basis for the award. We have many different clear criteria that the candidates need to meet in order for them to win the award. The jury will nominate 3 persons and 3 reserves. I meet them all personally and afterwards write a report about them for the jury. The jury then meets the nominees, takes my recommendation into consideration and then, the winner will be selected. Due to Covid-19 the event was held without a live audience, but it was still a great occasion.” - Christian
More information about the Women’s Board Award can be found here.