Edie Fraser and Jose Silestra open the 2023 WBC CEO Excellence in Gender and Diversity Awards, honoring ten CEOs (five women, five men) for transparency, balanced leadership, pay equity, and supplier diversity. The awards recognize companies of purpose and their best practices in retention, recruitment, and inclusive culture.
Questions this video answers
10 CEOs.
Parity: five female CEOs and five male CEOs.
Fifth year.
Robert Rees, Dan Hesse, and Lorena Feimbres (in addition to Edie Fraser and Jose Silestra).
Foreign Hi, I'm Edie Fraser and I am so proud to be the chair of wbc. And I salute Gwen Young and our entire team and our Board of Directors. And I'm joined by one of our Board of directors, Jose Silestra, who has been working arduously on the CEO Awards and our purpose of WBC for now all of our five years. Thank you, Jose. So first, let us say warm congratulations to the 2023 CEO awardees. The WBCCO Excellence in Gender and Diversity Award recognizes true corporate leaders whose efforts have made a significant contribution to the advancement of gender and diversity in their companies, but also increased opportunities from the board to the C Suite to the community, all with purpose and with companies sharing transparent data. WBC salutes these 10 CEOs for the 2023 award. Today, CEOs are under six such pressure to perform as stewards of their companies with all stakeholders. As we've never before seen and witnessed, these CEOs selected are respected as change leaders, as strategists who listen and support their workforce and their marketplace, and believes their efforts make work matter. WBC notes that this is our fifth year since we started the collaborative and our fifth year in providing and awarding and celebrating the CEOs and the trailblazers. But this year is unique. We hit parity. We have five amazing female CEOs and five incredible male CEOs. So our gratitude, our congratulations to you, your teams, your community, and Joseph.
Well, it's very exciting, Edie. And every year I so look forward to being part of the selection committee with you and board members Robert Rees and Dan Hesse and Lorena Feimbres to review which companies are demonstrating real progress on gender and diversity. And every year we raise the bar as we not only look at quantitative data, but we also look for companies of purpose and those, as you mentioned, committed to transparency. It's not an easy task as we have a lot of information to sort through, while also recognizing certain industries have a much steeper journey than others. Gender fair along with just capital, track many areas which the selection committee uses to determine this year's awardees. This includes, but it's not limited to, companies with women and women of color on the board, those with good gender balance and leadership, those that conduct a pay gap analysis and disclose workforce demographic data by gender and race ethnicity. We also look at companies with a strong supplier diversity program and those with social impact initiatives that benefit women and underrepresented groups. Now the results are in and we're here to learn about what is behind these strong ratings. For example, how do these CEOs build a culture that supports gender equality, diversity and inclusion? And what people systems are in place to ensure equal opportunity for everyone? In order to build that diverse pipeline over the past month, WBC CEO Gwen Young and Robert Reese, WBC Board Member and Founder and CEO of the CEO Forum Group, had an opportunity to speak with each of our 10 awardees to dive into the why behind their award. And this is what we're here to learn when we listen to their stories about how these purposeful companies and their leaders authentically served their employees, their customers, their suppliers and their communities.
It is such an honor for us at WBC to recognize each of these 10 leaders with this magnificent award and to hear from them today and again tomorrow. But today we focus on true executive leadership with how they ensure close to parity, how they build their board of directors, how they focus on state staffing and it's not only recruiting, but retention. And clearly the focus on engagement and culture. And as we know, these companies have a better stock performance because of what they do. They are truly engaged, as you said, Jose, authentic leaders. And today we will end on the topic of companies of purpose and what it means to each CEO. So we are so honored, right Jose, to present these awards. We are constantly learning and sharing best practices. And what a treat with the lineup of these CEOs and the superior program that we share today and tomorrow.
Yes, well, congratulations to these 2023 WBC CEO Award winners who serve as models for today's business and society.
