Fontainebleau (France), Singapore, Abu Dhabi, San Francisco, 24 September 2021 - INSEAD will commit to a gender balanced board by 2023 as part of the school’s ongoing commitment to gender balance and its new role as a HeForShe Champion, part of UN Women’s HeForShe Alliance, launched today at the UN General Assembly.
In addition to being gender balanced in representation, INSEAD also commits to a globally diverse board, consisting of members from at least 12 nationalities and a minimum of four continents, with the intention that they can bring regional perspectives for identifying solutions for advancing gender equity.
INSEAD is honoured to join the Alliance, a trailblazing community of HeForShe Champions aiming to spearhead transformative change through advocacy and allyship to accelerate progress in gender equality and strive for the achievement of a more equitable and sustainable society that is good for all people and the planet.
“I am delighted to welcome this new cohort of HeForShe Champions that we hope will reach new audiences on issues that are increasingly critical to gender equality. Their strong, carefully crafted commitments on balanced leadership, ending different forms of violence, and changing corporate and social norms are needed now more than ever”, said Under-Secretary-General, Acting Executive Director of UN Women and Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Ms. Pramila Patten.
“As a business school INSEAD has a fundamental role to play in promoting gender balance and diversity. It is our mission to equip all our students with the knowledge needed to become responsible business leaders who can champion diversity and inclusion programs within their organisations and within the wider society”, says Ilian Mihov, Dean of INSEAD.
The school’s commitment will involve an organization-wide movement where senior level male allies (including the chairman and Deans) work in consultation with INSEAD’s Gender Initiative and women leaders to:
- Further increase outreach to female MBA prospects with an objective to reach a minimum of 40% female participants in the MBA programme by academic year 2024/2025 and continue to increase towards parity, while maintaining a minimum of 65 nationalities in each cohort.
- Target 50% female student representation in the new Master in Management programme, with a minimum of 35 nationalities.
- Strive to attract and retain increasingly gender balanced faculty, including a target to hire 50% women across the next three years.
- Work with global industry and academic partners to continue our path breaking research on gender issues to identify effective interventions in different global settings.
INSEAD’s commitments are made based on our position as the business school of the world with a global reach that includes over 62,000 alumni from more than 160 nationalities. We aim to leverage this unique position to understand challenges and develop solutions for achieving gender equity in different parts of the world, with a particular emphasis on engaging with partners to conduct further research in Asia.
UN Women’s HeforShe Alliance global press release
