In honour of International Women’s day, the Salt, global Digital Recruitment Agency Malaysia team held a panel event consisting of 7 executives across the Digital, Technology and Creative sectors.
Our panel was made up of industry thought leaders Andreas Vogiatzakis – CEO, Havas, Graham Drew – ECD, Grey, Irene Wong – CEO, Grey, Marcella Lucas – CEO, Lead Women, Michele Lum – Chief Leadership Officers & GM for strategic communication ICT,Petronas, Nura Yusoff – Planning Director, McCann Erickson and Vittorio Furlan – Director, EY.
We were lucky to have BFM presenter, Freda Liu as moderator to ensure the evening went smoothly and to summarise key observations back the audience. The panellists skilfully presented their points to a strict 3-minute timeline which added to the impact of the presentation and stimulated questions from the audience to drive the debate.
Commentary from the panel focussed on:
What is the current state of play regarding gender diversity in Malaysia?
What are the factors holding back female advancement to senior roles?
What practical steps can we implement once we get back into the workplace?
And more generally, what type of ‘fresh thinking’ is needed to drive an overall positive impact?
Once the panellists had their say the level of debate with the audience quickly built pace and we ended up with a highly energized forum for sharing views and ideas. It’s clear that gender diversity is a hot topic and there was plenty of evidence to suggest a great deal of work needs to be done to influence prevailing thinking and company culture for the better.
As the networking part of the evening ensued it was wonderful to witness the connections in the room. Our sincere hope is that everyone enjoyed the level of discussion and took something away to inspire fresh thinking or a practical action to implement in the workplace. Given the diversity of the attendance itself, one thing is for sure – the solution lies with men and women collaborating to effect change. Change will be gradual, there is no quick fix, and it’s based on many small components that add up to greater than the sum of its parts, but we are confident progress is being made.
We would like to convey our sincere thanks to the wonderful panellists who helped deliver an inspiring evening, to Freda Liu for her brilliant moderation and to our audience without whom, the evening would not have been possible.
We look forward to hosting similar #SaltSessions to help nurture dialogue and debate across the Digital & Creative sectors in Malaysia. If you would like further information on this or future events please reach out to our Regional Director Sam Baxendale.
