Woman's Forum Official Launch

On 02.02.2010, Siemens Southern Africa officially launched the African Leadership Organisation of Women (ALOW). Mrs. Jill Lee, the Chief Diversity Officer for Siemens AG visited us for the launch and presented the Global Diversity Initiative.

Jill Lee has been working at Siemens since 1986 in various Asian countries. She has been Senior Executive VP and CFO of Siemens China since July 2004. In April 2008 she took over as CFO for the entire Northeast Asia region, which in addition to China also includes Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In November 2008 Jill’s appointment as the new Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) of Siemens AG was announced. In her position as CDO she is responsible for promoting Diversity across all ranks of Siemens Management.

Especially for Siemens in Africa, diversity is a very important topic:

Africa is an extremely diverse continent. Consisting of 53 countries, it’s the most multilingual continent in the world with approximately 2.000 languages and dialects being spoken. Siemens celebrates this diversity as a prerequisite to sustainable success – African diversity matches our own commitment to becoming a company as diverse as the world in which we operate in order to tap the power of this diversity for maximum advantage.

The combined talents of the Siemens employees on the African continent represent an infinite range of possibilities. Women and men from a wide range of backgrounds working throughout the company developing solutions to meet our customer’s needs and answering the most pressing issues facing Africa today. Research demonstrates that diverse workplaces are happier and more interesting. Diverse companies find it easier to attract people, job satisfaction is enhanced, and diverse teams are more productive and creative. For a company like Siemens that depends on innovation, it must do all it can to nurture this innovation power. This was the thinking behind Siemens’ Managing Board’s decision to launch the Siemens Diversity Initiative.

More Information on Diversity at Siemens can be found here - this time for Siemens employees only.