L’Oréal’s Chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Agon has spoken out about the importance of gender diversity for the company, following its wins at the Gender Diversity Awards.
L’Oréal scooped the Grand Prize for Gender Diversity in the CAC 40 Category and Gender Diversity Award in the Consumer Goods and Services category.
Agon said: “Gender diversity is a strategic priority for our Group as it is a source of creativity, innovation and performance.
“These two awards recognise L’Oréal’s long-standing commitment to equality between men and women at all levels of the company. They encourage us to further accelerate our efforts to advance gender diversity in our company and in society.”
L’Oréal’s workforce is dominated by women, which account for 70% of its 89,331-strong global workforce.
At senior level, women represent 33.3% of the group’s Executive Committee and 46% of the Board of Directors.
The ceremony was held at the Palais Bourbon in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, on 30 January.
It was organised by the Ethics & Boards Observatory, a company that observes the governance of publicly traded companies, and the Institut du Capitalisme Responsable (Institute for Responsible Capitalism), which was founded this month and is dedicated to supporting ‘integrated thinking’ among companies and investors.
The Awards ceremony was held as part of the inauguration of the Gender Diversity in Business Index, or Zimmermann Index.
The index will provide an annual measurement of gender diversity of French stock market SBF 120 company boards and executives.
The index will be extended to all of Europe in 2018.