On 8 March Athena celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) at Carnival House with a motivational guest speaker, celebratory drinks and acknowledgement of inclusive leaders at Carnival House.
To start the day we were joined by former Royal Air Force Pilot, Entrepreneur & Motivational Speaker, Mandy Hickson , who shared her story, which started with dreaming about being a fast jet pilot at the age of 13 and culminated in her leading an entirely male dominated Front Line Tornado Squadron on operations.
Athena marked midday with Mimosa’s, time to network and the opportunity to discuss international women’s day with colleagues. (In Italy Mimosa flowers are given to women in celebration of International Women’s Day, but we decided to go with the liquid version!)
For IWD 2019, Athena wanted to highlight the inclusive environment at Carnival House and had asked colleagues for nominations of Inclusive leaders. We received 8 nominations from a variety of departments and seniority levels from across the business. The key reasons for nominations were leaders who are willing to challenge unconscious bias, support flexible working, support balance at carnival house, value talent on merit and take time to understand individual situations.
The nominations received were for;
Robert Palmer
Robert takes time to get to know Athena members and hear their points of view. Robert encourages his team to participate and also supports the People Team in gender based initiatives. A leader who truly values the benefits of inclusion.
Jon Wood
He treats everyone with the same openness, courtesy, inclusion and kindness. Jon genuinely cares about his people and he listens to hear not to respond.
Joanne Franco
Since joining the company she has really brought her inclusive style to her team and colleagues around her.
Alex Delamere-White
Alex has acted as a role model for flexible working, having honest conversations about the topic through the lens of making it work. He’s a strong believer of balance in our business.
Matt Gleaves
Matt is supportive of flexible working, thinks differently to achieve new and diverse ways of working, creates an atmosphere in which all feel valued, takes time to listen and understand different points of view and actively encourages the whole team to attend Athena events.
Simon Parry
Simon has positively embraced and supported Athena including vocally supporting amongst other colleagues, especially encouraging other males to attend Athena events and highlighting the inclusive culture of Athena. Simon has translated Athena values through into the workplace.
Kasi Munns
Demonstrates ongoing passion and support for creating an inclusive culture at Carnival House.
Matt Richardson
He embeds inclusivity and gender balance within his day to day thinking and puts into practice the enabling of female career progression. He considers talent on merit and takes an enabling stance on opportunities for female progression, considering how roles can be undertaken to suit the needs of working mothers.