2020 Catalyst Award Winners: Deloitte, Medtronic and Unilever Honored for Inspiring Change, Accelerating Progress for Women in the Workplace (Media Release)

Catalyst Celebrates Initiatives Advancing Women in Leadership

New York, New York, January 16, 2020 — Deloitte, Medtronic and Unilever will receive the prestigious 2020 Catalyst Award on March 12 for initiatives that have accelerated progress for women in their organizations.

“Now Is the Moment. Be a Catalyst.”—the theme for the 2020 Catalyst Awards Conference and Dinner—highlights the urgency to act with intention and purpose in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. More than 1,600 attendees, including the Catalyst Board of Directors; Catalyst CEO Champions For Change; and executives from top global corporations, professional firms, governments, NGOs and educational institutions will convene at the New York Hilton Midtown.

The 2020 Catalyst Awards Conference will feature a conversation between Catalyst President and CEO Lorraine Hariton and former PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi. Award-winning company leaders will be honored at the 2020 Catalyst Awards Dinner, chaired by Shelley O’Connor, Chairman and CEO, Morgan Stanley Private Bank, National Association, and Morgan Stanley Bank, N.A.

The forward-thinking initiatives receiving this year’s Catalyst Awards are:

• Deloitte—“Inspiring Women.” Deloitte is committed to advancing a diverse workforce while ensuring that all its people thrive in an inclusive culture where they feel a sense of belonging and can grow. This is well illustrated by Deloitte Australia’s Inspiring Women initiative, which took a sustained, strategic and scalable approach to drive the workplace culture to ensure gender equality became the norm. It has identified and removed barriers to equality within the employee experience to create a level playing field and a more inclusive culture. From 2015 to 2019, representation of women on Deloitte Australia’s executive team increased from 15% to 38% and the percentage of female partners increased from 22% to 30%.

• Medtronic—“Igniting Women to Lead Through the Medtronic Women’s Network.” Medtronic’s commitment to inclusion and diversity is a fully integrated, authentic culture change grounded in data. Through measurable goals and strong top-down accountability, Medtronic is accelerating women’s leadership, closing the gender gap in women in STEM and making a sustainable global impact through the Medtronic Women’s Network (MWN) and its 15,000 members in 68 countries. As a result of the MWN, from 2015 to 2019, the representation of women vice presidents increased from 25% to 30%; women at the director level increased from 30% to 36%; and women in R&D increased from 24% to 29%.

• Unilever—“Changing the Game, Unlocking the Future.” A core element of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan for growing the business and creating positive social impact, the initiative extends and enhances Unilever’s 2013 Catalyst Award-winning initiative by setting a goal to achieve gender balance across management levels by 2020, developing a more thoughtful and sustainably inclusive culture. From 2016 to 2019, the representation of women in executive leadership increased from 15% to 33%; the share of Supply Chain VPs who are women increased from 17% to 30%; and women now hold 49% of management-level positions in Africa and 49% of management-level positions and above, globally.

“We are thrilled to honor these initiatives for their excellence in actively building inclusive cultures for women and everyone in the workplace,” Hariton said. “Their success illustrates that now is the moment to be accountable and set new standards to develop and empower talent, and to innovate in the future of work in this new decade.”

The Conference will feature working sessions and a “Now Is the Moment Hall” highlighting Catalyst’s focus areas:

• Advancing Women
• Women and the Future of Work
• Lead for Equity and Inclusion
• MARC (Men Advocating Real Change)

Target Corporation is the Conference’s premier sponsor. Individual sessions and receptions at the Conference and Dinner are sponsored by Arconic Foundation, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Shell Oil Company and UPS.

Learn more about registration and table reservations for the 2020 Catalyst Awards Conference and Dinner. For specific questions, please contact [email protected].

Join the 2020 Catalyst Awards conversation by following Catalyst on Facebook.com/CatalystInc, Instagram.com/CatalystInc, and Twitter.com/CatalystInc, using the hashtags #NowIsTheMoment and #CatalystAwards2020.

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About Catalyst

Catalyst is a global nonprofit working with some of the world’s most powerful CEOs and leading companies to help build workplaces that work for women. Founded in 1962, Catalyst drives change with pioneering research, practical tools, and proven solutions to accelerate and advance women into leadership—because progress for women is progress for everyone.

Media Contacts:

Naomi R. Patton
Vice President, Media & Public Relations
Catalyst
[email protected]

Stephanie Wolf
US Communications Consultant
Catalyst
[email protected]