Canadian Gender and Good Governance Alliance continues to amplify impact with release of the CEO Blueprint

With a mission to achieve greater gender balance across Canadian organizations, the Alliance delivers the CEO Blueprint, a how-to guide designed for CEOs.

TORONTO, Oct. 15, 2018 /CNW/ - The Canadian Gender and Good Governance Alliance (the Alliance) announces the release of the CEO Blueprint, which equips Canada's CEOs with an action-oriented guide to building and leading gender balanced organizations. As a joint initiative by Alliance members - the 30% Club Canada, the Business Council of Canada, Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (CCGG), Catalyst Canada, the Clarkson Centre (CCBE), Governance Professionals of Canada (GPC), the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) and Women in Capital Markets - the CEO Blueprint delivers on the Alliance's objective of amplifying and coordinating efforts to build gender diverse organizations.

Designed to help frame a CEO's agenda on gender diversity, the CEO Blueprint outlines three key steps and provides tactics throughout, for:

• Building your vision
• Making it mission critical
• Focusing on high impact practices

This is the second strategy-focused tool delivered by the Alliance since its inception last November. The Directors' Playbook, the Alliance's inaugural joint initiative, continues to serve as a curation of practical tools that companies can use to achieve gender balance on their boards through deliberate action.  

The Alliance invites businesses, regulators, institutional investors and other interested stakeholders who require support in advancing gender diversity to use the Alliance as a resource. To learn more, or to download Alliance products, please visit www.cggga.ca.

Leader Endorsements

"Diversity and innovation are inseparable and key to an organization's long-term success. The Alliance is assembling great ideas and automation to help accelerate change.  The CEO Blueprint is a useful guide for all organizations to shape agendas and change cultures, in order to make stronger innovation a reality."

Mark J. Barrenechea, Vice Chair, CEO & CTO, OpenText

"Our internal study on gender balance, conducted over 5 years, shows us that gender-balanced management teams perform much better at all levels, key performance indicators prove it! Gender parity within a company is not only the right thing to do, but an undeniable fact of its financial success and higher engagement of its employees."

Suzanne Bergeron, President and Vice President, Human Resources, Sodexo Canada

"We believe a winning culture embraces diversity, inclusiveness and different perspectives. Our firm commitment is reflected in a number of initiatives: we established a Diversity Council, became a sponsor of Women in Capital Markets and an advocate of the 30% Club Canada, and are among leading G7 investors supporting global development initiatives. We are proud to collaborate with the Canadian Gender & Good Governance Alliance as an extension of our goal to help drive gender-balanced boards and organizations in Canada and globally."

Hugh O'Reilly, President & CEO, OPTrust

"At OMERS, inclusion and diversity has an important place in our talent agenda, across the entire enterprise. From my perspective, this means making daily efforts to promote gender balance. We take the view that the accumulation of all our actions, big or small, can make a meaningful impact allowing us to unlock the full potential of our workforce. We congratulate the Alliance on the release today of its CEO Blueprint, which will help further encourage the removal of barriers to inclusion and diversity in the workplace."

Satish Rai, Chief Investment Officer, OMERS

"Better gender balance is essential to greater innovation, growth, and better financial performance. The case is clear for "why".  The Directors' Playbook, and now the CEO Blueprint are best practice resources in providing the "how". I encourage all leaders who understand the business imperative of greater gender balance to leverage these resources in support of sustainable change."

Annette Verschuren, Chair and CEO, NRStor Inc.

"The blueprint is premised on the belief that change must be driven from the top. I passionately agree. If organizations are going to achieve gender balance, particularly at the most senior leadership levels, it requires a deliberate, sustained effort driven by the CEO. This can't be delegated to anyone else.

There are many paths to achieving lasting change. At Deloitte, we believe that each leader's journey is unique, and so we've built tailored support that empowers every leader to develop and contribute in their own way. This is not just good for women—it provides a platform for everyone to grow to be their best. As a result, in each of the past three years, the people we've brought into our partnership have reflected the demographics of the clients and communities we serve, and nearly half of them have been women. We are committed to having our people, across all levels of the firm, continue to reflect the diversity of the Canadian population."

Frank Vettese, Managing Partner and Chief Executive, Deloitte Canada

SOURCE Canadian Gender & Good Governance Alliance

Francine Beck, Principle, FB Strategies Group, [email protected], [phone]