International Women’s Day Events Aim to Balance for Better
As part of the I Belong at Huber initiative, the Company held its first-ever enterprise-wide celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8. IWD is a global event honoring the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. IWD focuses on a theme each year; 2019’s was “Balance for Better,” aimed at promoting discussion on how to create a more gender-balanced world in everything from boardrooms to media coverage.
Huber celebrated the IWD event with a global teleconference, featuring Corporate Board members Gretchen McClain and Jill Smith in a panel discussion moderated by Zach Seely, who is also on the Board and a Huber family member.
In Huber’s Atlanta, Georgia office, Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer Lily Prost and Executive Vice President & General Counsel Carol Messer kicked off the call with an introduction and also shared their personal and professional experiences as women in the workplace.
McClain, Smith and Seely covered topics and questions from employees on career trajectory, risk taking, gaining self-confidence and striving for work-life balance. Seely noted in his introduction that female entrepreneurism is on the rise and that 56% of US college graduates are women.
In addition to the global conference call, other Huber sites hosted their own events to celebrate the achievements of female colleagues.
The Huber Engineered Woods (HEW) office in Charlotte, North Carolina, held an IWD lunch featuring cuisines from around the world and a discussion on how to forge a more gender-balanced world starting in the HEW office. Everyone in attendance was encouraged to write their own “Balance for Better” pledge on a piece of paper and stick it on the wall. Together, the pledges formed a collective effort to promote gender equality in the workplace.
The events and insights shared on IWD celebrated the achievements of women at Huber. More importantly, it served as another forum for employees to engage in ongoing conversations to increase awareness of diversity and inclusion in the Company.
Posted April 10, 2019
