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Despite a gathering momentum within the telecoms and technology sectors, more needs to be done to increase board level diversity, according to industry experts
Telcos and tech firms must do more to increase the number of women in positions of fiscal authority, as the industry looks to boost diversity in its work force.
Speaking exclusively to Total Telecom before the Women4Tech event at MWC 2019, Synchronoss’ chief marketing officer, Mary Clark, said that only by allowing more women to control the purse strings of a business, could the industry really claim to be striving to boost levels of diversity.
“My personal objective is this: I want more women in leadership roles. I want them in roles where they are running P&L [profit and loss], running the business. I’m a big believer in owning P&L, driving that business forward – in that way we are vested in the business, you are in a position to change the course of a business,” said Clark.
“I want to see more women choosing to go into these roles that have profit and loss responsibility because that’s how you get to the top table, that’s how you get a seat on the board. If you are making decisions that affect the profitability of the business then you are in a position of authority, that’s what is so critical to me. We need more women to get to that stage,” she added.
The Women4Tech event is taking place on day four of MWC2019, with Clark heavily involved in the programme.
In 2018, Women4Tech was present at all three MWC events, namely Barcelona, LA and Shanghai, signalling just how strongly the GSMA is committing to the issue of improving diversity in the telecoms sector.
“This is the third year of the Women4Tech summit in Barcelona. In 2018, we successfully had the Women4Tech Summit at all three Mobile World Congress’ – Barcelona, Shanghai and LA. I was really fortunate to be involved in all 3.
We continue to get significant interest in participation for the event. We have so many people who want to speak, who want to attend, who want to be involved in any way they can.
This year we had a diversity panel on the main stage, on day one of MWC19, so that shows what an important topic diversity is in the industry right now.
There is so much more we want to do. The GSMA is continuing to think about how they take this movement – which has become pretty momentous now – how do they take it and leverage it, from a programme point of view?
That is still being determined, but what I can say is that there is a lot of commitment from within the organisation (GSMA) at all levels,” she said.
Mary Clark will be moderating a panel session entitled “The Impact of Online Movement’s” at the Women4Tech event in Barcelona.
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