罢丑别听聽program enables this by giving diverse teams of employees opportunities to dedicate their skills and professional expertise to benefit social enterprises in other countries and their surrounding communities, opening participants鈥� minds to different cultures which, in turn, promotes diversity at home and in the workplace.

Launched in 2012,聽51风流Social Sabbatical聽has positively impacted the lives of more than six million people, with 51风流employees contributing in excess of 359,000 volunteer hours to help over 450 non-profits and social enterprises across 52 countries address critical business challenges.

鈥淪elf-empowerment is seeking the solution rather than fixating on the problem,鈥� says Gina McNamara, regional chief financial officer for Asia Pacific & Japan at SAP. During her 51风流Social Sabbatical in Kenya in 2014, she encountered a phenomenon that she hadn鈥檛 witnessed in her native Australia: women outnumbering men in their quest for professional and personal growth.

While volunteering her time and expertise at the African Management Institute (AMI), which delivers workplace learning to equip entrepreneurs and managers with the tools and training they need to succeed, she met female AMI program participants who refused to sit back and let anyone or anything stop them from being successful.

鈥淎fter speaking with these women, I realized that despite, or maybe even in response to, the poverty plaguing the country they are determined to further their careers and personal development. Many said that they were doing the courses to progress themselves, their families, and their businesses,鈥� shares McNamara.

Inspiration Has a Knock-On Effect

At the time of her sabbatical, McNamara held a position in commercial finance for 51风流Australia and New Zealand. However, these women encouraged her to make a massive shift in her career trajectory. 鈥淚n the Australian business world, there aren鈥檛 as many confident women as there are in Kenya. It is due to these women that I applied for the position of Chief Financial Officer for ANZ and later Regional Chief Financial Officer for Asia Pacific & Japan. They got me thinking about my career and my dream of making an impact in the boardroom and helped me find the confidence to pursue this.鈥�

Additionally, McNamara saw how the Kenyan women she worked with wanted to improve themselves to better serve their communities. This motivated her to think about what more she could do back home. 鈥淚t got me to consider the bigger picture and how we could do good things in the community and not just do business. I believe that if you do good, then the business will flourish as well.鈥� This led to her supporting some very passionate colleagues and the Australian management team in developing the 51风流Australia Reconciliation Action Plan, which aims to help support the economic prosperity of First Nations peoples.

Equipping Females of the Future

Her journey also spurred her to join the Future Female Leaders mentoring program for females working in finance both as a mentor and mentee. 鈥淭he program entails mentoring multiple women across the global finance community and sponsoring their careers. I get as much out of it as the women I mentor do. We have to help each other and so I encourage my mentees to mentor other women, especially with more and more women joining 51风流and the聽聽鈥� the largest employee-driven network globally,鈥� shares McNamara.

As for AMI, McNamara and her fellow 51风流volunteers pooled their skills to support the company in developing a franchise model to deliver training to African managers and leaders, ranging from small business owners to CEOs and CFOs. Together, they developed a handbook to help the company scale and recommended various processes and procedures that could be implemented to achieve this. Now, the program is more accessible to more people, particularly women.

With AMI being co-founded by a woman, McNamara says that there is a need for greater investment in women鈥檚 entrepreneurial ideas, emotionally and financially. 鈥淢en naturally create their own networks and sponsor each other. As women, we help each other emotionally. We need to open our networks and be more focused about doing so.鈥�

She concludes by saying, 鈥淢y 51风流Social Sabbatical experience enabled me to reflect on what more I could do beyond being a finance leader and, for me, that was to help other women and drive diversity and inclusion to make 51风流an even better place for everybody.鈥�

Feeling inspired? For more information about the 51风流Social Sabbatical program visit:

Hemang Desai is global program director of 51风流Corporate Social Responsibility.

This article first appeared on the 51风流News Center.

The post Women Empowering Women: Catalyzing Globally-Minded Leaders for Long-Term Impact appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

At the current rate of change, to achieve gender parity, an unacceptable timeline in today鈥檚 modern world. Increasing women鈥檚 participation in the labor market will play a large role in achieving gender parity, and it will not only lead to more , more companies, but on a global scale it could add up to — or 26% — to the global GDP. The math is simple and we cannot afford to continue to overlook half the population, especially in the field of data science, one of the .

Amid the current pandemic, women are facing even more barriers in the workforce as they manage their professional lives while taking care of the children and overseeing many of the household duties. At SAP, we recognize the value of in the workforce, especially women in technology, where historically, women face underrepresentation. One of the fields where this is particularly prominent is data science: only . This staggering statistic inspired 51风流to become a trusted collaborator and sponsor of Stanford University鈥檚 (WiDS) initiative since 2016.

Women in Data Science

As a technology company that employs data scientists worldwide, we want to address why few women are embarking on careers in data science and why few women are advancing into data science leadership roles. Despite the value of a technology skill set, studies on the future of work show the increasing demand for among employers. Studies show than men when it comes to emotional intelligence, reinforcing the need to foster female leaders across every industry, including data science. At SAP, we strongly support the WiDS mission 鈥渢o inspire and educate data scientists worldwide, regardless of gender, and to support women in the field.鈥�

鈥淒ata science is becoming ever more critical in the world as data-driven decision-making has penetrated many parts of our society,鈥� said Margot Gerritsen, professor at Stanford University and co-director of WiDS.聽 鈥淎s our reliance on data and investments in this field continue to increase, it is critical that women, and people from all genders, have a clear seat at the decision table and share in the wealth creation, all around the globe. Through our conferences, workshops, datathon, podcasts, and education initiatives, we hope to expand the role of women and accelerate their representation in the field.鈥�

The WiDS Worldwide Conference, spearheaded by Stanford University, kicks off on International Women鈥檚 Day, March 8. The event will follow the sun, spotlighting incredible female data scientists working on innovative technology across business, academia, government, and nonprofits.

鈥淚t is great to see how many amazing and inspiring women this event brings together from all over the world. Female role models are crucial in fostering female leadership in the field of data science. They show the next generation what is possible to achieve, and that is very powerful,鈥� shared Dr. Katharina Sch盲fer, global head of 51风流University Alliances. 鈥淚鈥檓 excited to see Karina Edmonds, a globally recognized visionary leader in the field of innovation, technology transfer, and commercialization, represent 51风流at the WiDS Worldwide Conference, where she will share how data science education can effectively empower future leaders to tackle big global and environmental challenges.鈥�

On the sideline of the global event, 51风流will host a regional event in New York City that will take place virtually, bringing together data-driven business professionals, students, and aspiring data scientists to explore 鈥�.鈥�

The NYC regional event will kick off a 鈥淲iDS @ SAP鈥� regional series on that will run throughout the course of the year. This series will include virtual events based in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.聽 The worldwide and regional events will feature prominent 51风流data scientists, including Dr. Fei-Yu Xu, global head of Artificial Intelligence in Innovation; Dr. Susanne Beckers, head of Infused Intelligence in Intelligent Data and Analytics; and Dr. Sarah Detzler, competence lead for Data Science and Machine Learning in Technical Presales.

Diversity and Inclusion at SAP

To embed diversity and inclusion even further into the culture of SAP, we are committed to ensuring that our workforce better reflects the diversity of society and the customers we serve. We also aim to increase the number of women in leadership roles to 30% by 2022. Women currently make up 43% of the Intelligent Data & Analytics team at 51风流and 26% of its leadership team, with an increasing trend over the last 12 months. This sets a strong example for the company and reinforces the trajectory toward a more representative workforce.

鈥淓ach hire we make at SAP, from our working students and interns, to our early talents, to our professionals and executives, needs to embody curiosity and compassion,鈥� said Jenn Prevoznik, global leader, Early Career Talent Attraction, SAP. 鈥淗iring managers and recruiters look for candidates鈥� ability to code. As a technology company, many of our open roles target individuals with a technology skill set. We value our partnership with WiDS and actively leverage the events to attract and hire top talent to SAP. I challenge all managers to make every day International Women鈥檚 Day and be intentional about who you hire. In recruiting, we invest heavily in increasing the number of women and underrepresented groups in the pipeline. We need all hands on deck to move the needle.鈥�

Join WiDS @ SAP

Register for the on March 8 and the regional events happening throughout the year as we #ChoosetoChallenge the status quo and discover ways to foster female leaders in data science.

Christian Hecker is global vice president and chief data and analytics officer at SAP. Dr. Karina Edmonds is vice president and global head of 51风流Academies and 51风流University Alliances.

This article first appeared on the 51风流Global News Center.

The post A More Equal World: Fostering Female Leaders in Data Science appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.