Alfred Olajide, Managing Director, Coca-Cola Nigeria, has been recognized as an advocate for gender equality by House of Rose Professional through its 2022 List of Male Champions for Gender Equality.
The 2022 Male Champions for Gender Equality list celebrates male executives of global companies who are advocates of women in business and leadership positions and are committed to fostering a more diverse and inclusive workplace. This recognition comes a few months after Olajide sat as a panelist on the 2022 Africa Online Edition of BREAK THE CEILING TOUCH THE SKY-the success and leadership summit for women, where he spoke on the organization’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategy.
Olajide who resumed his role as Managing Director at the beginning of 2021, has made it a priority to ensure Coca-Cola Nigeria is a “beacon for diversity and inclusion, as well as a frontrunner in progressive work practices”.
At the 2022 Success and Leadership summit, he spoke about social bias and stereotypes acting as barriers against women in the corporate and entrepreneurial space; the importance of building a gender-balanced workforce; and Coca-Cola’s culture of inclusion.
According to Olajide, the single most important factor in social and economic advancement is empowering women and girls, and it is quite refreshing to see more women emerging in leadership positions in leading companies, breaking glass ceilings, and utilizing their skills and knowledge for career breakthroughs.
In his words, “I have come to realize that women are equally ambitious, if not more than men. But in numerous cases, they hold back due to a lack of confidence in their abilities to succeed in the face of challenges and their male counterparts. In some instances, I have found women settling for roles that they have a higher level of capability for. This is where companies come in. Businesses must consciously champion the gender equality agenda by embracing progressive policies and programs, providing safe and inclusive workplaces for women, fighting negative stereotypes, offering equal opportunities, and implementing equal pay”.
The 2022 Break the Ceiling, Touch the Sky® Male Champions for Gender Equality is the annual listing of the world’s key male champions for gender equality in support of House of Rose Professional’s Mission 2029 for a Better World; which aims to shape a better world via better diversity & inclusion, better leadership and better business. To arrive at the 2022 list, House of Rose Professional reviewed over 6500 male executives from over 800 Companies globally.
According to House of Rose Professional, five factors were particularly used in the final determination of the 2022 Break the ceiling touch the sky list of Male Champions for gender equality – Active and visible advocacy for gender equality; Scale of influence; commitment to advancing women in leadership in their own organizations; supporting women to learn externally from other best in class organizations; and investment in gender diversity & inclusion programming. Personal role-modelling for gender equality was used as the baseline critical factor.
The measure for Mission 2029 for a Better World is to quintuple the number of female CEOs and double the number of male (advocates for diversity) CEOs in the world’s 500 largest companies by 2029. The 2022 Male Champions for Gender Equality focuses on the corporate world for this list, as research shows that when men play a role in gender equality in the workplace, adoption is faster and organizations report faster progress on the gender equality agenda.
