AN INTERVIEW WITH ABBY HAYES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, REAL CHEMISTRY AND ANITA BOSE, CHIEF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, REAL CHEMISTRY
ABBY HAYES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, W2O
ANITA BOSE, CHIEF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OFFICER, W2O
Why was it critical for your organization to be involved in the Gender Parity Collaborative?
At W2O, our mission is to make the world a healthier place for everyone and part of accomplishing that is predicated on creating an even playing field for historically marginalized groups in our industry, including women. For us, being a part of HBA’s Gender Parity Collaborative has given us the opportunity to share and mine insights that can inform the implementation and execution of strategic initiatives that support the advancement of women in our company and across the healthcare and biotechnology industry.
As one of your organization’s leaders, why are you personally committed to advancing gender parity in the workplace?
The healthcare and biotechnology industry has made great strides in terms of attracting and retaining women across a range of functions and in the years we’ve been in the business, the demographic change has been positive. However, given the disparities that persist in terms of pay and racial equity, there’s still work to be done in achieving parity for all women.
As women of color who are part of a small community of multi-cultural leaders in this business, we’re acutely aware of what and who we represent in our business. To paraphrase Maya Angelou, “we come as one but stand as 10,000” and we have a duty to pay it forward. Mentoring and supporting those who are passionate about our business are the ways we’ve followed through on our personal commitment to advancing gender parity.
Why has it been necessary to create the Collaborative?
While the issue of gender parity and potential solutions seem relatively straightforward, there are nuances and complexities tied to both that vary across the different sectors of our industry. By bringing together a large cross-section of leaders from diverse areas of our industry, the Collaborative can truly serve as a collective that can facilitate conversations, actions, and solutions that are truly representative of everyone in our industry.
How have you leveraged leaders in your organization to contribute to the consortium strategy, thinking and focus?
For us at W2O, supporting the consortium’s overall strategy and the successful execution of it means ensuring leaders from our company with diverse backgrounds and perspectives have a voice and serve as active participants in the Collaborative. As women in the workplace, there is no experience that is singularly the same and bringing the insights and knowledge from diverse leaders within our organization to the Collaborative can only serve to strengthen and sharpen the group’s focus.
What’s the benefit of having both talent leaders and business leaders contribute to the consortium’s priorities?
It’s critical that talent and business leaders have a seat at the table in formulating the consortium’s priorities because their remits and perspectives impact our most important asset – our people. Talent and business leaders play a huge role in defining the cultural values that influence how our people grow and thrive in our business so developing priorities that account for these perspectives is extremely important.
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