The Principal, Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli is one of 18 senior business leaders to sign up to a new mentoring programme, which aims to help increase the number of women in senior executive roles.

Each leader will mentor three women for 12 months – offering career advice and sharing their insights and experiences, as well as providing professional and personal guidance.  

The group of mentors met for the first time at ScottishPower’s Glasgow HQ on Friday 23 March where they agreed to regular contact and feedback to ensure that the programme maximises the experience for the women being mentored.

Commitment to gender equality

Professor Muscatelli said, “The University of Glasgow is delighted to be taking part in this programme. We have an absolute commitment to gender equality and work hard to provide positive career opportunities for all of our colleagues. I am extremely supporting of the mentoring prorgamme and look forward to working with other organisations and institutions.”

Vision for an equal Scotland

The First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “I am delighted to see that so many people in leadership roles across industry are pledging their time to help women achieve their potential. As the first year of the ‘First Mentor’ initiative has taught me, mentoring is a quite unique, rewarding experience: by sharing our experiences we are not just supporting a new generation of women leaders, but we are also learning from them in return. Equality for women is at the heart of the Scottish Government’s vision for an equal Scotland. As set out in our 2017 Programme for Government, we are taking concrete steps in ensuring gender balance is maintained on public sector boards and in helping women back into the workplace after a career break.”   

Under-representation

Keith Anderson, ScottishPower CEO said: “A common factor raised in a lot of organisations when reporting on their gender pay gap is the under-representation of women in senior roles. This was the case for ScottishPower, and we are already reviewing how we identify talent and enhance career opportunities internally. The issue is greater than one company or one industry though, and we want to work with leaders in all organisations across to Scotland so that collectively we can identify weaknesses and improve practices. It has been very encouraging to see so many organisations and individuals agreeing to be part of this mentoring scheme, and I am sure everyone involved will benefit from the experience.”

Inclusive working environments

Tracy Black, CBI Scotland Director, said: “Many businesses are already doing more to build inclusive working environments that enable people to be their best.  But we’re not there yet.  While women are joining boards in greater numbers than ever, it’s often as non-executive directors. These are important roles but they are not the day-to-day leaders of UK firms. We need more women in the senior ranks of our companies.  Mentoring is an extremely powerful tool in our arsenal - it gives aspiring women the chance to learn leadership skills from the best minds in business and helps them access the kind of networks that can too often feel closed off to them. That’s why we’re delighted to support this initiative.”

The full list of mentors /organisations who will take part in the scheme is as follows:

Mentor

Company / Organisation

Sir Anton Muscatelli

University of Glasgow

Keith Anderson

ScottishPower

Tracy Black

CBI Scotland

Dr Lena Wilson

ScottishPower Renewables / RBS / Intertek Group PLC

Graham Hutcheon

Edrington Group

Damien Yeates – SDS

Skills Development Scotland

Debbie Crosbie

Clydesdale Bank PLC

Catherine Burnett

KPMG

Brendan Dick

BT Scotland

Susan Deacon

Scottish Police Authority

Claire Reid

PwC

Mark Harvey

Ernest and Young

Lynne Connolly

Standard Life Aberdeen PLC

Councillor Susan Aitken

Glasgow City Council

Marie Macklin

HALO Urban Regeneration

Sir Jim McDonald

University of Strathclyde

Louise Kingham

Energy Institute

Jacqui Ferguson

Wood plc / Tesco Bank / DocuSign

 

 

First published: 27 March 2018

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