Diageo leaders honoured in Heroes Role Model List for eighth consecutive year

25 Sep 2024 AfricaAsia PacificEurope and TurkeyLatin America and CaribbeanNorth AmericaOur peopleESGChampion Inclusion and Diversity

The annual list celebrates leaders who champion women in business and drive change for gender equality in the workplace

The annual list celebrates leaders who champion women in business and drive change for gender equality in the workplace

We are excited to announce that two future leaders within the Diageo business have been recognised in Involve’s Heroes Role Model Lists 2024. Lorena Leonardi HR Talent & Transformation Lead in the Latin America & Caribbean (LAC) region and Olanike Onakoya, Spirit of Progress, Africa have been celebrated for their exceptional work over the last year.

The annual lists commend leaders who champion women in business and drive change for gender equality in the workplace.

As well as these achievements shining a light on a great future for leadership in the business, Chief Executive Debra Crew and Louise Prashad, Chief HR Officer, were named on the Executives List for a second and third consecutive year, respectively. These achievements mean that Diageo leaders have been named in the Heroes Role Model list for eight consecutive years.

Lorena created and led the implementation of Striding Women, a development programme in LAC to advance talented women managers to senior leaders within the company. The programme addresses barriers such as impostor syndrome, personal branding, and self-care while also encouraging networking and training leaders and HR partners as women's career coaches. Striding Women has significantly improved the retention and promotion of women colleagues and maintained high employee engagement at 84%.

Olanike has recently been promoted to Spirit of Progress Manager for Africa. She is an Executive Committee member of Nigeria's Spirited Women Network, a Diageo Employee Resource Group that fosters career development, provides support for advancement, and serves as a catalyst for inspiring women across the business. Olanike was instrumental in developing Diageo's Menopause Guidelines and served as a market ambassador for the guidelines.

A  group photo of Diageo employees

Developing and supporting female leadership talent

We are firmly focused on developing our female talent pipeline and investing in the next generation of female leaders. As of September 2024, we have 63% female representation on our Board of Directors and 39% on our Executive Committee.

In the last financial year we piloted our “Horizons” development programme, to help strengthen General Manager succession and support the transition of leaders across functions – we had 55% female representation amongst the first cohort of leaders. We also launched a Global Supply Chain and Procurement “Accelerator” programme, of which 66% were female, and in North America we introduced a commercial pilot partnering with Sistas in Sales (SIS), an organisation committed to serve women of colour in professional sales careers across the United States.

We are not complacent. We know there is more we can do, and we are working every day to create the most inclusive and diverse culture that ensures all our people thrive. 

https://heroes.involverolemodels.org/poll/2024-top-100-women-future-leaders/

https://heroes.involverolemodels.org/poll/2024-top-100-women-executives/