Africa Specialty Risks is celebrating all the inspiring women across our business and network today and throughout March. We believe that having a diverse group of employees improves our ability to service our clients and make better decisions. We are proud to have such a diverse team made up of individuals from various ethnicities and gender. According to McKinsey, ethnically and gender-diverse companies are 36% and 25% more likely to outperform less diverse organisations, respectively.
During this month, we’ll introduce you to a number of women who work at ASR in Africa and the UK. We are pleased to share that women make up 42% of our workforce, 33% of our senior leadership team, and represent a diverse range of nationalities, including, Albanian, Beninois, British, Ghanaian, Mauritian, Malawian, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish and many more. Women at ASR also speak over 12 languages combined and have diverse professional backgrounds, having previously worked in fields such as accounting, education, engineering and finance, to name a few.
We spent a lot of time getting to know our team and recently carried out a deep dive to learn more about women at ASR. We discussed everything from how they feel the insurance industry has changed, their role models and their proudest career moments.
The most positive thing is that almost all of our female colleagues believe that the insurance industry has changed over the last few years and for the better. Women are more represented and hold higher positions of authority. The industry recognises women as a key asset in growth, perceiving risk and fundamentally how businesses are run, underpinned by an ever increasing variety of roles to choose from that promote both professional and personal growth opportunities.
Role models have included Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, activist Malala Yousafzai and Janet Yellen the US Secretary of the Treasury. For some of the team, their role models have a much lesser public profile, “my mother” was a common answer when we asked who was their most important or aspirational woman.
We found it fascinating that quite a number of our team, especially those based in Mauritius, wanted to be air stewardesses when they were children. The idea of travel, adventure and learning about different cultures across the world was important to our team from a young age. As a business that works across the huge continent of Africa and more recently the Middle East, we value growth and inclusivity, and we recognise the importance of understanding the countries in which we operate.
By supporting our team, we believe that we can help empower, educate and support not just the women at ASR but also those in our wider insurance network, and women and communities who benefit from projects and activities we de-risk across Africa and the Middle East.
No matter where you are from, your dreams are valid. –Lupita Nyong’o