[Panel Discussion] Empowering Gender Diversity: Driving Change in the Boardroom
Over the next five years, efforts to increase gender diversity in boardrooms will intensify. This push is driven by stakeholder pressures, government regulations, and cultural shifts. However, achieving true gender diversity involves more than just quotas; it also requires addressing biases, providing mentorship, and creating inclusive policies.
The upcoming panel discussion aims to underline the importance of gender diversity in corporate leadership and explore ways to instigate meaningful change. Panelists will share insights on the current state of gender diversity in boardrooms, discussing both progress and challenges. They will highlight the benefits of diverse perspectives at decision-making levels, which positively impact organizational performance and success.
Panelists will also address barriers that impede women's advancement, such as unconscious bias, limited mentorship opportunities, and systemic inequalities. Strategies for overcoming these obstacles will be explored, including inclusive hiring practices, supportive work cultures, and leadership development programs for women.
Moreover, the panel will stress the role of men as allies in promoting gender diversity, emphasizing the need for male leaders' active support and advocacy, and the establishment of gender balance policies.
Career Growth for ERGs
Speaker
Eleftheria Zourou
Founder and CEO, Doctoranytime
Eleftheria ‘s first interaction with a “customer” was in the small toy shop of her grandfather, where she understood early enough that sales increase when you sell what consumer needs. She studied Business administration and marketing in University of Piraeus and started her career in Procter and Gamble, where she learned that a good marketer should be in touch with the consumer and get in his shoes, a more formal way to put what she had early enough understood. Then she moved to ΔΟΛ, where she did marketing for women magazines and having acquired interesting experience from the media world she moved to L’Oreal.
Nothing compares to her entrepreneurial life, bringing into life a new fresh idea in the internet/health sector, DOCTORANYTIME.GR. It’s the idea that brings her closer to what she dreamt of: an easier, faster and more patient friendly access to the Greek healthcare system.
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Speaker
Marilia Tompra
Country Director, Sephora Greece
Marilia Tompra holds the position of Country Director at Sephora Greece, which is part of LVMH Group, since 2021. Before that she was the Head of Marketing at INTERSPORT & TAF, part of Fourlis Group for 4 consecutive years leading the marketing function for Greece, Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria and Cyprus. Marilia started her career in Procter & Gamble at the European HQ in Geneva, Switzerland in various marketing and commercial roles for 10 years. She completed her studies at Oxford University with a BSc on Economics & Management and an MSc from LSE on Media and Communications. She is member of the CEO Clubs and a Mentor in Endeavour.
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Speaker
Connect with Marilia Tompra on:
Speaker
May Zanni
Co-founder & President, Women Act
May Zanni is the President and Cofounder of Women Act Greece, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization aiming at empowering women in leadership positions in the public sphere. She is a political analyst having served as special advisor at the Secretariat of the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic until 2023. May obtained her BA in Politics with History from Queen Mary College, her MSc in European Politics from Birkbeck College, University of London and her MSc in Politics of Empire and Post-Imperialism from LSE. Throughout her career she had work experience at the House of Commons in London, the European Parliament in Brussels and UNESCO in Paris. She has worked in Brussels for the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) and in Paris for the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). She has served as advisor to the Minister for Justice, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and as a political analyst in the private sector. She represented Greece at the State Department IVLP “Women in Public Service”, she completed the Harvard Kennedy School programs “Public Leaders in Southeast Europe” and "Women & Power" and participated in the Georgetown Leadership Forum 2023. She has one daughter, Olympia.
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Speaker
Myrto Papathanou
Partner, Metavallon VC
Myrto Papathanou is a Founding Partner at Metavallon VC, a venture capital funding early-stage technology companies in Greece since 2018, with > € 50m AUM currently investing out of Fund II. She has over 20 years of experience in the fields of investment, finance and entrepreneurship and has also been involved in several non-profit projects advancing entrepreneurship, microfinance and women’s empowerment.v
Myrto started her career in London, working as a credit risk and portfolio analyst for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and later as a Fixed Income Strategist for EMEA at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Returning to Greece, she has been involved in technology and high-tech companies as an executive and investor. Before co-founding Metavallon VC, she was Head of Corporate Development in EFA Ventures, a group active A&D and hightech verticals. For Metavallon VC, Myrto has led the investments in Think Silicon (acquired by Applied Materials), Better Origin, Ferryhopper and Advantis amongst others. She also currently serves as an independent Non-Executive Director at Thrace Group (ASE: PLAT) and Action Finance Initiative SA.
On the non-profit side, she cofounded ethelon, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of La French Tech Athens and INSEAD Alumni Association as well as on the Advisory Boards of WomenOnTop and The Hellenic Innovation Network.
In 2016 she was recognized by Linkage Greece as “Leader of the Year” and in 2020 she was included by Fortune magazine in the 40under40 list. Myrto is an economist, with an MSc in Finance from Imperial College and an MBA from INSEAD. Since 2019 she is a Kauffman Fellow, the first from Greece.
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