Hitachi Energy is contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goal 5, achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, by increasing its female diversity from 19% to 25% by 2025 and championing its Diversity 360 approach and mindset in all daily work.

On Monday 24 April, the Wits Business School (WBS) Women in Leadership course celebrated its latest successful graduates, including Octavia Motshwane, Faith Magobolo, and Thabisa Majozi from Hitachi Energy.

The course addresses the number of women in executive positions. Michelle Sampson, Hitachi Energy’s Finance Director for Southern Africa, delivered a keynote address at the graduation ceremony. She explained that education initiatives like the WBS Women in Leadership course align with Hitachi Energy’s Diversity 360 vision to ensure diversity and inclusion are at the core of its long-term business success of creating an environment for employees and businesses to thrive.

Diversity 360 is one of the key leadership pillars at Hitachi Energy; it is an employee-centred approach designed to nurture diversity of thought and embrace the power of connections to foster innovation for its customers and partners. It also encourages lifelong learning and believes diversity and collaboration equal great innovation.

The vision is integrated into all of Hitachi Energy’s practices and policies, which foster female acceleration through development programs, global employee network platforms and its Female Talent Development Programme. The company has set clear targets for recruiting and developing women in leadership roles.

“We have made a promise to create economic, environmental and social value for a sustainable energy future. We champion inclusive culture powered by individual differences, collaboration and diversity of thought,” says Sampson. “We have supported, and continue to support, various value creation initiatives. Beyond technical innovation, we look to our impact on society and how we can improve lives and inspire others,” she concludes.