President of Talengo: "Statistics show that companies with female board members are more profitable"
"Statistics show that companies with three or more female board members are more profitable," declared Krista Walochik, President of Talengo, at the most recent session of the Women and Leadership Forum. Jointly organised by ESADE Alumni and Banc Sabadell, the session took place in the auditorium of the Banc Sabadell office tower in Barcelona.
In addition to leading Talengo, a consulting firm specialised in leadership and executive search, Ms. Walochik serves as European vice-chair and member of the global advisory board of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC).
Quotas to promote gender parity
Ms. Walochik expressed her support for quotas as a means of promoting gender parity on company boards. She cited several studies that predicted that gender parity on company boards will not be the norm for approximately 60 years. "That’s too long and too much competitiveness lost," declared Ms. Walochik. "However, my opinion is that measures of this sort should be temporary. They need to be eliminated in the medium term because people should reach positions of responsibility on their own merit."
Ms. Walochik discussed the steps that executives who aspire to sit on the board of a large company should take over the course of their professional lives, adding that this long journey must be planned and prepared far in advance. She noted that networking and human relationships both inside and outside of the company play key roles that all executives who aspire to hold posts of greater responsibility sometimes underestimate.
