Every organisation has a vision as to what will create a better, more productive working environment. A better world. Yet, while focusing on our strategic goals and direction, how many of us celebrate diversity as a core organisational value, recognising and utilising the full richness of all segments of society?

To be highly effective, organisations must also link diversity to inclusiveness and empowerment.

Empowerment represents the ability of individuals to be the best they can be and to participate fully with the freedom to do so, allowing them to achieve their full potential and control their own destinies.

On Thursday 21^st November at 5.30pm, EMEA Recruitment are delighted to co-host an event with Stryker, one of the world’s leading medical technology companies. The event will be held at Stryker’s offices in Amsterdam, where we hear from multi-national leaders on the topic of “Empowerment through Diversity & Inclusion”, sharing best practices, thoughts and ideas.

Speakers will include:

• Melissa Muirhead, Global HR Director – Finance at HEINEKEN
• Robert Abbott - VP, Chief Legal Council at Stryker
• Shana Laurie de Hernandez - Partner at PwC
• Liz Tunley - Senior Sales Training Manager at Stryker

If you would like further details or would like to register your interest in attending, please contact Jenny Callum.

What better place to host an event in Amsterdam than the top floor of the Heineken Experience! Yesterday evening we were delighted to co-host an event on ‘Equality and Inclusion in Finance' along with HEINEKEN and PAiE (Professional Accountants in Europe) with mid-to-senior level finance professionals in attendance, from a wide range of different global businesses.

CFO of Heineken and Member of the Executive Board, Laurence Debroux, delivered an engaging presentation around the approach and steps that Heineken are taking towards equality and her own experiences of climbing to success in finance.

Next, we heard from Susannah Rodgers MBE, British Paralympic swimmer and gold medallist who is also Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum. Susie gave us a fascinating insight into the determination of an athlete and the transferable performance tools that she finds useful.

The final presentation was from Shana Laurie de Hernandez, Partner and Retail & Consumer Leader for PwC Europe, who told us about the Equal Salary certification which is now offered and PwC's approach to pay fairness.

Shana then also led a group discussion, encouraging attendees to discuss amongst themselves the key attributes that an inclusive leader should have. Elements such as openness, flexibility, recognition and transparency were discussed as being key.

Thank you to HEINEKEN for welcoming us to the Heineken Experience and to all those in attendance, an interactive and engaging evening for all.

EMEA Recruitment recently partnered with Microsoft & PwC to co-host a CFO roundtable event in Amsterdam. The event was focused on ”Technology in Modern Finance”, bringing together CFOs of multi-national businesses from various sectors.

This gave a fantastic opportunity to see the digital transformation projects that Microsoft have implemented to improve their financial processes, including the introduction of machine learning forecasting, which has seen them say goodbye to their standard manual forecasting procedures! This was a concept difficult for many to comprehend, but Microsoft provided evidence to show that the predictions via machine learning were far closer to actuals than previously forecast.

The group discussion, facilitated by PwC, emphasized that multi-national companies are at very different stages of development with AI and robotics, but it seemed clear that the role of a CFO is changing and highlighted the evolution of skills required within a Finance function.

We look forward to hosting similar events around the impact of digital technology on finance with Microsoft and also other partners in Switzerland and the Netherlands later in 2019. We look forward to bringing you more news soon!

If you are a CFO who could be interested in attending such events, please don't hesitate to contact Hannah Mallia, Director, at [email protected]