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As we celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) on Wednesday 8 March, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to shine the spotlight on some of the many outstanding women here at Mila who are challenging all the outdated stereotypes in the best possible way – essentially, by being brilliant at what they do!
Julie Holmes is our highly respected Head of Sales, liked and trusted by customers and valued at Mila for her analytical and considered approach. Karen Paskin is one of our most knowledgeable, and only female, Area Sales Managers. Seven of the team in internal sales are women, including Team Leader Jennie James, who is a great example of how you can grow your career at Mila, Becky-Lou Sanderson, who’s been a great Mila ambassador for all of her 16 years with us, and Denise Frost – our longest serving female member of staff and a member of our exclusive 35 year + club.
In our all-female marketing department, Marketing Director Sarah Gyde is our only female director and has a voice at the heart of the strategic planning and decision-making process, and alongside her is Laura Braham, our extremely talented and hardworking Digital Marketing Lead, consistently delivering impressive content.
Have a look around our operations team, and you’ll see that three of our seven qualified forklift drivers – Lizzie, Tracey and Jodie – are female, as well as our production assistants – Wendy, Mimi and Angela. Together, they bring a huge amount of positive energy to our warehouse and their contributions are huge.
Also making huge contributions are the likes of Amanda Boikovs, our HR lead and my PA for nearly 30 years, Dawn Brentegani, our Finance Manager, who joined us 29 years ago as a receptionist and through dedication and hard work progressed through customer service and purchase ledger to her current role in 2012, and Emma Russ who has been a key member of our Sales team and now IT team since 2011 as well.
And of course, not forgetting Cissy Xia – our experienced supply chain controller for the Far East and our Quality Assurance Manager Barbara Zogornik, whose attention to detail helps underpin Mila’s reputation for quality.
I’m acutely conscious though of the fact that Mila and the wider industry is still a male dominated environment, but we’re working hard here to address the unconscious bias that undoubtedly still persists, and making sure that women are given the means and the support to be able to challenge that.
The theme of this year’s IWD is Embracing Equity which means making sure that everyone is given the resources and opportunities they need to ensure an equal outcome. It’s more nuanced than equality which means giving everyone the same resources and opportunities and it’s certainly made me, and the rest of the senior team here, think hard about what we can do in the future to increase equity for the many women here at Mila.
We’ve undoubtedly come a long way in recent years – and we’re certainly committed to giving women the support they need – but we are still determined to become an even more equal and more equitable business in the future. It’s not just because it’s the right thing to do, but when you look at the value of the contribution made by so many women here, it will almost certainly make us a better business.
Visit the International Women’s Day website here.
Richard
