Editor's Choice: Where are the women?

On Tuesday afternoon, I will be experiencing an historic moment in my career as the moderator of a female-dominated panel session organised by logistics provider Prologis.

Entitled 'The War on Talent for Real Estate's Top Jobs - Where are the Women?', the panellists include some of the leading female executives in the industry including Anne Kavanagh from AXA Investment Management, Sophie van Oosterom from CBRE Global Investors, former Global President of RICS Louise Brooke-Smith and Monika Rajska-Woliñska of Colliers International’s Polish unit. Fortunately there will also be two male real estate leaders joining the discussion to ensure that we have diversity in terms of perspectives and opinions.

In a nutshell, that is what is currently missing at executive level in the European real estate sector - gender diversity. To be fair, the real estate sector is not alone, but there are other sectors like IT that are more advanced in this area and one of the discussion points will be: what can we learn from them?

But why is diversity important at all? Well, there is a growing body of evidence that shows that companies with greater gender diversity perform better. In fact, management consultancy McKinsey recently revealed that listed companies with a high female representation on executive committees generate on average a 47% superior return on equity and a 55% outperformance in earnings before interest and tax.

In other words, it pays to have women on the board. Still need convincing? Come and join us at 2 pm at Hall C2, Room C22 at 2 pm.