Women Driving Integrity

At our 14th “Women Driving Integrity” network meeting, decision-makers and their allies from various industries came together to discuss key questions on the topic “Diversity in Action: Shaping the Future”. In a conversation with our PwC expert Daniela Hanauer, our Chief People & Sustainability Officer and Member of the Executive Board Daniela Geretshuber (PwC Germany) shared valuable insights into the topics of “allyship, ethics and corporate governance”. Sarah Gerwing (DB Systel GmbH) inspired with her keynote “An agile operating system. DB Systel's diversity management” and emphasized the importance of support functions in implementing such a system. In a fascinating panel discussion, Dr. Anja Düll (BASF SE), Dr. Carolin Mehnert (DATEV eG) and Dr. Nicole Spreng (Schwanhäußer Industrie Holding GmbH & Co. KG) discussed the question “Is diversity in transition?”. The important message that emerged was that diversity is not a concept of harmony and that we must learn to tolerate the uncomfortable. The honest and authentic discourse, along with the moving impulses, characterized the uniqueness of this network event.

As part of our cross-industry and constantly growing women's network “Women Driving Integrity”, female decision-makers from the areas of integrity, risk management, finance, diversity, HR, compliance and sustainability came together again to discuss key questions on the topic “How integrity & sustainable corporate culture facilitates a positive future”. Marike Mehlmann-Tripp (Deutsche Telekom AG) inspired with her keynote “Fact over Fake: Let's question what we share” and motivated people to deal with the role, use and impact of disinformation in today's world. In a fascinating panel discussion with our PwC expert Daniela Hanauer, Carina Kozole (N26 AG) and Nina Duft (Gallagher Global Brokerage Europe, formerly Janitos Versicherung AG) shared their personal experiences and emphasized how important it is, especially in challenging times, to maintain the ability to engage in discourse and to be able to tolerate different opinions. Larissa Merkl (Bayer AG) initiated a lively discussion about female activism and the question of what role (exclusive) networks play and how we can all support each other. Finally, we asked our PwC expert Aurelie Jamard how future scenarios can help us to identify the levers for a positive future in the here and now. The many thoughts and insights highlighted how effective a change of perspective can be and provided much inspiration for challenging times.

To mark International Women’s Day, the 12th Women Driving Integrity network meeting was dedicated to the theme ”Female Leadership in times of perma- & polycrises”. For the second time, male/diverse/female allies of our participants were also invited join us in discusssing leadership, communication and taking a stand in times of crisis. Together with our PwC experts, Laetitia Arndt and Marvin Stöcker, we tackled questions on how we can create sustainable change in times of crisis and the role that values and leadership communication play in fosterin a positive influence and employee cohesion. In addition to PwC expert Daniela Hanauer, Jessica Schwarz (Alnatura Produktions- und Handels GmbH), Bianka Reitz (BUNZL Holding GmbH) and Annette Höher-Bäuerle (Allen & Overy LLP) shared their personal experiences on how to successfully navigate through crises as a female leader during a fireside chat. Marike Mehlmann-Tripp from Telekom Deutschland GmbH inspired us with the #GegenHassimNetz campaign and highlighted how important it is to take a stand and act. In addition to the moving impulses, the honest and authentic discourse characterized the uniqueness of this network.

At our 11th Women Driving Integrity network event, decision-makers from various industries came together to discuss key questions on the topic of “Empowering integrity for a social digital transformation”. Dallas FitzPatrick inspired with her keynote “Integrity in Communication: The Power of Inclusive Language for Understanding, Connection and Respect” and motivated participants to engage with the power of inclusive communication. Susanna Wolf from DATEV eG and Henrike Dembowsky from BARMER initiated an exciting and insightful exchange about responsible digitalization. At the end of the event, the women immersed themselves in the metaverse and discussed the ethical do’s and don’ts.

Celebrating five years of Women Driving Integrity! The focus of our tenth anniversary event was: “The growing role of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”. Next to our expert Daniela Hanauer, decision-makers and their allies from the areas of integrity, diversity, HR, responsibility, compliance and sustainability came together to discuss key questions on diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI). Manifold contributions from Sarah Schwellinger on the topic of Supplier Diversity, Dr. Carolin Mehnert and Christian Kaiser on Diversity & Transformation, Yvonne Fandert’s dialogue on diversity and inclusion as a prerequisite for self-organized teams and Eva Kreienkamp from BVG & Melanie Kubin-Hardewig from Deutsche Telekom AG gave the participants various ideas to take action and strengthen DEI within and outside of their organizations. 

As part of our cross-industry and steadily growing WDI, women from the fields of risk management, ESG and responsibility met for the ninth time in a row to discuss key questions on the topic of “Living Corporate Responsibility!” How can responsibility be anchored and lived in the corporate context? And what central role does the topic of attitude play here? Maike Bermüller inspired with a keynote speech on “Anchoring responsibility in organisations”. 

For the eighth time, the WDI brought together key decision-makers from the areas of integrity, responsibility, diversity, risk management, HR and compliance alongside our expert Daniela Hanauer and her team to discuss the growing relevance of responsibility and integrity. The participants exchanged views on their personal contribution to the promotion of corporate, digital and social responsibility in their daily work.

For the seventh meeting of the WDI, women from different areas of compliance and risk management came together alongside our expert Daniela Hanauer to discuss key questions on integrity: How do we shape the responsibility agenda in our companies? How do we live attitudes and values for sustainable corporate success? Christiane Uhl inspired with a keynote on the topic of “The value of attitude in companies” and motivated to also look at one’s own attitude.

The 6th networking event was attended by numerous committed women from a wide range of industries and functions. Experts in integrity, risk management, diversity and compliance accepted the invitation. The event started with an open exchange, moderated by our expert Daniela Hanauer. The focus was on current integrity issues in the companies and the question of what difference a value orientation can make for the sustainable performance of companies. In the second part of the event, Dagmar Oppermann and Susanne Schaefer from Volkswagen AG spoke in an inspiring keynote about the levers of HR for integrity and compliance. 

At the networking event in September 2020, Christina Martin from the Otto Group opened the event with her keynote speech. She discussed the question of whether corporate values only work in good times. Afterwards, participants from various sectors discussed how they experienced the impact of the pandemic on value-oriented business. The contribution by Dr. Julian Klinkhammer from the Risk Consulting division at PwC Germany, triggered an exciting exchange on organizational misconduct and the influence of informal rules. Finally, Hannah Müller from PwC brought the participants up to date on the EU regulations on whistleblower systems.

In March 2020, the WDI event took place virtually for the first time, in line with the pandemic situation. More than 20 decision-makers from a wide range of industries took part. The focus of this event was on sharing how to sustainably anchor corporate values in challenging times. Kristina Jaekel, Risk Manager at Randstad Germany GmbH & Co. KG, used the example of Randstad to explain how the company lives values, firmly anchors them and effectively brings them closer to its employees in their everyday work.

At the third WDI network meeting, decision-makers from different industries and disciplines in the fields of ethics, integrity and compliance discussed the extent to which the requirements for compliance and integrity have changed as a result of digitalisation and how companies can approach digitalisation responsibly. The meeting demonstrated PwC’s strength in bringing together female clients from different industries on a common platform. In this way, good practices were shared and concepts for a value-oriented future were created.

After the successful kick-off event of the WDI Network, the second event took place in April 2019. Our expert Daniela Hanauer and Maria von Oettingen, Senior Manager in P&O Leadership at PwC Germany, spoke about levers for integrity. They discussed why values are so important in companies and how they can be measured. Afterwards, Alessandra Hawthorne, Global Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at Boehringer Ingelheim, in her Keynote delved into the topic of integrity in companies. The presentations created the basis for an exciting and trusting exchange in the round.

The founding event of the Women Driving Integrity client initiative took place in October 2018. Our expert Daniela Hanauer opened the event and discussed in her presentation why integrity is so relevant for sustainable business success. Laurie Waddy from Bilfinger then gave her keynote speech on the topic of Integrity in Business. In an open round, the participants discussed how their companies deal with the topic of integrity in practice.