Contact’s Chief Customer Officer shares his personal story

Wednesday 11 October 2017

Contact’s Chief Customer Officer shares his personal story as the firm tops a global diversity and inclusion index

Today Contact Energy was announced as the number one globally ranked company on the 2017 global Thomson Reuters Diversity & Inclusion Index, out of 6,000 companies.

“Embracing inclusion and diversity is vital for any successful business and we’re really pleased to be recognised, but of course we have plenty more work to do”, says Contact Energy Chief Customer Officer, Venasio-Lorenzo Crawley.

“To truly understand our customers our Contact team must reflect the diversity of New Zealand society, which is why we embrace a workplace culture that is firstly inclusive, which in turn enables our diversity of thought, age, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. It drives a better one-team culture, world decision making, improved business performance and creates stronger economies.”

“For me it’s a privilege to lead this great Customer team at Contact – my path to this place has taken a number of twists since I migrated from Western Samoa to New Zealand with my family three decades ago, with little money and unable to speak the local language, to live with an extended family in a 20+ person household in Auckland. Acculturalisation, to first understand and hard work have been key ingredients in my international career but none of this would have been possible without great leaders who chose to embrace inclusion and diversity, to value my bold and different perspectives and gifted me the opportunity to learn.”

Contact publishes details of diversity and inclusion related measures each year in its integrated annual report which is available on its website. For the year to 30 June 2017 98% of Contact’s female employees were earning the same average salary as males within the same salary band. Contact has equal gender representation on its Board, two directors who are of Maori descent as well as a diverse leadership team.

Thomson Reuters, managing director, customer proposition, Financial & Risk, Debra Walton notes: “The global evidence is overwhelming clear, diversity is increasingly becoming a performance issue, a growth engine, and companies can no longer afford not to realise its societal benefits as well.”

The Thomson Reuters Diversity & Inclusion Index ranks the top 100 publicly traded companies globally with the most diverse and inclusive workplaces, as measured by 24 metrics across four key categories: Diversity, Inclusion, People Development and News Controversies. The index ratings are informed by Thomson Reuters environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data, designed to transparently and objectively measure the relative performance of over 6,000 companies.

ENDS

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