Centre for Inclusive Leadership
OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE FEMALE LEADERSHIP PARADOX
'The Female Leadership Paradox' was unveiled on 24th May in London, hosted by Financial Dynamics. The first copy of the book was presented by Mirella to Alderman Fiona Woolf CBE.
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LEADING LADIES CELEBRATE FEMALE LEADERSHIP - Press release 25 May 2011
Business figures brought together to celebrate launch of ‘The Female Leadership Paradox’
This week saw leading communications agency Financial Dynamics (‘FD’), bring together some of the UK’s top business women to celebrate the launch of the latest work from Dutch leadership expert and author Mirella Visser .....
Quotes from speech by Fiona Woolf CBE:
So I would like to congratulate Mirella for her important, and timely, contribution to the effort. Her insightful exploration of the issues in a very practical way will be of untold benefit – helping to identify and address the reasons why we see fewer women in leadership and what we can do about it.
Mirella draws on extensive research and the experience from her own, long-standing, business career – and the experiences of many other businesswomen. I believe any businesswoman – and businessman – would gain useful insight into the complexities of leadership, reward and career progression.
So, on behalf of the future beneficiaries, all that remains is for me to say thank you to Mirella for her tireless efforts to support and promote women in leadership. Your book will be an inspiration to many.
BOOK REVIEW on July 3 2011
"Mirella Visser is a very successful woman, full of energy, drive and positivism, taking risks when needed, supporting others, and a source of inspiration in the business world! Now read her great advice, displayed in a very practical manner with real business cases in her new book "the female leadership paradox"...and you will be definitely closer to the Top! Mirella, thank you for such a powerful sharing!"
Beatrice Guillaume-Grabisch
CEO Beverage Partners Worldwide ( BPW)
Joint-Venture nestle / Coca-Cola, Switzerland
Sunday Times July 17 2011
“In Europe, legal quotas are already widespread, they are a reality,” says Mirella Visser, founder of the Centre for Inclusive Leadership in the Netherlands and author of The Female Leadership Paradox. “Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and Norway already have them, with targets for women on boards varying between 30% and 40% by 2015. The European Union is also seriously considering bringing in a Europe-wide 40% quota.”
Economist August 4th 2011 - my letter to the editor
"SIR - Research shows us that women leave senior positions before they reach board level because of a lack of rewards (unequal pay), lack of interesting opportunities (being sidelined into supporting and staff roles) and lack of access to informal networks. Flexible working arrangements and teleworking are useful in creating a pipeline of qulaified women, and men, at middle-management level, but the impact is limited when it comes to boards. This is because the work of board members and other senior management does not involve executing tasks sitting at a desk. Rather it is about influencing decision-making, being connected to the right networks and creating visibility for your leadership style".
BIO MIRELLA VISSER
Mirella Visser is Dutch, holds a Masters degree in Law, completed the General Management Program (CEDEP Fontainebleau) and the High Performance Board program (IMD Lausanne). Almost 10 years of her professional life as manager she worked in South East Asia. She served on the management board of ING (financial services) based in Hong Kong, with management responsibility for business units in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand. She lived in Hong Kong in historic times, experiencing the reunification of Hong Kong with China in 1997 and the impact of the Asian financial crisis in those years. At KPMG (2000 – 2004) Mirella led post merger integrations of international financial services companies and the KPMG Asia desk.
In 2004 Mirella founded the Centre for Inclusive Leadership, aimed at developing new and inclusive leadership styles in international organizations based on her experiences as a leader in Asia. The guideline in her work at the Centre is: “What we shouldn’t do is say that ‘they’ should be more like us. We should create a new us”. She still regularly advises international companies on their strategy in Asia. Primarily, she is now developing specific programs for the advancement of senior women in organisations. She is a business strategy coach for senior women on their way to top positions and is frequently invited by boards of large international companies in Europe to discuss specific leadership issues. From 2009 she is a senior expert at the European Commission on the topic of women in decision-making in politics and the economy.
Meeting on June 22 2011 - Albert Ragon (CEO Danone), MV, Bola Olabisi (WIIN)
From 2006 till 2011 Mirella served on the Supervisory Board of Royal Swets & Zeitlinger, the world’s leading subscription services company for professional information (annual turnover € 1 bln), operating in more than 20 countries. In July 2011 Mirella was appointed member of the European Integration Committee, part of the Advisory Council on International Affairs, the advisor to the Dutch Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Aid. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the European Leadership Platform, is an Ambassador of the Greenleaf Centre for Servant Leadership Europe and board member of the Foundation Sandhi Institute (Sri Lanka). In 2010 she became member of the Expertpanel ‘Non-executive Directors’ of the Dutch Centre for Executive and Non-executive directors that aims to improve the quality of corporate governance and supervision in Dutch corporations. In June 2010 Mirella started an initiative writing a consultation paper to the European Commission on corporate governance in the banking sector. It led to a conference bringing together 40 women board members of financial institutions on “Regaining Trust: Are We Doing the Right Things?”, sponsored by ABN AMRO on February 3 2011. Download the paper here: https://circabc.europa.eu/d/d/workspace/SpacesStore/3fb7a055-1dfe-47ba-b7bc-5c624174c0fa/Centre_for_Inclusive_Leadership_en.pdf
During her career Mirella has been active in (co-)founding and leading several non profit professional women’s organizations, like the ING Women’s Network, Women in the Picture (Vrouwen in Beeld, a public website with potential board women) and Women’s International Network Amsterdam. She was one of the three official founders (2003) and served on the first official board (2005-2010) and in the role of President (2007-2010) of the European Professional Women’s Network (which grew to 3500 members in 17 cities).
In 2007 she was recognized as one of the 50 most influential thinkers in Europe and was nominated “European of the Year 2007”in the category “Campaigner of the Year” by European Voice (The Economist) for all her efforts in promoting women’s leadership. The nomination was won by Arnold Schwarzenegger for his efforts in countering climate change.
Left: Dalia Grybauskaite (pres. Lithuania) , Valdas Adamkus (former pres. Lithuania), MV,
Viviane Reding (VP Eur Comm) at celebration "European of the Year 2007" in Brussels
Right: Josep Borrell (pres. Eur Parliament 2006)
Mirella co-authored the book “Women on Boards, Moving Mountains” (2007) and has written numerous articles for the Dutch and international press. She is a frequent speaker on ‘Women and Leadership’, ‘Inclusive Leadership’ and ‘Being effective as a leader in Asia’, at international conferences, like the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in 2008, in corporate board rooms (Fortune 500) and at company’s events. She was honoured to be invited to chair the two-day EU Conference in Ankara, as part of the EU’s program for enlargement (TAIEX) in 2008 and 2009.
Her first book in Dutch “De Zijderoute naar de top” (The Silk Road to the Top) about strategic leadership for women (October 2009) was nominated ‘Management Book of the Year 2010’ in the Netherlands (selected by a jury of professionals as one of 6 nominees out of more than 300 management books). In her book she launches a new positive metaphor, the silk road to the top, for the benefits inclusive leadership styles bring and the different ways women reach the top of organisations. Based on 20 business cases, the book analyzes daily situations and proposes innovative strategies for women who want to develop their strategic leadership skills. Her English book “The Female Leadership Paradox” was launched on May 24 2011 in London. The launch in the USA took place on June 3rd 2011. Listen to the recording here: http://www.familiesandwork.org/site/support/clc_call_110603.mp3