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Women talk about talent at the top

Women talk about talent at the top

Three women with top management positions in leading firms shared their experiences of functioning in an environment usually dominated by men, at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) recently.

The event for students, alumni and staff was organised by the RSM MBA Student Association, and featured OneMBA 2010 alumna Camilla Bjorkqvist, Lead Communications and Learning for Deloitte Global Client Intelligence Team in Amstelveen; Katharina Pol, Director of Global Marketing and Communications and Retail Communications at fashion firm MEXX in Amsterdam, and Jeanine Kok, Global Head of Syndicated Loans at ABN AMRO bank in Amsterdam.

Camilla Bjorkqvist has worked for global company Deloitte for 11 years, in the USA as well as in the Netherlands. She urged her female peers to be direct and determined. She said: “If you don’t ask for it, you will not get it! Design your own life-plan, learn the game and choose your battles, build a network and make sure you have a handful of ‘believers’ in a professional sense.”

“If women do not support other women, how are the men going to support women?” she asked.

Katharina Pol has worked for MEXX since 2007, and has learned to keep her life balanced. The strategy that allowed her career to progress has been to choose projects and jobs that are great assets to her CV. She worked at international law firm Baker & McKenzie as an intern and still benefits from the entry on her résumé. She has benefitted from a great amount of support from friends, family and partner. Summing up, she said: “You need someone within your organisation who supports you, like a mentor that you can trust. And also, outside the organisation, behind every successful women there is a supportive partner.’’

Law graduate, EMBA13 participant and mother Jeanine Kok has been a mentor to many upcoming women in top management at ABN AMRO, which in 2009 signed ‘the talent to the top’ agreement aiming  to have a quarter of top management positions filled by women by 2014. Jeanine’s secret to get on in the male-dominated field of work is to adjust her choices and words. Jeanine says: “If you talk to men using numbers, you will definitely get their attention.” She also recommended being thoroughly aware of the knowledge you need, and not to overdo the use of ‘feminine charms’.

“A good leader does not take all the credit, and also does not blame someone if something goes wrong,” she commented.

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University is consistently ranked amongst the top 10 business schools in Europe. It is located in the international port city of Rotterdam where core Dutch values of openness, flexibility and acceptance of diversity have attracted businesses on a global scale. Our emphasis is on ground-breaking research and practices relevant to business; our primary focus is on developing business leaders who carry their innovative ideas into a sustainable future. Our portfolio includes a broad array of bachelor, master, doctoral, MBA and executive education programmes. www.rsm.nl

For more information on RSM or on this release, please contact Marianne Schouten, Media & Public Relations Manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at mschouten@remove-this.rsm.nl.