United Arab Emirates, 26 August 2020: Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, today announced the launch of the EGA Women’s Network in celebration of Emirati Women’s Day 2020 and also to signal EGA’s commitment to improving gender diversity both within EGA and heavy industry in the UAE.

The EGA Women’s Network will enable women at EGA to form a community where they can share knowledge and experiences. The Network will be focusing on useful topics, training sessions and inspiring talks with the hope of sharing tips and techniques that can be actively put into practice. The Network is launching with a series of virtual panel discussions called “How Does She Do It?!”, where EGA’s female employees will be invited to connect with inspiring women both inside and outside of EGA to hear their stories and share best practices.

Women hold more than 19 per cent of supervisory roles at EGA and the company hopes to increase this number through developing and mentoring the female talent pipeline. Earlier this year, Aïssata Béavogui, Director General of EGA’s bauxite mining and export subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation, was awarded the ‘Gender CEO’ award by the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

EGA’s Chief Executive Officer, Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, said: “Improving gender diversity and maximising the contribution of all should be an important aspiration for all businesses. Gender diversity is recognised as an important contributor to business success, but it is also challenging to achieve in heavy industry and requires us to be proactive in order to achieve our goals. Women are already an important part of our workforce at EGA, but we recognise that there is significant scope to increase our female talent. On Emirati Women’s Day, I applaud the team behind the EGA Women’s Network for their dedication to ensuing our female colleagues can achieve their full potential both for themselves and EGA.”

Katherine Hahm, Chairwoman of the EGA Women’s Network and General Counsel of EGA, said: “The UAE is one of a few countries in the world where more women graduate in science and engineering than men, which presents EGA with a great opportunity to grow its female talent pipeline. We have some incredible women at EGA across all departments and geographies. The Network is being created to provide a forum to assist those women to develop the contacts and skillsets that they need to progress their careers and achieve their personal goals.”