Advance wishes you a joyful festive season and a Happy New Year!

Editorial  


Dear Advance supporters,
As the end of the year approaches, Advance can look back on an excellent third year, full of interesting activities and an increasing number of member companies. The outlook for next year is even more promising. I would like to highlight one strategic project that has the potential to become a "reference" in gender diversity metrics in Switzerland: together with the HSG we will start monitoring annually several gender diversity KPI's. As you know, there are few reports with hard facts on this subject and by publishing a Swiss specific report on the topic every year we strongly believe that we can contribute to more transparency in Switzerland. The results will be presented, for the first time, in our flagship conference, which will take place on 19^th June 2017. Please save this date in your calendar.
The end of the year is also the moment to say thank you to all of you for believing in the Advance cause and for supporting it with so much enthusiasm, motivation and engagement. Let’s keep ADVANCING together!
With our best wishes for the season,
Alkistis Petropaki
General Manger Advance Women

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The Advance Club
In order to facilitate networking between like-minded women, next year we are launching “the Advance Club”: we will be piloting the project by firstly inviting all mentees from past waves as well as all participants from the foundational leadership seminar to become members of the Advance Club. The overall objective of the Club is to foster personal growth of its members, who commit to be reactive to requests and willing to help peers. The members of the Club will connect via a closed Linkedin group and will benefit from privileges such as free seats in the events and workshops or special events with opinion leaders in intimate settings. The launch is planned for the beginning of March 2017. If the project is successful, in 2018 we will expand the member invitation to several business leaders and other people who support the Advance cause. Are you a mentee or an alumni mentee from the Advance program and would like to help us make this happen? Then please do let Alkistis.petropaki@advance-women.ch know.
 
Event “Men, women, leadership in the 21^st century” with Michael Kimmel
In one of our last events of this year, we had the pleasure of hosting Michael Kimmel, American Professor in Sociology and well known expert in gender studies. During his key note, Kimmel preached the importance of raising awareness about gender diversity in male population and the need to include men in the battle for a more gender balanced work environment, which is a win-win for both, women and men.
 
For a more efficient business world, men should start behaving in public as they behave in private, meaning that they should support their loved ones by speaking up and by sharing the tasks and responsibilities, at home as well. Structural change is needed: organizations must value men engaged in their families and offer flexible work arrangements for both, women and men.
 
Advance – Women in Swiss Business would like to thank Michael Kimmel again for his key note speech and his powerful ideas about change towards gender equality. Many thanks as well to Rebecca Guntern from Sandoz Pharmaceuticals and Clive Bellingham from PwC Switzerland, both members of the Board of Advance, for their participation as panelists to the debate.
 
We would also like to thank McKinsey for hosting this event, in which many women and men from our member companies attended and networked during the apéro.
 
Event "Inclusive Leadership: Leading in a brave new world" @ Deloitte
On November 2, 2016 Deloitte hosted the role model event Inclusive leadership: Leading in a brave new world. A key competency for leaders in the global environment is the ability to lead diverse clients and teams, including managing unconscious bias effectively. During the event the panellists explored the key markers of inclusive leadership and strategized about how one an foster an environment where all voices are heard, valued and leveraged.
We would like to thank Linda Human, Deloitte Global Diversity Director, for her presentation, and the participants in the panel discussion Simon Owen, CEO Deloitte CH, Sarah Kane, HC Partner Deloitte CH, Stefanie Ott, Corporate Governance Change Program Lead Generali CH, GianPaul Ganzoni, Head Organisational Effectivness Swiss Re.
 
New calendar and new rules
Our workshop and events calendar for 2017 is already online! Please visit our website and discover the skill-building workshops, some of them in our program for the first time. For the role model events and the future workplace workshops (known before as "Flexibility & Sustainability") we will be updating the information regularly.
 
Please note that as of January 1st, 2017 there are new rules for the skill building workshops:

• Deadline for all nominations 2017 is June 30th. After that, member companies can still nominate participants but only as long as there are free seats available.
• Early birds = companies that register all their participants by the end of February, will receive 1 additional credit for free.
• Unused credits will expire at the end of the year.
• Interesting last minute and other price reductions if you buy additional credits.

Should you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact us.
 
Please save the date for:
- General Assembly: May 8^th, 2017
- Cross-Company Mentoring program kick-off on April 6^th, 2017
- Annual conference on June 19^th, 2017
 
Ladies Drive special annual subscription
Ladies Drive, the business magazine for Ladies with Drive!
Ladies Drive represents today’s lifestyle of modern business women. With interesting articles and portraits on topics such as entrepreneurship, finance, culture, art, design, mobility and more, each issue introduces one of our Advance powerful women.
The magazine is published 4 times a year, in March, June, September and December.
Ladies Drive offers Advance members a special price for annual subscription:

• 1 year subscription (4 issues): 40 CHF instead of 60 CHF
• 2 year subscription (8 issues) : 80 CHF instead of 100 CHF

For registration, please contact sst@leagueofleadingladies.com  .
 
WorldWebForum
In January 2017, WORLDWEBFORUM proudly presents some of the most successful women in international business live on stage in Zurich.
Annually, the WorldWebForum brings together some of the greatest minds from around the globe, to exchange ideas and connect with our participants.
Alongside our top women in business, our keynote speakers include:

• Ed Catmull, Co-founder & President of Disney & Pixar Animation Studios
• Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web
• Jeff Eggers, fmr. Principal Advisor to President Barack Obama
• Frederik Pferdt, Chief Innovation Evangelist at Google
• & many more

By participating, you actively take on the challenge of digital transformation processes, meet digital leaders, and network with the "Who’s who" in cross-industrial business.
As partner of WORLDWEBFORUM, Advance Women members receive tickets at exclusive, discounted rates of -29%.
2-Day Pass (January 24-25, 2017) at CHF 980.- excl. VAT (instead of  CHF 1'380.-)
Day 1: Main conference - Keynotes, Panels, Interviews, Q&A, Networking
Day 2: Industries of the Future - Panels, Discussions, 1-on-1 Exchange
Secure your ticket now at http://worldwebforum.com/display/B2/Ticketing
As you check-out, use the Advance Women promotion code FJR7643 and benefit from this exclusive offer.