The launch meeting was held at HUP headquarters and was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts, Martina Dalic, and executives of many companies. Also present, as a special guest, was Victor G. Dodig, president of the 30% Club in Canada and CEO of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, who initiated the launch of this club in Croatia.
Dodig, a Canadian of Croatian descent, is a staunch advocate of gender equality and of employing talented women in executive roles.
The 30% Club has made considerable success in the world, and with this initiative Croatia is joining world leaders, Dodig said, adding that he would like the Croatian economy to grow stronger.
The proportion of women in corporate management is below 30 percent and that should be changed, because including women is good for business and for the quality of living throughout Croatia, he said.
Dodig said that Canada's 30% Club has about 200 members already, which makes it among the strongest in the world.
Dalic said that the Croatian government supported this initiative and advocated stronger representation of women in top managerial positions through its activities to achieve a ratio of at least 30 percent on the management boards of companies.
"This initiative effectively underlines the problem of equality, as well as the HUP's readiness to promote women to management and supervisory boards. The HUP is the most qualified to do this also because it is led by a woman," Dalic said and called for equal pay for men and women.
Dalic said she agreed with Dodig that gender-balanced management boards bring more balanced business. "Although I myself am not a big advocate of quotas, because 30 percent signals some kind of a limit, right now it is important that we move towards this target," she said.
HUP president Gordana Deranja, citing data from the Zagreb Stock Exchange for 2017, said that only 17 percent of women sit on the management and supervisory boards of companies whose stocks are included in the Crobex index, while the number of companies who have no women on their boards had increased by seven percentage points to as many as 55 percent last year.
Deranja said that the HUP was advocating greater involvement of women in corporate management, adding that in that way Croatia could improve its positions in the EU and global economic rankings.
Canadian Ambassador Daniel Maksymiuk said that the Canadian prime minister had an equal number of men and women working in his office.
After three years in Croatia, I see a chance to change this situation in Croatia as well and I believe that Croatia is ready for the 30% Club because women are equal to men in every sense and that should also be visible in their positions in society and work, Maksymiuk said.
Presidents of the boards of various companies, such as Pliva, MPG, Ericsson Nikola Tesla and IN2, spoke about the experience and views of women in managerial roles.
The initiative was backed by 14 Croatian companies.
The 30% Club launched as a campaign in the United Kingdom in 2010 with a goal of achieving a minimum of 30% women on FTSE-100 boards. The figure currently stands at about 29%, compared to 12.5% when the campaign was launched.