OREANDA-NEWS. April 22, 2015. Olof Faxander, President and CEO at Sandvik, spoke about the decisive role of diversity and inclusion to lead sustainable business successfully at a sustainability conference in Stockholm, Sweden.

Olof Faxander was one of the keynote speakers at the sustainability conference organized by the Swedish financial and business daily newspaper Dagens industry on April 21 in Stockholm. For a targeted audience with representatives from business, industry, politics, non-governmental organizations and sustainability executives and specialists, he described how sustainability is integrated into Sandvik's strategy and day-to-day business and how diversity and inclusion are both prerequisites and enablers for continued profitable and responsible growth.

Sandvik has been driving a strategic approach towards diversity and inclusion since 2012, and diversity and inclusion is one the areas assigned the highest priority on our sustainability agenda.

Our Group Executive Management team has today a share of 33.3% women, members from four different nationalities and an age-spread between 38 and 64 years. During the last years we have made significant progress when it comes to opening up leading positions to both women and non-Europeans. During 2014, we have increased the share of non-Europeans in the management teams of our Business Areas from 18 % (2013) to 19 % (2014). Today 28 % of our management teams in our Business Areas and Group functions are women.

Per Bolund, Minister for Financial Markets and Consumer Affairs, Gaby Vreeken, CEO for Unilever Nordic, Anna Gedda, Head of Sustainability for H&M and Jason Clay, Senior Vice President of Market Transformation, WWF were some of the other keynote speakers at the conference.