Bringing together nearly 250 professionals, the event invited Turkey's most-read woman writer and award-winning novelist, Elif Safak, along with Véronique de la Bachelerie, CEO Société Générale Bank & Trust Luxembourg, to discuss the current issues related to diversity and gender equality.

Véronique de la Bachelerie, also the president and co-founder of ‘Féminin by Société Générale’, examined the Luxembourg scene and discussed the importance of equality to enhance the potential of the talent pool. During her speech, she shared future projections of equality in regards to management positions, reviewed the origin of bias opinions and how to overcome them. 

As one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Turkish and world literature, guest speaker Elif Safak presented her views on the role of socially engaged business women through her speech ‘Is there room in the corporate world for imagination?’. Drawing a parallel between emerging countries with a fast growing economy and western countries, Elif Safak discussed the multiplicity of voices, cultures and backgrounds and how she believes fiction ties them together.

“Although future projections are positive, with a greater number of women in top management positions, there is still much progress to be achieved,” concludes Emmanuelle Miette, audit partner and leader of the WoMen Initiative at Deloitte Luxembourg. “At Deloitte, our WoMen Initiative has been put in place to ensure gender balance and we are proud to say that we currently have a 47% female and 53% male workforce. In addition, we have worked alongside the ‘Ministère de l’Egalité des Chances’ to attain the ‘Actions Positives’ accreditation, ensuring that the right measures are put forth to establish equality. Cultural and gender diversity are an integral part of our business model and we believe that this gives us a real competitive advantage. This allows a better leverage on growth and innovation while creating a motivating and healthy environment.”