Wind industry intelligence service A Word About Wind launches its first Women’s Power List. The report aims to promote and celebrate the contribution of the female dealmakers and power-brokers shaping the wind industry’s development. It profiles the top 100 women within the sector and provides first-hand insights into nominees’ career successes.
The Women’s Power List aims to highlight the achievements of women within the wind industry, in the hope of attracting more women to the sector.
“Issues surrounding gender equality have wider repercussions for the wind industry as a whole,” commented Richard Heap, Editor at A Word About Wind. “If businesses within the wind industry are struggling to recruit from half the population, or unable to retain talented female employees, then that’s a serious problem.”
Across technology and finance industries as a whole, women remain significantly under-represented at senior management and board level. The wind sector is no different in this regard, and this has been reflected in the low number of women included in A Word About Wind’s Top 100 Power People reports, published annually over the last five years.
Significantly, the report cites two primary reasons why this is the case. Firstly, the wind industry draws heavily on engineering and finance graduates – both of which are male-dominated subjects. And secondly, company policies within the sector, as in others, mean firms can struggle to retain women after they become parents.
While resolving these two crucial issues is beyond the scope of such a report, the Women’s Power List aims to highlight the achievements of women within the wind industry, in the hope of attracting more women to the sector.
“With the Women’s Power List we’ve aimed to highlight and discuss the underlying issues affecting women in our industry, as well as celebrate the achievements and exciting careers of some of the leading female investors, developers and engineers in the field,” said Heap.
The report profiles the top 100 women currently working in the wind industry, with each candidate having been nominated by her peers, and then assessed and ranked by an independent judging panel made up of senior industry representatives. In addition to the rankings, the Women’s Power List features in-depth and exclusive interviews with a number of those included.
“This new power list highlights the important role women are now playing in the wind industry. The UK is one of the leading performers in the rankings, which is an encouraging sign that our sector is becoming more inclusive,” said Emma Pinchbeck, RenewableUK’s Executive Director.
“We need to ensure that women across the country see wind energy as an open and attractive industry to work in. This means promoting renewable skills and opportunities to a new generation of women entering the workforce.”
Carol Gould, Managing Director and Head of Power and Renewables at MUFG, discusses the power project finance deals in which she’s been involved, how she expects the market to develop with the move to competitive auctions, and the challenges for women in the banking sector. Christina Grumstrup Sørensen comments on issues including flexible working and parental leave, as well as how she became interested in engineering and her role as a Senior Partner at Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
In addition, Sophie Cherrier, Director at Green Giraffe, speaks about the large offshore deals in which she’s been involved, and how best to bring more women into the fold within the wind industry.
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