FROM THE INDUSTRY
Why is your term as president only a year? In order to be elected to president, one has to be elected to the board first. Those board places last two years, and it’s possible to be on the board for two terms, which means a board member can be on the board for four years. The presidency is elected every year, but if you’re on the board for four years, it’s possible to be the president for four years. It’s important to establish the mandate from the members. We are a member-led organisation, and so it’s important to have that mandate on a yearly basis. There is nothing stopping me applying again next year! It must be demanding on your time. The council’s objectives are so fully aligned with Corning’s objectives, ie to connect the unconnected, the FTTH Council wants 100% fast fibre broadband in Europe. There is work to do, but it’s building in what I do, anyway. If I don’t run again, I won’t stop working with the council. Advocating for gender representation in the industry, diversity, equity and inclusion is at the core of my practice; it is for the success of the industry. Are you able to leverage your position as president to help advance that mission? Being a visible female leader is really important. When I started in the industry, there were very few female leaders, and they tended to stay under the radar; they weren’t visible. It is important for emerging talent to see somebody who is a visible advocate, because what matters to the success of our industry is that we harness talent, whatever they look like and wherever they come from. To feel included, people have got to feel safe, and part of that safety comes from seeing these visible representations of inclusion, which means leading by example.
The more women there are doing roles like yours, the more it normalises it, and then it’s not exceptional to strive and to see yourself in that role in the future. I would go even a step further and say that representation is one thing, but leaders, and not just female leaders, but male leaders, as well, making sure that they are a visible ally is really important for inclusion. A lot has changed and for the better. The advice you hear now is clear: “Get yourself a sponsor. Find yourself some male allies. Ensure that you’ve got a mentor from early on.” I never had that advice when I started working. I was just winging it, and I was winging it all through my 20s. I was winging it, too, Melissa. To see a diversity of people succeeding and doing it in a way that’s authentic to themselves is really important. When I was younger, I had an idea about what a female engineer was, and I wanted to act like that ideal. Wonder where that came from? There were so few role models. There were only a few ways of being a successful female leader, and so you wanted to be like that. One of the things that I try and do is to be very visible, but also simultaneously be very much myself so that people feel empowered to be successful in the way that they are in how they are. That’s what diversity and equity inclusion in practice looks like. It means that people can be successful and can contribute successfully to companies whilst maintaining their own authenticity, what is authentic to themselves.
That’s a recent breakthrough and a welcome one for anyone in the workplace. We recently did a workshop at the FTTH Conference in Berlin. I was so delighted by it; various companies talked about their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Ultimately it boiled down to reducing barriers, enabling people to bring their full selves to work, to contribute to their maximum. Reducing barriers in what way? Companies are now saying, if you’ve got children, okay, we recognise that’s significant. We’re going to try and reduce barriers so that you don’t have to reduce your hours in order to be able to work for us. You don’t have be a certain way in order to work for us. You can contribute to your maximum. That was the message of optimism for me. Times have really changed and for the better in that respect and you are championing this very effectively. Best of luck as President of the FTTH Council Europe Roshene!
www.ftthcouncil.eu
DECEMBER 2024 Volume 46 No.4
79
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