Smurfit Kappa CEO joins the Alliance #CEOPorLaDiversidad that promotes diversity and inclusion.

The CEO of Smurfit Kappa Spain | Portugal | Morocco, Ignacio Sevillano, is one 60 CEOs of large companies operating in Spain that have signed the Alliance #CEOPorLaDiversidad, led by the Adecco Foundation and the CEOE Foundation to promote diversity policies in their companies. An initiative whose mission is to unite members around a common and innovative vision of diversity, equity and inclusion (De&I), so that they act as drivers and ambassadors for the development of strategies that contribute to business excellence, the competitiveness of talent and the reduction of inequality and exclusion in Spanish society.

The formal signing of this initiative was carried out at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid under the honorary role of Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain with the Minister of Employment, Migration and Social Security, Magdalena Valerio Cordero. Also present were Antonio Garamendi, president of the CEOE; Enrique Sánchez, president of the Adecco Foundation; and José Isaías Rodríguez, Patron of the Adecco Foundation.

The 60 CEOs that join this Alliance “recognise” diversity, equity and inclusion as fundamental values that enrich companies and strengthen their competitiveness. They commit to promoting diversity strategies in their companies, to involve their Steering Committees and to create a common vision of diversity.

Ignacio Sevillano says that “being a leader in a great company like Smurfit Kappa requires making decisions that have an impact on thousands of people in our country. For this reason, valuing diversity and its inclusion helps us make better decisions and make our companies have greater value for societyand to be more competitive and sustainable. Diversity is the only thing we all have in common, so we want everyone to know and take full advantage of the opportunities offered by our differences. We all have something to contribute, so in our company we encourage the necessary confidence to develop our talent ”.

Francisco Mesonero, General Director of the Adecco Foundation, adds that “the challenge is to raise diversity as the essence of a new leadership paradigm and inclusive business strategy. If we know how to take advantage of it and manage it properly, we will create more competitive businesses in a global framework”. While Enrique Sánchez points out that “companies have a basic role to contribute to the well-being of all people in our society. Dignity is a fundamental value for our foundation on which any business decision should be articulated ”.

Antonio Garamendi, President of CEOE, affirms that “the objective of these companies is that we don't have to talk about diversity and inclusion because they are already part of our DNA. For this, the key is to put people at the centre of the company. When we talk about SDG, we talk about people, and 70% of these objectives are the responsibility of companies.”

Magdalena Valerio, Minister of Employment, Migration and Social Security, underlines that this alliance “reinforces and confirms the role that the management of companies has in promoting the strategies of Diversity and Inclusion from senior management, through research, the exchange, promotion and good business practices ”. For Magdalena Valerio, these strategies are fundamental to “achieve the objectives related to work, which dignifies and allows the development of one's own abilities and is respect labour principles and rights without discrimination of gender or any other kind”.

Smurfit Kappa has a global program of inclusion and diversity (R&D), where the objective is to celebrate the global and multicultural nature of its workforce. This is the ‘EveryOne’ initiative, launched in Europe and America, which encourages its employees to participate in the creation of an even more inclusive work environment. An initiative that seeks to achieve the inclusion and diversity of its workers and has just expanded to support people with disabilities. In this way, it has established an agreement with the Irish University Trinity College Dublin to work with the Trinity Center for People with Intellectual Disabilities (TCPID), with the aim of promoting the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in education and society.

It has a well-established  "Open Leadership" program for the development of managers, based on principles such as self-knowledge, learning and the positive aspects of diversity.