Had you had been able to join us last Thursday at the Guys Who Get It Awards in San Francisco, you would have heard our award winners inspiring us with statements like these:

“The rights of others are the responsibility of all of us.”
Legacy Award Winner Ted Childs, retired VP, Global Workforce Diversity at IBM

“Women don’t need validation from men to be powerful.”
John Simon of PG&E

 “Diversity for us is much more than a values issue or a numbers game.
It is a business imperative.”
Antonio Lucio of HP, Inc

The event was hugely successful and I am so proud of the Award Winners, our sponsors, our marketing partners, our conference planners Proper Planning, and my staff at IWL!

We even garnered a three-minute news-feature on CBS in San Francisco!

From left, Guys Who Get It Award Winners Ted Childs (Legacy Award), Rick King, Steve Coleman, IWL CEO Rayona Sharpnack, Bill Fitzsimmons, Paul Henderson (representing Mayor Ed Lee), and John Simon. Not pictured: Antonio Lucio. Photo © Steve Cozart

Here’s the complete list of our Guys Who Get It, the men who have worked to make Gender Partnership a cultural norm at their companies and advance women’s leadership. There is a link on the names of our top award winners that will tell you about them and their achievements in the service of gender equity. Thank you to ALL of them!!

LEGACY Award Winner

• TED CHILDS – Ted Childs LLC – Principal;  also Retired VP Global Workforce Diversity, IBM, who spent 39 years impacting gender equality; now an independent consultant

GUYS WHO GET IT Award Winners

• STEVE DUNMORE – Sodexo – CEO Schools, North America
• BILL FITZSIMMONS – Astellas – EVP, Regulatory Affairs, Clinical and Research Quality Assurance
• RICK KING – Thomson Reuters – EVP and Chief Information Officer, Enterprise Technology and Operations
• MAYOR ED LEE of San Francisco
• ANTONIO LUCIO – HP, Inc – Chief Marketing & Communications Officer
• JOHN SIMON – PG&E – EVP, Corporate Services and Human Resources

HONORABLE GUYS WHO GET IT Award Winners

• ROBERT BAKER – Mercer UK – Senior Partner, Global Client Director
• PAUL DAUGHERTY – Accenture – Chief Technology & Innovation Officer
• BILL DAVIDOVICH – Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation – Director, Human Resources
• DONALD DUGGAN – Bank of the West – Head of Banking Services & Chief Diversity Officer, Sr. Executive Vice President
• BILL INGHAM – Visa Europe – VP Global Human Resources
• REV. VICTOR KAZANJIAN – United Religions Initiative – Executive Director
• PRINCE KOHLI – Ericsson – SVP of Engineering and Head of Development Unit IT and Cloud,
• STEVE MASON – Cardinal Health at Home – President
• MICHAEL MATHIAS – Blue Shield of California – Senior VP and CIO,
• ULF SCHNEIDER – PAREXEL – Executive Advisor
• JORGE TITINGER – SGI – President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member
• DENNIS WOODSIDE – Dropbox – Chief Operating Officer
• TIM ZANNI – KPMG LLP – Global and US Technology Sector Leader

A key aspect of this event was for the “Guys” to share their Best Practices for Achieving Gender Partnership. We have assembled their stories and added quite a few links to best practices from publications like Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, and more.

We have posted this 20-page pdf on the IWL website so you can download it and have enduring access to it.

Let me close with a few more quotes from our “Guys Who Get It”:

“Men, what company policies do to someone else’s daughters can be done to yours.”

Legacy Award Winner Ted Childs

“Measure promotion and retention of women to ensure your programs are working.”

Rick King, Thomson Reuters

My warmest thanks and deepest gratitude to everyone who made this possible!

Rayona