This week's Woman to Follow is Siobhan Moriarty, a fighter for gender diversity.
Diageo is known for supporting women in their company and has always shown a good track record on female leadership, being an example to follow when it comes to gender diversity matters. Siobhan Moriarty is Diageo's General Counselor and the driver of this environment inside the company. She has been featured in 2017 FT and HERoes ‘50 Female Champions of Women in Business’ list.
Because of this and more, we think it is a woman that you ought to know about - a role model to follow.
Drama queen court
Moriarty was born in Ireland and when she was 16 she decided she would study law, after she got enchanted by the idea of being in a court room. She enjoyed that 'dramatic side of the law'. In the lates 80s she moved to London as she wanted to broaden her work experience, only for a few years, but she never went back. Before joining Diageo in 1997, she worked at the law firm Clifford Chance for seven years. She had several roles in the company and finally became General Counsel in 2013.
She shows passion in what she does: "One of my most significant achievements in business has been to be an effective female leader at Diageo and be able to contribute to and progress our diversity and inclusion agenda," she tells.
In an article she wrote for the Guardian she explains why Diageo believes gender diversity in business is so important: "Our approach to gender diversity is driven by one core belief: winners in global business will be those with diverse leadership teams."
They have managed to create a level of diversity not only in the board but also in their executive committee. Of those that run the business day-to-day 40% are female. And they are looking to improve more for 2020 at entry levels, to create better leaders of the future.
Encouraging girls What worries Moriarty a lot is the "unconscious bias" – how women put limits to themselves thinking they are not capable enough or that they don't have the skills or experience for a role. This tends to happen making women dismiss the chance of applying.
Therefore, she suggests that young girls at primary school should be encouraged from an early stage to avoid this feelings in adulthood.
"I really believe that we need to be doing more to encourage girls early on in life to be confident and pursue their goals. We need to encourage them to take STEM subjects, put themselves forward for opportunities and believe that one day they can be leading a FTSE 100 or even a FTSE 10 company," she said in an interview with Diageo.
There's always time for some fun and dreams
Working at Diageo implies lots of reading and hardwork, but Moriarty enjoys it a lot, and she assures they never forget to have fun.
"I think there’s a sense of underlying fun in this business," she said in an interview with GC Magazine. "And a sense of purpose. I think we have a clear and compelling vision, the leaders of the business have clear goals, and people tend to understand them, to work towards them and to help the business achieve them," she added.
In her free time she is a woman just like you and me, she likes to do yoga to stay fit, read and go skiing with her husband during holidays. If she ever changes career she dreams of opening an art gallery.