A new organisation to connect, support and recognise female employees in the Packaging Industry is being launched by Joanna Stephenson and Debbie Waldron Hoines
Both are long serving women from the sector, Ms Stephenson is the former vice president of LINPAC Packaging and now managing director of PHD Marketing, and Debbie Waldron Hoines of Avant-Tout Ltd, formerly of DS Smith, is executive secretary of EFIA (The European Flexographic Industry Association).
Ms Stephenson, said, ‘We have some really great role models right across the breadth of our industry but there is a lack of opportunity for women to network, collaborate and learn. The intention is to address some of the gaps we see in networking and mentoring, as well as provide opportunities to recognize success and celebrate those who are leading our industry to show what a great sector we work in!
‘We’ve had fantastic support from a range of companies we’ve talked to, as well as industry associations, and envisage being able to deliver several events through out the year, as well as build out a mentoring and coaching programme as the initiative builds.’
The initiative is being launched at The Packaging Innovations Show at Birmingham NEC on February 26th at 12.00 at Stand F53 and the launch is being kindly hosted by Parkside Flexibles Group.
Managing director of Parkside, Nick Smith, commented, ‘Parkside prides itself on its diversity and I think the Women In Packaging initiative will be a great support to my team in enabling them to connect with their peers. We have similar programmes in the Plastics and Tobacco industries and it’s about time we engaged more in the Packaging industry too.’
Ms Waldron-Hoines said, ‘Whilst the packaging industry seems to have fairly good female representation, we don’t really know and a first job for us is to survey the industry to truly understand what our gender balance and diversity looks like.
‘From our experience we see many female employees in traditional female roles. Operators, engineers and managers are often sadly lacking, along with women in senior director roles. Hopefully by learning from those who’ve navigated their way through, we can encourage more to enter the industry and learn from each other along the way.’
If you are interested in attending the launch or joining the Women In Packaging initiative, please contact the team on womeninpackaging@gmail.com.
