International Women’s Day: Spotlight on women industry leaders

Gender balance has never been a strong suit for the air cargo industry. But on International Women’s Day 2023, Celine Hourcade, the co-founder of Women in Aviation and Logistics (WAL), says the industry reached some key milestones in 2022 and is building on those successes. [caption id="attachment_69966" align="alignleft" width="278"] Celine Hourcade, founder and managing director, Change Horizon[/caption] Hourcade, also the founder of the Swiss consulting firm Change Horizon , said a highlight of 2022 was the first WAL mentorship program, which connected 27 aspiring female professionals in air cargo with leaders who shared their experience and expertise to help the mentees progress in their careers or address specific professional objectives. “The program, which ran from January to June 2022, was a success and fueled future development of WAL’s activities overall,” Hourcade said. “Among key achievements, mentees reported that they had sharpened their leadership skills, expanded their net-work, been given opportunities to speak at industry conferences and, in one case, successfully transitioned to a management role." Following the success of the program, WAL was established as an association in July 2022 to provide a framework for structured business partnerships and collaborations. Read more about the role of women in air cargo and logistics The work is cut out for them. Air Cargo Next reported last November that in 2021, of the 1.2 million people registered as civil airmen who were not students, only 248,448 — or around 21% — were women. Of 108,206 commercial pilots, 8,421 were women, just 8%. At the same time, the International Air Transport Association estimated that of its 297 member airlines, 24 were led by female chief executives or managing directors, or around 8%. But that’s up from the 3% IATA estimated led their companies in 2019. “We can only be stronger together, and collaboration has been at the core of WAL’s values since the beginning when the initiative was launched by two very different firms — Change Horizon, which supports aviation and logistics organizations with their transformation programs, and a B2B PR consultancy Meantime Communications,” Hourcade said. The second edition of the WAL mentorship program, which has added Airblox, Strike Aviation and IBS Software as sponsors, is set to launch March 15. Fifty participants have registered for the four-month mentoring experience, Hourcade said, drawn from key air cargo airlines, airports, freight forwarders, GSAs, IT solution providers and trade associations. In addition, six former mentees will serve as mentors this year. As part of its mission, WAL monitors gender balance at industry conferences, tracking the ratio of female speakers as an indicator. Of 726 speaking opportunities at eight global conferences focused on aviation, logistics and supply chain, WAL found that 133 (18%) were given by women. One event did not have a single female among its 24 speakers. “Hats off to the Air Cargo Conference organized by the Airforwarders Association for its 35% ratio,” Hourcade said. “WAL’s female expert database was built in 2021 to help event organizers as well as companies looking to diversify their workforce to find the right women professionals based on their expertise and experience. “As WAL is one of the very few initiatives addressing our industry, we want to make it stronger with better solutions, like the enhanced expert database and mentorship program, as well as promoting greater awareness through quality data and facts. We are looking for more partnership opportunities and invite all companies willing to join the movement to join forces with us,” she said.

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