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Diageos Syl Saller awarded CBE in New Year Honours List

Diageo's Syl Saller awarded CBE in New Year Honours List

 January 07, 2020

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Inspirational leader Syl Saller, Diageo's Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer, has been awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours List for services to business and equality in the workplace.

Throughout her long career at Diageo, Syl has consistently developed brand strategies to fuel growth and business performance. She has successfully led global marketing and innovation strategy through a period of significant transformation for the company.

Making an impact at Diageo and beyond

In Syl's industry roles: as President of the Marketing Society; board member for the Women’s Prize for Fiction; Trustee of the Marketing Academy; and member of the executive board of the World Federation of Advertisers, she has also become a leading voice to drive change and enable greater diversity within the creative industries.

Syl has been a catalyst behind Diageo’s support of the Creative Equals Creative Comeback program to support women returning to the creative industries following a career break, as well as work with the UN Women convened Unstereotype Alliance to produce a co-authored industry wide playbook for gender portrayal in advertising. As President of the Marketing Society, Syl has helped lead an industry agenda on ‘Brave Leadership’ enabling candid discussions on equality, confidence and mental health in business.

Driving progressive gender portrayal

Syl leads Diageo’s drive for progressive gender portrayal in advertising and, together with her executive colleagues, and is instrumental in the company’s work to champion inclusion and diversity through market-leading policies and practices. Diageo was ranked the number one business globally for gender equality in the Equileap Gender Equality Report; the number two business globally in the Refinitiv Diversity & Inclusion index; and is included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index.

Well-deserved recognition for Syl

“This is a proud day for Syl and for Diageo. This award is well-deserved recognition for Syl’s leadership and her tireless work to grow our people and our brands. Syl has long been a passionate advocate for equality and I know this honour will encourage her to achieve even more progress on diversity within the creative industries," said Ivan Menezes, CEO, Diageo.

This honour is testament to the incredible people at Diageo and in the external organisations that I am privileged to work with. I hope that our commitment to creating an environment where people can truly flourish, grow themselves and their businesses while working to accelerate equality makes a real difference to our industry," Syl commented.

Join inspirational women like Syl at Diageo

Women like Syl are making a huge difference through their work at Diageo.

If you want to be part of an inclusive company, search and apply for Diageo job vacancies today.

 

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Disclosure: Where Women Work researches and publishes insightful evidence about how its paid member organizations support women's equality.


                       

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