ACE Awards

Fairfield, NJ (13 August 2024) — To showcase the impactful commitment and outcomes of equitable practices for women in the workplace, the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) today announced that Takeda, Roche Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and UCB will be recognized for game-changing initiatives to further the advancement and impact of women in the healthcare and life science industries. The ACE Awards will be presented on 24 September, in conjunction with the HBA’s 25th Annual Conference in Toronto. HBA’s Advancement. Commitment. Engagement (ACE) Awards recognize companies committed to ensuring that leadership opportunities for women are part of their organizational DNA. An independent panel of healthcare industry leaders selects ACE Award recipients for their excellence in advancing their female talent and removing the systemic barriers preventing timely progress to parity. Award criteria include measurable results, business performance, stewardship, execution, and sustainability.

“As a United Force for Change, the HBA is honored to celebrate these global industry champions for their conviction and progressive approach to helping women reach their full potential through their respective workplace initiatives,” said Mary Stutts, CEO, HBA. “These programs align with HBA’s vision of advancing women into positions of influence and decision-making that ultimately will help improve health equity and outcomes for women around the world.”

About the 2024 ACE Winners

Takeda: A Trailblazer in Gender Equity

Takeda, a leading, values-based R&D-driven global biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan, is recognized for its pioneering Gender Equity Strategy: "Paving the Way for a Diverse and Inclusive Future."

Key achievements include:

· Increased Representation: As of the end of fiscal year 2023, female representation among senior most leaders increased to 46 percent (up 15 percent from fiscal year 2022). This increase represents strong progress towards Takeda achieving their aspiration to have 50 percent representation by female leaders among our senior most leaders by the end of fiscal year 2027.

· Strategic Actions to Foster Inclusivity: Cross-cultural leadership development, intentional focus on the efforts of the gender parity employee resource group, and inclusive benefits to meet the needs of underrepresented populations such as LGBTQ+ and non-binary employees, directly addressing long-held gender stereotypes.

· Talent Pipeline Development: Implementation of the HBA Ambassador Program across Takeda's global locations, providing development opportunities for underrepresented talent from entry- to mid-levels of the organization.

Takeda embraces and celebrates diversity, while striving to give patients and their people equitable access to opportunities that help them achieve their full potential. Supporting gender parity, this has placed Takeda in Equileap’s 2024 Gender Equality Report & Ranking in Japan for the third consecutive year within the top 100 companies globally.

Roche and Genentech: Elevating Women’s Healthcare Worldwide

Introduced in 2023, the ACE Aspire Award is presented to Roche and Genentech for their groundbreaking “Elevating Women’s Healthcare Around the World” program. This award honors innovative, early-stage programs built on solid strategies and metrics valuable to the healthcare ecosystem.

As a global leader in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, Roche and its U.S. affiliate Genentech partnered on the launch of this transformative program in 2020 to address critical gaps in care and improve access to medical innovations for women. Given that women are the majority of the global healthcare workforce, addressing and removing women’s health barriers positively impacts the health of all societies. Notable milestones include:

● Transforming Women’s Health: Redefined women's health as improving health outcomes for all conditions that predominantly, exclusively, or differently affect women. Engaged global employees and external collaborators to reshape health systems and advance solutions across conditions, including multiple sclerosis and breast, cervical, and lung cancers, among others.

● Catalyzing Meaningful Change: Created a collective movement through XProject, a long-term commitment and ongoing initiative to drive meaningful change through partnerships, funding, and action to help close the gaps in women’s health for better health outcomes for everyone.

● Improving Health for Employees: Elevated the health of women employees worldwide through training on self-advocacy, awareness days, cancer and biometric screenings, wellness exams, and pioneering menopause support in the U.S. and the U.K.

Roche and Genentech’s commitment to women’s health is driven by senior leaders and bolstered by extensive collaborations, embedding women’s health across its business strategy and setting new benchmarks for the industry.

UCB: A Decade of Transformational Impact

UCB receives an Honorable Mention for its “A Decade of Transformational Impact with Women in Leadership (WiL) Employee Resource Group (ERG)” program. As a global biopharmaceutical company focused on creating valuable solutions that make improvements to the lives of people living with neurological and autoimmune conditions, UCB celebrates more than 10 years of its Women in Leadership ERG.

Since its inception in 2012, the WiL has grown to more than 700 members globally, representing 16 percent of UCB’s workforce. WiL fosters diverse perspectives, driving innovation and agility within UCB by contributing to corporate initiatives such as the company’s Women of Childbearing Age strategy. WiL’s efforts have led to improvements in gender diversity, including a 12 percent reduction in the median gender pay gap in the U.K. since 2017.

The companies and initiatives recognized by HBA’s ACE Awards join an elite group of organizations committed to fostering programs that deliver impactful and measurable results for industry women. Throughout the year, the award-winning initiatives are highlighted across HBA’s extensive network. A list of previous ACE Award recipients is available here.

About the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association: The Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) is a global organization dedicated to furthering the advancement and impact of women in the business of healthcare. With representation in countries across the globe, the HBA serves a community of more than 85,000 individuals and 150 Corporate Partners. The HBA provides networking forums to build relationships; knowledge sharing and access to thought leaders to broaden perspective; educational programs to develop leadership skills; and high-profile industry recognition of outstanding women and companies to promote visibility of their achievements