About Women in Leadership Initiative

Women in Leadership is an EHL initiative with a focus on projects regarding women, and on a wider scale the initiative aims to promote leadership, culture, and policies that foster diverse, balanced, and people-focused environments. It strives so that our students, faculty, staff, and alumni can lead fulfilled professional and personal lives.

Given the substantial untapped female leadership potential across the world, we believe that women aspiring to create a positive impact in organizations and society should be empowered to attain their vision and contribute to leadership diversity.
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Themes Covered

  • Leadership diversity and inclusion
  • Women in hospitality, women and entrepreneurship
  • Networking, mentoring, coaching, championing women
  • Flexible work arrangements, managing work and family, parenthood
  • Talent management, pay equity, sexual harassment
  • Women’s careers, dual-career couples, expatriation

The WIL Initiative Promotes

INFORMATION: by raising awareness, disseminating state-of-the-art knowledge, debating ‘off-limits’ topics and sharing experiences and best practices

ACTION: by accompany promising individuals for growth, expanding network and opportunities for development, developing tailored solutions for companies, and creating innovative women-related projects

The WIL Team

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Dr. Carole Ackerman

President of the Board of Directors of the EHL Group

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Dr. Sowon Kim

Associate Professor at EHL
WIL Founder

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Noémie Danthine 

Chief Sustainability Hospitality Services Officer
WIL ELT Lead 
WIL Core Team

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Ana McFee

Business Development Sr Manager
WIL Events Lead
WIL Core Team

 

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Catherine Rey

Head of Business Development & Sales
WIL Buddies Lead
WIL Core Team

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Beatrice Schweighauser

Director of Academic Programs at Passugg Campus
WIL Campus Lead
WIL Core Team

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Vanessa Balouzet

Chief Growth Office Officer

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Natalia Bovsovers-Carette

Lecturer of hotel management 

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Meloney Brazzola 

Chief Corporate Communication Officer
WIL Ad hoc Project Lead

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Emily Brun

Career Business Partner

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Alessandra Maigre

Spiritual Counselor

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Barbara Martin

Head of Student Affairs

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Romane Petit

Junior Consultant

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Anne-Laure Rey

Head of Sustainability

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Julneth Rogenhofer

Research Assistant 

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Morgane Scannapieco

Career Business Partner

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Insa Thalau

Head of Management Workshops & Seminars

WIL Friends

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Fiorella Erni

Founder and CEO of Cheetah Stories SA
AEHL 2020
WIL AEHL Circle Lead

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WIL Projects

In 2021, WIL launched WIL Buddies with the aim to create opportunities to be inspired by our female colleagues, develop women professionally and personally, and to simply connect, express, and share with comfort. WIL Buddies e-Coffees is a space for us to discover the amazing women we have at EHL, to listen and to be heard, to learn from each other and grow together. There are 20 e-Coffee sessions throughout the calendar year.
  • In 2021, WIL launched Young Hôtelières Insights (YHI) together with HoteliersGuild, IUBH University of Applied Sciences (Germany) and Institut Paul Bocuse (France). YHI is space dedicated for aspiring female hospitality leaders where they can contribute to our industry with their reflections, ideas, trends and hot topics as viewed by their generation. A compilation of these inputs are featured in the associated communication channels with the aim to develop the professional visibility of our top female students in a network of established hôtelières/hoteliers.

  • In 2020, Prof. Dr. Kim was invited to Co-Chair LeadingHôtelières with, Considerate Group Founding Partner Xenia zu Hohenlohe. Founded by President and CEO of HoteliersGuild Frank M. Pfaller and co-founded by Preferred Hotels & Resorts CEO Lindsey Ueberroth, LeadingHôtelières is a collective of senior industry specialists and academics campaigning for increased female leadership in the hospitality and travel sector. LeadingHôtelières believes that improved gender equality at executive level is the key to our industry's future and are committed to driving positive change through demonstrating academic research, building sponsorship and like-minded networks, transforming design and development strategies, and engaging communication.

  • In fall 2019, WIL designed and launched the Sexual Harassment Prevention (SHP) Initiative in collaboration with Academic Advisory (Student Affairs) to educate, protect, and empower students on this sensitive topic, which is a plague in the hospitality sector. SHP is one of the very few bottom-up, transversal projects at EHL that has been able to raise awareness across different departments and engage with multiple internal stakeholders in a large-scale collaboration. Through SHP, over 3000 students have been trained on this topic via our external partner, the Non-Violence Project Foundation. SHP is a three-tiered intervention method (mandatory for students) that covers the entire bachelor program.

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WIL Partnerships

In 2022 EHL became the Founding University Sponsor of TIEWN, the Travel Industry Executive Women's Network. Founded in 2008 for the purpose of bringing executives and professionals who currently or recently have worked in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries, TIEWN counts with over 12’000 members. As part of this collaboration TIEWN showcases EHL as its founding sponsor across multiple channels, including their website, events, and press releases. TIEWN also addresses program elements such as surveys and webinars/presentations with EHL, highlighting programs for potential recruits including Masters Programs. Contributing to deepening connections with like-minded women that are both professional and on the executive level and looking to expand their knowledge is an important area of interest and ongoing research that both EHL and TIEWN are committed to. Along with, this both organisations are also constantly striving to expand their knowledge in the subject of diversity inclusion and belonging.

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In 2021 WIL announced a Friendly Partnership with FEM’UP - a network that aims to connect diverse women from different industries and foster a regular and interesting exchange of know-how and individual experiences, to inspire, support, and empower. Benefits for EHL community includes a 15% discount at selected FEM'EVENTS (check their social media for events and ask us the discount code) and free registration to their member-only event FEM'UP Thursdays at Coffee Bar Black in ZU.

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Related Publications in Hospitality Insights