New York, USA and Bangalore, India - March 7, 2014:
T.K. Kurien, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board, Wipro Limited, was recognized today as a recipient of the 2014 Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) Leadership Award – Cultural Change for Empowerment for Wipro’s proactive commitment to gender equality throughout its business operations developing innovative programs that respond to women's multiple responsibilities and societal expectations. The WEPs Leadership Awards recognize CEOs for their exceptional championship of gender equality and support for the seven Principles, in particular Principle One, which urges companies to establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality.
Presented at United Nations Headquarters during the Women’s Empowerment Principles annual event, Gender Equality and the Global Jobs Challenge, the awards highlight the implementation of the 7 Principles that advance and empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community.
T.K. Kurien, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board, Wipro Limited said, “Creating an inclusive and non-discriminatory workplace is very close to our heart and we take immense pride in being a strong advocate of the same. We believe in creating an inclusive environment aimed at helping women executives realize their career ambitions. This recognition is an acknowledgement of our efforts in this direction and I am honored to receive this award on behalf of Wipro.”
He added, “Wipro has crafted a segmented approach towards gender diversity that ties in women-friendly policies suited to various life stages of the employee. This in turn would enable greater participation of women at more levels of management, and Wipro would benefit from the resultant vibrancy of greater diversity. It is this diversity, which makes us a multi-faceted and multi-skilled workplace where people from different backgrounds bring in new perspectives.”
Wipro has instituted gender equity effort around the three themes of Exposure, Flexibility and Empowerment. The “Women of Wipro” (WOW) program, launched in 2008, is a strategic enabler that promotes equal opportunity and gender equality within Wipro. Over the last five years, WOW initiatives have helped nurture an equal opportunity culture, support the career ambitions of women executives, and facilitate greater business participation by women leaders at different levels within the organization.
With 250 leaders from business, civil society, Government and the UN looking on, the awards ceremony emphasized that gender equality and women’s economic empowerment are essential drivers in the race to expand economies worldwide, benefitting both men and women. As the private sector is the engine driving 90 percent of today’s jobs, addressing chronic gender equality must be a top priority for the business community, as well as other stakeholders.
“Meeting the global jobs challenge with approaches that ensure fairness for women and men is central to the business, gender equality and post-2015 development agendas. Indeed, success is interdependent,” said Georg Kell, UN Global Compact Executive Director. “We’re very pleased that so many companies are embracing the WEPs and helping to expand opportunities for women in the global job market and eliminate gender job discrimination.”
Nearly 700 CEOs, representing a global group of leading corporations, have already made a public commitment to support and implement the WEPs. These organizations recognize the economic and social benefits of women’s empowerment – empowering women is not only the right thing to do, it makes sound business sense. A number of national WEPs stakeholder groups have also formed in countries as diverse as Japan, Serbia, Australia, South Africa, Switzerland, Vietnam, New Zealand, Iceland, India, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Turkey, to develop projects to implement the WEPs tailored for their priorities.
About Wipro Ltd.
Wipro Ltd. (NYSE:WIT) is a leading Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing company that delivers solutions to enable its clients do business better. Wipro delivers winning business outcomes through its deep industry experience and a 360 degree view of "Business through Technology" - helping clients create successful and adaptive businesses. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, a practitioner's approach to delivering innovation, and an organization wide commitment to sustainability, Wipro has a workforce of 140,000 serving clients across 61 countries. For more information, please visit www.wipro.com.
About the Women’s Empowerment Principles
The Women's Empowerment Principles – Equality Means Business is a joint initiative of UN Women and the UN Global Compact. The Principles outline seven steps for business on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. The Principles highlight that empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors and throughout all levels of economic activity is essential to build strong economies; establish more stable and just societies; achieve internationally agreed goals for development, sustainability, and human rights; improve quality of life for women, men, families and communities; and propel business' operations and goals. Learn more at www.weprinciples.org.
About the 2014 WEPs Leadership Awards
The 6th Annual Women’s Empowerment Principles meeting inaugurates the WEPs Leadership Award to salute CEO commitment and innovation to realize gender equality. The Awards highlight concrete and innovative actions taken to advance the 7 Principles, and particularly showcases Principle One: Leadership Promotes Gender Equality. The WEPs Leadership Awards Committee is composed of members of the WEPs Leadership Group, a multi-stakeholder volunteer body that provides strategic guidance to the WEPs partnership of the UN Women and the UN Global Compact. It represents business, academia, civil society, women’s organizations and international institutions.
Wipro Media Contacts:
Vipin Nair
Wipro Limited
+91 80 39916260
vipin.nair1@wipro.com
Subhashini Pattabhiraman
Wipro Limited
+91 80 39916558
subhashini.pattabhiraman@wipro.com
Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements
Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in our earnings, revenue and profits, our ability to generate and manage growth, intense competition in IT services, our ability to maintain our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which we make strategic investments, withdrawal of fiscal governmental incentives, political instability, war, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property, and general economic conditions affecting our business and industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. We may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf.
