ILLOVO Sugar Africa has announced the establishment of a Group Millennial Board, the first board of its kind for a Southern African sugar company.
Commenting on the development, Group Managing Director Gavin Dalgleish said the invitation to permanent employees aged between 18 and 38 received an overwhelming response with more than 100 high quality video and presentation applications received.
“I was particularly impressed by the enthusiasm displayed by potential candidates throughout the process; I can assure you it was no easy task to select the final board members out of so many convincing and innovative applications,” said Dalgleish.
- The process was guided by those submissions which aligned most strongly with the stated “2018 Millennial Board Challenge” which is to define how Illovo Sugar Africa might improve the way it engages all stakeholders and create an actionable plan that entrenches the Illovo Brand across Africa. Applications that demonstrated a clear and solution-oriented stance to the challenge, and displayed enthusiasm and innovation in their approach, were the ones that quickly rose to the top.
To ensure there was no company or personal bias, the selection process was conducted independently by partners, Springage by Deloitte, and guided by the following criteria:
- Dynamism – enthusiastic and driven, contributing to anything significant outside of work, or making extraordinary progress in work and outside of work
- Opinionated – willing to challenge the status quo and has a strong assertive opinion about the challenge topic
- Confidence – confidence in their ability to lead and an optimistic outlook
- Passion/Enthusiasm– has strong feelings or belief in the challenge topic, displays a positive attitude and vigour
- Attitude – Expectant view of Illovo Sugar Africa and the future of the company
- Entrepreneurial mindset – seeks out opportunities during uncertain times to maintain and grow the business
- Current context – awareness of what is happening in the organisation, world of sugar with the view of what we need to do to stay ahead.
Dalgleish congratulated the board, which held its first meeting recently, and said he looked forward to engaging with its directors in meeting the 2018 Challenge. The board will meet four times a year; have direct access to executive members of staff both at a group and country-business level and to company financial and operational information.