Beca’s New Zealand MD, Darryl-Lee Wendelborn, to join panel at UN Commission on Status of Women

Darryl-Lee Wendelborn, Managing Director of Beca NZ Ltd, will join a panel of influential women from across New Zealand and the Pacific, at the 63rd session of the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women in early March. 

The Panel will look at access to STEM education and infrastructure careers for women and girls in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Chaired by Saunoamaali’I Karanina Sumeo, Commissioner for Equal Employment Opportunities, Women’s Rights and SOGISC, New Zealand Human Rights Commission, the panel will discuss successful case studies of programmes recruiting girls into STEM careers, the challenges to retain women, progress to senior leadership for women in these sectors and how barriers can be overcome to empower women.  

Beca and EY are also sponsoring Alexia Hilbertidou, Chief Executive, GirlBoss to attend and to participate in the panel. GirlBoss NZ’s mission is to close the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, maths, entrepreneurship and leadership and to support more girls in becoming CEOs.

Darryl-Lee says, “As Managing Director of New Zealand’s largest professional services consultancy, I am passionate about seeing more women in management and leading technical roles across our industry.  We know that diversity has a measurable impact on performance – different perspectives bring the best solutions to any challenge – and diversity is crucial to the future of innovation in New Zealand and the Pacific.  Personally, I have built a great career in this sector and want to support as many other women as possible in developing a successful, satisfying careers in science and engineering.”

The panellists are:

• Renee Graham, Chief Executive, Ministry for Women (NZ)
• Darryl Lee Wendelborn, Managing Director, New Zealand, Beca
• Dr Sophie Dawson, Associate Director, EY New Zealand
• Alexia Hilbertidou, Chief Executive GirlBoss New Zealand

The sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 11 to 22 March 2019.  The themes include:

• Priority theme: Social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;
• Review theme: Women’s empowerment and the link to sustainable development (agreed conclusions of the sixtieth session)