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Please see the latest news below for CIMA in France.

2011

A smashing time breaking glass

CIMA France held its first meeting of 2011 in Paris on Tuesday 8 February.

The subject was the presence of women directors in businesses, particularly important following the French government's recent decision to introduce a 40% quota for the number of women on company boards and CIMA’s groundbreaking report Breaking glass – strategies for tomorrow's leaders, concerning women in leadership.

Our speaker, Dominique Damon, has held a number of board positions over her 40 year industrial career including for multinationals such as Danone, Carnaud, Alusuisse-Lonza, Rhone-Poulenc and Impress. As a member of IFA (a French NED organisation), she is extremely well qualified to talk about women's participation and performance on company boards in different European countries.

Dominique gave us plenty of examples of women's activities in corporate life, especially the value women's managerial style can add at board level, all served with a sprinkling of well chosen anecdotes. She also gave her views on the CIMA report, confirming its conclusions. However, she felt that it shouldn't be necessary for women to need mentors to get to the top, stating: ‘Considering their generally higher level of education and communication skills, it is the responsibility of managers at all levels to enable [women’s] natural progression up through the organisation to executive positions.’

Dominique runs her own company Evalind International, giving advice and training on corporate governance and boardroom matters in general.