Catalyst Honors Initiatives at Sodexo and Commonwealth Bank of Australia With the 2012 Catalyst Award

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Jan. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Catalyst announces that initiatives from Sodexo and Commonwealth Bank of Australia are the recipients of the 2012 Catalyst Award, the annual award honoring exceptional business initiatives that advance women in the workplace.

Sodexo is the leading provider of Quality of Daily Life Solutions and delivers On-site Service Solutions in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government, and Remote Site segments, as well as Motivation Solutions such as Esteem Pass. Sodexo has become the benchmark company for diversity and inclusion in its industry and is consistently recognized among all companies in North America as a best place to work for minorities, multicultural women, veterans, and people with disabilities. 

"The pioneering initiatives we honor with the Catalyst Award affect businesses and employees' lives, but their influence also extends beyond corporate walls to families, communities, and economies worldwide. Clearly, what's good for women is good for men, business, and society," said Ilene H. Lang, President and Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst.

"Catalyst's recognition of Sodexo's multi-pronged diversity and inclusion strategy to advance all employees, particularly women and people of color, is an important milestone that coincides with the 10th anniversary of our ongoing diversity journey. Our continuous commitment to diversity and inclusion drives our ability to identify and develop the best talent, create an inclusive culture where our workforce can thrive and deliver outstanding services to our clients and customers, differentiating us as an organization and establishing our competitive advantage in the marketplace," said George Chavel, president and chief executive officer of Sodexo.

The prestige of winning the Catalyst Award, rooted in its rigorous criteria and year-long evaluation process, continues to grow. The Award-winning initiatives are assessed against a robust set of criteria, including business rationale, senior leadership support, accountability, communication, employee engagement, innovation, and measurable results.

Sodexo's initiative, Making Every Day Count: Driving Business Success Through the Employee Experience, is a systemic strategy to provide the tools, resources, and support necessary to ensure success of all employees, including women. A host of professional development programs present opportunities to share diversity lessons with staff and clients, provide training to different employee populations, and develop connections through strategic networking and robust mentoring. For example, Sodexo's IMPACT mentoring program, which connects employees across client sites, has resulted in a demonstrable improvement in women's careers: 30 percent of women who participated in IMPACT received a promotion. The strategic nature of this initiative has led to strong results; from 2003 to 2010, women's share of positions in the executive pipeline increased from 23 percent to 33 percent, with racially/ethnically diverse women's share increasing from 6 percent to 9 percent.

For complete descriptions of this year's Catalyst Award-winning initiatives and previous Award winners, please visit http://www.catalyst.org/page/54/catalyst-award.

Catalyst will honor these groundbreaking initiatives at its 50th anniversary celebration, beginning with a special two-day conference on Wednesday, March 28, 2012, and Thursday, March 29, 2012, and culminating with the gala Catalyst Awards Dinner on the evening of March 29. The Dinner will be chaired by James S. Turley, Chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young LLP and Chairman of the Catalyst Board of Directors, and the CEOs of many leading global organizations and more than 2,000 corporate leaders will be in attendance. The festivities will take place at The Waldorf Astoria in New York. The Dinner is sponsored by PepsiCo, Inc., and Shell Oil Company, and the Conference is sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company and Walmart. This anniversary represents a significant milestone: Catalyst's 50 years of leadership to expand opportunities for women and business.

To learn more about Catalyst's 50th anniversary celebration events, please visit www.catalyst.org. For media inquiries, please contact Susan Nierenberg at 646-388-7744 or [email protected] or Margo Mendez-Penate at 646-388-7778 or [email protected]. To purchase a table for the Conference or Dinner, please contact Liana Wolkenbreit at (646) 388-7729 or [email protected]. For information or media inquiries about Sodexo contact: Enrico Dinges, 301 987 4393, [email protected].

About Catalyst

Founded in 1962, Catalyst is the leading nonprofit membership organization expanding opportunities for women and business. With offices in the United States, Canada, Europe, and India, and more than 500 preeminent corporations as members, Catalyst is the trusted resource for research, information, and advice about women at work. Catalyst annually honors exemplary organizational initiatives that promote women's advancement with the Catalyst Award.

About The Catalyst Award

The Catalyst Award annually honors innovative organizational approaches with proven, measurable results that address the recruitment, development, and advancement of all women, including diverse women. Catalyst's rigorous, year-long examination of initiatives culminates in intensive on-site evaluations at select organizations. By recognizing, sharing, and celebrating successful initiatives, Catalyst provides models for creating initiatives that are good for women and good for business.

About Sodexo North America

Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), leading Quality of Daily Life Solutions company in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, delivers On-site Service Solutions in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government, and Remote Site segments, as well as Motivation Solutions such as Esteem Pass. Sodexo, Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., funds all administrative costs for the Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org), an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $15 million in grants to fight hunger in America. Visit the corporate blog at www.sodexoUSA.com/blog.

About Sodexo

Quality of Life plays an important role in the progress of individuals and the performance of organizations. Based on this conviction, Sodexo acts as a partner for companies and institutions that place a premium on performance and employee well-being, as it has since Pierre Bellon founded the company in 1966. Sharing the same passion for service, Sodexo's 413,000 employees in 80 countries design, manage and deliver an unrivaled array of Quality of Life Services. Sodexo has created a new form of service business that contributes to the fulfillment of its employees and the economic, social and environmental development of the communities, regions and countries in which it operates.

Key Figures (as of August 31, 2011)

SOURCE Sodexo, Inc.