Equinor UK joins key coalition to accelerate industry diversity and inclusion
Equinor UK has joined POWERful Women’s Energy Leaders’ Coalition to help drive better female representation and inclusive workplaces within the energy sector.
Alex Grant, Equinor UK country manager, signed the business’s commitment to a gender-balanced, diverse and inclusive energy sector in the UK and to accelerate the pace of change towards this goal. The coalition includes the heads of 15 of the UK’s largest energy employers, alongside the regulators Ofgem and the North Sea Transition Authority.
He said: “At Equinor, we strive to ensure that all our employees reach their full potential, and we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. As an industry, we know that we need to do more to ensure that women are better represented, and I am very pleased that we have joined the POWERful Women Leaders’ Coalition to help drive this.
“As a business, we are focused on improving gender diversity and have initiatives in place to support this including workforce training, our Women in Equinor UK employee group, and flexible working policies. We know there is always more to be done and, when tackling complex issues such as gender diversity, collaboration is crucial. Initiatives such as POWERful Women are a vital part of this. I look forward to working with them to ensure that our industry is accessible to all, and that the energy sector attracts the best talent possible.”
By joining the coalition, leaders sign up to a charter* committing them to communicate their company’s targets and timeline for change and be accountable for progress. Their data is published every year, alongside examples of policies that are making a difference.
While the number of women in the industry has risen over the past decade, progress is now stalling, particularly in key decision-making roles where female representation remains poor. In 2024, women occupied just 16% of executive director roles across the top 80 UK energy companies, and a fifth of those companies had no women on their boards at all.**
Members of this coalition also commit to advocating with their peers and with government for better balance across the industry, meeting five times a year to learn from each other, share challenges and successes, and plan collective action.
Katie Jackson, chair of POWERful Women, commented: “I am delighted that Alex has made this important public commitment to advancing gender diversity, equity and inclusion in the energy sector. This kind of business leadership is essential for driving change. Action on DEI is about being able to access the very best talent available for your business, which leads to better performance, innovation and customer trust.”
*The Charter can be found here.
**POWERful Women’s Annual State of the Nation 2024, produced in collaboration with Bain & Company, contains the full set of statistics for women in board, leadership and middle management roles in the UK energy sector. The 2024 report can be found here.