Diversity, values, and Code of Business Conduct
Diversity
Corbion adopted a Diversity and Inclusion Policy for the Supervisory Board and the Executive Committee in 2017 and updated it in 2023. Given the business environment in which Corbion operates, this policy has longer-term objectives for gender and geographical diversity, the latter reflecting the majority of our business being in the Americas.
The gender diversity targets for the Supervisory Board are that at least 30% of the Supervisory Board members are female and at least 30% of the Supervisory Board members are male (in line with the with the statutory gender targets). Corbion complies with these target as three members of the Supervisory Board are female and three members are male.
The geographical diversity target for the Supervisory Board states that at least one member of the Supervisory Board has relevant Americas experience and/or exposure. Corbion complies with this target as Mathieu Vrijsen and William Lin qualify as such.
The gender diversity target for the Executive Committee states that at least two members should be female if the committee consists of six or seven members. Corbion’s Executive Committee has three female members, Jacqueline van Lemmen, Aurélie Dalbiez, and Jennifer Lindsey, and so complied with this target in 2023. In 2023, the departure of two male members from Corbion's Executive Committee led to a 43% representation of females in the committee.
Gender diversity
The geographical diversity target for the Executive Committee states that at least two members of the Executive Committee have relevant Americas experience and/or exposure. Corbion complies with this target, as Andy Muller and Jennifer Lindsey qualify as such.
In the case of vacant or new positions on the Supervisory Board or the Executive Committee, the Diversity and Inclusion Policy for the Supervisory Board or Executive Committee will be applied when selecting persons for appointment as members of the Supervisory Board or Executive Committee.
Our senior management population (the senior management layer below the Executive Committee) consists of 88 employees of which 24% are women (status end of 2023), which is below our objective of 33%. For the total organization the percentage of women is 29%, which is closer to the objective of 33%. To further improve our diversity, we are continuously educating hiring managers on diversity in recruitment and internal promotions and ensuring selection includes a diverse slate of candidates for any given role. We also offer flexibility wherever possible to meet the working pattern needs of employees, among other actions. In addition, we designed a roadmap for the rollout of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy in 2023 and beyond.
As the number of senior management positions is limited, a few female hires or leavers within the senior management population have a significant impact on the percentage above.
Values and Code of Business Conduct
The Corbion values of care, courage, collaboration, and commitment were introduced in 2018 and implemented globally in 2019 and 2020, through communication campaigns, Executive Committee-sponsored events, and workshops held across the world. In 2023, we continued to reinforce the importance of our values through various initiatives such as quarterly values showcases, including a quarter dedicated to safety and how it comes firs and complimentary access to the mindfulness app Headspace for all our employees. Along with the Corbion behaviors, the values guide and underpin the business strategy of Corbion. They form an integral part of our engagement and performance management programs and our global training and development initiatives.
Information about the effectiveness of, and compliance with the Corbion Code of Business Conduct is available under the section Risk management/Business Conduct Program in this report.