By: Marek Grzybowski
Siri Sundal Shield, Senior Ship Broker at Odfjell Tankers. Siri has spent close to 20 years in commercial roles within the shipping industry and has extensive broking and business development experience from shipbroking majors Clarksons, Howe Robinson, and Simpson Spence and Young in London and Bergen.
WISTA Norway consists of some 200 business and thought leaders – both men and women. WISTA Norway is constantly trying to recruit more women into the industry, retain them – and promote them. Representing the Quality Flag (NOR/NIS) and the Norwegian egalitarian model is perfectly in line with the values all of us in WISTA Norway want to emphasize and promote.
An exclusive interview for eBlue Economy with Siri Sundal Shield and WISTA Norway on the ’40’ course
Marek Grzybowski: The «40 by 30» pledge is a straightforward symbol of commitment whereby companies agree to promote diversity in the maritime industry by striving towards increasing the share of women in leading positions in their organization to 40% within 2030. What is the main idea for this activity and the mission of the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association in Norway?
Siri Sundal Shield: First of all, thank you for turning your focus to WISTA Norway and our current 40 by 30 campaign. The overall goal is for us to promote women and the value they add to the maritime industry. This is something we want to do together with men and women in the maritime sector, and in order to put it higher on the agenda in all the maritime companies, we have introduced our 40 by 30 pledge which states that.
By signing the WISTA Norway ’40 by 30′ Pledge, you commit to:
- Creating specific goals to increase diversity anchored by management
- Ensuring that diversity goals are measured, regularly reviewed, and published on your company’s website
- Striving towards 40% women in leading positions by 2030
Thereby we hope to increase industry diversity awareness and encourage discussions on the companies – as well as specific strategies for achieving a better gender balance.
Marek Grzybowski: WISTA Norway consists of some 200 business and thought leaders – both men and women. On March 8th WISTA was hosting informal after-work get-togethers in locations all over Norway to mark the launch and gather friends and partners in the Maritime industry together, and WISTA Norway was raising these issues during their own «Waves of Change» session, at The Quality Flag Forum, to be held at Nor-Shipping on April 5th. What are the current challenges in the maritime transport industry in Norway? With what initiatives does WISTA Norway appear on the international forum?
Siri Sundal Shield: The biggest challenges facing the maritime sector in Norway evolves around the 3Ds – Decarbonisation, Digitalisation, and Diversity. We strongly believe that the most efficient route to successfully face the initial two, is to embrace diversity: recruit from the whole talent pool to improve innovation and market understanding, in several cases, higher profitability will be the end effect. We hope that what we do in WISTA Norway can contribute positively to the important work that WISTA International and all the other National WISTA associations do.
Marek Grzybowski: WISTA Norway is a partner with YoungShip when they are announcing the 2022 “10 women to watch in Shipping” list the week before Nor-Shipping. WISTA Norway will be most active at Nor-Shipping 2022 including The Quality Flag Forum. What is the idea, goals, what is the ‘Waves of Change’ initiative by WISTA Norway?
Siri Sundal Shield: WISTA Norway is constantly trying to recruit more women into the industry, retain them – and promote them. We want the incredibly exciting industry that Shipping is, to reflect society as a whole – and this is why the cooperation with the Norwegian Maritime Authority has been so inspiring. Representing the Quality Flag (NOR/NIS) and the Norwegian egalitarian model is perfectly in line with the values all of us in WISTA Norway want to emphasize and promote.
We are very proud that Sarah Soon Arnhus on the WISTA Norway board was one of the YoungShip 10 women to watch in Shipping – as well as Marthe Lamp Sandvik who used to serve on the WISTA Norway board.
