New Europcar Award set to inspire women

MICHAEL BELLING

Europcar has sponsored a new category in the annual Jewish Achiever Awards to recognise Jewish women’s entrepreneurship and leadership.

Dawn Nathan-Jones, Europcar CEO and herself a former business achiever nominee in the unlisted companies award category, said: “Being a woman in business and a woman leader, I feel strongly that women need to get more exposure.”

Nominees for the new award did not have to be leaders in the corporate world; it could be leaders who have excelled in the community, or showed great leadership qualities that otherwise might go unrecognised.

The award would encourage women to excel in any field they chose, showing a willingness to embrace a leadership role. It would also promote recognition of that leadership and achievement.

The award relates to business or the community and focuses on strong leadership – people making a difference through their vision, actions and strategy, influencing others and achieving something that contributes to a better world.

She said that in business, “a lot of the time I feel that women don’t have a chance against the captains of industry and their male counterparts”.

Europcar is an example of appointing women on merit to top posts. Nathan-Jones followed Carol Scott as CEO of what was then Imperial Car Hire, which was later rebranded as Europcar, a well-known name internationally, but previously virtually unknown in this country.

Nathan-Jones insists that she is “not a great feminist”, which indicates that the new award is to recognise leadership excellence rather than pushing a specific agenda.

But she believes that “women need to be encouraged in business really to put their hands up for leadership roles”.

The new award would help women see that they can compete with their male counterparts.

Women were talented in their ability to juggle career and family responsibilities – a remarkable achievement.

For Europcar, the new award would be “great exposure for us. It’s a great win for us. It is a great platform not only for the candidates and nominees, but for all the people involved to meet and engage with really good leaders. The award is about inspiring women to come forward, the aspiration this will bring.”