The purpose of the prize is to highlight good examples of managers who, in their leadership, have purposefully and strategically worked on the basis of the company's values in order to promote diversity in a broad sense at their workplace and challenge standards.

During the years 2014 - 2018, ÅF has increased the proportion of female employees from 22% to 26%.The goal is to have 30% female employees in 2020.

"At ÅF, we are committed to recruiting the best talents to deliver sustainable solutions which delight our clients. I am proud that we are investing in a culture of modern leadership, where we recruit on the basis of competence and expertise. Being recognised as Diversity Director of the Year, is reflective of all the great work that the whole team is doing here, to embrace these important issues as part of our everyday life".
Nyamko Sabuni, Executive Vice President Sustainability ÅF.

In their motivation, Chef, especially highlighted:
"In a time when we need role models that show courage, Nyamko Sabuni has - not only integrated diversity and inclusion matters into ÅF's growth strategy - but also taken on fruitful actions like "Ladies Month" - a month when only women are hired, which substantially increased both awareness and the number of female applicants. Nyamko doesn't take No for an answer, she feels setbacks are incentives to try harder and succeed. She has a strong belief in her own abilities, and that change is possible."

Sweden and Swedish companies need more engineers and in recent years, ÅF has been working actively to find newly arrived and foreign-born engineers - via regular recruitment routes but also through the internship program New Immigrated Engineers.

Since the program was launched, 150 trainees have been accepted, and the majority have been employed at ÅF after the end of the internship period.

In order to attract and recruit more engineers, 2016 Amir Nazari was employed as Diversity Coach, and under his leadership, the recruitment of newly arrived and foreign-born speed took off. During the spring of 2018, Sofia Klingberg was hired as ÅF's second Diversity Coach, based in western and southern Sweden, and together they will develop and scale up the recruitment work.

About "Chefgalan 2019"
Business Magazine Chef is awarding this year's leading leadership efforts. The prize for the Chief of the Year is awarded in six different categories and the Honorary Award of the Year.

About ÅF Pöyry
ÅF Pöyry is an international leader within engineering, design and advisory services. We create solutions to support our customers worldwide to act on sustainability as well as the global trends of urbanisation and digitalisation.
We are more than 16,000 devoted experts within the fields of infrastructure, industry and energy operating across the world to create sustainable solutions for the next generation.
Making Future.
   
   
For more information contact:
Elin Edelström 
Press and PR manager 
ÅF 
070-287 20 55 / 010-505 14 05 
elin.edelstrom@afconsult.com