Pythian CEO Paul Vallée is one of 12 new executive sponsors of Women in Communications and Technology’s Protégé Project.
The program’s second year was launched Monday. Its goal is to promote women into top decision-making roles in the knowledge-based economy by matching strong women leaders with executive champions.
“The WCT Protégé Project is like no other career sponsorship program, with senior executives acting as all-out champions, guiding and connecting their protégés, cross-company and cross-sector,” WCT national chair and Pythian vice-president Lynda Partner said in a statement.
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“We are pleased to welcome 12 new executive sponsors, and we know that their involvement will accelerate the careers of their protégés. They are helping to create a needed diversity balance at the executive level in the information, communications and technology industries.”
Earlier this month, Pythian launched its Pythia program, which will see the company actively move to diversify its talent base, with an emphasis on recruiting women who are difference-makers in the IT industry.
With the launch, Pythian became the first Canadian tech company to reveal its gender statistics. The firm said women make up 24 per cent of its overall workforce, 35 per cent of its executive team, 27 per cent of its managers and nine per cent of its technical staff.
The company, which will soon move to new digs on McRae Street in Westboro, is using a new metric called the Pythia Index to measure the proportion of people in a business or on a team who are women leaders or report to a woman leader. Pythian currently scores a 56 per cent on the Pythia Index.
The company is not happy with this number. Mr. Vallée called “bro-culture” a problem in the tech world, adding that teams with greater gender balance are more successful.
“This is not a corporate social responsibility initiative. It is good business,” he said in a statement. “And it’s how we intend to build the future we want for the technology sector.”
WCT and the Information and Communications Technology Council will work with Pythian to cross-promote the Pythia program to support women in technology careers.
