Welcome to the Breakfast – Discussion ”The World of Work is Changing. Diversity: the Driving Force to a Long-term Sustainable Business” with a key panelist from Canada Vanesa Cotlar, Vice President of People & Culture at PolicyMe. She will be joined by Jānis Strods, a Board Member of Edurio Ltd (Latvia), and Krista Kalnbērziņa, Principal Economist of Latvijas Banka.
The Discussion will be moderated by Iveta Ludviga, Associate Professor RISEBA University of Business Arts and Technology.
The Breakfast – Discussion is organised by the Irish Latvian Chamber of Commerce and the Embassy of Canada to Latvia.
Diversity and inclusiveness have an impact on business success, including in historically male-dominated sectors. Diversity inspires innovation and helps us better to understand customers’ needs, but research also points to an increase in long-term profits for businesses that promote diversity, which comes in the form of gender equality, a multigenerational workforce, demographic and lifestyle differences among staff, etc. The purpose of this discussion is:
(1) to share practical examples of best practices that have been implemented in companies to promote diversity and
(2) to evaluate how diversity has contributed to the company’s development/profit growth in the long term.
More about Vanesa Cotlar, Vice President of People & Culture at PolicyMe:
Vanesa Coltar is an ambitious, people-first leader who spends her days as the VP of People & Culture at PolicyMe. She is passionate about building flexible workplaces and advocates for work-from-anywhere practices, transparency, and ongoing feedback from employees to increase attraction, retention, and satisfaction. Previously, she worked as the Director of People Operations at iQmetrix, where she spearheaded people initiatives, including innovative skill mapping, retention, and recruitment strategies. Vanesa worked as a Management Consultant at Monitor Deloitte Canada where she provided strategic guidance to some of the world’s largest companies, and helped build Winnipeg’s talent ecosystem while at Economic Development Winnipeg. Vanesa has worked in over 15 countries and has a unique understanding of how different markets operate and how people have found success in them.
Before returning to Canada in 2019, Vanesa was the Co-Founder and CEO of Octagon Careers, a German-based HR-tech start-up focused on understanding the skills and aptitudes of success in certain roles and assessing and hiring based on those attributes without the need for a resume. She made the shortlist for the Business Leader of the Year – Women in IT Awards, Berlin 2019, for her work with her start-up and won several pitch competitions.
In her spare time, Vanesa can explore a new part of the world, contribute to people & culture conversations, and offer her time to start-ups that need help structuring their people practices. Vanesa is also an Ambassador and Speaker for Manitoba Women in Technology and holds an MBA from Queen’s University.
More about Janis Strods, the co-founder, MD & Board member of Edurio
Janis Strods is the co-founder and managing director of Edurio, an ed-tech start-up helping schools build thriving communities through strategic stakeholder feedback. Janis comes from a research background, doing mathematical models of human behaviour at UCL, and has worked as a teacher. For the last 9 years, he has been working with the team at Edurio to build a culture of transparency, reliability, and diversity, also writing and speaking about the organisational culture challenges of both startups and schools. Currently with a team of over 30 talented individuals, Edurio has deeply embedded their culture in all aspects of working life — from the recruitment process to task and performance management.
More about Krista Kalnbērziņa, Principal Economist of the Bank of Latvia
Krista Kalnbērziņa is an economist at the Bank of Latvia, where her focus is monetary policy and economic analysis of the euro area. Besides, she has a keen interest in sustainability issues, with a particular emphasis on the issues of inequality. Her analysis and research contribute to the comprehensive understanding of the relationship between economic policies, social dynamics, and the pursuit of a fair and inclusive society. She has published articles and lectured on topics such as gender inequality and broader socioeconomic disparities, among others.
Date: 8 June
Time: 09.00-10.30 (Breakfast from 08.00)
Venue: Radisson Blu Ridzene Hotel
Admission fee: €35 for members and non-members
Registration: https://ej.uz/Breakfast-discussion
