As a business leader, Alan is resolute in his vision to make Unilever a beacon for diversity and inclusion. Part of this is building a gender-balanced workforce, and a wider value chain that helps to empower women. Alan chairs the Unilever Global Diversity Board and is active in all parts of its work, including supporting interventions in traditionally male dominated ‘hot spots’ within the business. Already, Unilever has reached its ambition of 50/50 gender balance among its management population of 14,000. Wider progress is driven through programs like Shakti, which trains women in rural areas in new skills and helps them grow into micro-entrepreneurs through selling Unilever products within their local villages. Also through its portfolio of purposeful brands – like Dove, which has taught Self-Esteem workshops to over 35 million girls – and initiatives like #Unstereotype, which focuses on eradicating harmful stereotypes from advertising and advancing progressive portrayals of everyone.