SVCA seeks to increase diversity – launches collaboration with Nasdaq and Allbright

Stockholm, December 18^th, 2020

The Swedish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (SVCA) is announcing today a collaboration with the Nasdaq stock exchange (Nasdaq: NDAQ) and the Allbright Foundation to promote diversity in business. The collaboration will begin with the training of company management teams in the first quarter of 2021.

Debate about diversity in boardrooms and management groups has intensified in recent years. The issue applies not only to listed companies but also to unlisted companies that play a significant and increasingly important role in business.

“Diversity is an incredibly important issue that SVCA and its members work hard on, but unfortunately we have not achieved nearly as much as we would have liked. We’re convinced that diversity is not only morally right but also a value-driver through increased returns and better performance for portfolio companies,” says SVCA board chairman Monalotte Theorell Christofferson. “SVCA and individual members are therefore engaged in a number of initiatives such as Level 20, mentoring programmes, and recruitment days.”

To drive diversity forward in business, SVCA is initiating a collaboration with Nasdaq and the Allbright Foundation, which works for diversity in leading positions in business. The first concrete step in the initiative will be a training programme, set to launch in 2021, aimed at listed companies in the Nordic region, as well as unlisted companies wholly or partly owned by members of SVCA or its Nordic sister associations.

“We’re delighted to launch this initiative with Allbright and Nasdaq. This work is important, and it’s clear that too little progress has been made to date. I hope and believe that this concrete step will complement members’ own initiatives in the area and that it will result in substantive improvements at management and board level at listed and unlisted companies. Greater diversity will enable us to build even better companies,” adds Theorell Christofferson.

“Together, Nasdaq, Allbright, and SVCA will inform and conduct active dialogue with Swedish companies to help them become significantly more diversified and create conditions for the better use of the breadth of expertise at their disposal,” says Amanda Lundeteg, CEO of Allbright. “The fact we’re doing this together means that our efforts can be more far-reaching and increase the chances of actual change – and change is needed.”

About SVCA

The Swedish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (SVCA) is an industry body for actors in private equity, buyouts, venture capital, and business angels. The Association, which was founded in 1985, seeks to improve how the private equity market in Sweden functions and to increase knowledge and understanding of the private equity market among the general public.

For more information, please visit: svca.se.

Contact: Sten Tärnbro, +46 70 214 90 07, sten.tarnbro@svca.se