About Women on Boards Ukraine
Women on Boards Ukraine is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing opportunities for women in senior leadership roles and increasing their presence on corporate boards. Women on Boards Ukraine fosters an active community where women support each other in their growth and help implement best practices in corporate decision-making, advocating for legislative changes aimed at ensuring equal gender opportunities.
The organization was founded by successful business leaders Olena Malynska, Tetiana Furtseva, and Nina Dombrovska. Women on Boards Ukraine was primarily established in response to the challenging circumstances caused by russia’s aggressive invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Nina Dombrowska is an experienced business leader with over 20 years of corporate experience. Nina brings to Women on Boards Ukraine a wealth of strategic leadership and corporate governance experience from her achievements as the president and chair of the board of directors of “Henkel Ukraine”. Nina has also served on several boards of directors of private companies and non-profit organizations, including being a member of the board of directors of the European Business Association. Nina is also an entrepreneur who founded several startups in the fields of education and beauty.
Olena Malynska is an experienced executive and board member with over 20 years of experience. Currently, she holds several positions on boards of directors, including the role of an independent non-executive director at “Ukrposhta”, one of the largest Ukrainian state companies. Additionally, Olena actively participates in non-profit organizations focused on expanding women’s rights and opportunities, as well as in the field of education.
Tetiana Furtseva is a partner in the Kyiv office of Heidrick & Struggles, overseeing the financial services practice in Central and Eastern Europe, and is also part of the CEO and board of directors practice. Tetiana is an expert in executive search and leadership consulting, with 24 years of experience in senior roles in companies specializing in executive search and human resource management consulting.
LDaily spoke with Nina Dombrovska, Olena Malynska, and Tetiana Furtseva, co-founders of Women on Boards Ukraine, who discussed the phenomenon of Ukrainian female management elites banding together abroad, how they realize their talents and flair there, and what they see as their mission after victory and during the future reconstruction of their homeland.
LDaily: How did the idea of creating the Women on Boards Ukraine organization come about? What specific challenges, caused by the full-scale war in Ukraine, prompted this?
O. Malynska: Being abroad and thanks to my contacts and friendly relations with a large number of leading women – leaders of business communities, politicians, public figures – I was struck by how developed the system of communities and support was. Life abroad and my own experience of powerful support became an inspiration in creating a community for professional women. Ukrainian professional women represent a significant potential of our country. They are a valuable and irreplaceable resource that Ukraine simply cannot afford to lose. Their knowledge, skills, and experience are assets with significant potential for the country’s development, and faith in Ukraine and the desire to be useful are among the critical factors for its reconstruction. By combining our efforts, strength, and resilience, we can achieve significant changes and make substantial steps towards achieving our goals even during the war.
Our initiative is driven by a clear goal – to create a community that commits to building a bright future for Ukraine. The prolonged challenges arising from the war present a unique opportunity for Ukraine. It’s a chance to rebuild the foundations of the state, using the principles and standards of corporate governance as a managerial framework.
Without exaggeration, we all see our future in Ukraine and do everything possible at our level to accelerate victory. Ukrainian women contribute professionally for the benefit of the country and its future. Our organization plans to form such a professional force that will be, as they say, “Building a Better Ukraine”, meaning building a new, more successful Ukraine in the future.
In general, looking at the landscape of various communities that can be involved in the “Rebuild Ukraine” processes in Ukraine, there is a lack of independent organizations and institutions that would primarily be separate from the Ukrainian state but have expertise and could play a crucial role in building investment processes and shaping the corporate governance of these investments. The state forms a sufficient number of institutions aimed at this, but they are essentially extensions of state bodies. If you look at corporate governance from a theoretical perspective, the key principle embedded in it is impartiality, independence, and diversity. Are we currently ready to implement this principle? Corporate directors should not be dependent on the company on whose board they work, but what about the dependence of organizations managing investments on the state?
Therefore, we see our role in Women on Boards Ukraine in building such an independent institution that combines a vast resource and has expertise, independent of the state, but deeply motivated for its success and development. And in this way, it can help build more transparent processes, make more transparent and understandable decisions, including in the direction of investments.
LDaily: Who are the members of the organization and why did they choose you specifically?
T. Furtseva: We are currently in the process of adding new members to our organization. First and foremost, we are including women who are already prepared to be or are already board members and are professionally trained for this. These are women who have substantial experience at the C-level: either heads of businesses or first-line directors. And this experience should be quite significant. We can also be joined by women who already have experience as independent corporate directors, or they might be partners in consulting, auditing, or recruiting firms. Typically, based on global experience, such professionals can be added as board members with expertise in finance, audit, or HR. We primarily want to include women with such experience, as they are already prepared for building corporate governance in Ukraine.
In the future, we might expand and include women who are approaching this level. However, it’s important for us that initially, we create a synergy of women with similar levels of experience who can unite for a greater purpose.
LDaily: What opportunities do you offer to your members? Perhaps training or mentorship? Or will training only be available in the future?
N. Dombrowska: We have several avenues of providing opportunities, and training and mentorship are among them. We are currently collaborating with some organizations, such as Women on Boards UK, and are developing several training modules that will help women prepare or be more effective as board members. Such a plan exists, and we are involving organizations that are not yet present in Ukraine.
We want to involve world-class experts to interact with our members and inspire them for the next steps in leadership. We see that there is significant attention to Ukraine today, and a considerable number of organizations are interested in supporting our organization and, through this, supporting professional women in Ukraine for their further development.
We also have a category of honorary members of the organization – these are women who have already achieved a significant level in corporate governance and women’s leadership. Among them, for example, are Natalia Yaresko, Anna Derevyanko, and Olena Voloshina. We also involve women and men who currently hold positions in Ukrainian state bodies or represent powerful businesses in Ukraine, as honorary supporters of our organization. And we expect that they will help us in our development.
LDaily: How does effective corporate governance in Ukraine impact the country’s recovery and its future economic development?
O. Malynska: For victory and recovery, Ukraine critically needs financial support from donors and investors. However, for this, foreign partners demand – alongside other understandable factors such as the rule of law, transparency of state institutions, and the fight against corruption – an essential tool like best practices in corporate governance. There are many studies confirming that adhering to corporate governance standards helps make more effective decisions and achieve better results. For successful corporate governance, it’s crucial to have a diversity of thoughts and experiences. And Ukraine has significant potential for improvement in this regard.
We simply must rebuild a better country, an equal country, a strong country, using these principles.
N. Dombrowska: I believe that corporate governance is the Achilles’ heel of Ukraine’s recovery. Investments, which I am confident will flow into Ukraine over time, require professional corporate governance and clear processes in line with ESG principles. This will be one of the prerequisites for these investments. Currently, in Ukraine, there isn’t a vast pool of human resources and expertise to organize corporate governance processes on the anticipated scale. And there will be a demand for this from donors and investors.
Therefore, our organization is also being established to prepare for these processes. If you look at what corporate governance is and why it exists, a board or a council can be likened to a superstructure over an organization, consisting of independent, uninvolved corporate directors with extensive leadership experience, acting purely in the company’s interests and making strategic decisions in a consensus-seeking format. It’s essential that the formation of these corporate boards is done considering professionalism and diversity principles, which in turn is necessary to ensure that the decision made by this board is the most balanced, taking into account various opinions and risks. Therefore, in the formation of such boards diversity is crucial, and women are one formats of diversity.
LDaily: What concrete steps do you plan to take to achieve equality in corporate governance bodies and to implement legislative changes in accordance with EU Directive 2022-2381?
O. Malynska: Ukraine is moving towards Europe, and therefore will be forced to synchronize its legislative acts according to European legislation requirements. I am confident that the introduction of quotas for women’s participation in supervisory boards will be discussed in parliament. From our side, we will support this topic, draw attention to it at various levels, and inform about the successes already achieved in other countries. Women on Boards Ukraine sees itself as ambassadors of the topic of female leadership and legislative changes: we plan to initiate discussions on relevant topics, highlight the experience of other countries, approaches that work in other geographies, and convince others that this is a very important and progressive topic for Ukraine’s future.
LDaily: What projects and initiatives do you plan to implement to strengthen partnerships with organizations outside of Ukraine?
O. Malynska: We want to collaborate closely with most organizations that focus on the development of female leadership in corporate governance, so we are primarily working in this direction. We started with a few directions – Women on Boards UK, European Women on Boards, and Women on Boards Belgium. These are organizations with whom we have already established a dialogue, are maintaing connections, and learn from their experience. They have already shown a significant interest in helping us shape effective activities, create programs, and support for members. We plan to develop the classic directions that Women on Boards in other countries focus on – development, training, networking, and mentorship. At the same time, we also see a significant role for our organization in shaping the Rebuild Ukraine direction from a corporate governance perspective.
LDaily: How do you plan to collaborate with recruiters to secure board mandates for your members and for the global recognition of the professionalism of Ukrainian women? How feasible is the idea of collaborating with recruiters in this direction?
T. Furtseva: It’s entirely feasible. In principle, most Women on Boards already work in this direction. Most recruiters themselves turn to organizations like Women on Boards to gain access to professional women. So we already have requests from some recruiters who would like to join and be part of our organization. I am confident that we will work in this direction. Currently, in Ukraine, the job market in corporate boards is very narrow, so we see our mission in helping to develop it, assisting some organizations and companies to learn about the benefits of this governance format and implement it.
The topic of vacancies is more for the future, but the experience of Women on Boards in other countries indicates that it’s a significant part of their activity. And I am confident that after victory, it will develop by leaps and bounds, and we need to be prepared for it.
LDaily: Which partners do you want to involve further, and what are your future plans?
N. Dombrowska: We are looking for support, including financial, among Ukrainian and international organizations ready to support the development of the professional women’s community in Ukraine. We are also looking at big businesses, companies that are generally interested in the Rebuild Ukraine theme. And it will be very relevant for them to associate specifically with a women’s organization. We also turn to companies that are concerned with ESG topics. I am confident that we, as an organization, will be able to assist companies interested in ESG development and want to implement investment projects based on ESG principles and work in this direction in Ukraine.
