Lina Mascaró, chairwoman of Grupo Mascaró, winner of the fourth edition of the “CaixaBank Women in Business Award”

A boost to diversity in companies

• CaixaBank has granted this year’s award to the executive for her outstanding professional career, her capacity for innovation in creating new brands and new business models, her strategic vision in driving the group's internationalisation and her transformational leadership.
• Lina Mascaró will be one of the Spanish representatives at the IWEC 2020 awards, as part of the 13th International Women's Entrepreneurial Challenge conference, this year to be held virtually on 9 and 10 November.
• The CaixaBank Women in Business Award, now in its fourth edition, is part of the institution's Wengage programme, which develops and promotes the value of diversity. A total of 41.7% of managerial positions at CaixaBank are held by women, and it has a public commitment to reach 43% in 2021.

Lina Mascaró, chairwoman of Grupo Mascaró, which includes the brands Mascaró and Pretty Ballerinas, dedicated to footwear manufacturing and commercialisation with headquarters in Menorca, has been named the winner of the CaixaBank Women in Business Award 2020, which for the last four years has been recognising the professional talent and excellence of businesswomen in Spain and encouraging networking between leading businesswomen across the world. 

The jury of the CaixaBank Women in Business Award, formed by the CaixaBank Diversity Committee - in turn made up of directorial members of the management committee and by various leaders of diversity projects - has selected Lina Mascaró among the 11 winners of the territorial phase for her outstanding professional career, her capacity for innovation in creating new brands and new business models, her strategic vision in driving the group's internationalisation and her transformational leadership. For Lina Mascaró, the award is a great motivation of pride, and she has highlighted that, “this award is my little grain of sand for the leadership of women and for diversity in business.” 

Lina Mascaró, after finishing her studies in Business Administration at the UIB of Palma de Mallorca, headed to London and then to Madrid where she began her professional career in different companies. On her return to Menorca, she joined the company's finance fepartment and after three years she moved to the commercial department under the direction of her father, Jaime Mascaró. With her incorporation, and that of her sister Ursula, a new stage of international development was opened, with a focus on the creation of brand and design, and strengthening the network of its own-managed stores. In the last year, the company has produced 420,000 pairs of shoes and exports 70% of its turnover (around €30 million), compared to the barely 5% it exported when the sisters joined the project started by their grandfather. With Pretty Ballerinas and Mascaró, the group already has a network of 75 stores across the world. This year it will open its first point of sale in Abu Dhabi, and has signed a strategic agreement in China for the development of all its online and offline business. Stores opened in Beijing and Shanghai in 2020, and Shenyang will join before the end of the year.

The IWEC Awards

Lina Máscaro, as winner of the CaixaBank Women in Business Award 2020, is one of the Spanish representatives at the IWEC 2020 awards, distrbuted by the International Women's Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC) at its yearly conference, this year to be held virtually on 9 and 10 November under the title: “Connecting Women Businesses Globally: sustainable growth in the new decade.”

The IWEC awards aim to acknowledge and support businesswomen around the world, so that they can represent a major and decisive element in the development of the 21st century global economy.

This year, this international award ceremony recognises the trajectory of 40 businesswomen from 16 countries. The global turnover of the companies run by these women stands above $2 billion and they employ more than 10,000 people.

The International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge is a worldwide network of female business leaders who nurture company ownership and cooperate on a global level with the goal of creating and distributing wealth in the business world.

CaixaBank's Wengage programme, the institution's commitment to equality

Diversity, meritocracy, equal opportunities and talent recognition are some of the pillars of CaixaBank's corporate culture. Under these premises, it works with a commitment to be a pacesetter for its employees, promoting inclusion and participation and bolstering projects that promote equality, both within the company and across the whole of society. In fact, at CaixaBank, 41.7% of managerial positions are held by women, with a public commitment to reach 43% in 2021, and the Board of Directors is made up of 40% women, one of the highest ratios in the sector.

CaixaBank's Wengage diversity programme is a cross-disciplinary project developed by people from all areas of CaixaBank, based on meritocracy and the promotion of equal opportunities, which works to foster and visualise gender, functional and generational diversity. Wengage includes internal measures to foster flexibility and work-life balance, to raise awareness regarding diversity and strengthen the role of women, with training programmes and female mentoring plans, through which female managers will guide other professionals in developing their careers. 

Wengage also develops external initiatives for customers and society, based on championing the diversity and equal opportunities in three fields of action: leadership and enterprise; innovation and education; and sport.

Furthermore, in January 2020, CaixaBank signed an Equality Plan to promote the principles of equal opportunities and diversity in work teams, increase the presence of women in managerial positions and strengthen measures to enhance the work-life balance. The plan features the scope of gender in managerial development programs and in recruitment and training processes, and the fostering of teleworking and flexibility. 

Thanks to this commitment, CaixaBank has distinctions such as being included in the Bloomberg 2020 Gender-Equality Index, the Equality in Business Badge (DIE), managed by the Institute of Women, and has been recognised by the Másfamilia Foundation with EFR Certification (Family Responsible Company). It has received various recognitions, such as the 25th anniversary of the FEDEPE Award (the Spanish Federation of Female Managers, Executives, Professionals and Entrepreneurs). It also features on the EWoB Gender Diversity Index.

In addition, CaixaBank collaborates with EJE&CON (the Spanish Association of Executives and Directors), with which this year it has launched the study of IESE's “Code of Good Practice Monitoring Survey for Managing Talent and Improving the Company's Competitiveness”, selected by the UN to be presented at the 2020 Women's Empowerment Principles (WEP) Forum held in New York in March.

CaixaBank is associated with the international programme Target Gender Equality and the Women’s Empowerment Principles, of the United Nations; the Voluntary Agreement with the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, 'More women, better businesses', seeking better representativeness of women in management positions; and to the Diversity Charter, promoting equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory measures.