Roche Diagnostics recognized by Healthcare Businesswomen's Association with ACE award for its Women's Leadership Initiative business resource group

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Sep 24, 2015, 03:41 ET

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) has named Roche Diagnostics' Women's Leadership Initiative (WLI) as the winner of the 2015 HBA ACE award. The HBA created the award to recognize corporations' efforts to strengthen the advancement, commitment and engagement of women's careers in the healthcare industry.

The ACE Award will be presented to Jack Phillips, president and CEO, Roche Diagnostics North America, and WLI advisory board members on November 4 at the 2015 HBA Annual Conference in Atlanta.

"Roche's WLI clearly demonstrates a strong commitment to the career advancement of women and their impact on the healthcare industry," said Wendy White, HBA president. "They demonstrated measurable results in their sustainable program. This has led to enhanced business performance for the company."

The Roche Diagnostics' Women's Leadership Initiative is an employee resource group launched in 2011 to support a Roche global goal of increasing the number of women in key leadership positions. The overall vision of WLI, as captured in the group's tagline, "Get inspired. Get engaged. Get ahead.," is to transform Roche leadership by using the power of gender diversity to meet the business needs of the future.

Roche's WLI works to foster partnerships that help create a community of support and best practices for its female employees while creating a sustainable advantage for Roche Diagnostics.

"It is an honor to be recognized for our efforts with the 2015 HBA ACE Award. As part of the overall Roche Diagnostics diversity and inclusion strategy, our Women's Leadership Initiative has meaningful impact on the development of our leaders," said Jack Phillips. "We know that focusing on women and diversity is essential to our success and directly impacts our ability to deliver on our purpose of doing now what patients need next."

"The HBA is proud to honor Roche Diagnostics' Women's Leadership Initiative as the winner of the 2015 HBA ACE award," said Laurie Cooke, HBA's CEO. "One of the key ways the HBA accomplishes our mission to further the advancement and impact of women in healthcare worldwide is by recognizing companies that can serve as role models to others. The HBA serves as a convener supporting companies to learn from each other. By identifying and sharing what great looks like, we strive to inspire more companies to achieve direct corporate benefits from their gender diversity initiatives."

A panel of industry leaders and academics judged ACE Award entrants against five criteria: measurable results and impact on target population; degree to which it supports the overall business; stewardship, or depth of commitment to the program; effectiveness of the execution; and built-in sustainability.

Judges for the 2015 ACE award were:

Jeanne Zucker, vice president, client development, athenahealth – ACE award judging chair
Cameron Durrant MD, pharma/biotech CEO and board member
James J. Gillespie, PhD, JD, MPA, CEO, Chicago Life Sciences Consortium
Paul Katz, MD, founding dean of the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Rayona Sharpnack, founder and CEO, Institute for Women's Leadership, Inc.

The ACE Award builds on the HBA's leadership role in recognizing women in the healthcare industry and creating high-profile role models. The HBA Woman of the Year award, which recognizes an outstanding woman in the industry, is presented each May at a luncheon in New York City attended by more than 2,000 industry executives. Also honored at the Woman of the Year event are the Honorable Mentor, a male industry leader who supports the HBA mission; the HBA STAR winner as well as over 100 Rising Stars and Luminaries, top performing women leaders at HBA Corporate Partners.

About Roche Diagnostics
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics and about 82,000 employees worldwide. The diagnostics division offers a broad portfolio of tools that help healthcare providers diagnose and monitor diseases like congestive heart failure, HIV, hepatitis and diabetes, as well as other medical conditions. These products and services are used by researchers, physicians, patients, hospitals and laboratories to help improve people's lives. Roche Diagnostics' North American headquarters, located in Indianapolis, has about 4,200 employees and is home to U.S. research and development, laboratory, manufacturing, distribution, information technology and administrative operations. For more information: www.roche-diagnostics.us or www.roche.com.

About The HBA
The Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) is a global not-for-profit organization dedicated to furthering the advancement and impact of women in healthcare worldwide. With 15 chapters throughout the U.S. and in Europe, HBA serves a community of over 40,000 individuals and over 120 Corporate Partners. The HBA provides networking forums to build relationships; knowledge sharing and access to thought leaders to broaden perspective; educational programs to develop leadership skills and cutting edge industry knowledge; and recognition of outstanding women and companies to promote visibility of their achievements. For more information, visit www.hbanet.org.

Media contact:

Roche Diagnostics
Todd A. Siesky
Senior Director, Communications
Roche Diagnostics North America
(317) 521-3966
[email protected]

HBA
Carol Meerschaert, MBA, RD
Healthcare Businesswomen's Association
Director, Marketing and Communications
(610) 651-2930
[email protected]
Twitter: @HBAnet

SOURCE Roche Diagnostics