Even though women make 50% of the workforce in hospitality, gender equality remains a myth in our sector. There is a significant gap in terms of rank, pay, role and general progression in women's leadership positions and female representation falls as women rise in their careers with only 5% going on to make the top job of CEO. Beyond the facts and figures, if we need to be on the frontlines of change, we really need to get a grasp on the biggest challenges the current CEO's face in fixing the problem. Because CEO's who think gender diversity isn't a problem only make it worse and simply hiring more women will not solve the problem.

Why is gender diversity at the top still a challenge? How are you driving change in your organizations from the very top? What are the biggest challenges you face as a CEO or C-Suite executive and what would you like to see more of - quotas, universal standards for measuring and monitoring, legal enforcements?

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Matt Luscombe
Matt Luscombe
Chief Executive Officer at Cycas Hospitality

At Cycas, our goal is to be Europe's leading hotel management company. Operating across multiple European countries, with their different languages, laws and cultures, has required us to build the most diverse and inclusive team in the industry.

I'm particularly proud that the majority of the people we employ across Cycas Hospitality are women. Within our hotels, women account for 62% of our Cycadettes and make up a third of our General Managers. This trend continues off-property, where 56% of our support teams are women, as are our four of my seven direct reports. What's more, one of our three Board Directors is a woman.

These numbers are all the more special because, at Cycas, we believe firmly in meritocracy, rather than any kind of 'positive discrimination'. That means every person we hire, at every level, is the very best person we can find for that role. It just so happens that, more often than not, the best person has been female.

And once we've recruited incredible talent, it's just as important that we retain them and help them grow with us. Two of the women on our leadership team started working with Cycas over a decade ago as General Managers. Today, they continue to be incredible role-models for our next generation of male and female Cycadettes.

As a privately-owned company, Cycas has no quotas to meet around diversity: it's just something we believe in. For me, diversity is about bringing together different life experiences, thinking-styles, talents and interests. Sometimes, these things do correlate with gender, ethnicity or demographic factors; however, my goal is always to build teams of people who complement each other and, by working together, are far more than the sum of their parts. Integrating diversity and inclusion into our company culture certainly isn't about box-ticking.

It's a great honour to lead the most diverse team in the European hospitality industry, and I know that diversity makes us even stronger as a team, particularly as each individual Cycadette got there on her or his own merits. Given Cycas's track-record of delivering market-leading hotel performance, I can say with confidence that diversity has really proven the recipe for success. 

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