Marina Sedykh: INK’s policy ensures equal career opportunities

The General Director of JSC INK-Capital started her speech with an overview of the company’s history, growth and impressive achievements.

“Today, sustainable development is an inherent part of the corporation’s business strategy. As the head of the parent company, I have been working on sustainability aspects intensively for the past 2.5 years,” Ms. Sedykh said. “Over this time, INK-Capital team has done a lot, and the results have been recognized by the expert community. Among other achievements, we adopted a sustainable development policy, published our first nonfinancial report and issued the first Russian adaptation bonds worth 5 billion RUB to refinance a part of the expenses for the APG re-injection project. We developed a decarbonization strategy and launched a corporate GHG emissions monitoring, measurement, and management system. Now we are finalizing the Group’s climate strategy aligned with the TCFD* principles.

Ms. Sedykh also talked about her Charity Fund now working on 13 charity programs to improve healthcare, environmental protection, sports, culture, ad to support disabled children and senior citizens. In addition, the Company assists in preserving the traditions of indigenous small-numbered peoples (a total of 20 thousand representatives of indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North live the areas where the Group operates) and maintains partnerships with various associations.  

In line with the mission of the forum, Ms. Sedykh also talked about the INK team. The Group now counts more than 2.1 thousand female employees, around 14% of the total workforce, and the number keeps growing. Women work in the offices, on remote production sites, they head departments, divisions and subsidiaries. In the offices, female managers – from heads of departments and higher up the hierarchy – account for almost 34% of the total number of employees.

“The Group’s policy provides for equal carrier opportunities,” Ms. Sedykh said. “I’m glad that there are increasingly more women at the higher management level. For instance, two key positions in the Group’s production companies – directors of Irkutsk Polymer Plant under construction and the operating Ust-Kutsky Gas Processing Plant – are held by women who are successful managers with a great potential.” 

In addition to the standard employee benefit package, the Company offers corporate programs tailor-made for women: reimbursement of antenatal care and obstetrics expenses, eligibility to a monthly bonus of 10 thousand RUB for those who have to interrupt their maternity leave, etc.

“My work as the general director, deputy, president of the board of the charity fund has been closely related to the northern territories over a quarter of a century now. I am deeply aware of the problems of inhabitants of towns and villages and share their concerns. I think I can speak on behalf of them: the government should pay special attention to addressing the existing social problems (primarily, related to healthcare), economic and environmental issues of the northern territories of the country to bring them on the path of sustainable development,” said Ms. Sedykh. “By way of conclusion, I would like to say that women can do everything, and that is no exaggeration. They can change life around them, making whole cities and regions better. They can rely on successful cases, mutual support, and teams of followers on various levels, whose projects can make the world a better place.”

The first forum of women of the North was held at the initiative of the all-Russian Association of Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East of the Russian Federation. Its main mission is to strengthen the role of the women of these territories in building a sustainable future for indigenous peoples based on traditional values. The role of the northern regions in today’s world has greatly increased. Now, large-scale projects are being implemented there with a great contribution made by women.

*TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) is a task force for climate-related financial disclosures under the international Financial Stability Board established by the G20. The TCFD develops recommendations for voluntary disclosure of companies’ climate risks.