Bogota, Colombia, November 24, 2021 – In a ceremony headed by Colombia’s Labor Minister Angel Custodio Cabrera Baez, GeoPark received the Equipares Silver Award in acknowledgment of the Company’s commitment to closing gender gaps and promoting inclusion and diversity. In the ceremony that took place in Bogota, another 40 companies, 6 rural organizations and 2 SMEs received awards and recognitions.
During his speech, Minister Cabrera recognized the commitment of the productive sector to the promotion of equality in the business sector. He congratulated all the organizations that received awards, assuring that through certification in the Equipares program the National Government is rewarding private sector efforts on labor inclusion.
After receiving the Silver Award, Agustina Wisky, GeoPark Director of Capabilities and Culture and Equipares implementation leader, said that since its foundation in 2002 GeoPark has set out to create the best work team, resulting in a very diverse workforce and with a percentage of women much higher than the industry average. Wisky ended her speech by congratulating the Government of Colombia for this program, through which companies can access concrete tools to continue contributing to the construction of a more inclusive and diverse workforce and society.
Through the Equipares program, the Ministry of Labor and the Presidential Council for Women’s Equality work with the private sector to generate fair and equitable working conditions for men and women, and promote the economic and social development of workers and employers.
GeoPark’s gender equality practices were recently acknowledged in the Fourth Edition of the ‘WIN Awards’ of the Colombian chapter of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and were highlighted in the 2021 edition of the Portfolio Awards, in which the Company is one of the five finalists in the Human Resource Management category.
Leaders in Gender Equality
Since its foundation GeoPark has stood out for integrating women at all levels of the organization, generating conducive conditions for women’s professional development in technical areas and granting scholarships to young women from the areas of influence of its operation to study science and technology courses.
These efforts are reflected in facts such as:
- 42% of GeoPark’s Management Team are women, a percentage that in the global hydrocarbon industry is only 17%.
- 34% of employees are women vs. the global average of 22%.
- 43% of new employees are women vs. the global average of 27%.
- In 2020, 100% of employees entitled to parental leave took it and returned to their positions: 45% men and 55% women.
- 13 scholarship holders study at top-level universities in science and engineering.
- Board chaired by Sylvia Escovar: only 2.1% of boards in Latin America are chaired by women.
- Marcela Vaca is the general director of all the Company’s assets and chairs the Colombian Petroleum Association, only the second woman to hold this position in the association in almost sixty years.
To learn more about GeoPark’s gender equality management, see the sustainability section on the website or click the following link: https://www.geopark.com/sp/people/
