Two weeks ago the Bureau appointed ten new directors. As always, we invited you to guess the names of the future senior managers in advance via our anonymous FFPE survey.

And also this time the crowd intelligence did a great job:

You correctly predicted 9 out of 10 appointments

Adding up the results of all our surveys since 2018, the crowd correctly guessed the outcome of 21 of the latest 25 senior management appointments, the majority even before the calls for candidatures were launched.

This time was different in another way: As the Newshound proudly announces, 9 out of the 10 new directors are women. We have always defended gender balance and we congratulate the new directors to their appointment! Yet, we have to admit that the good news is somewhat tainted: When the Bureau decides in January to reach gender parity in management by 2024 and at the earliest occasion 90% of the appointments go to women, it unfortunately sheds again doubts on the impartiality of the process.

We believe that professional skills, the performance level and gender equality need to be the prime criteria for the selection of senior managers and indeed, for any function. This is what we have strive for as a trade union within the past term of the staff committee. At some point, the Secretary General promised to review the system, but in the end nothing has happened, We will seek to resume the dialogue with the Secretary General on the matter in the new staff committee.