IDC European Woman in Venture Capital

EUROPEAN WOMEN IN VC IDC #EUR148997722 © IDC 2022 45 Diversity has become a major objective of most Western Societies for this decade. Harnessing the diverse talent pool, especially from the female half of our population, promises a major boost to the economy, underpinning and improving the quality of life in our society. The most important first step in this direction has happened in many countries already. This is the culture change of embracing diversity as a societal objective. Although many countries are still lagging behind, the trend is there and growing. There are alsoanumber of examples of female leadershipof technology venture funds including Amadeus Capital Partners, which I cofounded with Anne Glover in 1997. She has been the CEO of Amadeus since the beginning—an unusually early example of female leadership in amale dominated sector. Buildingon this cultural changeandearly examples, thereareanumber of initiatives to improve the percentages of female entrepreneurs and technology leaders through explicit diversity programmes in large companies, governments and funding organisations like the European Innovation Council, which has diversity as one of its objectives. Although the trend is in the right direction, a number of initiatives are in place, and there are early success stories, the statistics are still disappointing, and greater efforts are needed to achieve the goal of equal opportunity and participation in all the key positions and jobs in our society. DR HERMANN HAUSER FRS, FRENG, KBE Co-founder, Amadeus Capital Partners