Sodexo, a food services and facilities management company committed to improving Quality of Life, announced today that it has been named for the 12th consecutive year by Working Mother magazine as one of the 2020 Best Companies for Multicultural Women, an honor recognizing companies that create and use best practices in hiring, retaining, and promoting multicultural women in the United States.

Sodexo is honored to be recognized by Working Mother for twelve consecutive years for its commitment to diversity and inclusion, including the advancement of multicultural women at Sodexo, "We remain committed to achieving gender balance, as evidenced by 40% representation of women in our U.S. senior leadership team, half of which are women of color," said Gerri Mason Hall, Chief Diversity and Sustainability Officer, Sodexo Americas.

Participation in the Working Mother survey more than tripled in the last two years, as an increasing number of organizations recognize the importance of strong measures as they work to narrow the gap through the promotions of multicultural women, leading to gender equity in top leadership positions. While the survey shows progress in multicultural women moving up, there still are only two multicultural women CEOs in the Fortune 500.

"Sodexo's commitment to diversity and inclusion is something that we take great pride in," said Sarosh Mistry, President Sodexo USA. "We have many initiatives in place to ensure strong representation of multicultural women such as the SoTogether Advisory Board whose primary focus is to address the advancement of women in leadership positions."

Key findings of the 2020 Working Mother report include:

• There is encouraging news at the top with increases in promotions for black, Latinx and Asian women with profit & loss experience and in heading major divisions or country revenues of more than $1 billion. For example, the percentage of black women with P&L experience who were promoted and the percentage of Latinx women leading major divisions more than doubled since last year.
• The improvement at the very senior positions correlates to progress in participation in best practices, including recruitment initiatives, formal sponsorship, and mentoring and leadership development. For example, the percentage of companies requiring diverse slates of interviewers for new hires is up a third.
• More CEOs have publicly declared their support for diversity & inclusion, including the hiring and promotion of multicultural women.

Sodexo's commitment to diversity and inclusion has been consistently recognized by external organizations and notable diversity publications. In January, Sodexo was recognized on Bloomberg's 2020 Gender Equality Index and FORTUNE'S 2019 list of the World's Most Admired Companies.

ABOUT Working Mother Media

Working Mother Media (WMM), a division of Bonnier Corp., publishes Working Mother magazine and its companion website, workingmother.com. The Working Mother Research Institute, the National Association for Female Executives, Diversity Best Practices and Culture@Work are also units within WMM. WMM's mission is to serve as a champion of culture change and Working Mother magazine is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

About Sodexo North America

Sodexo North America is part of a global, Fortune 500 company with a presence in 72 countries. Sodexo is a leading provider of integrated food, facilities management and other services that enhance organizational performance, contribute to local communities and improve quality of life for millions of customers in corporate, education, healthcare, senior living, sports and leisure, government and other environments daily. The company employs 160,000 people at 13,000 sites in all 50 U.S. states and Canada, and indirectly supports tens of thousands of additional jobs through its annual purchases of $19 billion in goods and services from small to large businesses. Sodexo is committed to supporting diversity and inclusion and safety, while upholding the highest standards of corporate responsibility and ethical business conduct. In support of local communities across the U.S., in 2018, Sodexo contributed over 159,500 in volunteer hours, and since 1996, the Stop Hunger Foundation has contributed nearly $34.5 million to help feed children in America impacted by hunger. To learn more about Sodexo, visit us.sodexo.com, and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.