Cycle 4 Period

April 2024--October 2024

Qualification

European Chamber Members Only

Contact

cimi@europeanchamber.com.cn

About Cross-industry Mentor Initiative

Programme overview

This Cross-industry Mentor Initiative Cycle 5 will partner mid- to senior-level managers in China with C-suite leaders of European business in China, who helped to impart the additional skills and knowledge required for them take the next step in their careers, from senior management to board-level positions. This is a part-time course lasting approximately 6 months from April 2024 to October 2024.

Some organisations have similar internal employee development programmes but it is anchored there in an existing employee/employer relationship. The Chamber’s cross-company and industry initiative will remove these barriers and provide an unrestricted, impartial learning environment to facilitate personal growth for mentees while providing a fresh perspective to mentors.

Same as the first four cycles, the fifth cycle of the CIMI focused on improving female representation at senior management and board level in China. We have chosen this as the focal point for the programme due to the lack of gender diversity among top leadership within the Chamber’s member companies. We believe this initiative can make an instant impact for those future female leaders involved whilst providing a platform for future diversity and inclusion and leadership development programmes.

What will the programme involve?

The application deadline is COB of 20th March 2024. Following the selection process, each mentee will be paired one-on-one with a leading business figure from the European business community in China who will provide guidance and support, with at least five full hours dedicated to mentee development over the course of the six-month programme. This is a minimum requirement agreed by all of the mentors, and we expect more time committed in cases where there is a good mentor-mentee fit.

In addition, a number of external, tailored workshops will be provided which will help mentees develop leadership skills, share the leadership development experience and expand network.

  • Exclusive breakfast session for mentors and mentees
  • Workshops on Leadership and DE&I
  • Networking Event

Programme Fees for Mentees (exclude travel cost)

Advisory Council members: CNY2,000 per person

Non – Advisory Council members: CNY10,000 per person

How to Apply

Applicants must be:

  • female;
  • aged 30–45;
  • an employee of a European Chamber member company; and
  • mid- to senior-level management looking to step up to director, vice president, business unit head or equivalent.
  • committed to developing herself within her current company for at least the next three years.
    • To apply, please fill in the online form to submit the following information and responses to the below questions before COB of 20th March 2024:

      • An up-to-date CV
      • A summary of your current job function (200 words or less)
      • What are your medium-term career aspirations and how can mentoring help to get you there? (350 words or less)
      • What do you have to offer a prospective mentor? (350 words or less)
      • Any other information you may wish to share (200 words or less)

Mentors

Bruno Weill

Chief Group Representative of BNP Paribas China, VICE PRESIDENT OF EUROPEAN CHAMBER

Gianni Di Giovanni

Chairman of Eni China BV and EVP Eni Representative Office in Beijing, States' Representative of European Chamber

Holly Lei

President, Covestro China, BOARD MEMBER OF EUROPEAN CHAMBER SHANGHAI CHAPTER

Francis Liekens

Vice President, Atlas Copco China, BOARD MEMBER OF EUROPEAN CHAMBER SHANGHAI CHAPTER

Michael Chang

Executive Vice President, Nokia Greater China

Charles Cheng

Chairman of Societe Generale (China) Ltd.

Davide Cirelli

CEO, SNAM China

Lars Eckerlein

ABB China General Manager, ABB (China) Limited; Country Holding Officer, ABB China

Jing Han

Senior Vice President of Bureau Veritas CIF Greater China and Northeast Asia

Marc Horn

President, Merck China

Elisabeth Lindström-Dupuy

GM for Sandvik Coromant, North Asia & President for Sandvik China Holding

Liu Chang

Vice President, Cargill China

Christina Lu

President, LivaNova China

Ma Jun

President, Volvo (China) Investment Co., Ltd., SVP, Volvo Group

Ouyang Bo

CFO Siemens Greater China; Director of the Board of Directors, Senior Executive VP and CFO Siemens China

Peter Qiu

President of Deutsche Bank China Co., Ltd & Head of Corporate Coverage for Greater China

Wayne Shi

Country Lead and Head of General Medicines, Sanofi Greater China

Julie Xiaoyu Zhang

President, Arkema Greater China

Christine Zhou

SVP & President of Region China Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.

Activities / Making A Difference: The European Chamber Mentorship Approach

Lunch Meeting: CIMI Wrap-up and Kick-off Ceremony

10th February 2023

On 10th February 2023, the European Chamber concluded Cycle 3 of the Cross Industry Mentor Initiative (CIMI) and kicked off CIMI Cycle 4, following an earlier Cycle 3 wrap-up webinar on 6th December 2022.

President Jörg Wuttke attended and presented the European Chamber’s latest publication on diversity, entitled Women in Business Report 2022. The report looks at the targets members of the Chamber’s Advisory Council have set to improve diversity in their own workplace. He said the adage stands true, “what gets measured, gets done”.  He shared how even in his own company, when women are present, the conversations change.

Three mentees from CIMI Cycle 3 shared their key learnings:

 “The programme gave me a much broader view on my work, and allowed me to think more outside the box.”

 “Not only did I benefit from the mentoring personally, but now I am able to apply these skills to people on my team as well.”

 “I approach my work differently by trying to view things more from the perspective of my supervisor.”

By end of the ceremony in Beijing, two new mentors expressed interest in being part of this Initiative and sharing their mentoring experience with the young generations in their companies.

WOMEN IN BUSINESS – HOW THE EUROPEAN COMPANIES IN CHINA EMBRACE EQUITY 职场女性——在华欧盟企业如何拥抱平等

7th March 2023

The European Chamber organised an online event on “Women in Business“, in which member companies are invited to discuss the challenges and former practices regarding promoting workplace gender equity and outstanding women to share their experiences in overcoming the barriers. The event aimed to build a community of women in the workplace and help them to make their voices heard.

WORKSHOP ON WOMEN’S DAY: WOMEN EMPOWERMENT “三.八”妇女节女性赋能工作坊(CHINESE LANGUAGE)

On the basis of the National Webinar, Beijing Chapter held “Women Empowerment Workshop” at the same day, as an extension to enable more members in Beijing to have face-to-face communication opportunities to discuss issues about women in the workplace.
Xiaobo Zhang, Member of the European Chamber Executive Committee, delivered the welcome remark and Qingmin Chen from Thoughtworks drove the group discussion on Gender Equity.

Exclusive Breakfast Seminar for Mentors and Mentees

6th April 2023

The European Chamber hosted exclusive breakfast seminar for mentors and mentees from the CIMI cycle 4 on 6th April in Shanghai. This seminar was moderated by Bettina Schoen, the European Chamber Vice President and Shanghai Chapter Chair.
Mentors and mentees shared their key learnings from this programme, discussed how to deal with the challenges under the current background of global economic recession and the geopolitical issues for the post-pandemic era and what role the leaders can play in this context.

Female Leadership Sharing Session with Nokia Women Forum

11th May 2023

The European Chamber and Nokia China co-organised this activity on female leadership sharing session, which was held on 11th May in Nokia Campus Beijing.

Nina Jiang, HR & Operations Director from the European Chamber introduced the CIMI programme; Xiaobo Zhang, Member of the European Chamber Executive Committee, delivered the keynote speech, addressed her own story stepping up to a senior leadership position and how CIMI programme supported her development.

Michael Chang, Executive Vice President from Nokia China shared his experience as a mentor to empower his mentees and people in this community, Aileen Li, People Partner from Nokia China drove the discussion on how the Nokia Women Forum cooperated with CIMI and invited the mentees from the previous cycles to share their learnings and changes.

[Hybrid training][CIMI] Breaking Unconscious Bias, Building a Diverse and Inclusive Team 打破无意识偏见 共建包容型多元化团队

8th June 2023

Ms. Mulan Zhao, expert in organisational leadership and talent development, delivered this training. Overcoming unconscious bias is key to building an inclusive team, and it requires team members to have a deep self-awareness, acknowledge unconscious biases, understand the science behind biases and develop mitigation strategies to address them. The course helps people break unconscious biases, recognize the strengths of diverse individuals, value the unique contributions of colleagues and join efforts to build an inclusive diverse team.

[Hybrid][CIMI] Building Adaptive Leadership

15th June 2023

Ms. Cindy Jensen and Ms. Eike Westerholt delivered this workshop for our mentees. This workshop explored from a leader’s perspective – building team resiliency. The trainers brought case studies to help explore the topic and introduced some of the key foundational work that can be done with teams when building back team confidence and performance.

[Hybrid] Move the Needle towards Equal Pay for Equal Work

25th September 2023

The European Chamber invited experts from UN Women and member companies to discuss the imperative topic of equal pay across international enterprises and organisations. The event aimed to highlight the continuous development and progress of equal pay initiatives while emphasising the profound significance of achieving pay parity for equal work on a global scale. Additionally, the event aimed to raise awareness and understanding, particularly within human resources circles, about the pivotal role that pay equality plays in fostering workplace harmony, retaining talent, and enhancing organizational reputation.

Mentorship Showcase – Develop and Raise Up Your Voice

11th November 2021

The European Chamber invited mentors from CIMI Charlotte Roule and Paris Hadjisotiriou and their mentees Wu Jing, Wang Lin and Neményi Viktoria to share their mentoring experience and how the CIMI can facilitate the female leadership development. This webinar was moderated by Laurie O’Donnell, Managing Director at Cornerstone International Group.

[Webinar] What Does Gender Equality Mean to Business- Training With UN Women

12th November 2021

To help our members and partners to have a better understanding on the gender equality issues, the European Chamber Nanjing Chapter invited experts from UN Women China office to deliver a tailored training on the current development, outlook, and practice of gender equality.

[Onsite] Leadership Dialogue: The Power to Create, Nurture and Transform

16th December 2021

The European Chamber held the Leadership Dialogue and the wrap-up and kick-off ceremony of Cross-industry Mentor Initiative (CIMI) in Shanghai. We invited the C-suite mentors from the second cycle of CIMI to share their views on how to nurture and transform the female empowerment in the European community and what a difference both mentors and mentees can make; Meanwhile, we invited the mentors from the third cycle of CIMI to share their motivation to enroll as mentors.

Female Leaders and Reputation Management

9th June 2022

Ms Ulan Tuya, the CEO of Ulan Public Relations Consultancy, who has 20 years of experience in public relations as a professional expert, shared her views on how to create a positive public image, and measures on reputation management for female leaders.

4-D Leadership Workshop

23rd June 2022

Ms Mulan Zhao, expert in organisational leadership and talent development, guest Lecturer of Entrepreneur Doctorate Program of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, delivered the4-D Leadership Workshop, based on cutting-edge research results of psychology, management, leadership and sociology, which has become the most recommended leadership development program amongst enterprises, government institutions and NGOs.

Energy Management

30th June 2022

Ms Tsjitske Dijkstra, a certified soft skill trainer, who worked more than 25 years for commercial and governmental organisations, delivered a lecture on Energy Management, sharing useful ways of managing daily-life energy.

International Role of Directors and Board

7th July 2022

Paul Munden is an experienced commercial law barrister and Chartered Director, and has served as general counsel of the Business Link operation in London, shared his views on international role of directors and board, distinguishing the role of a director from those of the other actors involved in the management and oversight of an organization.

CIMI Cycle 3 Wrap-up Webinar

6th December 2022

At the CIMI Cycle 3 wrap-up webinar, ‘Leadership Dialogue: Forging Career Paths’, held on 6th December 2022, the keynote speech was delivered by Tiziana D’Angelo, consul general of the Italian Consulate in Shanghai. She expressed recognition of the importance of the CIMI programme, which she said was not only to share experiences, advice and good practices, but also to empower and support advocacy for gender equality. Ms D’Angelo said that in society, in institutions and in company boards, the world needs more women in decision-making positions. She also said women can be the driving force to push and lobby for real change; in particular, successful businesswomen—no matter at what stage and what time in their career—can be instrumental in instigating reform.

European Chamber Vice President and Shanghai Chapter Chair Bettina Schoen launched the Women in Business Report 2022. This was followed by breakaway groups of mentors and mentees discussing the key takeaways and how they benefitted from CIMI, for example, resilient leadership; building the right support; visibility/branding, among others.

Kick-off Webinars for the Second Cycle of CIMI

17th December 2020

Laurie O’Donnell, Managing Director of Cornerstone International Group conducted the mentoring induction webinars for mentors and mentees separately. In the webinars, Laurie shared her views on the difference between coaching and mentoring, what skills were essential in mentoring and how to manage the mentoring sessions.

2021 Exclusive Breakfast Seminars for Mentors and Mentees from the CIMI Cycle 2

31st March/16th April 2021

The European Chamber hosted exclusive breakfast seminars for mentors and mentees from the CIMI cycle 2 – in Beijing on 31st March and in Shanghai on 16th April. These gatherings were moderated by Charlotte Roule, vice president of the European Chamber and CEO of ENGIE China.

Mentors and mentees discussed the stereotypes surrounding female leadership and the ‘leaky pipeline’ phenomenon affecting the number of females reaching middle and executive level leadership roles. Attendees shared observations on how gender diversity can contribute to improving efficiency and encouraging innovation. They also discussed their perceptions of the advantages provided by the European Chamber CIMI programme – the unique access to the C-suite level leaders for mentees and the channel it provides for mentors to self-reflect and learn how the younger generation thinks.

[Onsite] Female Empowerment Chatroom: Self-Confidence and Managing-Up

25th May 2021

The European Chamber hosted the Female Empowerment Chatroom and newly launched Unleash Today book presentation in the Chamber’s Beijing Office focusing on Self-Confidence and Managing-Up. It was our honor to invite two mentors Charlotte Roule and Michael Chang, one mentee Tong Wang from European Chamber Cross-industry Mentor Initiative and one guest speaker Sarah Wagner to share their views in this context.

[Onsite and Online] Women In TECH: Women Support Women

31st August 2021

As part of CIMI, we have organised a series of activities and invited speakers from different sectors to tell their stories and share their experiences in leadership. We were delighted to host a seminar highlighting the careers and experiences of three female leaders in technology sectors to inspire young professionals in our community.

Leadership Dialogue: The Power to Create, Nurture and Transform

15th October 2021

The European Chamber organised the Leadership Dialogue and the wrap-up event for the second cycle of Cross-industry Mentor Initiative (CIMI) in Beijing. We invited Eva Valle Lagares, Minister Counsellor and Head of Trade at the European Delegation to China and Jialei Lin, Program Manager of UN Women in China as the keynote speakers and the C-suite mentors Joerg Wuttke, Jens Eskelund, Michael Chang and Ouyang Bo for the second cycle of CIMI to share their views on how to nurture and transform the female empowerment in the European Community and what a difference both mentors and mentees can make.

Insights from C-suite Mentors: The Road Towards a C-Suite Position

On 25th September 2020, mentors from the initial cycle of the mentoring programme Charlotte Roule, CEO of ENGIE China, Vice President of European Chamber and Denis Depoux, Global Managing Director, Managing Director Greater China, Head of Asia of Roland Berger shared their views on the importance of the women’s representation in leadership teams and how the CIMI can facilitate the female leadership development. 

To review the webinar recording, please click here.

Mentorship Showcase –Increase Local Visibility with Global Perspective

On 18th September 2020, Joerg Wuttke, Vice President and Chief Representative of BASF China, President of European Chamber who is one of the mentors for the Cross-industry Mentor Initiative and his mentee Gloria Zhou, Head of Strategy and Business Portfolio at BP China shared what they have learned and achieved from the mentorship cycle 1 and discuss the difference between CIMI and other in-house mentoring programmes, especially how to integrate the global thinking into the local acts through the mentoring sessions when dealing with the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

To review the podcast recording, please click here.

The Impact of Mentoring – How to set yourself up for success and build your confidence and leadership skills

On 31st August 2020, Charlotte Roule (CEO of ENGIE China, Vice President of European Chamber) and Rachel Morarjee (Director of the Economist Corporate Network, former board member of European Chamber) spoke about the values of CIMI and how this programme can facilitate the female leadership development in the European Chamber community. 

To review the webinar recording, please click here.

Feedback from Mentees

It is truly a rewarding experience to get inspired from high level executives how they make her career path a beautiful journey. Thank CIMI programme for the unique initiative!

Maggie Wang

Airbus China

It’s an exceptional learning journey in a time of extraordinary changes. I am privileged to enjoy the wisdom of a most experience business leader to get fast spot of problems and tailor-made inspirations on career development, cross-cultural communication, leading changes. It’s not only one-on-one mentoring but also the platform to get the insight from a group of senior leaders.

I’m honored to join this fantastic program with so many amazing ladies from famous EU companies and Christine is a wonderful mentor as well. By her mentoring, I get to know the basic leadership characteristic, understand different concerns and accept different point of view. I find my career path much clearer and think in a more positive and responsible way. I’m fearless of changes and all these changes happen during the program and will continuous effect my future thoughts and acting modes.  Thanks to the organizers, mentors and all mentees who devote themselves to making the program glorious and colorful!

Yikong Zhang

Nokia China

 

Appreciate European Chamber initiated the CIMI program, It is quite precious opportunity for me to learn from the elite from cross-industries.  Big thanks to my mentor, who is an outstanding leader and advise lots of insights on my career development.

Linda Zhang

Storaenso China

CIMI program gave me lot of opportunities to experience deeper reflection myself and get valuables advice from C-level mentors, based on that some Aha moment was pop up automatically which made me feel really happy and encouraged. Also it’s truly a fantastic platform for network building and learning from other excellent talents.

CIMI it is such a great platform to provide cross industry, cross hierarchy, cross culture communication. Great journey with great mentors which can benefit not only career but also life.

My Mentor is Jens. During the program, he and I did a lot of practice together about how to make and present a strategy for the company. I still remember my 1st version of “strategy” does not look good, which is full of details and more like an “action plan” not a strategy.  Jens helped me to understand that a strategy is something lasting for 5 years or even longer time. And the spirit of a strategy is “to change”. We need to build a clear story line about where, why, what and how to change to make a perfect strategy presentation. After several rounds of practice, both my mindset, vision and presentation skills are improved a lot under his guidance. I do appreciate all of the help I have received from my mentor, I could not have lived through some of the challenging presentations in my work without those practical suggestions from him.

 

It’s a very valuable opportunity to have Charlotte as my cross industry mentor. I have a safe and open environment to discuss various leadership and career topics. Through dialogue with my mentor, I learned to be a confident leader and be authentic to company and personal value. The program also provide opportunities to talk with all mentors and network with other mentees. I highly recommend the mentor program to those who are eager to learn and want to further develop your leadership and career. Thanks European chamber, all the mentors and organizer to provide such a good platform to help future leader grow.

It’s my great honor to be part of the CIMI program. Throughout the mentoring sessions, I’m not only inspired by my mentor, who had extreme rich global business experience as C-suite, but also got the chance to reflect my own experience during the exciting discussions. It’s a rare opportunity to have someone with such seniority providing independent mentoring. Last but not least, I enjoyed each meeting with my mentor and had great fun each time.

The opportunities to be mentored by the executive of the European company is very rare.  Make sure you take advantage of this great personal development opportunity.  More importantly, please take the time to think, plan and develop yourself, regardless what you would like to pursue in your life.  Look for role models, mentors, and assistance and always remember that asking for help is a sign of strength not a sign of weakness.

It’s my privilege to join the EUCCC mentorship program and have Charlotte as my mentor, and it is truly rewarding though disrupted by COVID-19. Charlotte is a patient listener and good at motivating people with providing constructive recommendation, and I’m so impressed by her commitment to the work and the team, and the way she inspires the innovation and people. The mentorship program helps me to validate my view and behavior and build confidence. The program also provides me the chance to network with the talents from other industries to share ideas, knowledge and challenges. I would recommend the program to future talents, as the program provides great opportunity of practicing communication skills with executives and learn from their experience to accelerate personal development.

 

I would like to thank for the mentorship program offered by European chamber, it provided me the direct talk opportunity with the executive level leaders. I learned a lot their personal success experience, the tips to improve the efficiency and the suggestions regarding how to deal with the difficult situations. It also created a nice social environment to know more excellent female leaders. Thanks for European chamber, I sincerely hope more and more female leaders can benefit and contribute into this community, Gifts of roses, hand there are lingering fragrance.

 

Feedback from Mentors

My mentoring with my mentee has been an opportunity for shared learning across cultures and across the automotive and aerospace industries. We come out from it enriched with new perspectives on how to lead in dynamic and changing environment!”

It is like a journey, taking the time to truly ‘see’ your mentee, understanding, and accepting, both their authentic real selves and their ideal selves and imagined career destinations. This takes time and patience. A mentor must earn trust, be accessible, and listen generously. It is every time a joy to honor the mentee’s ideal self and career dream, and not to dwell on the present career point she is invested in, let alone the one that mirrors my own career. It is all about the art of patient listening, questioning, unconditional acceptance, and generous affirmation to help draw forth the dream, name it out loud, and then set about championing mentees’ efforts to get there. It’s an exciting journey.

When my mentee told me she managed to work out a solution with our aligned idea from our previous session and it worked so well, I could feel her joy across the screen. It’s a pity that I could only give her an emoji smile through computer instead of a warm hug at that moment. I am so happy that something we worked together helped me. It is funny that both of us felt time was not sufficient when we had to call an end to our session and wish each other staying healthy and all the best every time.

It has been an outstanding experience and pleasure to go through this program with my mentee. We had interesting and often very challenging discussions and I could observe how my mentee was changing perspectives, developed new ideas and was setting new targets for her future career. I am happy and grateful to  be part of this program, a learning journey for both, mentee and mentor.

Unfortunately we had to conduct all our sessions virtually. Now, a final target for both of us is to meet in person, hopefully it will happen soon.

I think CIMI is a valuable program. The cross-industry experiences of mentor and mentee bring diversity to the mentoring relationship, enrich the conversations and inspire the exchange and mutual learning. I would encourage the Chamber to continue this program.

I’m very grateful to be part of this mentoring program. I see the program really as a two way learning journey were mentor and mentee are continuously changing roles. Being able to do that across industry is incredible, as it opens up new spaces of experience and learning, and we can appreciate the differences in the progress of diversity and gender balance.

I deem the CIMI programme an outstanding initiative. Not only offers it highly engaged young female managers access to senior-level mentors, it also delivers a unique opportunity to gain insights into an unrelated industry.

As a mentor, the mentoring sessions have not only filled me with great joy and pride, I personally received a lot back from my mentee in learnings and insights.

Definitely to be continued and ideally expanded.