• The winner will be the CaixaBank Spanish representative in the 2017 IWEC awards. The Awards will be held at the headquarters of Microsoft in Seattle, Washington on November 14th, 2017 along with 50 others woman entrepreneur from 20 different countries.
  • CaixaBank actively promotes policies and measures to contribute to equal opportunities within their professionals, and supports various initiatives that contribute to advancing gender equality.

Barcelona, Spain June 23rd 2017.- CaixaBank launches the award “Premio Mujer Empresaria” (Entrepreneur Women’s Award) to identify the women leaders of the corporate world with a recognized career in Spain. These awards are born within the framework of the 10th year anniversary of the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC) conference, a worldwide network of women entrepreneurs around the world who support the growth of their own companies, and cooperate internationally with the aim to help create and distribute wealth in the business world.

Each year, during the Conference, IWEC presents these prestigious awards in order to recognize and support women entrepreneurs worldwide which also serves as a boost in their professional career internationally. In Addition, the IWEC awards aim to increase visibility, credibility and accountability of women entrepreneurs, so that they can be an important and decisive part in the development of the global economy of the twenty-first century.

For the first time, the Spanish representative will be chosen through the “Premio Mujer Empresaria” (Entrepreneur Women’s Award) that CaxiaBank will initiate in Spain.

CaixaBank, committed to support gender equality

To CaixaBank, “Every day there are more women playing a crucial role in companies and organizations as decision makers. Mainstreaming women in the entrepreneurial world effectively adds style, knowledge and experience.”

This vision and commitment to society is what motivated the bank to create these awards in Spain. In 2013, CaixaBank joined the Women’s Empowerment Principles, an initiative of United Nations Women and the Global Compact of the United Nations, taking public commitment to align their policies to advance gender equality. In addition, the entity supports other initiatives to promote gender equality, such as the voluntary agreement with the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality to greater represent women in managerial positions; the Diversity Charter, to promote equal opportunities and anti-discrimination measures; and the generation and Talent Observatory, to promote diversity.

Therefore, CaixaBank actively promotes policies and measures to contribute to equal opportunities within their professionals, and supports various initiatives that contribute to advance gender equality. In December 2016, 37% of managerial positions in CaxiaBank were occupied by women and 52.6% of its workforce.

The IWEC Awards are an initiative of the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, ​​which was launched in 2007 in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of Manhattan and FICCI / FLO (Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India), the support of the Chamber of Commerce of Cape Town in South Africa and the Department of State of the United States. This project since its inception has been supported by CaixaBank, leader of Spain financial market, from the business school IESE Business School entity and, since last year, Repsol.

Spain representative in the IWEC Awards 2017

Starting today, CaixaBank will identify a maximum of three businesswomen candidates in each of its 14 regions. After nominations are closed, July 21st 2017, CaixaBank will select a finalist for each region who will then be contacted the first week of August 2017.

The 14 finalists will continue the process to be elected as the Spain representative for the IWEC Awards 2017. The event will be held at the headquarters of Microsoft in Seattle, Washington (United States), on November 14th 2017, along with other 50 entrepreneurs from 20 different countries.

The first edition of these awards took place in Barcelona in February 2007 and subsequently have been held in New York (2008), New Delhi (2009), Cape Town (2010), New York (2011), Barcelona (2012), Lima (2013), Stockholm (2014), Istanbul (2015) and Brussels (2016).

In 2016, IWEC international awards recognized the work of 42 women entrepreneurs from 21 different countries. The companies that these women run recorded a global turnover exceeding $724 million and employed more than 32,000 people in five continents.