A year ago, Micro Focus Australia teamed up with Protégé to sponsor its inaugural nine-month mentoring programme focused on supporting the advancement of women in leadership.
To highlight the successful delivery of Protégé’s 2020 mentoring programme, a celebratory event took place in Sydney recently where mentees and mentors were recognised for their efforts and achievements over the last year.
During the year, 19 mentees took part in the programme, and these included two Micro Focus Australia employees – Sarah Kono, Account Development Specialist, and Mel Vella, Sales Specialists & Consultant. The programme was supported by a team of mentors, including two Micro Focus leaders – Peter Fuller, Managing Director, Micro Focus Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), and Kim Jenkins, Director, Software Sales Operations, Micro Focus Asia Pacific Japan (APJ).
Protégé is a multi-faceted, interactive development programme aimed at talented and motivated women (mentees) and experienced senior executives (mentors) of both genders. Through a holistic approach, it includes one-to-one mentoring, skills’ building and unlimited networking opportunities to help women advance their careers and prepare for senior leadership roles.
Talking about this year’s programme, Peter said: “The Protégé Australia initiative has been a huge success this year. Feedback from both mentors and mentees has been nothing but positive. I am also delighted to say that Micro Focus will sponsor the next program, which will run from January to November 2021.”
Highlighting the value of the experience, Sarah said her mentors helped her develop a sense of clarity and a strategic approach to navigating complexities of large organisations and removing barriers that might hold her back from succeeding and reaching her life goals.
At the closing event, Mel said she was lucky and grateful to have found an amazing mentor, and that taking part in the Protégé programme was highly beneficial and worthwhile.
Sarah Atkinson, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Micro Focus, said: “Teaming up with Protégé further expands our ambition to enable opportunities for professional growth and development for women, especially within the technology industry where women in leadership roles are often underrepresented. Our commitment to help address the lack of diversity in the technology industry forms a key part of Micro Focus INSPIRE, our corporate social responsibility programme.”
