Virgin Mobile driving gender diversity and inclusion in Middle East

MUSCAT: In celebration of International Women’s Day, FRiENDi mobile’s parent company, Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa, has announced that it has achieved its gender diversity and inclusion targets for the Middle East, with 40 per cent of the total workforce in 2020 being made up of women, and 25 per cent of leadership positions in the business being held by women.

Commenting on Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa’s gender diversity goals, Erik Dudman Nielsen, CEO at Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa said, “Gender diversity clearly continues to represent not only a key challenge but also a significant opportunity for the future of our industry. Diverse teams, including those with greater gender diversity, are on average more creative, innovative, and I feel privileged to work alongside so many talented people as we push towards our goal of making mobile better, not only through our services but also through our culture. We believe in creating an inclusive environment, and a key sustainability goal for us is to improve the progression of women within our organisation, and ensure they have the same development opportunities as their male counterparts, in an industry that is often viewed as being male-dominated.”

Here in Oman, FRiENDi mobile is immensely proud of the fact that it has the first and only female CEO in the Omani telecom industry, with the appointment of Salma Al Maawali in 2018. Furthermore, several other Omani women are working in senior positions across the different departments of the company.

Commenting on FRiENDi mobile’s achievements, Salma Al Maawali, CEO at FRiENDi mobile said, “We are constantly striving to advance the careers of all of our staff and we are especially supportive of our female employees. We have consistently sought to train and develop them to take on more senior roles, and now we have many women in leading positions across marketing, customer service, technical, HR and regulatory.”

FRiENDi mobile was launched in April 2009 and offers a great prepaid mobile experience that combines exciting offers and services with competitive prices. Moreover, FRiENDi mobile offers the best customer care in Oman, very good network coverage, high-speed internet, easy to use products and low international call rates.

Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa is part of the Virgin family group of companies. Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa is responsible for all Virgin Mobile operations in the Middle East and Africa region and is headquartered in Dubai, UAE.

Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa has been in the region since 2007 and operates the two consumer brands of Virgin Mobile and FRiENDi Mobile across the region. Partnering with telecoms operators across the region, the Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa team provides customers with innovative products and packages designed to make their mobile experience better. We work closely with other Virgin companies across the world to make sure we can create experiences for our customer’s that surprise and delight them, and which can’t be matched.

Virgin Mobile Middle East & Africa believes in having the best people on the team, and the management team is made up of senior-level team members from a variety of successful regional and global mobile operators, as well as from MVNOs.