Sodexo MD makes Top 50 most powerful Irish businesswomen

Margot Slattery, managing director of Sodexo Ireland, has appeared in the Sunday Independent’s inaugural ‘50 Most Powerful and Influential Businesswomen in Ireland’.

Published on 11 May, the list provides a snapshot of the game-changing executives at the helm of some of the country’s most innovative, fast-moving and profitable companies.

Limerick-born Margot began her career as a chef and worked in several Irish and UK hotels before joining Sodexo Ireland in 1992 as a catering manager. She was appointed managing director in 2012.

In 2013, she won the Management Professional Award at the Image Businesswomen of the Year Award as well as the Empowering Women Award at the WMB (Women Mean Business) Awards.

Margot Slattery is committed to the diversity and inclusion agenda and Sodexo is one of the founding signatories of Ireland’s first Diversity Charter. It was also a finalist in the Best Employer category at the 2014 GALA Awards. The GALAS were created by GCN and the National Lesbian and Gay Federation (NLGF) to honour those who work towards a better future for LGBT people in Ireland. 

Sodexo has received numerous awards recognising the company’s achievements on behalf of diversity and gender equality balance around the world.

In the UK, Sodexo was named among The Times Top 50 Employers for Women last month and won the Global Award in the Opportunity Now Excellence in Practice Awards. In India, Sodexo received the 2012 WI LL Forum-Best Employers for Women Award and Distinction. That same year, Sodexo in North America received the Catalyst Award, recognizing exceptional business initiatives that advance women in the workplace. And in 2013, Sodexo was recognized by DiversityInc as the #1 company on their Top 50 Companies for Diversity list.

Sodexo Ireland is a leading provider of food and facilities management services to clients in business and industry, education, financial services and healthcare. It has approximately 1,800 employees in 200 locations across Ireland and spends almost €19 million annually on local Irish food.

Margot Slattery, managing director of Sodexo Ireland, said: “I am very honoured to be included in what is an exceptionally heavy-hitting list of high-profile businesswomen here in Ireland. But as the article stated, we still lag behind our European peers when it comes to women on boards. Gender balance, at every level of an organization, from the storeroom to the boardroom, is conducive to better performance and innovation. This fact is borne out by a recent European survey which showed that listed companies with women on their boards outperformed those without.”