Women's Network in the Sports Industry Launched

Today marked the kick-off for the first women’s network in Sweden’s sports industry. Svenskt Sportforum is the initiator and, together with their member companies, will now work to ensure more women advance to senior positions at Swedish sports companies.

Women have been the major growth market for sports companies in recent years. Women control the majority of household spending. Women have achieved great athletic successes in the past decade. This is in no way reflected in the management teams of sports companies, which are sadly gender-homogeneous. The newly launched women’s network aims to change that.

– We’re launching the network with increased industry profitability as the focus, just like with our other activities, says Jenny Tirén Berg at Svenskt Sportforum, who leads the network project.

Without women at the highest level, business opportunities are missed and profitability decreases – both common sense and major international studies confirm this. The network held its kick-off and first meeting at the Swesport sports trade fair at Kistamässan, where around 50 women in leadership positions in the Swedish sports industry gathered for lectures and a workshop.

The speakers were Lotta Snickare and Sara Orrensjö. Lotta is a leadership researcher at KTH, perhaps best known for her book “There’s a Special Place in Hell for Women Who Don’t Help Each Other,” which she wrote with Liza Marklund. Sara is an extreme skier and one of the founders and producers at film company “Generation Flinga,” which in 2009 released the world’s first ski film featuring exclusively women, “Catch Us If You Can.”

– The network’s goal is naturally to get more women to pursue careers in the sports industry and reach the very highest positions, says Jenny Tirén Berg. We’ll do this by inspiring, developing, educating, and supporting each other.

The network’s steering group consists of Jenny Tirén Berg along with Kajsa Claesson, Sales Manager at Stadium; Anna Mindelöf, HR Director at Adidas Group Nordics; and Ninni Lindertz, Marketing Director at Nike Sweden.

For more information
Jenny Tirén Berg, Communications Director, Svenskt Sportforum 076-548 65 92 or jenny.berg@svensktsportforum.se