“We continuously strive to promote an inclusive culture where all employees feel valued, respected and involved regardless of their personal identity. It is pleasing that SEB this year will participate in Stockholm Pride for the first time and that we are also engaged in similar events in our home markets,” says Johan Torgeby, SEB’s President and CEO.
Inclusion and diversity are important matters within SEB and something the bank has focused on for a long time. Since many years, SEB has a groupwide Inclusion and Diversity Policy and the bank works actively with these matters in the daily work within and in its recruitment. SEB is also a member of Diversity Charter Sweden, which works to promote workplace diversity, and also cooperates with a number of organisations such as Mentor and Mitt Liv regarding these matters.
“As part of our work with inclusion and diversity, the internal network Proud at SEB has in the past few years helped raise LGBTQ+ issues in that context. It’s therefore a natural next step that the bank now shows that commitment in Stockholm Pride,” says Robert Celsing, Head of Group Human Resources.
Proud at SEB was formed in 2022 with the aim of raising awareness of LGBTQ+ issues at SEB and consists of employees from different parts of the Group. It regularly holds digital and physical seminars to increase knowledge about these matters. Proud at SEB also arranges network meetings and has established an active digital community within the bank, with a few hundred members. During Global Pride Month, which is held throughout June, the group is for example arranging seminars and network gatherings.
As of this year, SEB will become an official partner of Stockholm Pride. Proud at SEB is responsible for planning the bank's participation in the event.
“We find it incredibly encouraging that SEB has decided to participate. Not least in these times, when much of the progress made in recent years is being questioned. It then becomes even more important for large companies and employers to show their support and emphasise the importance of the work to further promote inclusion and diversity,” says Kristofer Engman, who leads the Proud at SEB group and works as a quant trader within the bank’s currency trading department.
As an official partner, SEB will have visibility during Stockholm Pride. Among other things, SEB will participate with its own section in the parade. All SEB employees and their families who wish to participate are welcome to do so.
Employees from SEB in Lithuania joined the parade at Vilnius Pride on 8 June.