UN Women expresses condolences for Koç in Davos

DAVOS

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, dubbed U.N. Women, has expressed its deepest condolences for Turkey’s leading businessman Mustafa Koç, who passed away a day before his scheduled attendance at the initiative’s meeting in Davos on Jan. 22. 

The world’s leading companies have released new workforce gender diversity figures, including details on leadership roles and board membership, in U.N. Women’s inaugural HeForShe Parity Report in Davos with the attendance of U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson. Koç was planning on the afternoon of Jan. 21 to fly to Zurich and Davos, where he was due to speak at the HeForShe event calling for gender equality, but he lost his life from a heart attack earlier in the day. 

“Tragically, Mustafa Koç, chair of Koç Holding and an ardent supporter of U.N. Women, died at the age of 55 in the days before the event. He had been a dedicated IMPACT Champion and contributed a huge amount to the report and its launch in Davos. U.N. Women expresses its deepest condolences,” said the initiative in a press release of the event. 

HeForShe created the IMPACT 10X10X10 initiative to engage 10 key decision-makers in governments, corporations and universities around the world to drive change from the top.

The group of 10 companies includes AccorHotels, Barclays, Koç Holding, McKinsey & Company, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Schneider Electric, Tupperware Brands, Twitter, Unilever and Vodafone.

The Corporate Impact Champions have made gender equality an institutional priority since they signed up, and the transparency displayed in Davos will help them measure commitments and inspire action from other employers. The report figures showed that a large gap remains between the representation of women in the workforce at large, and in leadership positions.