Henkel has appointed Anke Meier as its first global Diversity Manager, extending the strategic advantages of the company’s inherent diversity. Meier reports directly to Kasper Rorsted, Vice Chairman of the Henkel Management Board and Executive Vice President Human Resources. In 11 years with the company, Meier has gathered significant experience abroad in various international finance- related positions. She was previously Henkel’s chief financial officer in the UK and Ireland and served on Henkel’s global Audit team, working at many of the company’s international sites. In 2006, Henkel developed its “Diversity Cockpit,” a program to gather and organize the most important worldwide statistics on the subject of diversity within the company. One result from this research showed that the proportion of female managers employed at Henkel exceeds 25 percent, above the European market average. In addition to gender, the “Cockpit” also reveals dimensions on age and internationality in the worldwide managerial structure at Henkel. Early in 2007, Henkel signed the initiative “Diversity as an Opportunity – the Diversity Charter of German Companies,” on the basis of which representatives of Germany’s business world have been supporting the diversity concept.