Women of the Ukrainian Energy Sector: Winner Announced

On December 17, the award ceremony of the competition “Women of the Ukrainian Energy Sector,” organized by NGO Women’s Energy Club of Ukraine, was held. The competition aims at celebrating the contribution of women into the development of the Ukrainian energy sphere, supporting women, motivating them to achieve more in the energy sector and related sectors of the economy.

Overall, 72 applications in nominations were submitted for the competition: Company of the Year, Woman Boss, Woman Politician, Woman Employee, Woman Lawyer, Woman Volunteer, Woman Journalist, Woman Educator. The women could nominate themselves, but it was also possible to nominate one’s colleagues or organization.

“I’m very happy that in the three years since Women’s Energy Club of Ukraine was created, we managed to achieve considerable results in drawing attention to the importance of women’s engagement and development in the energy sector. It is the first award ceremony, which will become annual, and where the competition will be growing every year, considering the growing numbers of women professionals in the energy sector,” says President of the WECU Valentyna Beliakova.

The Selection Board tasked with choosing the winners consisted of:

• Anna Dovgopol, coordinator of the Gender Democracy program of Heinrich Boell Foundation, Kyiv Office — Ukraine;
• Oleksii Riabchyn, Deputy Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine;
• Snizhana Zhytnikovska, coordinator of Women’s Energy Club of Ukraine.

Here are the winners of the competition “Women of the Ukrainian Energy Sector”:

Woman Politician Category — Olha Bielkova, MP. She has been a believer of gender equality for a long time and works on it in the Parliament, too; she’s a member of the caucus “For Equal Opportunities” and of the WECU. She fights for gender quotas in supervisory boards of state-owned companies and advocates the respective draft law.

Woman Employee Category — Tetiana Amosova, director of investments and prospective development in State-Owned Enterprise NAEK Energoatom. Tetiana started her career as an engineer at Chornobyl power plant. She was an active participant of Ukrainian energy sector reforms and creation of Energoatom, where she worked in leading positions of the executive director and the vice president. To ensure gender equality, Tetiana encourages the men of Energoatom to support equal rights and opportunities for men and women to avoid any discrimination in the workplace. She also supports the policy of equal pay established exclusively based on the worker’s professional level.

Woman Boss Category — Olha Bosak, entrepreneur, member of the Board of the Norwegian company AICE Hydro. As the only woman on the Board of AICE Hydro, she promotes the role of a woman both in the energy sector overall and at the highest management level of the company. She has experience of providing local support in the implementation of the strategy for improvement of Ukraine’s competitive ability, especially in the sphere of alternative energy sources and energy efficiency. Working on the team of the Deloitte project on the reform of the natural gas market, she contributed to improvement of the investment attractiveness of Ukraine’s oil and gas sector. She was involved in corporatization of Energoatom as an advisor on sustainable development. In June 2019, she started Energy Salon XXI.

Woman Volunteer Category — Svitlana Holikova, director of PP Transenergoconsulting. In 2017, she was on the Selection Board for Members of the NERC (National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities), where she stood for gender equality and unbiased attitude to women. She was among the initiators of the WECU.

Woman Educator Category — Viktoria Saravas, deputy head of the academic department of power complexes and systems in Pre-Azov State Technical University. She is the first woman head of the academic department working on electric energy. Taking part in career days in schools, she always talks to girls to set an example that women in the energy sector can be successful and determined. She organizes scientific experiments for women based on the academic department labs, helps women students and assists recent women graduates with job hunting.

Woman Journalist Category — Tetiana Tsyrulnyk, editor-in-chief of a Poltava-based news website kolo.news. Her team often participates in gender forums or trainings. On the website, there is a weekly special Power of a Poltava Woman, telling stories of the city’s strong women. Tetiana writes about the oil mining industry and is a winner of the local investigative journalism competition in the sphere of mining.

Woman Lawyer Category — Liudmyla Zeniuk, Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the Committee on Energy and Utilities in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. She has 35 years of experience in legal support of draft laws concerning electrical power, gas, development of nuclear safety. She personally worked on the legal framework in the State Inspection for Nuclear Regulation. Liudmyla always supports and teaches women, participates in events dedicated to gender policy.

Company of the Year Category — PrAT NEK Ukrenergo. The enterprise ensures equal labor opportunities for women and men. Women make up 27% of the staff and 21% of the management. In 2019, the company:

·         analyzed its Collective Agreement to make sure it is not discriminatory;

·         conducted the research Gender Portrait of Ukrenergo;

·         held a series of trainings on gender equality conducted by USAID experts;

·         regularly organized meetings as part of the program STEM for Girls;

·         signed a memorandum of cooperation with the WECU;

·         started the project Women in the World of Energy;

developed a concept of a gender committee under Ukrenergo.

The recording of the ceremony is available here.

Photos from the event can be viewed here.

The competition Women of the Ukrainian Energy Sector was supported by Heinrich Boell Foundation, Kyiv Office — Ukraine.

Photos by Valdemar Horlushko