LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
Jos Schmitt
President & CEO, Neo Exchange Inc.

HOW BEING A WEPs SIGNATORY CHANGEDA STOCK EXCHANGE IN CANADANEO Exchange was founded on the principles of fairness and transparency. Its Co-Founder, President and CEO, Jos Schmittshares why the Canadian stock exchange decided to sign the WEPs and how being a signatory changed the institution.

What was the rationale/motivation behind signing on to the WEPs?
It was actually a very easy decision to make. During the formative years of my professional career, I was immersed in an environment where merit –and merit alone– drove recognition and career promotions. As I progressed to leadership roles,
myself, the principle of merit was engrained in my DNA. Discrimination and bias did not factor into my professional decisions
and, in line with statistical laws, diversity was naturally present within my teams.
However, unconscious bias and systemic discrimination exist all around us, and by signing the WEPs, we are drawing
attention to these hard truths. I want to improve the statistics in favour of greater diversity – not by abandoning my meritbased principles, but by providing greater levels of support and making opportunities more accessible for women and other
under-represented minorities at NEO.
By signing the WEPs, NEO is showing our firm and unconditional support for diversity and equity in the workplace. Diversity
is beneficial not only to individual businesses, but to the economy and our society as a whole, as demonstrated within andby our organization.

What was the level of priority at your organization for signing the WEPs? More specifically,
what was the sentiment of the company’s leadership about the WEPs and their level of involvement?
NEO is a young organization without any long-standing legacy. While building the company, our goal has always been toattract the best and brightest talent. Our hiring process has been driven by the skills and capabilities of the talent pool, andno form of discrimination has ever been tolerated. As such, our leadership team was fully on-board with signing the WEPs
as we have already embraced the principles throughout the organization.

What were the key enablers for the successful signing of the WEPs? What were the challenges?
How did you overcome the challenges?
What the WEPs made me realize is that it is not enough to embrace diversity within my own organization. The unfortunate
fact is that an astonishing amount of gender bias and discrimination still exists at a societal level and that is just not acceptable.
To affect real change, it is critical to do more by actively advocating for diversity. We can do this by spreading the word thatenabling diversity is not only a duty driven by societal fairness but it is something that makes us and our companies strongerand better. But talk is cheap. Concrete actions take much more time and effort to execute. And so, signing the WEPs was a
motivating force for NEO to implement tangible initiatives in support of women’s empowerment and gender balance.

Has your organization identified a new measure, action plan, or goal,that has been implemented?
NEO recently formed an employee-driven Diversity & Inclusion Committee, with a mandate to identify needs and gaps,
increase awareness, foster the development of our people and systems, make recommendations to senior leadership, andshare insights to ensure an engaged workforce consisting of people from all backgrounds, perspectives, and abilities. We havealready implemented a number of initiatives, including an annual employee satisfaction survey with specific questions
related to diversity and inclusion, and scrubbing job descriptions with a third-party tool to remove potential gender biases.
We have also become advocates for diversity by participating in and hosting events and conferences, by sharing our experiences as a WEPS signatory, and by encouraging our partners and colleagues to participate as well.

How do you think being a WEPs signatory will contribute to your organization’s
gender equality ambitions?
Through our commitment as a WEPs signatory, it is a reminder that we cannot rest on our laurels or simply continue withbusiness as usual. It is a reminder that we can and must continue to speak out and enable change by actively removing
barriers to women empowerment and gender equality.
Our participation as a WEPs signatory is also a strong message to both potential and existing employees about what westand for as an organization, and the type of values we uphold as a team.

How do you think the WEPs contributes to the broader agenda of advancing
gender equality in the private sector?
I think the WEPs have two very important benefits associated with them. Firstly, they clearly define what is expected from anorganization that truly wants to embrace diversity. It removes an often used, yet unconvincing excuse from those who claim
they don’t know how to support gender equality. Secondly, the WEPs is a rallying-cry, bringing together all those who wantto enable change for the better, by providing them with a tool-kit to make it happen.

Funded by:

Principle 1

Establish high-level corporate leadershipfor gender equality.

Principle 2

Treat all women and men fairly at work– respect andsupport human rights and nondiscrimination.

Principle 3

Ensure the health, safety and well-being of
all women and men workers.

Principle 4

Promote education, training and professional
development for women.

Principle 5

Implement enterprise development, supply chain
and marketing practices that empower women.

Principle 6

Promote equality through community initiatives
and advocacy.

Principle 7

Measure and publicly report on progressto achieve gender equality.

weps.org@WEPrinciples

weps@unwomen.org@Empower_Women

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DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the European Union, UN Women, International Labour Organization or the United Nations
and their Member States.