Sonepar Kicks Off Women’s History Month with an Inspiring Message

March 4, CHARLESTON, SC – In 2022, Sonepar communicated an ambitious goal to dramatically increase its female associate population. Since then, a roadmap towards progress has been initiated and socialized throughout the organization. In celebration of Women’s History Month, the company has released a video entitled “Sound of Progress” which amplifies the message and change in mindset Sonepar strives for to accelerate the mission.The key takeaway: Women achieve great things when they have the space and support to push limits and pursue dreams.

The video starts with a young girl experiencing an “I got this” moment as she plays with Snap Circuits®, a toy that teaches basic engineering, electronics and circuitry concepts through building play. The scene moves to a high school student at the Cooper River Center for Advanced Studies in North Charleston, SC, in her Electronics Systems Technologies class, where she is working on an electrical wiring project. In the following scenes, Sonepar women in logistics, project management, supply chain management, and operating company leadership positions illustrate their achievements and asking a fundamental question: What if I never got the chance to prove I could do this? And “this” is spectacular – from leading the design of and managing our first state-of-the art automated CDC in the U.S. to being an operating company president.

“We’re very serious about recruiting talented women to Sonepar and ensuring a progressive environment that is supportive of them and enables career growth,” said Rob Taylor, President of Sonepar Americas. “Today, Sonepar has 11 WATT [women’s employee resource group] chapters across Sonepar US operating companies, as well as strategic partnerships with organizations that advocate for women in the workforce such as Catalyst and Fairygodboss. Sonepar also had the largest group of women associates of any distributor attending the 2023 NAED Women in Industry Forum. We will continue to make progress in order to be the employer of choice for women.”

“The video seeks to deliver the important message that career opportunities often come when there is a culture of empowering women, which is Sonepar’s goal,” added Reina Ohol, SVP of Human Resources for Sonepar North America. She adds, “Our female colleagues are contributing amazing energy, ideas, and achievements across all aspects of the company operations. We aim to help them deepen their contributions and invite more women to join us.”

“We’re happy to report that we are seeing more internal mobility for women than in years past,” said Selenah Njoloma, Sonepar’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the U.S. “We have made it clear that that Sonepar is listening and taking action on the issues affecting women in the workplace.”

About Sonepar
Sonepar is an independent family-owned company with global market leadership in B-to-B distribution of electrical products, solutions, and related services. Through a dense network of 80 brands spanning 40 countries, the Group has an ambitious transformation agenda to become the first global B-to-B electrical distributor to provide a fully digitalized and synchronized omnichannel experience to all customers. Drawing on the skill and passion of its 44,000 associates, Sonepar had sales of $33.1 billion in 2022.*

Sonepar entered the US in 1998 and has continued to grow due to strategic acquisitions and organic growth. Today, Sonepar serves the market through a network of companies with over 440 locations nationwide. For more information, visit www.soneparusa.com.