Equality, diversity and inclusion

STRABAG employs around 86,000 people from more than 155 nations representing every generation, various religions and world views, and having different genders, sexual orientations and gender identities.

Dimensions of diversity

STRABAG utilises and actively promotes diversity as a source of strength. The more diverse a team, the more diverse its perspectives and experiences. Diversity is a key advantage enabling our teams to find more innovative solutions to the construction industry’s most pressing challenges.

The promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) ensures a safe and respectful working environment in which all employees can realise their full potential and contribute their best to the company’s success. In this respect, STRABAG focuses on three dimensions of diversity:

EDI Strategy 2030

The STRABAG Management Board adopted its first EDI strategy in 2023. The strategy defines three clear objectives, which were also communicated to employees and published on the company’s website. The goals of the EDI Strategy 2030 are:

• Annual increase of 6% in the proportion of women in management
• Gender pay gap of 0
• Mandatory leadership training on equality, diversity and inclusion

In July 2023, an EDI coordinator joined the People & Culture team with the exclusive task of implementing and refining the EDI strategy. An EDI project team, including a member of the Management Board, also meets six times a year to discuss additional ideas and action on the subject of EDI and bring them to the attention of the Management Board.

Diversity concept

There are currently no women on the Management Board of STRABAG SE. The members of the Management Board are between 43 and 59 years of age and come from Germany or Austria. Each has many years of management experience in different areas and countries of the Group.

At the end of 2023, the nine-person STRABAG SE Supervisory Board comprised three female members: Kerstin Gelbmann, Gabriele Schallegger and Magdolna P. Gyulainé. Women thus accounted for 33% of all Supervisory Board members at the reporting date and 25% of those members who were delegated by the employee council. After Alfred Gusenbauer’s departure from the Supervisory Board on 31 December 2023 and Valerie Hackl’s appointment to the Supervisory Board on 25 January 2024, the nine-member STRABAG SE Supervisory Board now includes four women. This raised the percentage of women on the Supervisory Board to 44%, while the proportion of members delegated by the employee council remains at 25%. As the proportion of women in both STRABAG SE and the Group is below 20%, a mandatory gender quota on the Supervisory Board as set out in Section 86 Para 7 of the Austrian Stock Corporation Act (AktG) is not applicable. The members of the Supervisory Board represent three nations and were between 49 and 67 years old on the reporting date. With the appointment of Valerie Hackl, the age range on the Supervisory Board changed to between 41 and 67 years.

Besetzung

Several mechanisms govern appointments to the Supervisory Board:

• The registered shares No. 1 and No. 2 are each associated with the right to nominate one person to the Supervisory Board of STRABAG SE. Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/581 of 8 April 2022 implementing Regulation (EU) 269/2014 of 17 March 2014 added Oleg Deripaska to the EU sanctions list. As Oleg Deripaska controls MKAO “Rasperia Trading Limited”, its rights as a holder of registered share No. 2 are currently suspended.
• Due to the sanctions against Oleg Deripaska, a situation that has already been described here several times, the company for the time being assumes that this right will remain suspended due to the share freeze (irrespective of the most recent major holdings notification from Iliadis JSC).
• Four further members are elected per vote by the Annual General Meeting. They are usually proposed by shareholders’ representatives to the Supervisory Board, which in turn passes a draft resolution to the Annual General Meeting.
• The employee representatives delegate up to five persons to the Supervisory Board, depending on the number of shareholders’ representatives.

The Supervisory Board is responsible for appointments to the Management Board. The Supervisory Board’s Presidential and Nomination Committee makes proposals for filling vacant seats on the Management Board and deals with issues relating to successor planning. It submits a recommendation to the Supervisory Board after comparing the qualifications and experience of suitable candidates to a previously defined job description. The selection of a Management Board member is then made in the Supervisory Board.

Prerequisites for an appointment to the Management Board and Supervisory Board of STRABAG SE include the right expertise and personal qualifications as well as sufficient years of experience in management positions. The Management Board can best fulfil its management function and the Supervisory Board its supervisory and consulting functions with the broadest possible spectrum of skills and experience. This is achieved through diversity in terms of internationalism, educational and professional background, the representation of both genders to an appropriate degree, and the age structure.

The job profile for a position on the Management Board calls for a minimum of ten years of experience in the construction industry or a related sector and preferably at least five years of management experience within the Group. The board should consist of a good balance of members from both technical and commercial backgrounds. New appointees may be no older than 65 years of age.

The current nomination process has so far effectively addressed these requirements, with the result of a certain level of diversity on the boards. Through its draft resolutions to the Annual General Meeting, and through its decisions based on Presidential and Nomination Committee recommendations, the Supervisory Board helps to maintain the diversity of the Supervisory Board and the Management Board. This contribution to diversity is considered separately on a case-by-case basis. To allow a review of the implementation of the diversity criteria, short CVs of the current members of the Management Board and Supervisory Board are published in the Consolidated Corporate Governance Report.

The Supervisory Board supports the efforts being made by the Group to raise the percentage of women in the company and in management and endeavours to increase the percentage of women on the Supervisory Board. With the election of Gabriele Schalleger, the medium-term goal of at least three women on the Supervisory Board has been achieved. With the posting of Valerie Hackl, the Supervisory Board of STRABAG SE has included a total of four women since January 2024.

At this time, there still seems to be no point in imposing a voluntary self-obligation for a certain percentage of women on the Management Board: Management positions within the Group are filled primarily internally, and currently women remain underrepresented in management. The Supervisory Board is convinced that, in the medium term, successful measures to promote women’s careers will result in a higher percentage of women in management, which will end up being reflected at the higher hierarchy levels.

Measures for the advancement of women