Diana Van Maasdijk

Despite increasing awareness and efforts towards Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the corporate world, significant challenges persist. Unequal opportunities manifest in various forms such as gender and racial pay gaps, discrimination in hiring and promotion, and biased organizational cultures. These issues hinder progress and perpetuate inequality in workplaces globally. Addressing these pervasive problems requires comprehensive data, transparency, and actionable insights.

Equileap is a pioneering company dedicated to closing the equality gap in the workplace. Serving a global workforce of 143 million people employed by over 5,800 of the world’s largest companies across both developed and emerging markets, Equileap addresses pervasive issues such as unequal pay, discrimination in hiring and promotion, and biased organizational cultures.

Despite widespread discussions about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), inequality remains a significant challenge. Equileap aims to bridge this gap by offering comprehensive solutions that promote gender and racial equality in the workplace. Every year, Equileap researches companies and publishes a Gender Equality Report and Ranking, highlighting the top-performing companies in terms of DEI in both emerging and developed markets. This year, Equileap expanded its dataset to include race and ethnic diversity across companies in the United States, reinforcing its commitment to improving DEI performance at all levels. In a nutshell, Equileap assesses and supports companies to improve their DEI performance, and then helps investors with data-driven insights for responsible investments.

Investment and DEI Performance

Equileap’s data is integral for investors who are looking to support diversity through their investments. Over USD 9 billion is currently invested in funds that use Equileap’s data to select companies based on their DEI performance. Companies featured in Equileap’s rankings often attract special investment funds, making them appealing to investors dedicated to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion. By setting industry standards and often surpassing regulatory requirements, top-ranked companies exemplify best practices in gender, race, and ethnic equality.

Comprehensive Research Methodology

Equileap’s research and scoring methodology is among the most comprehensive in the market. Unlike many who only assess diversity in leadership positions, Equileap evaluates companies across key indicators such as racial and gender diversity balance throughout the workforce, the pay gap, provisions for paid parental leave, policies addressing sexual harassment, and supplier diversity programs. This extensive approach ensures accountability and transparency, while also evaluating diversity representation at board, executive suite, management, and workforce levels. Equileap’s research based on its in-depth proprietary scorecard puts the organization in a strategic position to offer companies a unique service to enhance their DEI score. Equileap’s extensive research also informs the decisions of investors in financial markets.

Support for HR and DEI Progress

Equileap’s bespoke Company Benchmark Reports are valuable tools for HR departments aiming to improve their DEI progress. These reports provide companies with comprehensive insights into their diversity performance compared to industry standards and competitors. The goal of the report is to highlight a company’s strengths, identify improvement areas, and uncover opportunities for growth. By enabling data-driven decisions, these reports help enhance efficiency and competitiveness in gender, race, and ethnic diversity.

Annually, among the companies we assess, over 330 companies engage with Equileap to improve their DEI scores. For instance, a global leader in the beauty industry sought Equileap’s assistance to enhance its DEI efforts and transparency in pay-gap data. Following tailored advice, the company achieved gender balance on its board and senior management team, improved its overall score, and positioned itself as a frontrunner in transparency. Similarly, a leading financial institution that initially did not make it to Equileap’s Top 100 ranking engaged with Equileap and, through targeted efforts, secured a spot in the ranking, significantly enhancing its DEI initiatives.

Groundbreaking Data Sets

Accessing reliable, validated, and detailed data is not an easy task. That’s why clients come to Equileap — our diligent methodology and innovative approach. Following the announcement of the coverage of LGBTQ+ indicators in our company assessments, Equileap has released a first-of-its-kind dataset covering race and ethnic diversity in U.S. companies. This data offers a detailed analysis of diversity across multiple dimensions, including board, C-suite, management, and workforce diversity, as well as racial pay gap transparency, hiring and career development practices, and supplier diversity.

Promoting Workplace Equality across Markets

Today, Equileap’s datasets cover nearly 90% of the global public equity market, including companies in developed and emerging markets. Equileap fills a critical gap in the availability of comprehensive gender equality data across regions around the globe, providing invaluable insights that help companies improve their workplace equality practices and allow investors to make more informed decisions globally.

Equileap was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The company serves a range of undisclosed clients under the leadership of Diana van Maasdijk, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, and Lotte van Limburg Stirum, Chief Operations Officer. Diana van Maasdijk, previously Head of Philanthropy at ABN Amro Bank, recognized the power of financial markets in driving social impact and created Equileap to provide investors with reliable data on workplace equality. 

In 2023, Equileap’s data powered Glenmede Investment Management’s Women in Leadership US Equity Portfolio (GWILX), which won 3rd place at Responsible Investor’s Gender Equity Investment Awards USA. Impact Shares YWCA USA’s Women’s Empowerment ETF (WOMN), also relying on an index built with Equileap scores, was shortlisted for the same awards. Additionally, the UBS ETF (UBS Gender Equality UCITS ETF), tracking the performance of the Solactive Equileap Global Gender Equality 100 Leaders Index, is notable for being the largest gender-lens exchange-traded fund in the market, with assets under management reaching approximately $900 million.

“Every year we have been growing and expanding. Today we cover 5800+ companies in the USA and more than 45 countries around the globe. We plan to expand to cover 10,000 companies in the years to come and to increase our DEI indicators to cover over +30 indicators,” says Diana.

Equileap stands out by assessing over 5,800 companies globally using proprietary scorecards for both gender equality and race and ethnic diversity, providing comprehensive assessments across key indicators. With almost a decade of expertise, thorough research, and a dedicated team, Equileap drives positive change by supporting companies in enhancing their DEI efforts and enabling investors to make informed, value-aligned investment decisions.