“I truly believe that the success and future of Schibsted require diversity, inclusion and belonging. To fulfil our mission to empower people in their daily lives, we need a workforce with a vast variety of competencies that represent the customers we serve. That is why Schibsted is committed to incorporating values of diversity and inclusion into every aspect of the company,” says EVP & Chief People & Corporate Affairs, Mette Krogsrud.
A passion that became a job
Patpatia has a Master of Science in Business and a Major in Economics from the Norwegian School of Business (BI), and broad work experience both from multinational companies and consultancy, working with innovation and transformation. In his early career, he starred and produced a TV show called “Lovesikh” on Norwegian National TV NRK. In more recent years, he has been one of the founders behind the award-winning “Norwegian Turban Day”. This annual event with 400 volunteers and 20-30.000 visitors, has a vision to make Norway the world’s best country to be different in, independent of gender, ethnicity, belief, age and sexual orientation. It is safe to say that Patpatia represents a diverse and exciting background that will be key in this new position.
“If I can help leaders in Schibsted to build a diverse workforce where each individual – no matter background – can bring their whole self to work, then that will be one of the most important drivers for innovation, value creation and well-being. And that is a dream job for me,” says Patpatia.
It took some time before Patpatia really understood what he was meant to do in life; “My passion for DIB comes from within and is something I have used most of my spare time on since I was in my early teens. I didn’t know that this was something you can actually make a career of, but luckily companies have started to see the value of having dedicated resources working on a continuous mission within this field,” adds Patpatia who had his first day on the job the 1st of September.
“We want people in Schibsted to challenge the ordinary, find good ideas and achieve great things. To accomplish this, we depend on a workforce with a diverse mindset that contributes with different experiences, backgrounds and perspectives. A company that our employees are truly proud to be a part of and that future employees dream to be a part of,” says Krogsrud.