Linda Perneau, president and CEO of Volt, is a passionate advocate for building diverse workplaces with cultures that empower employees to reach their full potential. Appointed Volt’s first female CEO in 2018, she has worked tirelessly to advance diversity, equity and inclusion internally and within the ecosystem. Volt in April 2022 was acquired by ACS Solutions. Among Perneau’s proudest achievements is having built a senior leadership team comprising 77% women.

Perneau believes that progress comes through accountability and transparency. To that end, Volt’s Global Diversity task force, launched by Perneau in 2019, monitors all internal DE&I activities and promotes its strategy to all staff on a quarterly basis.

To effect change across the ecosystem, Perneau implemented processes to remove unconscious bias during recruitment, such as consultants reviewing CVs as part of a collective and diversified group rather than in isolation. Meanwhile, Volt engages in a “blind recruitment” process with some clients, where all identification details are removed from CVs to ensure they are evaluated purely on skills and experience. Recently, Perneau launched a salary survey campaign to capture data of DE&I leadership roles to help better understand the importance of their roles to all businesses.

"The only commonality I find is that success … for female executives usually looks unconventional. … Women can ‘have it all,’ but that looks different for each of us."

Perneau frequently shares her expertise through women’s business panels, DE&I global webinars and senior advisory for technology and consulting companies. She encourages other women not to expect success to look a certain way. “The only commonality I find is that success … for female executives usually looks unconventional. … Women can ‘have it all,’ but that looks different for each of us.”

Perneau’s accomplishments in the DE&I realm were recognized throughout the past year. Volt received the 2021 Stevie Award for Women-Run Workplace of the Year, and Perneau was named Female Executive of the Year, Business Services. Additionally, Volt was awarded Best Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Program by HRD Awards Asia 2021.

It is a genuine care for the well-being of both her employees and the community that drives Perneau and the work that she does. Her goal is to raise awareness and provide clients, employees and communities with tangible takeaways and usable action points so they can work towards improving their inclusion and the gender-equality experience of every employee in their own workplace.

2023 DE&I Influencers List