TORONTO; July 9, 2020 – Miranda McKie, a manager of applied intelligence and data architecture at Accenture (NYSE: ACN) in Canada, has been recognized as the 2020 Catalyst Honours Emerging Leader Champion for her contributions to accelerating progress for women through workplace inclusion and diversity.
Catalyst will celebrate Miranda and five others who were named 2020 Honours Champions earlier today during a virtual conference from Oct. 6-8. Themed “Progress Won’t Pause,” the conference will focus on the urgent need for continued progress around workplace inclusion despite the unprecedented disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are proud to celebrate this well-deserved recognition of Miranda’s work in breaking down barriers for women as well as creating and leading new initiatives to support inclusion and diversity, both at Accenture and in our community,” said Jeffrey Russell, president of Accenture in Canada.
Tanya van Biesen, executive director, Canada, Catalyst, said, “Never before have equality and inclusion been so important. Trailblazers like Miranda show us how it’s done, using her expertise in advanced technologies to build more effective interventions in the fight against systemic bias.”
As head of the Accenture Toronto Women’s Employee Resource Group, McKie has built a strong network of female-identifying employees and has rallied people at all levels of the company with her passion for equality. She has also used her expertise in data architecture and advanced analytics to develop inclusion and diversity initiatives through Accenture’s pro bono practice.
For instance, McKie secured funding to promote and empower women in STEM education using data-driven guidance and unsupervised machine learning and to uncover mental health insights using natural language processing. She has also spearheaded internal projects to identify opportunities for enhanced inclusion and diversity programs and planning, including one using advanced analytics capabilities to better understand historical patterns.
“Miranda is a true role model for others through her commitment to ensuring that our workplace is inclusive and fosters a culture where all our people can thrive as their authentic selves,” said Zahra Jadavji, managing director of inclusion and diversity at Accenture in Canada.
With inclusion and diversity embedded in its core values, Accenture pledged to accelerate the advancement of women in the workplace by signing the Catalyst Accord 2022. The company has also committed to reaching and sustaining overall gender balance (50% men and 50% women) and to having women hold at least 40% of leadership positions by 2025.
Accenture has also been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for 10 consecutive years and as one of the country’s Best Diversity Employers for eight consecutive years by Mediacorp.