Celebrating Pride month at PMI
To achieve PMI’s ambition of a smoke-free future, fostering a truly diverse and inclusive community of empowered people is a business imperative.
Why? Because diversity, equity, and inclusion unlock the door to the innovation, creativity, and progress required to deliver the public health milestone of a world without cigarettes.
Furthermore, our company has a duty to do the right thing and lead by example to drive lasting change for wider society.
That’s why we’re committed to cultivating a psychologically safe environment where every employee feels heard, listened to, valued, and has a sense of belonging.
PMI Pride
Lively music plays
Stripes logo appears on screen
Words on screen: This Pride Month, we asked employees from the LGBTQ community what it’s like to work for a company such as PMI
Man appears on screen with caption: Enrico Lippi, B2C & Customer Care Executive
Enrico speaks:
I never had to hide my sexual orientation
Woman appears on screen with caption: Yubi Semidey, Team Leader, Indirect Retail
Yubi speaks:
Pride month is of great importance to me, because it represents culture, achievements and activism. And it seems important to me because we raise awareness about current issues in society in general, such as inequality.
Man appears on screen with caption: Fernando Freitase, Manager Internal Global Comms
Fernando speaks:
PMI really supports LGBTQ+ employees and all colleagues within the organization, by creating a workspace where everybody is really welcomed to be their true selves at work, which is amazing
Man appears on screen with caption: Michael O’Hare, Territory Activation Executive
Michael speaks:
Being able to celebrate love openly, freely. To not have to kind of worry and fear about being judged.
Woman appears on screen with caption: Jazmin Beccar, PR Manager
Jazmin speaks:
Being in an environment where one can talk openly about being in a same-sex relationship and forming a family and discuss it. And have it be received in the same way as if one were forming a heterosexual family.
Enrico speaks:
I always felt welcome and accepted in the workplace by my supervisor and other departments and other colleagues.
Woman appears on screen with caption: Nazareth Onieva
Nazareth speaks: For me being part of this community means equality, fight, respect, freedom.
This, in turn, enables our people to bring their best, authentic selves to work—regardless of any differences or characteristics that make them who they are.
Employee Resource Groups: Everyone’s invited
Supporting LGBTQ+ inclusion within our workforce—and international events such as Pride Month—is just one of the numerous ways we can help to establish diversity, equity, and inclusion at the heart of our organization.
As well as being a Global Diversity Champion member of Stonewall, PMI has organically developed an international network of LGBTQ+ employee groups spanning the world.
This includes our STRIPES Global Employee Resource Group (ERG), which was launched in 2021 to offer support, guidance, and resources to the affiliate groups—in alignment with the STRIPES brand. It provides a space for our employees around the world to unite, share their experiences, and offer support.
Our STRIPES ERG welcomes the attendance and involvement of all, encouraging employees to learn more about each other’s differences—and valuing them.
Pride month to me means celebrating the beauty of being yourself and reinforcing discussions about respect. It is also about continuously reflecting on our own privileges and biases to help create an environment where everyone can feel comfortable to be themselves.
Guilherme Klein, Head of External Communications, People & Culture, U.K.
Pride month has always been about remembering the struggles of the past, continuing the fight for equality today, and helping build a better future where we can be our true selves without discrimination. It is a reminder that we can live vastly different lives and co-exist on the basis of mutual respect.
Friedrich Alidair Sarigumba, Global Mobility Business Partner, U.K.
Pride month is an opportunity for us to remember that diversity makes us stronger only when we are inclusive and treat each other with equal respect, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.
Naresh Chandra, Manager, Learning, Leadership & Culture, People & Culture, Canada
Respect, love, and compassion
The same open-door policy applies to all our ERGs. Through Embrace (championing racial and cultural equity), WIN (inspiring and empowering women), PMI Able (raising awareness of all visible and invisible disabilities), Parents@PMI (supporting PMI parents and caregivers), and advantAGE (aiming to improve intergenerational understanding), we are striving for equality, education, representation, and allyship across the board.
Because inclusion means just that: Embracing everyone.
That’s why international calendar events like Pride Month are so important—they allow us to celebrate the beauty of our individual characteristics and differences, reinforcing the need for respect, love, and compassion.
These are moments we should seize to reflect on our biases and help accelerate a global shift that will enable everyone to bask in the freedom of being themselves—without fear of judgment or discrimination.
And not just for one month, but every day of every year.
Allyship is allowing the underrepresented people to place their vulnerabilities in you because they trust that you are a voice that could amplify theirs to take down systems that deprive them of basic rights. First, recognize the fact that you have privileges that others don't have. Second, educate yourself to better advocate for and with them. Third, start through small actions with big impact.
Lynx Manalo, Total Rewards Sr. Specialist Operations, The Philippines
At PMI, we are committed to addressing and nurturing the broadest definition of diversity as a way to deliver winning business and employee engagement. Pride month is an occasion for all of us to celebrate the joy and the freedom of being ourselves without any bias.
Stefano Volpetti, President, Smoke-Free Inhaled Products & Chief Consumer Officer, Switzerland
For me, Pride month is an opportunity to celebrate authenticity, freedom, and the right to be yourself—without discrimination. It’s a chance for everyone, from all walks of life, to reflect on what it means to be truly accepting of others and the positive effect that this can have both inside organizations and in the world.
Donnica Hawes-Saunders, Sr. Manager, Strategic Partnerships & Civil Engagement, U.S.
Driving change to deliver a better world
There’s still a long way to go, but PMI is making significant progress in fostering a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.
When it comes to gender equality, for instance, we have reached our 2022 target of at least 40 percent female representation in management. Our next goal is to achieve at least 35 percent of women in senior roles by 2025.
We’ve also been re-certified as an EQUAL-SALARY global company, guaranteeing equal pay for equal work between women and men. As businesses, we have a responsibility to help shape a future where everyone can thrive as their true, unencumbered, best, and brilliant selves.
Who wouldn’t have pride in that?
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