Nelleke

I am the Vice President of the Materials area at the LEGO Group. I have a PhD in Chemical Engineering and worked as a leader of R&D teams before joining The LEGO Group in 2014. My area is responsible for plastics, colour and decoration inks applied in LEGO® products, and supports the development of new products and technologies. Since 2015, we have been developing materials from more sustainable sources as part our 2030 Sustainability Agenda. My role is to set the direction for the Materials area, align with other competence areas and set up collaborations with external parties.
A woman holding LEGO bricks

Why is diversity and inclusion important?
Each person is unique according to his or her own characteristics and preferences. Diversity and inclusion ensures we welcome everyone’s contribution because we are each bringing our own unique perspective. Inclusion creates more motivation, stimulates more creativity and brings more balance in decision making. It also allows each person to be him/herself/themselves. I like to think that the power of diversity is that together we are more than our sum as individuals.

Do you think companies can influence change through their own policies?
I can see two main ways in which companies can influence change. Internally, leadership should ensure that the organisation actively works with and stands for inclusion for each employee. This can be achieved by training and dialogue, the processes that it applies (e.g. in decision making) and demonstrating how diversity has been applied in working so it becomes tangible. Recruitment of a diverse work force is, of course, also an important lever to achieve more diversity, and by external communication, companies can influence by showcasing the power and benefits of a diverse work force. Companies can also influence by unconventional marketing and communication.

What is your individual contribution to diversity and inclusion at the LEGO Group?
Each person makes a unique individual contribution. As a female chemical engineer in a VP position, I am bringing a technical perspective and I hope that I can inspire female employees to pursue a next career step in engineering at TLG. As a leader, I am always looking to include all the different perspectives from members in the team so we can build on each other’s perspectives and spark new ideas and creativity in the team. But I also see that I have an obligation to offer my perspective when I am with peers in the Engineering and Quality Leadership Team.

When recruiting, I am looking for diversity and we have been in the very fortunate situation that we have always had excellent applicants, both female and male, with many different nationalities and tenures. As a result, my area has a 50/50 distribution of male and female employees, more than 10 nationalities and a broad age range.

a lady on stage at a TED x event

What has been your biggest learning moment, or moment of insight, when it comes to D&I?
The biggest learning is that D&I is much broader than the obvious visible characteristics of an individual. D&I is about the full spectrum of our characteristics and activating everyone’s unique contributions. I have also realised that we are already moving on this D&I path and I feel lucky that I work at a company that is encouraging everyone to be their authentic self.

Why is representation in play important?
Representation in play is important because we are reaching children at an age where they can start to form biases. At this age, we can create positive examples that can inspire boys and girls to be whatever they want to be and show them the diversity of the world around them.

How do you connect LEGO® play with unlocking creativity and confidence for both boys and girls?
LEGO play is great because everyone can create and build, and there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ when we are building. Building together inspires and sparks creativity, and it’s great fun. When we encourage children to start building at an early age, both boys and girls will have already built confidence when they get older and become more aware of biases.