At the World Economic Forum in Davos Vice President Viviane Reding, EU Justice Commissioner  spoke about the need to increase worldwide the percentage of women in leadership position in company boards to 30% by 2015 and 40% by 2020. The figure is currently 22%.

As it stands, the proportion of women in management in Merck’s German operations is below its international average, at just 17%.

The German company has taken the step “to move the issue forward”, joining what it calls the “extremely important” debate around higher numbers of female executives in business.

While Merck has 43% of women employees overall, relatively few are in senior positions, although it has taken part in initiatives such as mentoring programmes designed to develop young female executives.

Karl-Ludwig Kley, chairman of Merck’s executive board says: “At management levels the percentage is still too low. Therefore, promoting talented women is one of the key issues we will be addressing in the future.”

“We must…identify talented women early enough at an international level. They need to have enough opportunities to gain experience in different markets so that they are well-rounded for higher management levels.”

“Irrespective of gender, age and national origin, we must ensure that executives have the right qualifications and are able to perform these functions well,” Kley added.

Jennifer O’Lear, head of corporate human resources communications, will take on the newly-created role of chief diversity officer from April. Her job will be to develop strategies to achieve these diversity objectives. One of the initiatives will be to promote suitable female employees at an earlier stage in their careers.

However, the company points out voluntary target rather than a statutory quota. “It goes against any economic sense to put women into management positions just to meet a quota,” explains Karl-Ludwig Kley, chairman of Merck’s executive board.

The charitable Hertie Foundation gave Merck an award for being a family-friendly company in 2008.