Interview with Faisal Setoe

Faisal Setoe is on a mission. As managing director at HDI Global Speciality he would rather call himself an advocate and inspirator. Coming from a Hindu-Suriname family of entrepreneurs, with a hands-on mentality, he is well-equipped for the challenge ahead:

setting up a company and expanding it to a number one position within 5 years. A true rollercoaster, but luckily a good leader knows how to spare time for himself and his family to recharge the batteries.

Purpose Leadership

“What leadership means is in transition. It is no longer just part of growing in the hierarchy of an organisation. It has more to do with purpose: ‘What value do you leave behind for your people and society?’ We work hard, because we do it for the passion of our cause, our personal goals and for the love of our organisation and its people. I did not always realize this, but now I see that leadership is a calling. It’s a blessing I can perform this role and take on these responsibilities.”

Practice what you preach

“I find it hard to put myself out there as a role model for ‘diversity', because I don’t want to be valued for those characteristics. But after a process of acceptance and believe in my own integrity, I am now in a place where I can position myself in the discussion and speak up. Because I truly believe diversity matters in our society. By having experienced inequality, I can talk about the topic from a pure and honest place and motivate other people.

At HDI Global Speciality we also focus on gender equality. We have an equal male-female balance and a diverse employee group. Practice what you preach, but also put your money where your mouth is, because too often we celebrate the process of getting somewhere, without showing result. If you want change to happen, work for it, start setting clear goals and output. You want more women in top positions, start recruiting them. You want to create a safe working environment for everyone, set clear boundaries for appropriate behaviour. Jokes about women or Moroccans may be funny, but is simply not ok.”

Making positive impact

“At a global level we have developed a vision for social and ecological impact, and how to invest responsible. As we are setting up the local speciality branch, we are defining how to give substance to this goal. For this, I reach out to experts who can help us. The Punchy Pack is one of these experts. They’re aiding us to make our vision concrete and they facilitate us in turning our impact goals into action. For this process, we involve our young professionals, and ask them how they would like to create impact. During the recent crisis, for instance, we financed some of their plans to aid local initiatives. And all employees donated their annual Easter-gift to an elderly care home.”

Creating a safe and warm environment

“The future? Our goal is to become the number 1 insurance company for speciality products within 5 years. An important part of that journey is to think about how our organisation looks like in 5 years, and what is eventually our true purpose. I want our social impact to be an integral part of the company: how do we treat our people, what impact do we have on our environment, how will we invest our profits? These are questions we need to answer along the way. And in this, I like to challenge the status quo. To create an environment for my employees that is warm and safe, where people can connect and be themselves. If you want, you can come and take a look at our office to experience it yourself!”