Hello Ann-Sofie Zaks, Vice President People Experience & Communication

Release Time：10 Apr,2026

<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="/ueditor/php/upload/image/20260410/1775810064768977.png" title="1775810064768977.png" alt="1.png"/></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Over the past year, SKF has further accelerated its progress towards equal opportunities and gender balance through its global diversity and inclusion roadmap, creating a framework on how we lead, operate and innovate across SKF.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">What is SKF’s ambition regarding gender balance? To drive meaningful and measurable progress towards a more inclusive and innovative organization, we have a global gender balance ambition with a multi-year horizon; the USA however is excluded from these global targets. By 2030, we aim to achieve 35% representation of the historically underrepresented gender at top management level, 30% representation across all management roles, and 30% representation within all of SKF. Of course, employment decisions are and will always be made on the basis of merit, skills&nbsp;and qualifications of the candidates and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, these are non-negotiable cornerstones of SKF’s recruitment and talent development practices What improvements in gender balance have you seen since launching the global D&amp;I Ambition? The percentages of the underrepresented gender in all three categories have steadily increased these past two years. In top management positions, women now account for 25.5%, up from 22.2% in 2023. In management roles, women represent 21.2%, up from 20.2% and across SKF globally, we have 23.3% women, up from 21.5%. SKF has been able to achieve such progress through multiple initiatives, such as its successful completion of the UN Global Compact Target Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination modules, providing the right tools and methodology for making sure all our processes, practices and policies are non-discriminatory to allow for equal opportunities for all. In addition, SKF is strongly committed to advancing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) education and raising awareness of career opportunities in these fields, especially among girls who are traditionally underrepresented in the engineering and manufacturing industries. What other actions did SKF put in place to achieve a better gender balance on all levels? One global initiative is our “Elevate Talent” Programme, a global virtual program to build our talent pipeline, equally open to women and men, for career development early on. This program is now in its 6th year resulting in over 600 talented SKF graduates taking part. Raising further D&amp;I awareness and strengthening the governance on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has allowed us to make steady progress on all levels, steered by our Global DEI &amp; Wellbeing Council. We’ve also embedded DEI further into our Code of Conduct and the One People Policy through multiple directives related to DEI, Wellbeing or Flexible Work arrangements, creating the right conditions for women and men to be on an equal playing field.&nbsp; In parallel, we are organizing quarterly SKF Employee Feedback Surveys to help us gauge what is going well and where there is still room for improvement. What do you think are some of the key barriers? Sometimes it is as simple as demystifying the mis-conceptions that sometimes still exist around traditionally male dominated engineering or manufacturing fields.&nbsp; The best examples are our own SKF talented women in management and top management positions, showing the way for others to follow in their footsteps.&nbsp; There is nothing more powerful than role-models that pave the way for others. I am very pleased to see that SKF has been recognized multiple times in Forbes “Top Companies for Women” and the Financial Times “Leader in Diversity” list, through independent surveys and research, which is a testimonial to our efforts bearing fruit. Those type of recognitions start to quickly remove those barriers and mis-conceptions around women in engineering and manufacturing careers. Will we reach our gender targets set for 2030? Yes, I truly believe SKF will meet its 2030 gender balance ambition, based on the current progress we’re making. When we first decided on the gender KPI’s we wanted to make sure they were ambitious targets, but also realistic and achievable. By embedding inclusion and equal-opportunities-for-all into our training, processes and practices we are not only creating a more inclusive company in all its aspects – not only gender - we’re ensuring a bright future for SKF’s business performance, innovation and profitable growth.</span></p>