A manager who creates a welcoming workplace for teammates and clients from different cultural backgrounds has been honored by the provincial public service for promoting diversity.
“Prince Edward Island and its public service represent many cultures, ethnicities, generations, languages, and other identities,” Premier Wade MacLauchlan said. “This year’s recipient of the annual Premier’s Diversity Leadership Award is Dr. Ed Charter, who shows leadership in creating an accepting, non-judgemental, and welcoming environment for everyone in his workplace.”
Charter is the manager of food science and natural products extraction with BioFoodTech (http://www.biofoodtech.ca/), which provides professional technical services to the food and bioprocessing industries from concept to pilot to market. He oversees a team of nine scientists, technologists, engineers, and assistants from different countries and interacts with an equally diverse selection of BioFoodTech clients.
His nomination notes that he encourages a safe and accepting workplace despite tight scheduling and close interaction among his team members. Charter also helps staff see each other’s viewpoints in this diverse, multicultural organization.
BioFoodTech also has a diverse group of more than 100 clients who are often recent immigrants with limited English skills. Charter draws upon the languages and cultures of his staff to make his clients comfortable regardless of their background.
“This team has a positive working culture that is largely due to Ed’s leadership,” according to his nomination.
The Premier’s Diversity Leadership Award is presented annually during provincial Public Service Week, which continues through Friday, June 17.