7 Diversity Professionals Who Are Changing the Game

Patricia J. Crawford
Senior Vice President and Head of Enterprise Diversity and Inclusion
Wells Fargo & Co.
The new Wells Fargo (post merger with Wachovia) continues to make strides in its diversity practices under the leadership of its Sr. VP, Head of Enterprise Diversity and Inclusion Pat Crawford. “Diversity is not just a numbers game,” explains Crawford. “It’s about creating a culture that allows employees to feel supported and valued.”

The financial services company has a history of philanthropy with nonprofits and puts more than 36% of its advertising budget toward reaching diverse consumer markets. When it comes to supplier diversity Wells Fargo spends $590 million with certified minority-owned businesses and has set a target of spending $1 billion annually by 2013. The company has also loaned more than $38 billion dollars to African American, Latino, Asian, and women-owned businesses since 1995.

Wells Fargo has nine employee networks that help develop business plans and business engagement. Crawford is responsible for the recently restructured 30-member Executive Diversity Council, which now seeks to improve its methods for measuring achievements and holding leaders accountable for diversity goals.

Today, 25% of senior managers and officers at Wells Fargo are minorities. As of 2009, 1.3% senior managers and 5.5% of first and midlevel managers were African American. “That is where we are putting a lion’s share of work right now. Where we need to do a better job of diversity is at the top of the house, at our most senior ranks,” says Crawford.

Continued on the next page: Integrating diversity into all aspects of the company

Patricia Sowell Harris
Global Chief Diversity Officer
McDonald’s Corp.
Integrating diversity into all aspects of the company is high on the menu at McDonald’s. “We realize that diversity is everybody’s business, from both sides of the counter,” says global chief diversity officer Patricia Harris.

Under Harris’ guidance, ongoing diversity dialogue takes place among leaders of McDonald’s regional employee business networks. “These are no longer just social groups that were started 30 years ago. All of our employee networks have separate business plans which support our business vision,” explains Harris.

The fast-food giant, one of Black Enterprise’s 2010 Best Companies for Diversity, continually offers inclusion and diversity education courses and training seminars. Its Leadership At McDonald’s Program (LAMP) identifies high potential employees of diverse backgrounds and moves them through the pipeline into senior management. McDonald’s has been lauded for its supplier diversity accomplishments. “We are very proud knowing that over 55% of our procurement spend, more than $5 billion annually, is with women and minority-owned businesses in our supply chain arena,” says Harris. The company also values diversity in its workforce, which is made up of 62% women, 35% Hispanics, 20% African Americans, 5% Asians, and 2% Native Americans. Nearly 24% of the restaurant franchise’s officers are minorities.

Harris’s book, None of Us Is As Good As All of Us (John, Wiley & Sons, 2009), offers a firsthand look into McDonals’s philosophy of inclusion and diversity through personal accounts from franchisees, suppliers, and employees. The Pat Harris Diversity Award is presented annually to a company officer with high diversity results.

Continued on the next page: Global workforce diversity

Ronald C. Glover
Vice President, Diversity and Workforce Policy
IBM Corp.
Global workforce diversity is a cornerstone of IBM’s business strategy and Vice President, diversity and workforce policy, Ron Glover leads that charge. “At IBM there is a very high probability that you will work with, work for, or be managed by people who are from another country,” he says.

One of BE’s Best 40 Companies for Diversity in 2010, this business technology and services company conducts business in more than 170 countries and has employees in more than 75 countries. Since 1975, more than half of its annual revenue has come from outside the U.S. and since 1993, more than half of its employees work beyond U.S. shores.

“We’re extending beyond the traditional subjects of diversity–race, gender, religion, disability and sexual orientation–to

aligning diversity with globalization,” says Glover. “The goal now is to provide opportunities to employees apart from their nationality, cultural background, native language, or geographic region.”

Celebrating its centennial year in 2011, IBM’s efforts in diversity and inclusion date back to the early 1900s with the employment of African Americans and women. Today, more than 69 countries where IBM employees work have diversity legislation in place.

Since 1994 IBM has had several task forces comprised of employees and senior executives that have rolled out more than 196 business unit-based diversity programs around the globe that define the needs of specific communities. “We engage our employees in helping us define critical activities and formalize programs and processes around diversity,” explains Glover.

Continued on next page: Embracing multicultural thinkers, innovators and leaders

Pamela Culpepper
Senior Vice President, Global Diversity and Inclusion Officer
PepsiCo
Historically, diversity at PepsiCo has meant making sure its workforce resembled its consumer base. But today that concept has grown to embrace developing global multicultural thinkers, innovators, and leaders, says Pamela Culpepper, PepsiCo’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Officer.

Culpepper says the goal is not just to recruit and hire people from all walks of life but to retain and promote them, explaining that “diversity is about having a mix of talent, while inclusion is about people of differing backgrounds working cohesively together.”

PepsiCo’s Talent Sustainability program specifically aims to increase women and minority representation in its management ranks. Across the globe, roughly 30% of the company’s highest-level executives are women and about 30.5% are people of color. “Our CEO (Indian-born Indra Nooyi) is the best example of what we have done to increase the representation and advancement of women and people of color at PepsiCo,” says Culpepper. The international food and beverage company was named one of B.E.’s Best 40 Companies for Diversity in 2010.

PepsiCo has a Global Diversity and Inclusion Governance Council, diversity and inclusion councils were established in all four continents of its international business, and it

has two U.S. ethnic advisory boards, one representing African Americans and the other Latinos/Hispanics. There are also 11 employee resource groups, including one for white men and one for members of Generation Y.

PepsiCo also has a cross-functional Supplier Diversity Executive Council to ensure sustained growth and development in the supply chain arena. “We lead from a place of performance and purpose in the areas of career, community and culture,” says Culpepper.

Continued on next page: Establishing employee support groups that encourage inclusion

Raymond J. Arroyo
Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer
Aetna
One of Black Enterprise’s 2010 Best Companies for Diversity, Aetna is one of a handful of companies to achieve a 100% rating in corporate equality by the Human Rights Campaign. According to VP & CDO Raymond Arroyo, “Our diversity scorecard is part of the company’s overall scorecard by which compensation and bonuses are determined.”

The insurance provider has some 15 different employee support groups that recognize race, gender, religion, people with disabilities, and teleworkers. Particularly notable is Aetna’s resource group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees. “Aetna has been a gay friendly organization for many years,” Arroyo says. “We have included benefits and bereavement policies for domestic partners since 1995. We added sexual orientation to our EO policy nearly two decades ago. We added gender identity in 2001 and we added gender reassignment surgery to our employee benefits as well any company that has a contract with us as recent as 2009.”

Arroyo’s advocates diversity being integrated throughout all parts of a business–workforce, customers, suppliers, health care professionals, products and services. “It should not reside in just human resources or be this stand-alone unit in the company. It should be integrated into the fabric of all that we do.”

Continued on the next page: How to integrate diversity from the top management down

Phyllis A. James, Sr. Vice President, Special Counsel & Chief Diversity Officer
Debra J. Nelson, Vice President Diversity and Community Affairs
MGM Resorts International

The diversity efforts at MGM Resorts International are managed by Phyllis James, senior vice president, special counsel-litigation, and chief diversity officer; and Debra Nelson, vice president of diversity and community affairs. Implementing diversity is an area where top down management is key, says James: “I don’t believe diversity can thrive in any organization if there is no true commitment from leadership at the very top.”

MGM’s Diversity Champion Training program immerses managers in experiential exercises and offers lecture-style teaching on best practices in diversity. The program’s goal is to improve manager performance by helping them ensure that people of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, and backgrounds feel welcome at MGM Resorts hotels.

The MGM Diversity and Community Affairs Committee, chaired by former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, monitors and tracks the progress of its diversity training program, throughout all properties, in the areas of supplier diversity, construction, and employment. “The Committee functions as the hub of diversity within the organization,” says James.

Minorities constitute 61% of MGM’s employees and represent 36% of its managers, and the company has spent more than $1 billion with minority- and women-owned enterprises. MGM has also spent more than $1.5 billion with minority- and women-owned construction firms, professional consultants, and contractors. Corporate giving to diverse organizations and individuals has increased to a little over 50%.

The company has newly implemented diversity roundtables that give employees face time with top leadership, and it holds quarterly forums at which leaders from every business unit share their best practices. “Another example of the means by which we enhance engagement and accountability within our company,” says Nelson who works closely with the Board’s Diversity Committee, senior executives, and the diversity councils to ensure diversity policies and practices are implemented. MGM was one of BE’s Best 40 Companies for Diversity in 2010.

For more on corporate leaders in diversity, pick up the May 2011 issue of BLACK ENTERPRISE magazine, on stands now.