BLACK ENTERPRISE Hosts 2024 Chief Diversity Officer Summit With Top Black Executives

The summit aims to celebrate DEI leaders while also being a call-to-action to support those initiatives.

BLACK ENTERPRISE will host its Chief Diversity Officer Summit 2024 to honor current pioneers in DEI. The event, featuring the most powerful Black executives, kicks off June 11.

BE aims to celebrate the achievements of leaders throughout corporate America who champion diversity, equality, and inclusion efforts. This dynamic summit will applaud their work and conduct a series of sessions on contemporary feelings toward DEI initiatives. Furthermore, the conversations will answer why DEI must remain a priority for all businesses, as well as the empowerment of Black talent.

Top leaders, including BE’s President and CEO, Earl “Butch” Graves Jr., will take part in this pivotal conversation on the necessity of business diversity. Other speakers include Traci Sanders, Vice President and Global Head of DEI at Verizon—with Susan K. Reid, Managing Director and Global Head of Talent at Morgan Stanley, and Maurice Cox, the former VP of Diversity and Inclusion Development at PepsiCo, as honorees.

The summit will begin with a CDO Town Hall to combat the backlash against corporate DEI. Sanders will join Celeste Warren, Vice President at the Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence at Merck, The Memo Founder and CEO Minda Harts, and FINRA’s Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Audria Pendergrass Lee to discuss strategies to counter the narrative that DEI is no longer needed.

Later, attendees will engage in a lunch-meets-fireside chat with Graves Jr. and Michael C. Hyter, the President and CEO of The Executive Leadership Council. Hyter, an esteemed champion for diversity, will also expand on the event’s themes of promoting Black talent and ensuring inclusivity in the workforce.

An awards presentation and recognition will also follow, saluting these trailblazers for their efforts in paving the way for those who come after. Particularly, the CDO Changemaker Award will honor recipients who have advanced DEI measures while supporting the upliftment of Black talent on all corporate levels.