Black Enterprise To Present Virtual Summit Focused On DEI In Corporate Boardrooms

Black Enterprise — the No. 1 Black digital media brand, with more than 8 million monthly unique visitors — will present its inaugural Corporate Boards/C-Suite Summit, as a groundbreaking virtual event on July 14.

The Black Enterprise Corporate Board/C-Suite Summit will serve the interest of multiple stakeholders impacted by corporate policies and conduct including Black employees, managers, suppliers, consumers investors and communities.

Attendees of this unique, first-ever virtual event will receive exclusive information and insights on how the expansion of Black corporate leadership will transform corporations, increases shareholder value and advances opportunities for all corporations.

The summit will also focus on whether corporations have kept their pledges to create diversity and new opportunities in the wake of last summer’s Black Lives Matter movement and why most major companies still fail to provide opportunities for Black executives and professionals to be considered or gain board seats and C-suite positions.

Black Enterprise CEO Earl “Butch” Graves Jr. said in a statement the pledges were just the beginning of a renewed effort to create more diversity, equity and inclusion on corporate boards, which will continue to grow.

“The pledges made by corporate America over the past year was not the end, but the beginning of a reenergized effort to eliminate systemic racism and economic inequity, including at the highest levels of corporate America,” Graves Jr said. “A corporation’s true core values are demonstrated from the top. Claims of commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion ring hollow when there are no Black executives or directors engaged in the leadership, governance and direction of a corporation.”

Black executives make up 3.2 percent of senior executives and less than 1 percent of CEOs, according to Graves.

Those who register for Black Enterprise’s Corporate Board/C-Suite Summit will enable attendees to:

• Engage in candid conversations with corporate leaders on how to ascend to leadership positions;
• Learn how Black corporate directors can leverage their voice and power to drive institutional diversity;
• Understand how corporate boards engage in CEO succession planning and selection;
• Learn the process of designing effective C-suite pipelines for Black professionals;
• See how Black women are developing strategies to break into the corporate director and C-suite ranks;
• Gain step-by-step guidance on how to be recruited for a board seat.

Sponsors of the summit include AT&T and Nationwide. The Summit will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, July 14, 2021. For a complimentary registration and more information about sessions and speakers, visit www.csuite.blackenterprise.com. Interested press should contact Kecia Voorhees via e-mail at voorheesk@blackenterprise.com