Studies show that bringing together a team with a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives naturally lends itself to innovative thinking. Research from the likes of Forbes, BCG, North Carolina State University, The Center for Talent Innovation backs this up.
At Hive Learning, we are firm believers in tapping into the power of your peers. For us, that means keeping up to date with what the movers, shakers and changemakers shaping the diversity and inclusion debate are doing to build a more inclusive world.
To help you come on this journey with us, we’ve curated a list of the most influential D&I leaders whose insights we’ve loved in 2019.
The list that we’ve curated is in no way exhaustive and includes just some of the D&I leaders whose work has inspired us along the way.
We plan to continuously expand this list and keep it current so if you have any suggestions for those all important ‘ones to watch’, we’d love to hear from you!
Check out our list below (in alphabetic order) to learn more about the most influential D&I leaders you should follow in 2019.
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Adelmise Warner
VP, Global Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Pandora
Adelmise is VP, Global Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Learning and Development for Sirius XM and Pandora and is a cultivator of Diverse and Inclusive Workforces. She strongly believes that being inclusive is good for morale, and can strengthen a company’s bottom line.
Why her?
Her journey from Haiti at the age of 16 when she threw herself into learning English for the first time to being the Vice President, Global D&I at Pandora, is nothing short of aspirational. She works closely with the D&I team at Pandora to meet their aggressive diversity goals to increase the percentage of its U.S. employees of color from 35% to 45% and aims to achieve gender, racial, and ethnic promotion parity by the year 2020. She’s also a 2019 Eisenhower Fellow and has a deep background in labor and employment law. Read more about Adelmise in this career contessa interview. You can also listen to her interview on the Inclusion Works podcast where she talks about the importance of putting employees first here.
Amanda Leacy
Global Managing Director – Inclusion and Diversity, Accenture
Amanda is the Global Managing Director for Inclusion & Diversity at Accenture. At Accenture, Amanda built leadership support from the very top and used innovation to drive change.
Why her?
Under her leadership, Accenture made a very public commitment to achieving 50% women by 2025 and has seen the number of women rise from 115,000 to 190,000. She launched the powerful #InclusionStartsWithI campaign to continue the conversation about the importance of a positive, inclusive world and work environment. The campaign has already engaged more than a million people around the globe.
Under her leadership, Accenture was also ranked #1 on the Thomson-Reuters Diversity & Inclusion index, and Global Company of the Year by Stonewall.
Asif Sadiq
Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, The Telegraph
Asif is a Multi-Award-Winning Diversity and Inclusion expert with over 15 years’ experience. He is currently the Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging for The Telegraph. He was formerly the Head of Diversity and Inclusiveness for EY Financial Services and previously the Head of the Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Unit for the City of London Police.
Why him?
Asif has received a number of accolades for his work that include the Mosaic (Prince’s Trust) Award for mentoring, Police Officer of the Year Award, the Civil Servant of the Year Award, the prestigious Asian Professional Award and the highly commended Head of Diversity Award at the European Diversity Awards. Asif was honored in 2017 in the Queen’s birthday honors list with an MBE for his services to Policing and the Communities and is a member of the HR Guild, The Worshipful Company of Security Professionals and is a Freeman of the City.
Listen to his interview with Inclusion Works where he talks on the need to include “belonging” to your workplace diversity and inclusion program here.
Aubrey Blanche
Head of Diversity and Belonging, Atlassian
As the Global Head of Diversity & Belonging at Atlassian, Aubrey works with teams across their business to create a culture that welcomes everyone to do the best work of their lives. Through all her work, she seeks to question, reimagine, and redesign the systems and practices that surround us to ensure that all people can access equitable opportunities and build a better world. She relies heavily on empirical social science in her work, and has developed an industry-leading, team-level paradigm for external diversity reporting. Aubrey is also an advisor to SheStarts, a Sydney-based accelerator focused exclusively on supporting female founders and Joonko.
Why her?
On Aubrey’s first day at Atlassian, the company was hiring roughly 10% women into its technical workforce. Under her leadership, Atlassian boosted its female technical hires by 80%. Her work spans the talent lifecycle from increasing access to technical education for underrepresented minorities through recruiting, retention, and advancement of all Atlassians. Aubrey invented the ‘Balanced Teams’ approach to building proportional representation and belonging in the workplace, and is also one of the pioneers behind Atlassian’s influential State of Diversity report.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works where she talks about the negative impact of “culture fit” and the theory behind her Balanced Teams approach.
Binna Kandola
Senior Partner, Pearn Kandola
A diversity, assessment and development specialist, Professor Binna Kandola is co-founder and senior partner of business psychology firm, Pearn Kandola, where he works on a wide variety of projects for public and private sector clients both in the UK and overseas.
Why him?
Binna is heavily invested in the study of gender bias and unconscious bias in organisations. He is the author of 3 critically acclaimed books on these subjects – ‘The Invention of Difference: The story of gender bias at work’, ‘The Value of Difference: Eliminating bias in organisations’, and ‘Racism at Work’. In 2008, Professor Binna Kandola was awarded an OBE for his services to Disadvantaged People and Diversity.
Candice Cross
Director, Global Leadership Development, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®)
Candice is a widely renowned Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion, Talent and OD expert with over 20 years’ experience in the development and delivery of leadership, talent and transformational people programs; with a special interest in applied neuroscience and inclusion.
Why her?
She is a Multi-Award-Winning Diversity and Inclusion expert with a proven track record in adding value, delivering results at pace, and converting comprehensive strategy into action, helping not only deliver the leadership, talent, diversity and inclusion objectives but driving the strategic business objectives.
Candice Morgan
Head of Inclusion and Diversity, Pinterest
Candice guides business executives to build inclusive talent strategies that drive diverse recruitment, retention and product customization. She is currently Head of Inclusion & Diversity at Pinterest, leading strategy and programs to enhance a diverse and inclusive company. Prior, she spent a decade honing her expertise in diversity strategy and practice at Catalyst, based on Wall Street and in Zurich, Switzerland.
Why her?
Awarded Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business and The Root’s 100 Most Influential African-Americans of 2017. She’s passionate about creating diverse career pathways in Tech.
Caroline A. Wanga
Chief Culture, Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Vice President Human Resources, Target
Caroline A. Wanga is Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and Vice President of Human Resources at the Target Corporation. She leads Target’s strategic intent to champion an inclusive society with accountability for inclusive guest experiences, a diverse and inclusive work environment, and societal impact. As a cultural catalyst, she fuels Target’s business objectives through the company’s first-ever performance-based D&I goals.
Why her?
Because of her “innovative shared-accountability approach to driving business results” as featured in “The Innovation Mentality” by Glenn Llopis, “Our Search For Belonging” by Howard Ross, and “The Multiplier Effect of Inclusion” by Dr. Tony Byers. All well worth a read.
Cecile Richards
Co-Founder, Supermajority
Cecile is the Co-Founder of Supermajority, a community designed to educate and train women to further women’s political agenda for the 2020 elections. She was a former president turned lifelong supporter of Planned Parenthood and was part of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World (2012).
Why her?
Cecile received the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil and Human Rights Award by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She is a nationally respected leader in women’s health and reproductive rights and has grown advocacy efforts to fight for expanded access to health care, and has led innumerable nationwide campaigns to preserve patients’ access to preventive health care at Planned Parenthood health centers through federal programs.
Cynthia Bowman
Chief Diversity and Inclusion and Talent Acquisition Officer, Bank of America
Cynthia Bowman joined Bank of America in 2007 and is currently their Chief Diversity and Inclusion and Talent Acquisition Officer. Prior to her current role, she served as learning and leadership development, and diversity and inclusion executive, for the bank’s global wealth and investment management organization. After graduating from Spelman College with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, Bowman went on to earn a bachelor of industrial engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
Why her?
Cynthia has been recognized by the Georgia National Diversity Council as one of the “Most Powerful and Influential Women 2013,” and by Diversity MBA Magazine as one of the top “50 Senior Executives Under 50.” She was also awarded a “2014 Trailblazer Award” by re:gender and in 2016, she was recognized by Black Enterprise as a Top Executive in Corporate Diversity.
Cynthia Owyoung
Vice President, D&I, Charles Schwab
Cynthia Owyoung is Charles Schwab’s Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion, and partners with its business leaders, employee resource groups, and the human resources team, to drive Schwab’s approach to enhance their corporate culture of diversity, inclusion and equality, and power better business results.
Why her?
Cynthia is the Founder of Breaking Glass Forums, a movement dedicated to accelerating more diverse leaders and more inclusive organizations. She has established and led diversity and inclusion initiatives for nearly 15 years in organizations both large and small and is known for integrating a diversity and inclusion lens into all aspects of the business, from talent management to product development.
Damien Hooper-Campbell
VP, Chief Diversity Officer, eBay
Damien Hooper-Campbell is eBay’s first Chief Diversity Officer and has deep expertise as an agent of change within the technology and finance industries, non-profit sector and academia. He is responsible for leading the design and implementation of eBay’s strategy for embedding diversity and inclusion across its global workforce, workplace and marketplace. Prior to eBay, Damien served as Uber’s first Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion where he helped to set the company’s foundational Diversity and Inclusion strategy and led its community engagement efforts with the City of Oakland, CA.
Why him?
He believes in practical action: an open discussion between people as the key to fostering a company culture that values everyone.
Dan Robertson
Director, Vercida Consulting
Dan Robertson is a Diversity and Organisational Development specialist with substantial experience across the public and private sector. He is currently the Director of Vercida Consulting which provides industry-leading strategic insight to improve diversity, inclusion, and accessibility within international business.
Why him?
Widely regarded as a subject matter expert on workplace diversity & inclusion, unconscious bias, and inclusive leadership, Dan sits as an advisor to The Lord Mayor of London’s Power of Diversity programme (London) and ICEDR’s QUEST programme: Supporting early career woman (Boston, USA). He has a number of published of publications to his credit such as “The Long Road to Inclusivity: Published in Beyond 2015”, “Shaping the Future of Equality, Human Rights and Social Justice”, and “A Collection of Essays: Equality & Diversity Research Network”.
David King, III
Head of Employee Experience, Diversity and Belonging, Shopify
David is the Head of Employee Experience, Diversity and Belonging at Shopify. He’s the catalyst for a number of diversity and inclusion-related strategies, awareness campaigns, improvements and initiatives impacting complex global organizations and a wide array of individuals.
Why him?
He believes in consistently nurturing an open, flexible and inclusive environment, encouraging both positive and skeptical input in order to reach consensus and create best practices.
Denise McQuaid
Customer & Innovation Director, Connor HR Consultancy
Denise joined Connor in 2019 as Customer & Innovation Director. With a stellar track record in marketing, technology, and digital enablement, Denise leads Connor’s Customer and Commercial department, spearheading efforts at Connor to deepen their engagement with customers and the marketplace.
Why her?
Denise McQuaid is a strong advocate on inclusion and speaks out about the courage to be vulnerable in the workplace and how to build bridges around the D&I agenda.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works here where she talks on how to shift outdated norms about womanhood and motherhood in the workplace, the problem with labels and the right to offend.
Eric Hutcherson
EVP & CHRO, NBA
As Chief Human Resources Officer for the National Basketball Association, Eric manages a team that drives the NBA’s global workforce strategy built on a commitment to attracting, retaining, developing and engaging top talent for the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League and NBA 2K League.
Why him?
A transformation leader and motivational speaker who created a career development training program, “Say Yes to Success”, Eric has spent his career helping people help themselves. He instituted the Great Place to Work Survey to gather analytics around employee engagement and satisfaction and has worked with his team to develop action plans to translate those insights into a direct, positive impact on the organization.
Freada Kapor Klein
Founder , Level Playing Field Institute
Freada Kapor Klein is an entrepreneur, activist, and pioneer in the field of organizational culture and diversity. As a Founding Partner at Kapor Capital, Freada invests in seed-stage tech startups that create positive social impact by closing gaps of access, opportunity or outcome for low-income communities and communities of color. She is also an Advisory Trustee of the U.C. Berkeley Foundation and is a founding team member at Project Include, a community of women in Silicon Valley working to provide practical, effective diversity and inclusion recommendations for tech companies. She is also the author of Giving Notice, which details the human and financial cost of hidden bias in the workplace.
Why her?
She created the non-profit institute (Level Playing Field Institute) to rigorously and creatively address why diversity efforts had failed and implement programs to understand and experience how diversity could succeed.
Fields Jackson, Jr
CEO, Chief Cheerleader & Talent Scout
Fields Jackson is an influential Diversity and Inclusion advocate and expert who publishes Racing Toward Diversity magazine. He advocates that job seekers conduct their due diligence in finding Diverse workplace opportunities through research, networking and asking the right questions.
Why him?
Fields was recognized by Diversity Best Practices as one of the Top Diversity Thought Leaders on Twitter. He has also been identified by Onalytica, London, England, who helps run influencer programs for some of the largest brands in the world as #13 of the top 100 global influencers focusing on Gender Equality and Diversity.
Greg Jenkins
Founder and CEO, Greg Jenkins Consulting
Greg is a Service-Disabled Veteran who loves serving as a dedicated and passionate diversity & inclusion (D&I) consultant, trainer, facilitator, and mentor. He is a life-long learner in diversity, inclusion, leadership, and culture, and cares about helping people and organizations learn and grow in order to become higher-performing.
Why him?
Greg was recognized by Onalytica, London, England, as #5 of the top 100 global influencers focusing on Gender Equality and Diversity.
Helen Giles
Executive Director of People and Governance, St Mungo’s
Helen is Executive Director of People and Governance for St Mungo’s the homelessness charity and Managing Director of Real People, a social enterprise HR consultancy.
Why her?
She has been included in HR Magazine’s Most Influential HR Practitioners listing every year since it began in 2006 and in 2015 she was listed in the Top 10 Most Influential HR Practitioners of the Decade. Helen is a dedicated advocate of diversity and inclusion. Under her leadership, in 2016 St Mungo’s won the Inclusive Workplace Culture category in the BITC Race Equality Awards, the Excellence in Diversity Award, and was listed ninth in the Top 50 Inclusive UK Employers list. In 2018 St Mungo’s was highly commended in the CIPD Awards Diversity & Inclusion category and the BITC Race Equality Awards Leadership category. Helen is a former Personnel Today HR Director of the Year and has been awarded the MBE for services to homeless people.
Iris Bohnet
Academic Dean , Harvard Kennedy School
Iris Bohnet, the Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government, is the Academic Dean of Harvard Kennedy School. She is a behavioral economist, combining insights from economics and psychology to improve decision-making in organizations and society, often with a gender or cross-cultural perspective. Her most recent research examines behavioral design to de-bias how we live, learn and work. She is the author of the award-winning book What Works: Gender Equality by Design.
Why her?
She was named one of the Most Influential People in Gender Policy by apolitical in 2018 and 2019, a Leading Thinker of Victoria, Australia, 2016-2019. We love her action-oriented approach to inclusion which focuses on redesigning organisational processes to circumvent bias with consistent, concerted action.
Jackie Glenn
Principal and Founder, Glenn Diversity & HR Solutions
Jackie Glenn is a pioneering Diversity and Inclusion expert who lives by the mantra, “It’s better to be respected than liked.” Her groundbreaking initiatives have reshaped organizational policies, unified a multidimensional corporate culture, and generated international interest and intrigue. Jackie holds a Master of Science degree in Human Resources Management from Leslie University, Cambridge, MA and a bachelor’s degree from Emmanuel College, Boston.
Why her?
She was cited as one of Boston’s 100 Most Influential People of Color (Get Konnected!), one of the Top 10 Influential Women in Diversity (Diversity Global Magazine), and given the 2018 Mosaic Award by MassTLC among other honors. In her book, “Lift As I Climb ~An Immigrant Girl’s Journey Through Corporate America” she encourages the importance of mentorship in an organization.
Listen to our interview with Jackie on the Inclusion Works podcast where she shares her 4 secret weapons for creating inclusion programmes with impact.
Jayne Ann Gadhia
Chief Executive Officer, Salesforce
Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia is the CEO of Salesforce UKI and the Founder and Chair of the start-up Snoop. Best known for her tenure as chief executive of Virgin Money (2007-2018), Jayne-Anne Gadhia is one of the most powerful women in finance in Britain.
Why her?
An advocate for gender diversity in business, in November 2016 Jayne-Anne was appointed as the UK Government’s Women in Finance Champion and in July 2017 she became a founder member of its Business Diversity and Inclusion Group. In 2018, she was named Leader of the Year at the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards. She was made a Dame in the 2019 New Year’s Honours list for her contribution to financial services and women in the finance industry.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works here where she shares her insights on how inclusion can not only add to employee happiness but how it can also have a positive impact economically.
Jennifer Brown
Founder, President, and CEO, Jennifer Brown Consulting
Jennifer Brown is an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, diversity and inclusion consultant, and author. As the successful founder, president, and CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting, headquartered in New York City, Jennifer is responsible for designing workplace strategies that have been implemented by some of the biggest companies and nonprofits in the world. She has harnessed more than 14 years of experience as a world-renowned diversity and inclusion expert through consulting work, keynoting and thought leadership.
Why her?
She was recognized as “Woman of the Year” by Pace University in 2017. As a certified woman- and LGBT-owned strategic leadership and diversity consulting firm, Jennifer understands how important it is to empower leaders to drive positive organizational change and the future of work in today’s rapidly changing business landscape.
Joe Gerstandt
Inclusion Strategist
Joe is a keynote speaker, author and consultant bringing greater clarity and new practices to diversity and inclusion work. He brings his unique perspectives and trademark energy to keynote at conferences nationwide.
Why him?
A renowned keynote speaker and inclusion strategist, Joe helps leaders design and deliver a more inclusive employee experience at their workplace.
Joelle Emerson
Founder & CEO, Paradigm
Joelle partners with the leaders of some of the world’s most innovative companies to consult and advise on diversity and inclusion strategies. She has written extensively about diversity, inclusion, and unconscious bias, and her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, and on the cover of The Atlantic.
Why her?
A women’s rights employment lawyer, Joelle is the Founder and CEO of Paradigm, a strategy firm that partners with leading technology startups and Fortune 500 companies to build stronger, more inclusive organizations. She was named as one of the 100 most influential people in business by Recode and as one of Marie Claire’s “New Guard” list of 50 women changing the world in 2017.
Julie (Treadwell) Thomas
Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion, and Wellbeing, Hogan Lovells
Julie leads Hogan Lovells’ diversity, inclusion and wellbeing strategy globally. She implements a range of initiatives to attract and retain diverse talent at all levels across the firm’s practices, industry sectors and regions, with a particular focus on retention and career advancement.
Why her?
Julie is an award-winning diversity and inclusion leader who has expertise in gender equality, disability inclusion, mental health, LGBT+, and multi-cultural issues. In 2016, Julie received the WeAreTheCity Rising Star in Diversity award and in 2017 was recognised as one of the Top 50 Diversity Professionals in Industry.
Julie Dennis
Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Acas
Julie is a Diversity and Inclusion specialist with over 16 years’ experience in the public and voluntary sector. She is currently leading on Diversity & Inclusion, HR Policy, Resourcing and Employee Health & Wellbeing at Acas. Julie is passionate about diversity and inclusion in the workplace and strives to create an environment where people can be themselves.
Why her?
Prior to joining Acas, she was Head of Diversity at the Land Registry, where her work on D&I was recognised repeatedly winning the department awards in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016. In addition, she successfully ensured HMLR maintained its Stonewall Top 100 Employers Index position in 2016 & 2017. She is a Stonewall workplace ally and a champion for mental health awareness.
Juliet Daye
Head of Inclusion and Talent Development, GVC Group
Juliet Daye is an associate executive development consultant, with 11 years’ experience in leadership, organisation and talent development, holding senior roles in retail and financial services. She is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist.
Why her?
Juliet specialises in the field of learning, talent and leadership development, and is experienced working with senior teams on organisational development and culture change projects.
Katelin Holloway
VP of People & Culture, Reddit
VP of People & Culture at Reddit, Katelin is passionate about building scalable, inclusive institutional cultures. First introduced to the notion of intentional cultural development at Pixar Animation Studios, she studied the storytellers that would ultimately change the course of her career. From film to tech (and a few interesting layovers in between), the one common denominator remains: enabling people through belonging to create beautiful, innovative products.
Why her?
A keynote speaker and culture creator, Katelin was recognized in 2019 as “Top 50 Leaders in Learning & Development” by Corinium as well as one of the “10 Top People Leaders to Learn From” by Culture Amp. Engagedly also recognized her as the “Top 100 HR influencers” in 2018.
Kathryn Jacob
CEO, Pearl & Dean
Kathryn is CEO of Pearl & Dean and in her pre-cinema life worked in national newspapers, magazines, and radio.
Why her?
Kathryn sits on the board of Women’s Aid, the Development Board at RADA, the board of the Association of Colleges and the Council and Board of the Advertising Association. She’s on the Government Expert Group on Body Confidence. In 2016 she co-authored “The Glass Wall-success strategies for women at work and businesses that mean business” with Sue Unerman. Drawing on Unerman and Jacob’s own experience in male-dominated businesses, as well as over a hundred interviews with both men and women, The Glass Wall provides clear, smart and easy-to-apply strategies for success. Fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg praised the book for “empowering women”.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works here where she shares her insights on success strategies for women at work and businesses who want to support them from her book “The Glass Wall“.
Katy Murray
Co- Founder, Catalyst
Katy is a speaker, writer, coach, facilitator, catalyst who creates and resources a community of world-changing women and D+I leaders at Catalyst Collective.
Why her?
Katy is a cofounder of Catalyst Collective, a consultancy creating resources and community for leaders who want to shift the dial on diversity and inclusion, share their views on what’s wrong with our traditional models for measuring worker success. She is also the author of the powerful report Gender Pay Gap – What Next? where she provides a 10-step Action Plan to combat the gender pay gap.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works here where she shares her views on what’s wrong with our traditional models for measuring worker success and how to reset the bar.
Kim Wylie
Global Director of People Development, Farfetch
Kim is an Ex-Googler and current Global Director of People Development / Organisational Culture at Farfetch. She is a regular keynote speaker and her insights are frequently published in Forbes and The Economist.
Why her?
In 2019, Kim was recognised by Drapers as one of the most influential HR Directors in Fashion. She is a guest lecturer on Innovation & Organisational Culture at London Business School & Imperial College London and is passionate about helping organisations achieve business and cultural transformation through the use of technology. She’s also a board advisor at Temporall – an Enterprise Software company that specialises in helping organisations measure and manage the ROI of Culture and Culture Analytics
Kimberly Bryant
Founder and CEO, Black Girls CODE
Kimberly Bryant is the Founder and CEO of Black Girls CODE, a non-profit organization dedicated to “changing the face of technology” by introducing girls of color (ages 7-17) to the field of technology and computer science with a concentration on entrepreneurial concepts.
Why her?
She has been awarded the prestigious Jefferson Award for Community Service for her work to support communities in the Bay Area, named by Business Insider on its list of “The 25 Most Influential African-Americans in Technology”, and named to The Root 100 and the Ebony Power 100 lists in 2013. She has been named one of FastCompany’s Most Creative People. She was named at White House as a Champion of Change for her work in tech inclusion and for her focus on bridging the digital divide for girls of color and received an Ingenuity Award in Social Progress from the Smithsonian Institute.
Leanne Pittsford
Founder and CEO, include.io
Leanne Pittsford launched include.io, a mentoring and recruiting platform to fight bias in technology by scaling access to direct referrals for underrepresented candidates; and the Tech Jobs Tour, which traveled through 25 cities in 2017 to connect diverse and non-traditional talent to over 600,000 open jobs.
Why her?
Leanne Pittsford is the entrepreneur and founder behind Lesbians Who Tech, the largest LGBTQ community of technologists in the world — committed to visibility, intersectionality, and changing the face of technology with 40,000 non-binary, LGBTQ women, queer women of color (and our allies) in tech and over 40+ city chapters worldwide.
Lenora Billings-Harris
President & CEO, Ubuntu Global
Lenora Billings-Harris is a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), diversity strategist and author. She aims to help individuals and organizations understand “we are all connected, thus we can all achieve more significant results when we learn how to build relationships with all people regardless of their packaging”.
Why her?
She has been included as one of 100 Global Thought Leaders on Diversity and Inclusion by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and was named one of the top twenty influential diversity leaders in the US by Diversity Woman Magazine.
Leslie Miley
CTO, Obama Foundation
Leslie is a technology visionary and creative leader with experience in building mobile and web engineering teams. He is CTO at Obama Foundation and formerly held engineering leadership roles at Slack, Twitter, Apple, and Google.
Why him?
He serves as an advisor to several startups founded by women and minorities and is an investor in a fund dedicated to entrepreneurs who are POC, LGBT, and women.
Lisa Magill
Co-Founder & CEO, Aleria
Lisa passionately tackles real-world problems with innovative and impactful solutions. After several years in the financial services industry, she gained extensive entrepreneurial experience holding key positions on the founding teams of funded and acquired technology startups.
Why her?
She is recognized for her commitment to the community and the impact of her efforts focused on mentorship, education and creating opportunities for women. In 2016, she was recognized at the Worthy Women inaugural awards ceremony honoring 100 select #WomenOfWorth who exemplify what it means to lead and live in integrity.
Liz Burton
Director, Global Inclusion and Diversity, GSK
Liz is Head of Global Inclusion and Diversity at GSK, a science-led global healthcare company. The focus of her role is to define and activate GSK’s Global Inclusion and Diversity plans across the organisation and provide subject matter expertise and guidance on GSK’s Global Inclusion and Diversity priorities.
Why her?
Under her leadership, GSK was recognised by INvolve for their work focusing on LGBT+ inclusion. She takes pride in championing inclusion and diversity through GSK’s culture, values and the global policies they have in place to protect employees from discrimination on the grounds of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
Lucinda Wakefield
Head of Diversity and Inclusion, EMEA, BNY Mellon
Lucinda is Director, Head of Diversity and Inclusion, EMEA at BNY Mellon.
Why her?
Throughout Lucinda’s 3 year leadership of BNY Mellon’s largest business resource group, the Women’s Initiative Network, EMEA, she has been a visible and vocal advocate for diversity in the workplace. She has enabled 45 female employees to be mentored by external senior executives through the 30% Club Cross-Company Mentoring Scheme. She blogs to raise awareness about significant political milestones that have furthered gender equality and on the importance of men’s involvement in our gender equality mission. In January 2018, BNY Mellon gave Lucinda a Spotlight Award for developing talent by supporting ex-Military Interns who went on to secure permanent roles with BNY Mellon. She has also been recognized for her contributions to gender diversity in the Financial Times (FT) & HERoes Champions of Women in Business 2018 lists.
Lybra Clemons
Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion, PayPal
As Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at PayPal, Lybra is responsible for managing diversity initiatives for the company, including diversity talent analytics, engagement, and recruitment. Lybra is also a director at Makers, a media brand that accelerates the women’s movement through stories of real-life experiences that ignite passion and action. Before PayPal, she held key roles with Morgan Stanley, the Brunswick Group, and American Express.
Why her?
In June 2018, the California Diversity Council announced that Lybra was one of the “Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology” a list of female executives, influencers and achievers impacting the technology industry. She was also recognized by the Feminist Press as one of “40 Women Leaders Under 40.”
Manisha Mehrotra
Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Bloomberg LP
Manisha Mehrotra is a subject matter expert in Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), Communications and Organizational Change. Currently, she’s a Diversity and Inclusion Manager at Bloomberg where her primary responsibilities include the implementation of the Global Diversity and Inclusion strategy.
Why her?
Manisha serves as Board Chair for Sakhi for South Asian Women, which exists to end violence against women. She is also a mentor for Pencil and volunteers with several non-profit partners of Bloomberg. She brings innovation and tenacity to designing and delivering strategic D&I solutions that drive organizational change.
Mark Lomas
Head of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, High Speed Two (HS2)
Mark is a published author on the topic of Equality and Diversity having authored the Law Society E&D Risk & Compliance Toolkit which assists law firms to comply with regulation and is the co-author of research published for Arts Council England on Goal 5: Equality & Diversity for Young People in the arts.
Why him?
In January 2016 Mark took up the role as Head of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion for HS2. HS2 have won a number of EDI Awards including the 2017 ENEI Awards for Inclusive Procurement, Innovation with impact and Overall Public Sector Winner categories, four REACH Society awards for its work Inspiring Young BAME Individuals, Professional Role Models & Corporate Champions categories, The Apollo Award for Best Supplier Diversity Programme, the Women in Rail “Top Employer” 2018 award, ENEI Inclusive Procurement Award 2018, Gold Award for the ENEI TIDE benchmark, MSDUK Global Inclusive Procurement Award 2018 and the VERCIDA No.1 Gender Inclusive Employer in the UK 2018 and two RIDI 2019 Awards for Disability Confident Employer & Supply Chain management. HS2 is the first organisation in the UK to reach GOLD standard against the Clear Assured Accreditation Framework.
Mark McLane
Head of Diversity and Inclusion, M&G Prudential
Mark McLane is Head Diversity, Inclusion and Wellness for M&G Prudential, an international savings and investments business with over 7 million customers across the UK, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Why him?
Mr. McLane is a commissioner for the UK Equalities and Human Rights Commission, a member of the Lord Mayor of London’s Appeal fundraising Board, and a past Master of the Guild of Human Resource Professionals. In 2014, 15, 16 and 19 Mr. McLane was recognized on the UK LGBT power list, the Financial Times 100 LGBT business leaders and named to the top 50 global Diversity Executives by the Economist.
Matthew Yazzie
Advisor, Spot
Matthew is focused on bringing comprehensive, measurable solutions to the diversity space. Matthew’s background includes work as COO at both Jurispect, in regulatory compliance, and also at FWD.us, working towards intelligent immigration reform. He was on the Global Ethics and Compliance founding team at Google.
Why him?
Matthew is committed to creating the tech industry’s first real-time, consolidated, and open-source initiative exclusively dedicated to diversity + inclusion data.
Max Masure
Co-founder, Argo Collective
Max Masure is a Gender Inclusion Strategist and Co-Founder of Argo Collective, a trans nonbinary queer-owned mission-driven organization who educate through collaborative workshop sessions that empower teams to combat gender-bias.
Why them?
Max was vice president of the Paris-based organization Girlz in Web, promoting women in STEM and currently works with Diversity & Inclusion teams to improve safety and support for all identities, using Design Thinking methodologies.
Maxine Williams
Global Chief Diversity Officer, Facebook
Maxine Williams is the Global Director of Diversity at Facebook. She and her team work towards increasing the cognitive diversity of all teams across Facebook. Prior to Facebook, she served as the Director of Diversity for a global law firm. Maxine graduated from Yale University before receiving her law degree with first class honors from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.
Why her?
Under Maxine’s leadership, the number of women at Facebook has increased 5X and the number of women in technical roles has increased over 7X. They have also nearly doubled the number of women graduates hired in software engineering from 16% to 30%. This is despite the fact that the number of women undergraduates in the U.S. doing computer science has remained flat at 18%.
Michelle Kim
Co-Founder & CEO, Awaken
Michelle supports teams and leaders to develop inclusive leadership skills through her venture, Awaken, with top notch experiential diversity, inclusion, and equity workshops. Awaken creates experiential journeys to spark personal and organizational change. Through compassionate, engaging, and personal experiences, we empower individuals to create more inclusive organizations.
Why her?
She was recognized under “21 Diversity & Inclusion Influencers You should Know” by Culture Amp as well as under “99 Women that Forbes Missed” in 2019 by BAM Communications. Michelle is a Medium Top Writer in Diversity and a D&I advocate and speaker.
Mita Mallick
Head of Diversity and Cross Cultural Marketing, Unilever
Mita is a passionate corporate change maker with a track record of disruption to transform businesses and culture. Her pioneering work in Diversity & Inclusion is focused on unlocking the power of diversity to transform brands, specialising in beauty brands.
Why her?
A disruptive business leader and keynote speaker who was recognized by Diversity Global Magazine as one of the Top Ten Champions of Global Diversity in 2018. She also co-created a first of its kind cultural immersions series to increase the cultural competency of marketers, training over 3,000 marketers to date.
Nazreen Visram
Head of Charities & Citizenship, Barclays
Nazreen joined Barclays in 2005 as a Relationship Director in the London Industry team, managing a portfolio of clients within the Retail and Wholesale sector. Her current role is Head of Charities and prior to that she led a team of industry specialists, providing banking services to the Government, Healthcare, Charities and Education sectors.
Why her?
In 2016, Nazreen was a finalist for the Barclays Woman of the Year Award, shortlisted for an Asian Woman of Achievement Award in 2017 and listed in the Financial Times as a top 100 Ethnic Minority Role Model in 2018. Nazreen also co-chairs the Embrace Network, responsible for the multicultural diversity agenda. Nazreen is very passionate about championing and inspiring women.
Nichole Barnes Marshall
Vice President and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, L Brands
As Vice President and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at L Brands, Nichole is a highly motivated, results-oriented Inclusion and Diversity Executive skilled in leadership, program management and talent acquisition. Previously, Nichole was the driving force behind diversity and inclusion strategy at Aon, the world’s largest provider of risk management, insurance brokerage and HR solutions.
Why her?
Her proactive solutions have impacted 66,000 Aon employees in more than 120 countries, and her voice has inspired many more. She was responsible for the development of best-in-class employee volunteerism and community outreach program at AON as well.
Rachel Cheeks-Givan
Global Director Diversity & Inclusion, Pfizer
A Global Corporate Diversity and Inclusion Leader, Rachel is known for the strategic planning and execution of cultural transformation in areas of employee and leadership engagement, learning and development and the advancement of women.
Why her?
Rachel is highly effective in taking the initiative to create, champion, build and inspire the engagement of senior leaders and employees at all levels to deliver organizational business goals tied to the diversity and inclusion strategy.
Rachel Osikoya
Director, Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Maersk Group
Rachel is the global Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Maersk, a global transportation and logistics company.
Why her?
In addition to her corporate roles, Rachel served as a lay member for the Equality and Diversity Committee for the Bar Standards Board and as a patron for the student NGO Elevation Network. She is currently a member of the Conference Board’s Global Centre for Diversity and Inclusion’s Advisory board
Reena Chawla
Co Chair – Cultural Diversity Network, Fujitsu
Reena is the Co-Chair of the Cultural Diversity Network within Fujitsu. Their mission is focused around 3 pillars: Raising awareness of Cultural Diversity issues internally and externally, improving standards within the organisations and helping the community.
Why her?
Reena has been involved in a number of Governmental initiatives around Diversity and Inclusion with particular focus on BAME. One of the areas she is most proud of is being involved in the BITC/DWP “mentoring circles” helping unemployed people, from a BAME background, develop core skills to enter the working world.
Reshma Saujani
Founder and CEO, Girls Who Code
Reshma Saujani is the author of three books, including the International Bestseller Brave, Not Perfect, Women Who Don’t Wait In Line and the New York Times Bestseller Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World. Her goal: one million women in computer science by 2020.
Why her?
Reshma is the Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, a nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology while teaching girls confidence and bravery through coding. A lifelong activist, Saujani was the first Indian American woman to run for U.S. Congress.
Rob Neil
Head of MoJs Project Race, Ministry of Justice UK
Rob was a founding member of the MoJ’s BAME Staff network in 2001 and later that year became the first elected Chair of the Civil Service Race Forum (CSRF). He currently leads Project Race at the Ministry of Justice [MoJ] where he and his team supports the delivery of MoJ’s published objectives to deliver increased numbers of BAME staff at Senior Civil Service.
Why him?
Recognised in ‘New View 50’ as an influential Black Asian Minority Ethnic professional in the public sector. In September 2016, he was elected Chair of the Civil Service Race Forum; an umbrella network of BAME Staff Networks across the civil service which includes over 30 Government departments and reaches in excess of 6,000 BAME civil servants working at all levels. He was awarded an OBE in The Queen’s 2018 New Year’s Honours list for ‘Services to Race Equality in the workplace and the community’. He was also shortlisted as an Ethnicity Awards Top 8 BAME Workplace Hero in August 2018.
Rohini Anand
SVP Corporate Responsibility & Global Chief Diversity Officer, Sodexo
Dr. Rohini Anand is Global Chief Diversity Officer for Sodexo, responsible for the strategic direction, implementation and alignment of Sodexo’s integrated global diversity and inclusion initiatives, as well as Sodexo’s corporate social responsibility and wellness strategies.
Why her?
Under Dr. Anand’s leadership, Sodexo received the prestigious 2012 Catalyst Award and has ranked in the top ten for nine consecutive years on the DiversityInc business index of Top Companies for Diversity and Inclusion.
Ruchika Tulshyan
Founder and CEO, Candour
Ruchika through her company, Candour, advises companies on diversity & inclusion strategy and communications. Ruchika writes regularly for publications including Harvard Business Review, Forbes and The Seattle Times. Her articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Time and Bloomberg. She is also the inaugural Distinguished Professional-in-Residence for the Communication Department at Seattle University. Ruchika serves on the founding editorial team of women-run-and-funded media website, The Establishment.
Why her?
Ruchika is an award-winning inclusion strategist and keynote speaker. In 2019, she was named to the Thinkers50 “On the Radar” list, a global community of influential management thinkers to watch.
Sarah Kaiser
Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Fidelity International
Sarah is Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Fidelity International.
Why her?
Prior to joining Fidelity, Sarah was the Employee Experience, Diversity & Inclusion Lead for Fujitsu EMEIA. She has driven Fujitsu’s activity to become recognised as an exemplar on gender pay gap reporting, a Times Top 50 Employer for Women, a Disability Confident Leader, a Stonewall Top 100 Employer, a BITC Top Employer for Race and a Top 50 Social Mobility Employer. She is passionate about finding creative solutions to unusual diversity challenges, developing cultures where everyone can achieve their full potential, and the representation of diversity in contemporary culture.
Sarah Kirk
Global Diversity & Inclusion Director, PageGroup
Sarah Kirk is Global Diversity & Inclusion Director at PageGroup, a global specialist recruitment company, and is the driving force behind Women@Page which was launched by PageGroup’s CEO, Steve Ingham, in 2012. Sarah joined the company in 1996 as a consultant and was promoted to manager one year later.
Why her?
Sarah is a multiple award-winning D&I leader whose D&I programme incorporates the core values: take pride; work as a team; be passionate; never give up; make it fun into a clear diversity and inclusion programme allowing our people, and our business, to thrive.
Sereena Abbassi
Worldwide Head of Culture & Inclusion, M&C Saatchi
Sereena is an activist, writer, public speaker and worldwide head of culture and inclusion at M&C Saatchi. She also serves as an advisory board member for diversity-promoting platform The Other Box. Sereena has spoken at D&AD, Campaign 360, The Mill, ICA, Viacom, YCN, and the Oxford Media Convention, to name but a few. She has written for Campaign Live, Communication Arts and The Drum.
Why her?
In 2018, Sereena was nominated as one of Campaign’s 50 Trailblazers of the Future and Stars of 2018, Pitch Magazines 100 Creative Superwomen, and The Dots 100 top Black Creatives. This year, she was nominated as one of Pitch Magazines 100 Creative Superwomen, and she also sat on this years DIMA Summit Advisory Board. Sereena is also the founder of ‘All Here’ – a social enterprise that connects individuals, brands, and agencies; supporting them to think more critically about the world and the work that they create.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works here where she shares her insights on how a critical part of building a more inclusive culture is to take time to interact with people that you wouldn’t usually interact with.
Smita Pillai
Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Dow Jones
As Dow Jones’ first Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Smita Pillai is responsible for designing and implementing global D&I strategy, overseeing diversity and inclusion efforts across talent management, leadership accountability and corporate culture leading to better business results. She joined Dow Jones in June 2018 from Prudential Financial, where she served as Vice President, Diversity and Inclusion.
Why her?
Smita has received several awards including the NY MOVES Mentor Award, Leadership Excellence Award from the Tri-State Diversity and Leadership Conference, Diversity MBA Top 100 Under 50 for her outstanding achievements in community, leadership, and education and for her commitment to fostering equality and demonstrating exceptional leadership skills. An accomplished public speaker, Smita is a sought after thought leader on modern diversity and inclusion at various forums like the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, W.I.N Forum, Rutgers University, UnLonely Coalition, Outsell Annual Forum, WSJ Women In conference, WSJ CEO Council, Latina Style, HACR, Diversity Council, Conference Board and Working Mother Media.
We love Smita’s holistic approach to diversity and inclusion, which seeks to create a climate of inclusion and belonging that helps innovation thrive..
Sonja Gittens Ottley
Head, Diversity & Inclusion, Asana
With a law degree from Hugh Wooding Law School, Sonja Gittens-Ottley served as an attorney for over 9 years before Yahoo’s legal team, then Yahoo’s Global Policy Counsel. In 2014, Sonja was tapped to be the Global Diversity Program Manager of Facebook. In late 2015, Sonja was appointed Asana’s first-ever Head of Diversity and Inclusion.
Why her?
She received the 2019 4ALL Leadership Award for Innovator of the Year by Great Place to Work.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works where she shares her insights on why changing your values won’t change your culture.
Stacia Sherman Garr
Co-Founder & Principle Analyst, RedThread Research
Stacia is a researcher and thought leader on talent management, leadership, diversity and inclusion, people analytics, and HR technology. Stacia co-founded RedThread Research in 2018, after leading talent and workforce research for eight years at Bersin by Deloitte. Before Bersin, Stacia spent nearly five years conducting research and creating learning content for the Corporate Leadership Council, part of CEB/Gartner. She has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.
Why her?
She’s a thought leader, speaker, and writer, whose work has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal as well as in numerous HR trade publications.
Staynton Brown
Director D&I and Talent, Transport for London
Staynton is Director D&I and Talent at Transport for London and is responsible for organisational development, leadership, talent, strategic workforce planning, D&I and performance management, Staynton leads the strategy to develop people across the organisation.
Why him?
In 2013 he was nominated and made a Health Services Journal BME pioneer in the inaugural list of the top 50 people in the NHS. In 2014, he was recognised as a top 50 NHS Black pioneer and was the Winner of the Mayors for London award in 2015. Staynton is also on the Board of Directors of a charity that runs a college and number of schools across London.
Sue Unerman
Chief Transformation Officer, MediaCom
Sue is Chief Strategy Officer of MediaCom.
Why her?
Her latest book – “The Glass Wall-success strategies for women at work and businesses that mean business” which she co-authored with Kathryn Jacob has been called 2016’s most significant addition to the debate on gender diversity at work – a collection of success strategies for women at work, and an invaluable guide for businesses that want to successfully develop the women who work for them. Fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg praised the book for “empowering women”. She is one of the FT’s HERoes – Champions of women in business 2018 and one of Female Lead’s 20 in data and tech. She has also been named by Campaign magazine as “Media Strategist of the Year” on more occasions than any other individual.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works here where she shares her insights on success strategies for the woman at work from her book “The Glass Wall“.
Suzanne McGovern
Chief Diversity Officer & Head of Talent, Splunk
Suzanne McGovern is the Chief Diversity Officer at software innovator Splunk, having joined the company from IBM.
Why her?
She believes that future organizations will only be successful if they are able to include, harness and unleash the power of diverse teams.
“Including everyone in technology is not only the right thing to do, it makes great business sense – our future depends on it,” she says.
We love Splunk’s ‘A Million Data Points’ campaign which highlights all the aspects of diversity that make up who we are.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works where she shares her insights on why changing your values won’t change your culture.
Tariq Meyers
Global Head of Belonging, Inclusion, & Experience, Coinbase
As Global Head of Belonging, Inclusion, & Experience at Coinbase, Tariq believes that individuals should not be defined by their life circumstances, but empowered to defy them. With experience in community organizing, coalition and relationship building, he strives each day toward a more equitable world. Previously, he was the Head of Inclusion and Diversity at Lyft.
Why him?
He was recognized under “The #Root100 Most Influential African Americans of 2018” as well in Forbes 2017 list of #30Under30.
Tiffany Edwards
Engagement & Inclusion Director, Droga5
As Engagement & Inclusion Director, Tiffany supports diversity and inclusion at Droga5. She is committed to raising awareness of the benefits of diversity in the workplace growing the next generation of advertising, marketing and media professionals.
Why her?
She was awarded the 2018 Female Frontier Award – Championing Change – honoring those who are constantly pushing the boundaries of culture and making dynamic and brave changes within their workplace or industry.
Tiffany R. Warren
Senior VP, Chief Diversity Officer, Omnicom Group
As Senior VP, Chief Diversity Officer for Omnicom Group, Tiffany leads the strategy that enhances the Omnicom vision to be a world-class, benchmark company for sustainable diversity and inclusion and aligning this critical practice with the company’s business objectives and clients’ results. She oversees a team focused on Omnicom-wide change efforts for the advancement and retention of top-performing talent inclusive of women, people of color and LGBT professionals in an inclusive work culture.
Why her?
Recognized as a leader in the field of diversity, Tiffany is a talent strategist with 20+ years of championing diverse professionals in the creative industries.
Tina Moore Gilbert
Inclusion and Diversity Leader – Strategic Partner, Accolade, Inc
As Senior Director of Inclusion and Diversity (L&D), Tina Gilbert is responsible for defining and driving the company’s L&D strategy and building the frameworks for L&D programs and policies. She identifies opportunities to build diverse talent pipelines for promotions and hiring needs. Prior to joining Accolade, Tina was the Inclusion and Diversity Leader for Teva Pharmaceuticals.
Why her?
As the first L&D leader at Teva, she guided the organization’s evolution from diversity compliance management to recognizing its value as a business imperative. Her progress was recognized in 2017 by Diversityinc Magazine.
Tony Prophet
Chief Equality Officer, Salesforce
As the Chief Equality Officer of Salesforce, Tony works to build a workplace that reflects the diverse communities Salesforce serves and further Equality for All. Prophet is a board member of College Track. Previously at Microsoft — He was Corporate Vice President (CVP) Windows and Search Marketing — Relevant Brands included Windows, Bing, MSN and Cortana.
Why him?
His work has been widely recognized — including by appointment to the National Academy of Sciences Board on Energy and the Environment; in China through the prestigious Three Gorges Award as well as the Magnolia Silver Award; and by the Booz Allen Professional Excellence Award.
Vessy Tasheva
Founder, Vessy.com
Vessy Tasheva, runs Vessy.com, an inclusion consultancy in the US, Canada, Germany, the UK, Ireland and Bulgaria.
Why her?
Vessy’s coming out story in the 2007 American University in Bulgaria Magazine blazed a trail for others, and she also founded the university’s first gay-straight alliance in 2009. Since then, she’s worked at a number of fast-growth companies in strategy and marketing, notably as CMO at Enhancv. She is also the author of “2019 Diversity in the Workplace” report which takes a comprehensive look at the companies across the globe who are doing diversity and inclusion ‘right’.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works here where she shared her insight into how companies can get inclusion right by taking action, getting senior buy-in and mixing culture and business to create a space where everyone – and in particular, members of LGBTQ+ communities, feel like they belong.
Wanda Hope
Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Johnson & Johnson
As Chief Diversity Officer at Johnson & Johnson, Wanda is responsible for globally advancing J&J’s diversity and inclusion (D&I) strategy, strengthening D&I capabilities, improving reputation, and driving innovation and growth for future success. During her career Wanda has held a variety of leadership positions including National Sales Director, Global Marketing Leader, Franchise Vice President of Sales & Marketing, and Vice President of Commercial Analytics, Development & Operations.
Why her?
Wanda has been recognized for her ability to exceed business results, deliver innovative solutions to complex challenges, lead global change, develop people for optimal results, and drive diversity and inclusion. Wanda has received several awards including the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association’s Rising Star Award, the YWCA Tribute to Women in Industry Award, and the National Sales Network Community Service award.
Wayne Sutton
Co-Founder, Change Catalyst
Wayne Sutton is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Change Catalyst and its Tech Inclusion programs. Change Catalyst builds inclusive tech ecosystems through strategic advising, startup programs and resources, and a series of events around the globe. Sutton’s experience includes years of establishing partnerships with large brands to early-stage startups.
Why him?
As a leading voice in diversity and inclusion in tech, Sutton shares his thoughts on solutions and culture in various media outlets where he has been featured in TechCrunch, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. In addition to mentoring and advising early-stage startups, Sutton’s life goal is to educate entrepreneurs who are passionate about using technology to change the world.
Wendy Garcia
Chief Diversity Officer , NYC Comptroller
As Chief Diversity Officer, Wendy Garcia is responsible for increasing contracting opportunities for Women- and Minority-owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs) and managing the Comptroller Office’s internal supplier diversity initiative, as well as other diversity related projects across all bureaus of the agency.
Whitney Wolfe Herd
Founder and CEO, Bumble
Whitney Wolfe Herd is an American entrepreneur and Founder and CEO of Bumble, and a co-founder of the dating app Tinder. Wolfe Herd was named one of Business Insider’s 30 Most Important Women Under 30 In Tech in 2014 and is on a mission to end misogyny all around the world.
Why her?
Whitney Wolfe Herd has reimagined the “misogynistic hurricane” of online dating from a women’s point of view. Leaving her Tinder brainchild in 2014, Whitney worked to develop and launch Bumble, empowering women to #MakeTheFirstMove. With a female-centric staff touted by Inc. in 2018 as a top company for women, Whitney rewrites outdated gender norms and gives women a safe space to use their equal voice.
Yari Blanco
Senior Manager, Culture + Diversity, The Wing
As The Wing’s senior manager of culture and diversity and the founder of theGIRLMOB, a collective that promotes itself as “the digital sisterhood for women of color,” Blanco builds spaces where marginalized folks get to have a voice and be a part of important conversations.
Why her?
Blanco works to bridge the empathy gap between people of different backgrounds.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works where she shares her insight into how the privileged among us can foster innovation in our communities by simply passing the mic
Zella King
Senior Associate, Care City
At Care City, Zella tries to apply apply strategic thinking and analysis to the challenges faced by the health and care system, to help find solutions for healthy ageing and local regeneration.
Why her?
With Amanda Scott, Zella co-founded Personal Boardroom, a company that helps people design and build the network they need to succeed. They work with companies to develop their employees into people who surround themselves with diverse thinking and have impact on their world.
Listen to her interview with Inclusion Works here where she spoke about the 12 types of diverse perspective you need in your network, how women network differently to men and why we’re failing the older generation.
Have you checked our “Interviews” section where we share stories from the leading movers, shakers and change-makers who are shaping the inclusion debate? Check them out now!
