There are two perspectives for me with regards to sponsorship, firstly as a prior beneficiary of sponsorship and secondly, as someone who is now in a position to pass it on and sponsor others.
In startups and small private companies, promoting diversity doesn’t require a formal policy or structure. Diversity initiatives can take inspiration from the fluid, exciting and out-of-the-box thinking prevalent in these types of companies.
There has been a fair amount of experimentation and implementation initiatives following former Sara Lee GC Rick Palmore’s call to action in 2004, which led to the formation of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), made up of GCs in the Fortune 500 and managing partners of major law firms.
Continue reading “Michele Mayes, general counsel, New York Public Library”
I have responsibility for global diversity for Mastercard. Our chief diversity officer reports to me, along with a team of four professionals. The origin of that comes straight from the top – Ajay Banga, our CEO, believes diversity should be the responsibility of someone with a global business leadership role.
In a company like BP, it is often easier to progress the diversity agenda in functions like legal than when working on the oil and gas side, where the pipeline of diverse candidates may be less robust. But because of the global nature of BP’s operations and the rich cultural diversity in which we do business, it is vital that we provide all of our employees with the tools and skills necessary to effectively integrate into different environments.
Business wins when we welcome and embrace diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
For PayPal as a company, one of our core values is diversity and inclusion – it is not just a poster on the wall. It is fundamental to how we build our products. Fintech at PayPal is about democratizing money and allowing access to financial services to everyone.
Continue reading “Louise Pentland, chief legal officer, PayPal”
When I was at Accenture, I managed all of our global outside counsel spend as well as our diversity and inclusion legal program. I love big law and NAMWOLF is not a play against big law.
At Morgan Stanley, we are in the service profession – we don’t make anything. Rather, we serve the communities we operate in. But we don’t always reflect those communities in the ways we would like. Putting aside the moral and ethical issues, we just think this is bad business, and as a goal, we want to better reflect the communities we serve.
Continue reading “Eric Grossman, chief legal officer, Morgan Stanley”
BMO has a long history as a champion of diversity and inclusion – it’s a core value and a key priority for us. This includes diversity of perspectives, experiences, abilities, cultures and gender.
Continue reading “Caroline Tsai, deputy general counsel, BMO”