August 21st, 2019
MassMutual’s Lorie Valle-Yanez honored
August 21, 2019 - DiversityGlobal Magazine is honored to present the 2019 Top 15 Champions of Diversity. The women and men recognized for this honor are dedicated professionals who are having a positive impact on advancing Diversity & Inclusion best practices through innovative strategies and a deep desire to provide opportunities to diverse businesses on a global basis. They represent some of the largest corporations in the world, so their efforts have a broad impact in terms of geographies and dispersed workforces.
The Top 15 Champions of Diversity represent some of the world's largest and most influential businesses: Aramark, Barilla, General Motors, HSBC Banking, Johnson Controls, Lenovo, MassMutual, Old National Bank, Partners Healthcare, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Walmart, CBS, Amway, Mattel, and Eli Lilly. The Champions are people who work in the Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) space, driving diversity in supply chains and workforces and the development of an enterprise-wide culture of inclusion within their respective organizations.
The Top 15 Champions build their strategies on the foundational principle that achieving diversity in a supply chain or workforce is only a first step. An organization must also develop a sustainable culture of inclusion. Diverse businesses need opportunities to access corporate sourcing and procurement processes and join supply chains as prime vendors or as subcontractors striving to grow their businesses. On the workforce side, diverse employees need equal opportunities to participate in an unbiased talent management system.
Selecting the Top 15 Champions of Diversity is never an easy task because there are so many people working in the D&I space who are making the world more inclusive on all levels. The DiversityGlobal Magazine sent over 31,000 diversity professionals and organizational leaders a request for nominations through Survey Monkey. The survey requested that Human Resources, and diversity and inclusion professionals, nominate people based on pre-established criteria that includes driving best practices in D&I, promoting a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization, demonstrating leadership qualities in the D&I space, and having a global perspective on diversity that is not limited by geography. DiversityGlobal Magazine received 157 responses to the call for nominations.
Each nominee submitted a short bio along with responses to three key questions. Nominees were asked to identify the D&I initiatives they were most proud of; their process for bringing innovation to their leadership role; and their leadership strengths. An independent editorial team reviewed the responses and bios, and researched other sources. The final step was selecting the Top 15 Champions. Each nominee is a Champion, but the people selected have demonstrated exceptional inspirational and innovative leadership in Diversity & Inclusion.
The responses to the nomination questions made it clear that giving diverse people and diverse business leaders a voice is a top priority. A common theme throughout the nominations included embracing uncomfortable conversations and giving people opportunities to share their lived experiences. Storytelling combined with hard data drives conversations about bias and D&I, bringing issues into the open for discussion. Many of the Champions are developing Employee Resource Groups and focus groups that address the unique needs of people, like working mothers. The supply chain professionals are intensifying efforts to reach out to business unit leaders to get their commitments to utilize diverse suppliers and become drivers of a diverse supply chain based on equal opportunities.
The Top 15 Champions of Diversity are influencing operations at every organizational level through relationship building. One of the things to keep in mind is that most diversity leaders have no authority over unit leaders, so they must use their influence to get measurable results. They all agree that getting senior level support for their efforts is a crucial first step. With that support, the Champions reach out to people across their organization, develop unique strategies around D&I, increase transparency, and promote economic development in communities.
DiversityGlobal Magazine is a quarterly magazine for C-suite executives and professionals responsible for developing diverse supply chains and workforces, and developing inclusive organizational cultures. The magazine is one of the most widely read diversity magazines in Europe, Asia, and North America. DiversityGlobal has offices in Yangzhou, China; Toronto, Canada; and New York City, New York, U.S.A. For more information about the 2019 Top 15 Champions of Diversity, visit www.diversityglobal.com or call Steven Surujballi at 973-275-1405 ext. 702.