Celebrating ethnic minorities in business...

WOW. What an absolutely incredible evening we had last night. I’m still riding high off the back of our second annual EMpower Gala Dinner.

This is our 4th year publishing our EMpower Role Model Lists and we have only seen the success and scale of the lists grow and grow each year, so after last year’s huge Gala success, it only made sense to make it an annual tradition. Largely with the help of our new media partner, Yahoo Finance UK, we were able to reach a whopping 400m people yesterday alone through social media and press coverage.  

It was my absolute pleasure to come together with over 270 of the most inspiring business leaders and influencers last night to celebrate the launch of our Lists. I was thrilled to share the stage with our compere, the phenomenal June Sarpong MBE, who had us laughing all night long. I must give a massive thank you to O2 as our sponsor last night, for helping make it all a reality.

One question I often get asked when speaking about ethnic minority inclusion in the UK is, ‘are we actually making any progress?’.   We definitely are, but it’s easy to see why we still hear that question. Since the Brexit vote, The Guardian has reported a significant rise in racism, discrimination and abuse – and increased racially motivated hate crimes have been climbing year on year since 2013. Just last week we saw news stories about an increase in racial abuse and bullying of children rising by a fifth since 2015. Another story spoke of increased numbers of young people attempting skin whitening. This is absolutely horrifying and should be a big enough indicator that as a society, we have much more to do. I vividly remember as a child, I looked into skin whitening products. I wanted to fit in. I didn’t like the person I saw when I looked into the mirror. Luckily, I am now incredibly proud of being brown and owning the skin that I’m in – and we should all do what we can to show our future generations that they too should love the colour of their skin.  

In our own research here at INvolve, we have seen that there are more CEOs called STEVE than there are CEOs from an ethnic minority background. In 2019 this is unacceptable. These kinds of stories are, very sadly, not uncommon. But we must persist. While we must not downplay the negative, we are making progress and we believe this is where the power of initiatives like our Role Model Lists have such crucial importance. We’re slowly changing the faces of boardrooms and proving to ethnic minority children that they can be successful as their authentic selves.

If we aim to inspire our next generation of leaders, we must make sure that we are showcasing them as individuals. We need to show what is possible and break down stereotypes of where people expect us to be. As ethnic minorities, we are expected to travel down specific paths – whether that’s being an accountant, an athlete, a doctor or at worst, in prison… By continuing to show the never-ending diversity of the business community, we can break down these stereotypes.   

Alongside our fantastic ethnic minority executives and future leaders, we also showcase white leaders who are playing their part in levelling the playing field.  Whether we like to hear it or not, as the majority, white people typically have the privilege and positions of power to make a difference. Utilising this for good, and acknowledging that inclusion requires effort from everyone, is the only way we can not only make positive change, but also accelerate it.

I’d like to share some key stats from the 2019 EMpower Lists:

-       Record number of nominations across all categories

-       Increase in representation of Role Models from the Media Industry

-       Increased representation of women – over 60% in the Future Leaders List

-       Half of the Top 10 Executives are based in the US

I’d like to end with a big thank you to the INvolve team, for your hard work and commitment to our purpose. You have surpassed yourselves once again. It’s a pleasure to work alongside you all, and I am beyond proud to be leading our organisation.

Here’s to another EMpowering year.

If you’d like to read more, check out some more coverage on Yahoo Finance here:

-       Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga named top ethnic minority executive in the world

-       How companies can diversify their talent pipeline

-       Amex Exec, Anre Williams on the key role diverse leaders play in inspiring others

-       Diageo HR chief: Everyone owns diversity and inclusion

-       How the Faithforce network is driving diversity and inclusion at Salesforce