Why Business Needs Black Board Directors: A Q+A with Barry Lawson Williams

In this Q&A, visionary board leader Barry Lawson Williams makes a business case for cultivating Black board members and shares the inspiring story of his success

Preparing Black executives for board service is a passion of mine. That’s true for Barry Lawson Williams , too. I’m so grateful I’ve had a chance to get to know Barry through the?

Black Corporate Board Readiness (BCBR) Program at Santa Clara University. Since its 2021 launch, the BCBR program has helped several hundred Black executives gain the skills they need to join corporate boards.?

Barry, a retired executive who has served on the board of directors at 14 major public corporations, is one of BCBR’s five founding advisory board members. He’s truly a visionary. His studies of Black corporate board directors, including his Time Capsule and the 100 Black Voices projects, have gained national media attention. Needless to say, he’s made a powerful impact on the BCBR program.?

BCBR has recently launched a $10M capital campaign spearheaded by the third BCBR Cohort and Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business to establish an endowment fund for BCBR in Barry’s name. I’m honored to be part of those efforts as well as a mentor for the program. At an event last month, we raised $500,000 for the campaign. Shortly thereafter, I had a chance to talk to Barry about his life and work. I hope you’ll enjoy learning about him as much as I did.

About Black Corporate Board Readiness

ROD: Tell us about your experience with the BCBR program. Why is this program important, and what’s most important to you?

BARRY: The most important thing to me is to destroy the myth that there isn't an ample pool of talent for minority board candidates. Talent shows up in a number of places, including strange places. You’ve got to have the intel to identify the talent. The BCBR program can do that and then train people and support them on their board journey.?

I've never come across a program like this. There are plenty of board readiness programs, and I'm associated with several of them, but this program is one of the few — if not the only — that looks at board service primarily through a Black lens. That's quite unique. This program is much more than just coursework. It's a community where people can contribute. They can rely upon it for the rest of their board careers.

The BCBR program launched in 2021, a time when the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with a deepening awareness of structural racism in our country. Tell me about those early days.? We were trying to be thoughtful. We could have moved slowly and been more deliberate, but we had the feeling we couldn’t wait around after George Floyd’s death and related incidents. We thought: Now is the time. The times called for us to act quickly and intelligently, and those were very dynamic discussions.?

BCBR is unique because it’s the only board readiness program with a large, devoted community. For me, joining the BCBR family felt like coming home. What makes it so special?

The program has been successful because of its nexus: It fits with the principles of Santa Clara University and other Jesuit organizations that emphasize commitment to social justice and community engagement. In a very short time, we’re up to 13 cohorts for the six-week program, which combines educational and learned experiences. We’re reaching a critical mass.?

How did you feel when the third cohort of the program organized and established an endowment in your name?

I didn’t want to do it. I thought the naming of the endowment was drawing a little too much attention to myself when there were lots of people who contributed. But then I said, “I can get over this, because I’m going to contribute regardless of whether my name is on the endowment or not. Go ahead with it.” It was an honor, and they had such a good start after the first weekend.

About Barry

Can we take a step back and talk about your childhood? Tell me about your parents and what it was like growing up. My family, like a lot of Black families, accomplished a lot, based on education, in just a couple of generations. About a year ago, I did some research and discovered that none of my four grandparents finished high school. They were tradespeople. My grandfather on my mother’s side worked in the mailroom at the Singer (sewing machine) Company. He eventually became head of the mailroom. I thought he was the CEO of Singer because he wore a suit and tie every day. In that generation, although none of the people went to high school, they made sure their kids went to college. My parents and aunts and uncles made sure we went to college, and some of us went to graduate school. Now it’s carrying over to the next generation. That’s how, in a short time, we could make a big difference.?

When I was growing up, I didn’t know anybody in large corporate businesses. So I didn’t have any examples, models or mentors in that area. I thought business was owning your own small, private business. The friends I looked up to had parents who owned restaurants, grocery stores and gas stations. Even when I graduated from business school, I had no experience with business, so I chose a job that could give me a survey of business. I went into management consulting for that very reason, so I could get a feel for an array of businesses.

You went to Harvard for undergrad and then pursued MBA and law degrees. Did you take time off in between?

When I finished at Harvard College, I got a unique fellowship, the Corning Glass Traveling Fellowship. For a year after graduation, I traveled to more than 30 countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Europe and got a taste of different cultures and international business. Eventually, I worked for four years internationally, in Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil.

What habits helped contribute to your success? I had a lot of energy. No one ever called me smart, but I out-energized and outworked everybody. When I was growing up, Mrs. Borne, a white woman who was the coach of our basketball and baseball teams, used to come to our neighborhood every Saturday and bring fresh uniforms. We never thanked her, and I don’t know where she lived. She just showed up, took the dirty uniforms and cleaned them, then distributed them the next week.?

Once, we were playing in a basketball tournament with different teams for different ages. After a game, she said, “Why don’t you play with the next group of older kids? I think you’ll do fine.” So I played with the older group of kids and I did fine. In fact, I scored the same number of points and had the same number of rebounds. I remember that story because it convinced me that I could survive in just about any environment. I wasn’t scared of anything. I think that helped with my success. I’ve been blessed with having people who cared about me. Maybe they couldn’t tell me about business, but man, they had my back.?

I noticed one of your mentors on LinkedIn, a consultant and author named James H. Lowry . Can you tell us more about him and your relationship? I was referred to Jim by the older brother of a friend when I was traveling on my international fellowship. Jim was the Peace Corps site director for Lima, Peru. I called him when I got there. He was nice over the phone but said he didn’t have much time — in fact, he was going back to the States for a few weeks — but it was nice chatting with me. As we were hanging up, I said, “Jim, where’s a good place for a Black person like me to hear some good music?” and he said, “You’re Black? Be down in the lobby in 15 minutes.” So Jim adopted me as a little brother. For years, when I was in business school, I used his apartment. He was the one who directed me toward McKinsey . He has always been about mentoring people, and he certainly did a wonderful job for me. I’ve tried to live by his example.

When did you start to feel successful? My parents encouraged me to excel in whatever I did, and that’s what I tried to do. There hasn’t been one particular moment, but I always put in the effort, even if I was swimming upstream. When things got harder and harder, I kept going.

Tell us about your first board experience. I joined the American President Line (APL) board when I came back to the United States from Mexico in 1982. I had been involved in the local hospital board, and I did a good job and rose to the head of the finance committee, then became chair. People in town noticed. It was actually a person from another hospital board who recommended me to an investment banker for my first board (APL). I wasn’t a CEO. I’d never been on a public company board, so there was a lot to take in, and I certainly wasn’t viewed as a peer. People couldn’t figure out how I got on that board, I focused on areas where I knew I could excel, and the next thing I knew, I was in charge of the audit committee and other projects. I learned how to make a contribution.

Before that, did you aspire to serve on boards? No, but when I got on that first board, I knew I liked board service. I remember at a cocktail party, the chair of the hospital board said to me, after I’d been on the board for only a year, “Do you want to be chairman of the board?” I said, “You’re joking. I’ve only been on the board for a year. I like the people. I like the mission. But I’ve got a lot to learn.” He said, “Every board has to have a couple of people who want to be chair. I want to know: Are you interested, and are you willing to do the work?” I was, and he made sure I did the work.??

Let’s shift to your first experience as a CEO. Tell us more.

My appointment was for just one year with the American Management Association. I was a board member, and we had a split board over the effectiveness of the current CEO. So they said, “Let’s get rid of him and we’ll let you take the role and find out what’s going on, then we’ll get a successor.” So I did that, and I found it to be a tremendously rewarding experience.

“Diversity is not the goal. It’s a vehicle to help reach the goal of better shareholder value.” — Barry Lawson Williams

About Black directors and the future

Tell us about your 100 Black Voices project. Why is it so important to you?? I’d done a similar project (the Time Capsule project) before Covid. At the Black Directors Conference, I noticed that we? were losing a few people each year. So I set out to document the experiences of Black directors before we lost their history. I planned to do 30 or 40 interviews but found that to get a decent sample size, I needed more. The next thing I knew I was up to 60, then I rounded up to 100. I did 40 in-person interviews and 60 remote. One thing I discovered was that the experiences of Black board members were similar, whether they were retired, still serving or just starting out. There was consensus in their conclusions, regardless of gender, geography or industry.? I’m proud of the project because I think we’ve come up with an excellent playbook for how to select a board, be chosen to serve on boards and be effective once you’re on a board. It’s also a playbook for how to improve the outlook for minority, in particular Black, representation on boards in the next five years.

You’ve done such a great job of debunking myths and showing how diversity on boards leads to better thought, performance and results. Considering the current political landscape, what are your thoughts about the future? I don’t think we’ll make the same progress we made in the year or two after George Floyd, but I think we’re going to make significant progress. The candidates who have served on boards in the last couple of years are doing an outstanding job, and people are beginning to understand the value of having diverse candidates on boards. They’re not going to roll all that back. Over the next 10 years, this country is also going to change in a major way, especially in terms of demographics.?

Some of my recent findings are new or felt with higher intensity compared to the study I did 10 years ago. We’ve also learned that so much of what we need to do we need to start on our own. We’ve got at least 180 Black directors at Fortune 200 companies. If each of those directors helped recruit another Black candidate to their board — or made sure they were succeeded by another Black candidate — that would be great, especially if they could mentor the new candidates and if they could convince their board to meet candidates in advance of searches. We could change the landscape. How does diversity come into play? We’ve got to change how we talk about diversity. I’m a big believer that business understands what’s in its own interests. I do support the moral case for diversity, but I think we also need to consider the business case for diversity. Diversity minimizes groupthink and leads to improved business performance, and if you have diversity, you’ll better handle risk, you’ll see more innovation and you’ll get better business performance. Diversity is not the goal. It’s a vehicle to help reach the goal of enhanced shareholder value. Black representation on boards can lead to better shareholder value.?

What are some things we need to do to change the landscape for Black board directors?

We need to talk differently. We also need to change the paradigm where only one board seat comes up every two years. You’re not going to get any progress with that sort of paradigm. We’ve got to look at term limits, increased board size and enhanced board evaluations. This came up in the study. No one wants to force anything down the throat of business. We’re not talking about quotas or metrics. I’d love to do that, but it just won’t work. It hasn’t worked, right? But business does need a push. I think we can demand more from business in terms of disclosure. When businesses see they’re losing out, they’ll jump on board.

What personality should every board leader have? There is no one personality, just like there’s no one type of board. Every board is different. But one common thing that boards need, no matter how big or small and no matter what industry they’re in, is innovation. In order to be successful in the future, you have to bring in new skill sets, which will help you get there. The best board is a board that understands it has to refresh itself. There are a lot of people, including minorities, who can do that. They may not be CEOs, but they know about technology and AI, they know about regulatory affairs and what have you. We have to inject all that into the formula.?

What would you say to a board member who invariably is the only Black person in the room? We’ve all experienced being the only Black person in the room. We experienced that long before we thought about boards. If you’re the only Black person in the room, seek allies. You don’t have to be the only one who cares about an issue. Spend time getting to know your fellow board members. As I look back, I regret not spending more time with my peers and the management team to get to know them and let them get to know me. That’s important. The same goes for our fellow Black colleagues. We need to spend time with each other to understand how we can help each other.

Pass on the inspiration

Barry’s life and mission are so inspirational to me. He was underestimated, worked hard and rose above it. I can relate! Can you? Getting to know people like Barry inspires me to keep exploring — to interact with new people and support causes I care about. It feels so good to lift others up! I hope you’re feeling it, too. If you are, I encourage you to:?

• Lift up and recommend Black candidates for corporate boards.
• Support the BCBR program financially.?
• Send qualified candidates to the BCBR program. Coursework is virtual and funding is available.?

When the right people show up, work hard and move things forward, we all move forward together.