This week The Glass Hammer is publishing a series of profiles on top leaders in corporate diversity. Check back all week long to learn about the women making a difference.

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I say this with rose colored glasses,” began Edie Hunt, Chief Diversity Officer and Advising Director at Goldman Sachs, “but I wait for the day when we don’t need an Office of Diversity and Inclusion – because everyone gets it.”

Hunt has spent the majority of her career advocating for diversity, initiating powerful ideas like Goldman Sachs’ Returnship, its women’s network, and its practice of awarding fellowships to diverse rising stars. She predicts that day when diversity offices are no longer needed is still 15 to 20 years in the future, but says she’s pleased with the current progress of the field.

“I think the next idea in diversity will be the concept of diversity being for everyone,” she said. “We had a watershed moment in 2010 during our Americas Diversity Week, which was that diversity is not about having events for women, Asians, LGBT employees, or any specific group. But that the events were for everyone in the firm to learn about the unique attributes of everyone else in the firm.”

She explained, “We have celebrations and events throughout the year. Whereas, five years ago at a women’s history month event, we’d have 95% women, now I’d say there’s at least 30% men. That is really where we want diversity to be heading.”

Hunt is also pleased to see an increase in the number of line managers taking the issue seriously. “I think the layer of people who really don’t live and breathe diversity initiatives is becoming thinner and thinner.”

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This week The Glass Hammer is publishing a series of profiles on top leaders in corporate diversity. Check back all week long to learn about the women making a difference.

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“At Mercer, our primary focus is helping our clients maximize the potential of their human capital,” began Deb Wheelock, Partner and Global Talent Management & Diversity Leader at Mercer. “Unlike other companies, we don’t produce widgets. We market the professional knowledge of our people. They need to be our competitive edge.”

“Thinking back to my tech days, another way I put it is ‘our people are our next killer app,’” explained the former e-learning specialist. “Diversity is becoming an imperative because we have people of different backgrounds with diverse approaches and innovative solutions to bring to our clients.”

She added, “You just don’t get that level of innovation from a homogenous workforce, no matter how bright they might be.”

Wheelock believes diversity is undergoing a generational shift. “We’re seeing a change in what our colleagues are bringing to work in terms of their outlook as well as their biases. That pushes us toward inclusion – from tolerating differences, to appreciating and leveraging those differences.”

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This week The Glass Hammer is publishing a series of profiles on top leaders in corporate diversity. Check back all week long to learn about the women making a difference.

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Joanne Rodgers, now Chief Diversity Officer at New York Life, began her career at the National Association of Securities Dealers (now FINRA) before moving to New York Life’s Compliance Department. Eighteen years later, Rodgers has held a variety of roles in the company, moving from compliance to marketing and, most recently, corporate strategy. “I also had the opportunity to head up the company’s women’s leadership program and that definitely helped with my new role as Chief Diversity Officer,” she said. Rodgers says she is looking forward to promoting diversity on a broader scale.

Having just moved into the CDO role this year, she is now charting the future diversity strategy for the company. “I’m currently working with all of the business units to analyze and develop our diversity strategies so that we remain an employer of choice. My experience in the corporate strategy group has been a real asset, since much of my work involved working with the business units, being engaged with critical strategic goals and understanding the environmental landscape that affects us. My directive is to make sure New York Life has strong diversity and inclusion practices and I am pleased that my colleagues at New York Life take this very seriously.”

She continued, “If you simply look at the changing demographics in this country, the business case for diversity becomes more apparent based on the makeup of our customers and of the workforce today and in the future.”

“We want to really consider how those changing demographics affect us as an organization and how our increasingly diverse workforce can make us a better company.”

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Jennifer McLaughlin has spent a two-decade career at Accenture, all of it working with clients in the communications area. It should be no surprise, then, that one of McLaughlin’s key lessons is the importance of clear communication.

“One of the things I’ve learned in my career is how openly you should communicate. When I was younger, I would second guess and form opinions about how people would receive what I had to say – instead of just openly communicating.”

That went for client work and her own professional needs – like flex work, she explained. “But I’ve learned that when you’re direct, you just get a better result. There’s more transparency about where you stand with others and that’s important.”

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

After spending more than twenty-five years in investment banking in London, Shona Milne has taken on quite a few big roles. Now CFO for EMEA and Managing Director of EMEA Finance at Deutsche Bank’s London office, Milne is responsible for 27 countries.

But today, she’s also passionately focused on her position as a role model for women and LGBT individuals at the firm.

“I suppose I should be telling you my proudest achievements have been something like building a global finance function for equities or EMEA,” she said. “But actually what gives me more pride is my involvement in Deutsche Bank’s diversity networks, particularly being a senior sponsor of the LGBT network.”

“A few years ago I realized that I had to give something back, that I had the ability as a Managing Director to be a positive role model. There are not many people who are out at the Managing Director level, and it’s a privilege for those of us who are to be able to make a difference on this topic.”

She mentioned her involvement in Deutsche Bank’s web videos on diversity, participation in chairing diversity networks, and speaking on LGBT issues at events. “It’s incredibly rewarding. And maybe as you get older you become more comfortable about doing these things. You want to be a role model, not just for LGBT, but for senior women as well, and other diversity networks.”

“That gives me personal pride,” she added.

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