New Solutions: Developing Diverse Leadership at ING

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“Our CEO challenged his team to increase diversity – to come up with plans to accelerate the development of female talent,” said Brannigan Thompson, Head of HR for ING US Insurance. “We needed to not just say that we are a diverse company, but to act like a diverse company.”

Rhonda Mims, President of the ING Foundation and Senior Vice President, Office of Corporate Responsibility and Multicultural Affairs for ING added, “Finding creative ways to be ahead of the curve with employee engagement and professional development is really relevant to building a successful company. It’s more than writing a check – it’s about collaborating to deliver on a brand promise.”

Coming out of the recession, Thompson said, ING was “reexamining how we looked at leadership and reexamining how we do business. It was the perfect storm.”

The First Women’s Leadership Expedition

The perfect storm led to the development of the company’s new Women’s Leadership Expedition program. As Mims explained, ING started its “Leadership Expedition” program a few years ago. The program gathers twenty to twenty-five talented individuals within the company to take part in development courses as well as strategize a solution to a business challenge facing the company. This year marks the first Leadership Expedition designed specifically for women.

According to Mims, women in the financial services industry face a number of challenges, which have led the company to implement the new women’s leadership initiative: the perception of a glass ceiling, the male dominated work-force, and the challenges of balancing work and family responsibilities.

Add that to the company’s new focus on its growing female customer base, said Thompson, and “It was time to put action behind our words and work to accelerate the readiness of our female talent. The ultimate goal is to ensure more women are in the leadership process.”

The women participating in the Women’s Leadership Expedition have been tasked with putting together new and better strategies to reach their company’s female customers.

Thompson said, “We want to really make sure we’re not missing out on a huge opportunity.”

Developing Female Leadership

Mims continued, “It spills over to our corporate responsibility work as well.” She described a program the company is working on right now called ING Girls Inc., which helps build the female leadership pipeline at an early age, as well as teaching good financial skills early on.

“We need to groom girls to make better financial decisions,” she said. The program provides the girls with $50,000 to invest, with the goal of helping them build financial and emotional confidence. “Strong, bold, and smart,” Mims explained.

Thompson said, “We want to be a market leader for inclusion, and empower our community.”

In fact, he said, “ING has a good selection of female talent at the top of the house already,” pointing out that women lead two of the organization’s critical businesses: Lynne Ford, CEO, ING Financial Solutions and Catherine H. Smith, CEO, U.S. Retirement Services.

But, he said, although women represent 45% of the company’s workforce, “We still have room for improvement.”

To help build strategies toward that end, last week the Women’s Leadership Expedition hosted a luncheon and panel discussion.

The event featured panelists Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, Ilene Lang, president and CEO of Catalyst, and Pattie Sellers, chair of FORTUNE’s annual Most Powerful Women Summit. It was moderated by Christine Hurtsellers, Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income and Proprietary Investments for ING Investment Management (who will also be speaking on The Glass Hammer’s upcoming Women on the Buy-Side breakfast panel in October).

The panel discussed research on gender diversity and inclusion, recounted personal triumphs and challenges, and delved into ways to move the needle on gender diversity within the company and the business sphere as a whole.

Most moving, perhaps, was Hobson’s plea for more women at the top to actively work toward gender parity. “It’s about joining the fight, not just being happy to be there,” she exclaimed, to applause.