Keith Barr

1
CEO
IHG

As Chief Executive Officer, Keith has been instrumental in defining IHG’s culture as one of inclusion, and to the sense of belonging colleagues feel and the freedom they have to be themselves. A commitment to champion a diverse culture where everyone can thrive is at the heart of IHG’s ‘Journey to Tomorrow’ 2030 Responsible Business plans, and the company has a set of targets to help achieve this, including driving gender balance and a doubling of under-represented groups across our leadership. Throughout the pandemic, recognising the pressures it has placed on all IHG colleagues, Keith has ensured that colleagues can prioritise wellbeing and manage family and work needs, including with the introduction of new global flexible working guidelines and recharge days to allow colleagues to recuperate.

Shinbo Won

2
Head of Asia ex-Japan, BlackRock Investment Stewardship
BlackRock

Shinbo is Co-Founder and Co-Chair of BlackRock Singapore's Male Allies program, a role through which he is tasked with growing the pool of male champions who advocate for the empowerment of female colleagues. The position also involves supporting the broader Women's Initiative Network (WIN) in fostering diversity, equity and inclusion. The Male Allies program is focused around building awareness of biases and behaviors that act as barriers to achieving gender equity in the workplace, while sharing experiences and practices that help build a more inclusive culture. In his role at BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship, Shinbo and his team have strengthened the expectation of board diversity, including gender diversity, by newly implementing a voting policy in 2021 which BlackRock holds existing members accountable for a lack of women on the board by voting against the re-election of directors. Outside of BlackRock, Shinbo has been appointed as Male Champion of the Financial Women's Association (FWA) of Singapore.

Ivan Menezes

3
Chief Executive
Diageo

Since becoming Diageo’s Chief Executive in 2013, Ivan has championed Inclusion and Diversity across the whole of the organization, as well as the wider drinks and hospitality industry. As well as ambitious 2030 goals to increase the representation of women in Diageo leadership roles and the percentage of suppliers from female and minority-owned businesses, Diageo is also amongst the first companies to have created a clear link and direct accountability for ESG commitments with its senior management community. In February 2021, Diageo announced 20% of the Diageo Long-term Incentive Plan will be linked to ESG measures, including Inclusion and Diversity, ensuring that every senior leader is incentivized to make progress on this agenda. This year the firm has continued to empower women and to lean into taboo subjects: in March 2021 Global Menopause Guidelines were launched to offer strengthened support and flexibility and to encourage employees to build their understanding of how the menopause impacts individuals.

Mark Read

4
CEO
WPP

As CEO of WPP, created two new roles of Chief People Officer and a Global Head of Culture to continue to improve diversity and build an open and inclusive culture at the company. Women now make up 51% of senior managers and 40% at the most senior executive level. Last year, WPP launched an updated online ethics training, including unconscious bias modules which are mandatory for all staff, and a new Conscious Inclusion training program to embed DE&I into hiring processes, performance management systems and leadership development. For the third year running the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index has listed WPP, and last year Forbes ranked the company sixteenth in its Best Employers for Women in the US List. In 2020, of a total $94 million had been spent by WPP on diverse suppliers in the US, 64% of which went to women-owned business enterprises and 14% to minority women-owned business enterprises.

Sean Fan

5
Partner/Managing Director, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities Company Limited, Co-Head China Investment Banking Division
Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities Company Limited

Sean’s actions to foster workplace diversity at Goldman Sachs include serving as a member of the Asia Pacific Inclusion and Diversity Committee, where he focuses on developing and implementing D&I strategies across the region; ensuring the inclusion of women during recruitment and promotion processes; hosting roundtable sessions with diverse vice presidents including women to enhance visibility and connectivity with leadership; and serving as an active sponsor for high-potential professionals across Asia to ensure the progress of diverse representation. He also sponsors the China Diversity Network, where he is a frequent speaker at women empowerment events, such as ‘When Women Lead – Perspectives on Women in Business’ and the ‘Lean in China Young Leaders’ Program’, where he shared his belief in gender equality. Sean also played a key role in driving Goldman Sachs Asset Management Private Equity’s incremental diversity hiring results.

Simon Cooper

6
CEO, Corporate, Commercial & Institutional Banking and CEO, Europe & Americas
Standard Chartered Bank

As Global D&I Council Chair for Standard Chartered Bank, Simon has initiated a major shift in the organization’s Diversity and Inclusion agenda. His leadership has accelerated the pace of change, resulting in Inclusive Leadership workshops for over 16,000 leaders and in CEOs taking more accountability for the delivery of local D&I plans and objectives. Simon has also overseen the introduction of initiatives such as a global Fair Pay Charter; the disclosure of the Gender Pay Gap in key markets; and the implementation of safety and security initiatives in 21 markets, in order to support female colleagues living and working in countries with a history of heightened violence. David’s approach to engage the organization has resulted in a positive trend across several indicators, including female representation in senior roles, which increased from 27.7% in 2018 to 30.14% today, and employee inclusion index scores, up from 78% in 2019 to 82% in 2020.

Ron O’Hanley

7
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
State Street Corporation

Under Ron's leadership, State Street has continually focused on female leadership in the companies it invests in, including by launching a Fearless Girl initiative which saw more than 860 companies appoint at least one female board member where they previously had none. Within State Street, Ron has introduced company-wide diversity goals which are tied to executives’ compensation, and diverse talent slates for all open positions including on the board. Three women have been added to State Street’s Management Committee by Ron, bringing female representation to 29%, and last year approximately 68% of promotions at Managing Director level and above were women. State Street has featured on Working Mother's 100 Best Companies and Best Companies for Dads, as well as on the Diversity Best Practices Inclusion Index. For seven consecutive years the firm has received a score of 100% on the HRC Equality Index.

David Kenny

8
CEO
Nielsen

David’s achievements as CEO of Nielsen include launching Gracenote Inclusion Analytics in order to identify, including by gender and sexual orientation, groups on TV and in the audiences watching. He heads a leadership team in which four of the nine members are women, and this year he appointed a female Chief Diversity Officer. In light of the additional pressures being placed on women due to COVID, David launched a mental health and self-care program including Mental Health Days Off and a spotlight on childcare and counselling benefits. As well as launching a company-wide e-learning session, ‘From Witness to Advocate’, on allyship and recognizing microaggressions, David also gave a keynote speech at Nielsen’s Women’s History Month where he spoke about challenging bias and encouraging women at all levels to take on leadership roles. For the third consecutive year, Nielsen has featured on Bloomberg’s Gender Equality Index.

Howard Ungerleider

9
President and Chief Financial Officer
Dow

Howard has served as Executive Sponsor for the Women’s Inclusion Network ERG since 2017, a role which involves supporting over 7,000 participants. As well as sponsoring a POWER UP program and career portfolio toolkits with over 1,300 Dow women, Howard has also championed Sponsor to Success in Finance, advancing women and U.S. minority talent development by pairing participants with a senior leader advocate who enhances exposure and visibility. He has a track record of enforcing expectations for recruiting gender-diverse talent across all levels, including transparently posting all roles internally, and he has cultivated a strong female talent pipeline across the organization by providing external coaches for female employees globally. In another of his roles, as Executive Sponsor of the Total Rewards Assessment program, Howard has reinforced his commitment to offer equitable opportunities by establishing a global minimum standard of 16 weeks paid time off for new parents regardless of gender.

Luke Ellis

10
Chief Executive Officer
Man Group

As CEO of Man Group, Luke oversees the D&I strategy alongside the Group COO. Together they re-launched Drive, the internal D&I network, which today is comprised of the gender balance network Women at Man alongside several others. In his position on the Senior Executive Committee, which is responsible for championing D&I, Luke pushed for the implementation of a policy to incorporate a systematic review of diversity within talent and succession planning reviews. Man Group's commitment to the Women in Finance Charter, for which Luke serves as Executive Sponsor, has seen the proportion of women in senior roles increase from 16% in 2016 to 25% in 2020, meeting their Charter target. The firm’s consistent efforts to support and develop women have now led to increased targets to reach 30% female representation in senior roles by 2024, whilst the board achieved gender parity in 2020.

Robert Fairbairn

11
Vice Chairman and Co-Chair of Human Capital Committee
BlackRock

As the Co-chair of the Human Capital Committee and Talent Sub-Committee, Robert has led and sponsored a number of initiatives aimed at increasing gender equality in the workplace. He helped launch BlackRock’s Women Leadership Forum, established extended maternity/paternity leave and a flexible time-off policy, and sponsored numerous senior women, through investing in helping them find broader, more impactful careers at BlackRock. As Interim Global Head of HR, Robert expanded adoption assistance and new surrogacy and egg freezing benefits for all employees. Robert is also one of the founders of the first chapter of BlackRock’s Women’s Initiative Network based on the East coast. As one of BlackRock Women's Leadership Forum Chairs, Robert has been a Global Executive Committee sponsor of the program for many years and has been instrumental in involving other Global Executive Committee members as sponsors of women in the program.

Adrian Warr

12
CEO, Hong Kong , Taiwan and Thailand
Edelman

Adrian serves as CEO of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand for Edelman, and a founding member and Co-chair of Male Allies, a charity under The Women’s Foundation. The raft of policy changes and engagement initiatives introduced under his leadership have led to a reduced turnover from 35% in 2017 to 19% in 2021. The firm has also seen an increase in the percentage of women on the leadership team from 30% up to 50%, and on the management team from 40% up to 55%. Pay has also been equalized, and 100% of working mums have been retained for the third year running. The many DEI initiatives Adrian has overseen have included a dynamic working policy for all; increased holiday allowances; balanced panels for hiring and reviews; the replacement of paternity and maternity benefits with primary and secondary carer benefits; and a partnership with The Women’s Foundation that provides mentoring and training.

Christoph Schweizer

13
CEO-Elect and Chairman of Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Managing Director & Senior Partner
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

In his current role as Chairman of the Central and Eastern Europe and Middle East (CEMA) region at BCG, Christoph Schweizer has made Women@BCG one of his four top priorities. Christoph has set clear goals related to the hiring, promotion, and retention of women, working closely with leaders and teams in the region to advance this critical agenda. Not only has there been a rise in the percentage of female entry level hires for BCG in CEMA, from just over 30% in 2019 to over 40% in 2021, the firm also continues to uphold equal men and women retention rates, with the ambition to continue to advance BCG’s women representation in the region. In May 2021, Christoph was elected as BCG’s next CEO, effective October 1, 2021, and diversity, equity & inclusion in particular is a strong pillar of his global agenda going forward.

Andrew Williams

14
Group Chief Executive
Halma

Andrew’s work to improve the gender balance in leadership positions at Halma has resulted in more diversity at all levels of the organization. From July this year, the Executive Board will be made up of 78% women, including one Black woman. Additionally, 46% of graduates in the last four years have been women, and more than 50% of Halma’s senior leadership team are women, including on the plc Board, the Executive Board and the Divisional Chief Executives. As part of Halma’s commitment to building inclusive businesses, last year the firm launched its first ever global paid parental leave policy to support new parents to look after their new family, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation or the market in which they live or work. The policy aims to remove career impediments for mothers, and to enable fathers to enjoy more time with their new family.

Christian Edelmann

15
Managing Partner Europe
Oliver Wyman

When promoted to Managing Partner Europe earlier in 2021, Christian enacted two policy changes. The first was aimed at talent acquisition, allowing business leaders to go beyond their hiring targets if they managed to attract female talent. This initiative allowed Oliver Wyman to hire five additional highly talented female colleagues. The second policy, which was implemented after a strong correlation was observed between the sponsorship of women and their career progress, asked each member of the European Leadership Team to sponsor two female colleagues. Christian has also been working closely with the HR team to ensure Oliver Wyman creates a ‘back to office work’ policy which allows employees to retain the benefits of hybrid working. The Men4Change program he co-founded two years ago has run workshops with many clients on the topic of gender balance, as a forum to share experiences and as an opportunity to get to know like-minded peers.

Claudio Gienal

16
CEO
AXA UK & Ireland

Claudio has placed gender equality as a key, strategic priority for AXA UK&I with the result that the organization has been listed as a coveted 2021 Times Top 50 Employer for Women, and the gender seniority gap has been significantly reduced. Under his leadership female representation on the Executive Committee has increased from 19% in 2018 to 50% in 2021, and the percentage of women in executive roles has risen from 32.1% in 2020 to 39.9% in 2021. Claudio is actively involved in the sponsorship of female talent across the AXA Group, and on International Women’s Day 2021 he used his LinkedIn platform to spotlight three AXA female future leaders he is currently supporting. He regularly participates in internal D&I initiatives, which in 2021 have included an internal panel discussion to celebrate International Women's Day and a virtual speed mentoring event hosted by AXA UK&I’s gender equality network.

Julio Bruno

17
Chief Executive Officer
Time Out Group plc

Throughout his career and at Time Out Group, Julio has always surrounded himself with a team of mixed genders, races and ethnicities. The leadership team Julio currently heads at Time Out has a 50:50 gender split. In addition, 58% of the whole workforce is female and there is no gender pay gap. The company’s HR recruitment process involves practicing blind recruitment, to avoid unconscious bias around hiring men over women, and insisting on a 50% minority candidate long list from any agencies used. During 2020, in response to the issues faced by working parents over the pandemic, Time Out created a family resource center as a support to help with mental health and the time off needed while working and caregiving simultaneously. Every year Time Out celebrates International Women's Day, both internally and through the company’s media megaphone, and Julio actively encourages his editorial team to spotlight female owned businesses as well as minority-owned businesses.

Jon Holt

18
Chief Executive
KPMG

Since being elected as Chief Executive of KPMG in April 2021, Jon has put Inclusion and Diversity at the heart of his strategy. He is responsible for the firm's progress against Inclusion, Diversity and Social Equality (IDSE) targets, as well as pay gaps and action plans, and he ensures that these are regularly discussed and challenged by the Executive Committee in order to drive action and progress. He also sets the tone for all people processes, making sure that colleagues apply a gender and ethnicity lens to achieve the right outcomes and drive sustainable change. In his previous role as the Head of Audit, Jon developed IDSE goals for all Audit Partners and Directors, and initiated IDSE awareness sessions for all 7,000 of Audit’s employees, and since 2017 he has been a member of the KPMG Inclusive Leadership Board, which serves to challenge the firm on progress and bring in external views regarding best practice.

Gerald Yao

19
Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder
FiscalNote

As Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at FiscalNote, Gerald has driven a number of initiatives to improve gender diversity at the company. Last year, after speaking with over 25 DEI experts on how to shape the company’s programs, he launched the first Diversity and Inclusion company-wide survey and led the creation of the 2020 State of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report released internally to the entire international organization. Gerald also built the structure and recruitment of the company’s DEI Task Force. Furthermore, he organized Senior Leadership Team enablement sessions around DEI, integrating incentive goals for leaders. This year has seen him sign onto the CEO ACTION for Diversity and Inclusion, bring women onto the Advisory Board, and coordinate with the Head of CSR to create monthly themes related to DEI.

David McCormick

20
Chief Executive Officer
Bridgewater Associates

David is the CEO of Bridgewater Associates and has spearheaded the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion initiative as a top priority since 2017. David appointed Bridgewater’s first Chief Diversity Officer and full-time team, reporting directly to him. Under David’s leadership, the firm instituted pay equity reviews; launched affinity networks, including the Women's Influence Network; implemented equal parental leave; publicly released representation and pay equity data; ensured gender representation was a key consideration in designing a new governance structure; and increased the number of women in senior leadership. Throughout David’s career the advancement of women has been deeply personal to him – as a public servant focused on getting the best out of his team, as a business executive responsible for developing the next generation of leaders, and as a father of six daughters with his wife Dina Powell McCormick. David is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, has a Ph.D. from Princeton, and is a veteran of the First Gulf War.

Lou Maiuri

Chief Operating Officer
State Street Corporation

Since 2017, Lou has served as Executive Sponsor of State Street's Professional Women's Network, an Employee Resource Group providing professional development opportunities for women across the company. He regularly encourages colleagues and peers to participate in the network’s events, as he strongly believes that networking and conversations are critical to help to foster a strong pipeline of female talent. As well as launching and continuing to lead the PWN's Global Advisory Board, who advise on policies that drive diverse hiring and promotional practices, Lou has made a number of female leadership appointments at the Senior Vice President or Executive Vice President levels. In 2020, the firm reached 30% female representation across leadership roles, and approximately 68% of promotions at Manager Director level and above were women. PWN initiatives Lou helped with in 2020 included authoring a blog on ‘Allyship and Equal Pay Day for Black Women’ and hosting an event focused on Women in IT.

Georg Beyer

Managing Director & Senior Partner and People Team Chair of Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East
Boston Consulting Group

Under Georg’s leadership over the past 2 years, BCG has defined a clear business case as to why gender diversity is important for BCG, and has ensured that this is constantly communicated to leaders and to all staff. As well as setting goals on the hiring and retention of female talent, Georg and his team have stated their ambition to continue to advance BCG’s women representation in the region. The programs they have implemented include family support, extended paternity leaves, women leadership programs, and participation in external thought leadership publications. Georg personally oversees the retention and career progression of CEMA’s senior women including a strong focus on female share in succession planning for leadership roles. Alongside that commitment he also sponsors 14 senior women to ensure they are successful in advancing through the ranks, by making regular check in calls and advocating for them internally.

Kevin Hogarth

UK Chief People Officer
KPMG

In his role as Chief People Officer at KPMG Kevin has executive accountability for the firm’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy and policies, and in this capacity has set clear expectations about the proportionality of all promotions, and the outcomes of performance reviews and reward processes. Since joining he has initiated a review to ensure that annual D&I targets and the associated plans are sufficiently stretching, and that KPMG are on target to achieve their publicly quoted gender targets. As well as requesting the organization develop more ambitious gender targets that go beyond current 2022 goals, Kevin has also required a D&I review of all new policies being implemented as part of the transition to hybrid working, to ensure there will be no adverse gender impact. He has been a member of the KPMG Inclusive Leadership Board since starting at the firm, and along with the CEO he sets the agenda for this group of external advisers.

David Stone

Partner, Global Head of Intellectual Property
Allen & Overy

David is an active force in promoting D&I at A&O. In 2019, David established a Women in Intellectual Property initiative amongst partners and staff globally. The group, which David still sponsors, hosts events for women clients; runs CPE sessions with women-only speaker panels; encourages women to publish thought leadership; and promotes women's achievements within and outside the firm. As a result, lawyers at Allen & Overy have felt empowered to take the spotlight and talk on topical IP issues in front of clients and peers. The group also runs a mentoring program connecting female lawyers across offices and seniority levels, which benefits not just the junior staff but also the mentors, who gain valuable experience and insights. David was also responsible for organizing a study of the language used in quotes for legal directories. With the findings he published guidance on avoiding gendered language when providing feedback on barristers, which is now used across the firm’s London Litigation department.

Matthew Krentz

Managing Director and Senior Partner, Global DE&I and Leadership Chair
Boston Consulting Group

Matt is the DEI and Leadership Chair for Boston Consulting Group. He is responsible for the firm’s global Women@BCG program whose purpose is to increase the recruitment, retention, advancement, and satisfaction of women. The program is focused on outreach, increased flexibility and mobility offerings, bias reduction, pipeline planning, and customized professional development. Under Matt’s leadership BCG has increased women as a percentage of entry level hires from 29% to 42% and has retained men and women at equal rates over the last eight years. The number of female Managing Director & Partners at the firm has also grown at three times the rate of male MDPs, resulting in the percentage of female MDP representation doubling since 2013. In order to support caregivers at BCG during the pandemic, Matt worked with his team to develop a flexible work model that has provided caregivers with a 70% salary while working at 60% capacity across all cohorts and levels of the company.

Osman Ershad Faiz

Chief Information and Operating Officer
AMTD Digital Inc

Continues his relentless effort across Singapore, Bangladesh as well as his new company, AMTD Digital Inc. through his advocacy to those 'men of position' and the HeForShe platform. Osman also leads the D&I Council. He personally mentors several mid-career women leaders within the Banking and FinTech industry and serves as Sponsor for the Women in FinTech initiative, which offers graduating students educational visits and internships to FinTech's to connect them with other women in tech and access to AMTD Digital SpiderNet ecosystem. Bangladesh was one of the first Muslim markets to launch a HeForShe network through Osman, and the Singapore HeForShe network he kickstarted currently has over 200 senior male leaders committed to helping hundreds of female executives pursue their personal and professional ambitions. In addition to the HeForShe networks, Osman has been supporting the Lead the Women initiative in Singapore, which reviews the hiring of women at each grade and identifies opportunities to drive progress towards a target of 30% women in key leadership roles.

Lee Moore

Midwest Market Unit Lead
Accenture

Lee serves as Senior Managing Director and Midwest Market Unit Lead at Accenture, and has been a driving force behind the company's partnership with Women in Cloud (WiC), a community-led economic development organization dedicated to advancing gender equity in the technology industry. In addition to sponsoring and empowering a female Managing Director at Accenture to serve on WiC's Board of Directors, Lee serves on a core team of advisors and influencers helping the not-for-profit organization drive its mission to generate $1 billion in net new global economic access for women entrepreneurs by 2030, through partnerships with corporations, community leaders and policy makers. He spearheaded the creation of Accenture Midwest’s partnership with The Mom Project to provide career opportunities for people from that organization, and is also a champion of Accenture's Women's Employee Resource Group with nearly 6,000 members who participate in networking, work/life balance, recruiting and community access opportunities.

Huibert Vigeveno

Downstream Director and member of Shell's Executive Committee
Royal Dutch Shell

As a passionate advocate for D&I, believing that diverse teams are better in conversation, decision and outcome quality, Huibert has set clear expectations with his leadership for creating gender balanced teams, with lasting improvements to gender diversity increasingly evident across his organization of 32,000 people. Operating in 150 countries, with revenues of $150 billion in 2020 and net earnings of $7 billion, women now hold almost half of all senior roles in Downstream: 44% up from 23% in the 18 months since Huibert was appointed. Under his leadership, women now run many of Shell’s leading and largest businesses, including Lubricants, Aviation, Marine, Low Carbon Fuels, Customer Operations and several Trading divisions. Further, women also lead the Mobility retailing businesses in Europe and the US as well as some of Shell’s largest and most complex chemicals plants and refineries in Asia and the US. Huibert’s other actions have included pushing Shell's brand campaigns to advocate for greater personal mobility for women, with messages of empowerment, support and celebration for achievements.

Mahesh Zurale

Senior Managing Director, Lead - Accenture's Advanced Technology Centers in India (ATCI)
Accenture

As the Executive I&D Sponsor for Accenture’s Advanced Technology Centers in India, Mahesh has taken bold steps to create an inclusive and barrier-free culture. In order to champion continuous learning and help women technologists achieve fulfilling careers, Mahesh spearheads several strategic women-centric initiatives across ATCI. He is deeply committed to is achieving a gender-balanced workforce and growing the percentage of women directors in the team to 30% by 2025. Mahesh believes in technology being an equalizer and has been instrumental in developing pathbreaking programs, such as the Apex Leadership Crescent Program, Cloud Elevate, Grow Women in Leadership Program, Quantum Impact and High-Tech Women Edge, which are collectively geared towards enabling 25,000 women across career levels to build their technology skills and become stronger leaders of tomorrow. As the Accenture Technology Accessibility Co-Sponsor, Mahesh has also launched a virtual Accessibility Center; a dedicated place with a suite of assistive technologies to empower colleagues with disabilities.

Colin Passmore

Partner
Simmons & Simmons

Colin has used his 10 years a senior partner at Simmons & Simmons to ensure that improving gender diversity is a key business priority for Simmons & Simmons with a focus on progressing women through to the partnership and into senior management positions. In those ten years, he has sponsored two female Managing Associates in their route to partnership; chaired quarterly gender balance meetings; sponsored the cost of two film screenings to mark the centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act; supported the launch of email signature guidelines for the inclusion of personal pronouns; and started reverse mentoring with the firm’s female race and ethnicity partner lead to gain an insight into the challenges and opportunities faced by ethnic groups across the firm. Since Colin became a partner the percentage of firmwide female partners has increased from 11% to just below 25%. This year, six of the thirteen new partners at the firm were female. More recently, Colin has been a lead male advocate for demystifying the female menopause.

Edward Chidsey

Partner and Senior Vice President
IHS Markit

At IHS Markit, Ed is Lead Advisor to the DEI team and a participating Sponsor within the Women's Sponsorship Program. As well as contributing to the Program’s panel events, he has sponsored a budget in 2021 supporting the launch of three new Women’s Career Development & Retention programs covering almost 300 women across all titles. These programs have since contributed to a meaningful increase in female promotions. In addition, Ed also plays an active role in early careers and IHS Markit’s campus recruiting programs, which have led to encouraging results including in some of the highest female representation in IHS Markit’s 2020 intern class. Ed and his team’s efforts have resulted in numerous Diversity & Inclusion awards for IHS Markit, including recognition from Mogul Top 100 Workplaces, Human Rights Campaign, and Forbes. Outside of IHS Markit, Edward is an active participant as a coach, teacher and fundraiser with several organizations focused on improving educational programs and career development opportunities.

B. Pagels-Minor

Vice President, Board of Directors
YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago

B sits on the Board of Directors of the YWCA, an organization whose entire purpose is to empower women. In 2020, B and their team acquired an additional YWCA location that was in danger of closing, ensuring that women and children in a more suburban area of Chicago had their programs maintained. The YWCA also acquired Streetwise, an organization that allows individuals to become independent workers and develop their own income. With COVID, those individuals were given additional training that supported programs like vaccination registration, food assistance programs, and childcare. The YWCA also stepped up and provided 1000s of meals to Chicagoans who had lost their jobs due to COVID, as well as providing grants to support housing assistance. Outside of the YWCA, B speaks nationally and internationally on gender diversity and women's inclusion including talks with companies such as British Airways, McMaster University, and Crunchyroll so far in 2021.

Larry Tomei

Executive Vice President and Head of Wealth and Personal Banking
HSBC Bank Canada

Larry Tomei is a passionate advocate for Diversity & Inclusion. As a first generation Canadian, Larry knows the challenges faced by newcomers, and it was this experience which led to his devotion to promoting D&I. Larry is a strong supporter of empowering women in the workforce. At HSBC Bank Canada, he has achieved a 50% gender balance on his leadership team and has championed three-year diversity and gender promotion objectives. Within WPB, Larry created a platform for female leaders to raise their profiles. He often designates women leaders to represent him in business and speaking engagements, and leverages communication channels to promote women as role models for upcoming employees. Larry mentors and sponsors women, ultimately leading to career advancement and transition into more progressive, important and impactful roles. He hosts “Women Only” exchange sessions to facilitate their feedback and to identify opportunities not only for improvement, but also for creating a pipeline of top talent

Dean Curtis

Group Managing Director
LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group (part of RELX)

Dean believes an inclusive culture is a true differentiator and a fundamental pillar of a high performance organisation, overseeing two organisations which together have a 45.7% female representation across the workforce, and a 50/50 gender balance at leadership level. Dean has championed D&I initiatives including unconscious bias training for employees, gender balance leadership, psychological safety along with mentoring and sponsorship initiatives for women, all of which have driven employee engagement, retention and employee satisfaction. Dean believes that for diversity to be sustainable, first you must have inclusion. The diversity of backgrounds, experiences and beliefs drive the best decisions, innovation and results as the business continually strives for everyone to bring their best authentic selves to work. Dean regularly sits on panels and promotes the business’ Employee Resource Groups and is currently working with industry leaders to set up a D&I forum for the Energy and Chemical markets.

Andrew Eisen

SVP & Partner, Financial Services Solutions
IHS Markit

This year, Andrew and the rest of the executive leadership team at IHS Markit launched and sponsored three new Women’s Career Development and Retention programs which saw hundreds of women enroll for mentoring, sponsoring and 1:1 coaching. In addition to directly mentoring ten women as a participant in those programs, Andrew has also placed a focus on building recognition of female members of his team and encouraging them to take on a more public persona. In 2020-21, IHS Markit has seen a significant increase in female promotions at the VP level and SVP level. 2020 also saw an increase in female hires, specifically in the intern program that reached an all-time high of female participation. These outcomes have received public recognition from Mogul Top 100 Workplaces, the Rewards & Benefits Association and Forbes’ list of America's Best Employers for Women.