This board believes that “diversity, equity, and inclusion are inextricably linked to fulfilling [its] mission to ‘inspire a smarter world’ where residents of the Pacific Northwest can learn, grow, and participate in effective civic dialogue and make a difference for one another and for the region.” A public media organization based in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, the company is committed to recruiting and retaining future-focused and diverse employees and board members; an inclusive culture that encourages all staff and directors to fully contribute and innovate; and governance that holds DE&I at the center of its make-up, vision, actions, and results. Within the company’s DE&I strategic plan, the board has included key performance indicators related to board demographic metrics and board culture objectives. The board is now comprised of 30 percent Black, Indigenous, and people of color and 40 percent women.
What made them stand out.
Their three-year plan is focused on advancing DE&I through engaging responsibly in honest conversations that deepen allyship and sponsorship; assessing and improving access to opportunity across all business activities; and developing new or enhanced programs that tackle housing, jobs, and economic equity in the bank’s diverse communities. The bank’s newly founded DE&I office, in collaboration with the board’s DE&I committee, has set performance targets for workforce diversity, diverse supplier spend, diverse dealer transactions, and treasury discretionary activity. The board has also made great efforts to diversify itself. Today, seven of the 15 board members are from diverse racial groups and six of the 15 are women. In March of this year, Teresa Bryce Basemore was named president and CEO of the bank and is the first Black woman CEO in the FHL Bank system.
Their DE&I program includes four primary objectives: maintaining a fair and inclusive work environment; employees reflecting its customers; leadership reflecting the company’s employees; and contributing to the communities in which the company operates. Additionally, this past year, the company committed to doubling representation of people of color in senior leadership positions by 2025. In 2020, 56 percent of leadership promotions were awarded to women and 25 percent of such promotions to people of color. The company is one of few in the Fortune 500 to have both a woman CEO and a woman independent chair. The board has achieved gender parity and 17 percent of the board is ethnically diverse. The company’s annual “Inclusion Week” supports employees in building their inclusive skill sets and implementing them in a business context.
What made them stand out.
What made them stand out.