Stephen Fitzgerald

Co-founder of Affirmative Investment Management and former chair of Goldman Sachs Australia and New Zealand

MCC SINCE 2010

IN THE early days of the MCC, Stephen Fitzgerald, then the co-CEO of Goldman Sachs JBWere, visited IBM and KPMG to hear about the diversity experience of their employees. It was an unusual step for a CEO but a key part of the MCC mandate: listening, learning and leading through disruptive action.

“When we started up, the main question faced by the [MCCs] was about why they were involved,” says Fitzgerald, who is now based in London, running a new business, Affirmative Investment Management. “These days, it’s mostly, ‘How can I join?’”

After being asked to become an MCC, Fitzgerald realised there were diversity programs for everything at Goldman Sachs but cultural acceptance was also needed. “You can have a program but unless you have the right culture around that, it’s never going to work. None of the stuff we’ve done as MCC solely benefits women but both men and women. We’ve looked at suppliers and procurement power. And we’ve taken a lead on reporting. Australia already has good reporting but we report on our own [level] and layers one, two and three below CEO. That means we’re held to account.”

The structure of the group allows MCCs to learn quickly. “The other thing we did quickly was to stop trying to be overly politically correct. Everyone is worried about saying the wrong thing; that stifles conversation. We moved beyond that.

“The Male Champions name sends a signal as well: that here’s a representative group of Australian CEOs, all in dark suits, white shirts and red or blue ties, and this is what Australian leadership looks like. We shouldn’t forget the fact that men built the system and run the system. We’re not trying to fix women but fix the system.”

Fitzgerald recently met with a group of academics, corporates and politicians in the United Kingdom who want to set up a similar body. “It’s not our job to tell them what to do. But I think people have adapted it for their own purposes and it’s easily adapted. We certainly haven’t got all the answers but we can say, ‘This is what we’re seeing in our numbers and it’s easily copied.’”

The main focus of the MCC is on action, he adds. “This is not a problem that is not solvable. I think we’ve all become more passionate and realised we can do stuff that makes a difference and in quite an Australian way. In some places, it’s still a lot of talk about the business and ethical case and we feel we’ve moved beyond that to doing it.”