Canadian CEOs urged to put Black leaders in top roles

‘BlackNorth’ initiative releases 7-point pledge to boost diversification

A group of business leaders released a seven-point pledge for top executives to commit to for ending systemic racism and increasing the representation of Black Canadians in boardrooms.

The “BlackNorth Initiative CEO Pledge” asks executives to agree that Black leaders will hold a minimum of 3.5 per cent of executive and board roles by 2025, according to a statement Tuesday by the Canadian Council of Business Leaders Against Anti-Black Systemic

Racism. CEOs are also asked to commit to implementing or expanding unconscious bias training and creating a diversity leadership council.

Nearly 1.2 million people in Canada, about 3.5 per cent of its population, identified as Black in a 2016 census.

“The pledge is a commitment leaders are making to the Black community, to say, ‘We recognize the fact that there’s antiBlack systemic racism — and we think that we can do some stuff to make a change and to take down those barriers, and we’re going to start in our own organization,’ ” Wes Hall, founder of the council and executive chair of Kingsdale Advisors, said in a phone interview.

More than half of Toronto’s population is foreign-born — a higher proportion than New York, Paris, London or Sydney — and about 52 per cent identify as a visible minority. But the city’s diversity fades in the upper echelons of its financial firms.

At Canada’s Big Six banks and two large life insurers, 10 per cent of top executive roles and eight per cent of non-executive board positions are held by visible minorities, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

As of Wednesday afternoon, a number of CEOs have already committed to the pledge, Hall said, declining to name specific firms.

Hall launched the group this month and will co-chair the coalition with Victor Dodig, chief executive officer of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Prem Watsa, CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., and Rola Dagher, president and CEO of Cisco Systems Canada, are also on board.

The group will hold an inaugural BlackNorth virtual summit on July 20.

It said it has invited leaders from Canada’s top 250 publicly listed companies and more than 100 of the biggest private businesses, along with its largest asset managers and institutional investors, to take part. Executives will be asked to sign a CEO pledge and deliver a statement about what their organization will do to combat the issues.