30 CELEBRATING HE POWER OF INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP

Thirty years ago, diversity and inclusion were regarded by most corporations as “the right thing to do.” The Executive Leadership Council (ELC) was established to convince them that diversity and inclusion were critical elements of business strategy. Today, in a global economic environment that was unimaginable a few short decades ago, there is no serious dispute about the business value of diversity and inclusion. Many dreams of The ELC founders have actually been realized, and the career opportunities beckoning new ELC members— essentially the third generation of African- American business leaders— are nothing short of astonishing.

The ELC mission for the next decades is to secure these gains, make them accessible to more African Americans, other members of the African Diaspora, women and all people of color, and continue convincing U.S. business leaders that mirroring our vastly expanded world is a critical competitive advantage.

The ELC’S Global Footprint

The ELC membership, which mushroomed from 19 senior corporate executives in 1986 to almost 700 today, is already proof of the original mission’s success. It is also an indication of how much of American society has come to see diversity in all its aspects as not just valuable but even normal. “There is a change in the climate,” observes Price Cobbs, M. D., ELC member, psychiatrist, author, and diversity and inclusion champion for six decades. “The culture has shifted.

We’re in the continuing process of peeling that onion.”

Spearheaded by immediate past ELC Chair Carla A. Harris, vice chair, managing director, Global Wealth Management, Morgan Stanley, The ELC formally reflected these advances in 2015, creating new membership categories: entrepreneurs, thought leaders and global black business leaders.

“We are witnessing a rapid transformation in the world of business, and our membership criteria have evolved as well,” states Rhonda R. Mims, Esq., ELC board chair and managing director of corporate social responsibility at Paul Hastings. “Titles are not as important,” she continues, “but it’s more important now to be an influencer”— what Ronald C. Parker, ELC president and chief executive officer and a retired Pepsico senior executive, refers to as “your connectivity, your circle of friends.”

The global push does not stop with membership. It has opened up whole new avenues of collaboration. The ELC partnered last summer with members of Sigma Pi Phi/ The

Boulž, the nation’s oldest African-american professional fraternity, in a series of events in London to bring together high-level corporate executives from the African Diaspora. “This trip assisted us in growing our global membership,” reports ELC CEO Parker, “as well as in exploring global board of director opportunities for our members.”

Forty ELC members and 20 guests participated in panel discussions, meetings and receptions that included two members of the royal family, Prince Edward and Prince Andrew, at the Institute of Directors and St. James’s Palace. A breakfast at the House of Lords, hosted by member Michael Hasting, a director on the global board of KPMG, rounded out the dignified gathering. “We knew the members of the African Diaspora we met in London experience similar results to those we find in the U.S.,” says Brickson Diamond, ELC executive vice president and chief operating officer, and formerly of Capital Group Private Client Services. “But by being in the same room, we had the opportunity to turn a careful ear to the root causes of their challenges, their different notions of black unity.”

Continuing the global strategy, The ELC held a membership meeting in Toronto last year. For September of this year, plans are under way, under the guidance of James H. Lowry, president of James H. Lowry & Associates and senior advisor to Boston Consulting Group, for an ELC gathering with African leaders in New York during the U. S.- Africa Summit at the UN. “With so many powerful people together in one place, we have another opportunity to advance the positive economic influence of diversity and inclusion,” adds ELC Board Chair Mims.

With this event, states ELC CEO Parker, “we’ll blend the commerce department, the private sector, business potential and the emerging African market to create tangible business results.”

Member Agility in Global Assignments

The scale and speed of change in how business is conducted, aided by technology, instant communication and a 24-hour business clock, have made cultural sensitivity,