The Importance of Running an Inclusive Business: Practical Advice for Leaders
March 17 @ 1:30 – 2:30pm UK time
The aim of this virtual session is to give us the opportunity to deep dive in to why inclusivity should be at the core of our businesses, how we can better foster diversity and the practical methods we can implement. We are inviting panellists to consider diversity in all forms, including gender, race and sexual orientation.
We look forward to an engaging and lively session.
Professor Renée Adams
Renée B. Adams is a Professor of Finance at Said Business School, University of Oxford. She is a Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute and a Senior Fellow at both the Foundations of Law and Finance Research Center at Goethe University and the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research. She is an expert on corporate governance, bank governance and gender. Her work has a strong policy orientation and draws on economics, finance, management and psychology. Professor Adams’ interest in diversity is not limited to research. She co-founded AFFECT, the American Finance Association’s committee for women, in 2015 and chaired it until 2020.
Emma Codd
Emma is Global Inclusion Leader for Deloitte and leads on the development and delivery of the global inclusion strategy. From 2013 – 2019 Emma was Managing Partner for Talent for Deloitte LLP in the UK and sat on the firm’s Executive Committee, a role which she held alongside her client facing role as a Partner in the Financial Advisory practice. During this period Emma led a period of significant change for the firm from a diversity & inclusion perspective, including the firm’s award-winning approach to Respect & Inclusion – a culture change programme that under-pinned all of the firm’s actions on diversity. Alongside this focus on culture, Emma devised and implemented numerous targeted interventions aimed at positively impacting from a gender, LGBT+, ethnicity and social mobility diversity perspective – this included early voluntary gender and ethnicity pay gap reporting. Emma also led the UK firm’s approach on mental health, overseeing a period during which stigma was reduced and an array of support for those with mental ill health was introduced.
Emma is a member of the LACA Lead the Change board, a board established by the UK Government to take forward work to increase the diversity and inclusion at the top of the UK’s leading organisations, of the BiTC Gender leadership team and the UK Thriving at Work Council.
Professor Kurt April
Kurt April is currently the Allan Gray Chair, an Endowed Professorship, specialising in Leadership, Diversity & Inclusion and Director of the Allan Gray Centre for Values-Based Leadership at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town. He is Adjunct Faculty of Saïd Business School, and is an Orchestrator & Faculty Member of Duke Corporate Education. Previously, he was a Research Fellow of Ashridge-Hult, Visiting Professor at London Metropolitan University, Visiting Professor at Rotterdam School of Management, and Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Economics & Econometrics. Outside of academia, Kurt is the Managing Partner of LICM Consulting, Managing Director: Leadership, Diversity & Inclusion Practice at Oxford Acuity, Shareholder and Executive Director of the Achievement Awards Group, Shareholder of bountiXP Ltd, as well as Ambassador of the global Unashamedly Ethical movement. He plays a range of roles and consults to many companies and organisations around the globe, having worked in 24 countries. Previously, he was an Owner-Director of Helderview BMW Somerset West, Chairman of the International Advisory Council to Novartis International AG, Executive Director of Complex Adaptive Systems, Non-Executive Director of Power Group Holdings – Construction & Developments, Global Agenda Council Member (Talent & Diversity) of the World Economic Forum, Non-Executive Director of the International School of Cape Town and an Advisory Board Member to the Unit for Diversity, Inclusion & Community Engagement at the University of Leicester. Kurt holds a doctoral degree in Economics & IT Strategy (PhD), Certificate in Japanese Production, Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA), Masters degree in Electronic Engineering (MSc(ElecEng)), Higher Diploma in Education (HDE), Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering (BSc(ElecEng)), National Diploma in Electronic Engineering (NDip(EE)), National Diploma in Logic Systems (NDip(LS)) completed at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), University of Oxford (UK), Wingfield College (South Africa) and AOTS Nagoya (Japan).
Todd Sears
Todd Sears is the Founder and CEO of Out Leadership, the global LGBT+ business advisory company that partners with the world’s most influential firms to build business opportunity, cultivate talent, and drive equality forward.
More than 430 global CEOs have engaged in Out Leadership’s work, and the organization counts more than 82 major companies as members. Thousands of LGBT+ and ally executives share insights and best practices at Out Leadership’s annual Summits in New York, London, Hong Kong and Sydney. Many more engage with its global talent initiatives including OutNEXT, the first global development program for the next generation of LGBT+ executives; OutWOMEN, its groundbreaking effort to connect and celebrate Out LBT+ women in business; and Quorum, the first effort to place senior LGBT+ executives on corporate boards. A former investment banker, Todd specialized in wealth management at Merrill Lynch, creating the first national team of financial advisors on Wall Street focused on the LGBT+ community, which brought over $1.4 billion of new assets to the firm. Todd then moved into diversity leadership, as Head of Diversity & Strategic Initiatives at Merrill Lynch and then at Credit Suisse, where he served as Americas Head of Diversity and Inclusion.
A graduate of Duke University and Woodberry Forrest School, Todd is also an active philanthropist and community leader. He is the founding co-chair of Jeffrey Fashion Cares, a fundraiser supporting LGBT+ civil rights, youth and HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, which has applied an innovative cost-structure to raise millions of dollars since its inception. Todd serves on the non-profit boards of The Williams Institute of UCLA, The Palette Fund, and Lambda Legal and is an Advisory Board Member for The Stonewall National Library & Archives. In 2020, he received the Georgia Diversity Council LGBTQ Leadership Award and the 2020 Crain’s Top 40 LGBTQ Leaders Award.