What does diversity mean to you? Does it mean reaching a broader, more defined audience? Or does it mean giving under-represented people a voice?
" Diversity is being invited to the party while inclusion is being asked to dance. "
-Vernā Myers, VP Inclusion strategy at Netflix
Simple as that!
Working with DEI influencers can help your brand in several ways. They can help you empathize and create a brand message that resonates with more niche groups, thus reaching a wider audience.
The group we're highlighting is by no means comprehensive. In fact, we're excited to hear from you about who has inspired you.
We're excited to share our updated list for 2023, and we aim to acknowledge even more changemakers in the future.
Christopher Kenna
Diversity, Equality, Inclusion in Media
Christopher Kenna is CEO and founder of Brand Advance, which has launched the industry’s first diversity-driven global media ecosystem across On & Off-Line media for agencies and In-house brand teams. BA partners 250+ global platforms across Diversity Media, BAME, LGBTQ+, Female Empowerment, Tech, Disabilities, Lifestyle, Queer (GenZ) Fashion, and many other specialists and hard-to-reach demographics.
An advocate for diversity and inclusion, Chris is a board member at ITV, the Victoria & Albert Museum and previously on the board of Pride AM - now known as Outvertising.
Lakshya Sivaramakrishnan
Bringing communities together with tech
Lakshya Sivaramakrishnan is a Technical Program Manager at Google. She manages the Women Techmakers Program in India. She is a Data Science enthusiast building tech expertise in Machine Learning and Google Cloud. She enjoys nurturing communities and empowering women to join, thrive, and lead in the tech industry.
Asif Sadiq
Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, The Telegraph
Asif is a Multi-Award-Winning Diversity and Inclusion expert with over 15 years’ experience. He is currently the Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging for The Telegraph. He was formerly the Head of Diversity and Inclusiveness for EY Financial Services and previously the Head of the Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Unit for the City of London Police.
Jennifer Stirrup
No-code tech boosting diversity
Jennifer Stirrup is the Founder and CEO of Data Relish, a UK-based AI and Business Intelligence leadership boutique consultancy delivering data strategy and business-focused solutions. Jen is a recognized leading authority in AI and Business Intelligence Leader and a Global keynote speaker. She is also an award-winning and internationally recognized digital transformation influencer.
She talks about how diversity and inclusion are important in the AI and tech world
Tariq Meyers
Global Head of Belonging, Inclusion & Experience, Coinbase
Tariq is an advocate who believes that individuals should not be defined by their life circumstances but empowered to defy them. He has experience in community organizing, coalition, and relationship building in political and personal spheres. He is well known for his work as Head of Inclusion and Diversity at Lyft.
Sally Eaves
The Three Pillars of Social Impact
Prof. Sally Eaves has been described as the ‘torchbearer for ethical tech’ and specializes in the application and integration of Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and associated emergent technologies for business and societal benefit. A member of the Forbes Technology Council, Sally is an award-winning international keynote speaker, author and influencer with globally leading rankings across all advanced technology disciplines; digital transformation, future of work, and diversity and inclusion, social innovation. She has also been ranked 8th in the World in Blockchain impact and is continually ranked among the top 10 for digital disruption.
Leslie Miley
CTO, Obama Foundation
Leslie has a wealth of experience building, motivating, and managing globally distributed teams with different cultural backgrounds. He is an expert at designing and implementing development best practices to support geographically distributed teams.
Maaike Groenewege
Designing effective conversational interface
Maaike Groenewege is a Conversational consultant, Conversational linguist, Content Architect, and Founder of Women in Voice NL.
At Convocat, she focuses on all aspects of sustainable chatbot and voice assistant implementation. From project management and platform selection to content strategy and conversation design. Having worked as a technical writer in aviation for 14 years, she believes that creating a chatbot, knowledge base or any other information product is not the hardest part. The real challenge is in creating great content experiences through continuous maintenance, improvement and innovation, and building organizations that make this possible.
Daniel Hoff Rodrigues
Daniel Hoff Rodrigues is the founder of {cx}2 Talent Solutions, a recruitment agency that goes far beyond just filling a job vacancy. For Daniel and his team, understanding a company’s culture, values, and future goals is integral to correctly match his pool of budding candidates to a variety of vacancies that land on his desk.
Daniel is incredibly passionate about community building in order to bridge the digital skills gap. It is with this proactive approach that Daniel hopes to promote more diversity within the technology sector; breaking down barriers around ethnicity, gender, age, and disability.
Lenora Billings-Harris
Lenora Billings is the President and CEO, UbuntuGlobal
Lenora Billings-Harris is a diversity strategist, author, and Hall of Fame speaker. Through her company, UbuntuGlobal, she partners with clients to leverage diversity in order to increase inclusion and reduce the impact of unconscious bias - ultimately leading to improved bottom-line results.
Matthew Yazzie
Director of Diversity and Inclusion Programs, Women 2.0
Matthew’s background includes work as COO at both Jurispect - in regulatory FinTech compliance - and FWD.us - working towards intelligent immigration reform. He was on the Global Ethics and Compliance founding team at Google, where he had responsibility for training and investigations, metrics, and compliance technology procurement.
Carin Taylor
Carin Taylor is the Chief Diversity Officer, Workday
Carin Taylor has global responsibility for the development and execution of Workday’s inclusion and diversity strategy. She brings over two decades of experience from her time at Cisco Systems and Genentech, where she specialized in building and leading highly effective teams and created strategies to enable large organizations to leverage diversity and inclusion to drive innovation.
Torin Perez
Torin Perez is a Keynote Speaker, Learning Designer & Facilitator, Author
Torin Perez is a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant on a mission to inspire authenticity and inclusive leadership in the workplace. He is also a sought-after speaker and the author of the book Who Am I to Lead? The World Is Waiting for You.
Arlan Hamilton
Arlan Hamilton is the Founder, Backstage Capital
Arlan Hamilton is the founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. She built the firm from the ground up while homeless. Backstage has now invested nearly $7 million into 125+ startup companies led by underestimated founders.
Ryan Carson
Ryan Carson is the CEO and Founder, Treehouse
Ryan Carson currently oversees Treehouse, an online technology school. Treehouse is currently in a partnership with AnitaB.org, The Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and Aminé for Project: Unlock the American Dream. The mission of the program is to place 100k Apprentices, raise incomes by $40k, cover 100% of families with healthcare, create $200b of generational wealth and $0 student debt.
Oona King
Oona King is the Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Snap.
Oona King is Snap’s first Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion and was most recently Google’s Director of Diversity Strategy. She’s also a former member of the British Parliament with the Labour Party and a former Senior Policy Advisor and speechwriter to the Prime Minister.
Wayne Sutton
Founder, Tech Inclusion
A serial entrepreneur, Wayne has experience building partnerships with both small and large companies. His advice on diversity and inclusion in tech has been featured in TechCrunch, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal. His life goal is to educate entrepreneurs who are passionate about using technology to change the world. Through Change Catalyst and Tech Inclusion, he helps to build inclusive tech ecosystems through strategic advising, startup programs, and resources.
Michelle Kim
Co-Founder and CEO, Awaken
Michelle has been a social justice activist and community organizer serving on organizations like the San Francisco LGBTQ Speakers Bureau, UC LGBTIQ Association Steering Committee, San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s Advisory Committee, and LYRIC youth nonprofit’s Board of Directors. Awaken offers interactive, thought-provoking workshops that enable today’s workforce to address tough diversity and inclusion, leadership, and culture questions head-on. Their mission is to create a compassionate space for uncomfortable conversations to develop inclusive leaders and teams.
Max Masure
Design Thinking Facilitator, Gender Inclusion Strategist, Argo Collective
Max is a trans-masculine workplace inclusion strategist and co-founder of Argo Collective. Drawing on their extensive background in design, they train organizations to use creativity, empathy, and collaboration to tackle workplace inclusion challenges. For the past 12 years, they worked as a User Experience and Service Designer, guiding Design Thinking workshops for an array of organizations, from startups to Fortune 50 companies.
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Iris Bohnet
Professor and author, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Iris Bohnet, the Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government, is the Academic Dean of Harvard Kennedy School. As a behavioral economist, she combines insights from economics and psychology to improve decision-making in organizations and society, often with a gender or cross-cultural perspective.
We want to hear from you
We could have missed some marketing influencers that deserve to be on this list. That’s where you come into the picture.
Let us know who you think should be included in our list and we’ll get in touch with them and make the magic happen!
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