This event was recorded as part of a live broadcast on 21 November 2022.
The question of how employers can create truly diverse workforces is being asked more and more. From corporate spaces to hospitality, diversity quotas in the recruitment of employees often rely on a tick-box exercise. But once in these spaces, what do organisations do to create a work culture that brings individuals of different backgrounds together in meaningful exchange? And how can such workplaces, which may have in the past been designed to facilitate a narrower group of employees, evolve into an environment that suits the needs of a diverse workforce?
This event brings together business leaders, academics, and innovators to enhance intercultural exchange in our workplaces and organisations. Our discussion will focus on how employers can recruit and maintain a more diverse workforce, and what are the possible paths to creating an environment respectful of intercultural diversity.
The Aspen Institute UK, in partnership with the Khalili Foundation, explore these pertinent questions. It is part of the wider World Festival of Cultural Diversity which, in association with UNESCO, is bringing together various intellectual and creative initiatives in collective celebration of our world’s cultures.
MODERATOR:
Emma Jacobs – Emma is a Features writer at the Financial Times, focusing on Work and Careers. She is the co-author of the satirical column, Work Tribes, and has previous edited features and UK news at the FT, as well as working on FT.com’s companies, markets, and world desks.
ON THE PANEL:
Marc de Swaan Arons – Marc is the Founder of the Institute for Real Growth. Marc started his career at Unilever, where he created the company’s Interactive Brand Center in New York. In 2001, Marc co-founded the global marketing leadership consultancy EffectiveBrands. By 2014, EffectiveBrands had offices in New York, Singapore, Tokyo, Amsterdam, and London, and was acquired by WPP. Marc is a frequent keynote speaker at business schools, companies, and industry conferences. He is the author of “THE GLOBAL BRAND CEO” and co-leader of Marketing2020 and Insights2020.
Anu Law – Anu is the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leader at the EY Foundation. She is Chair of the EY Foundation’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, responsible for driving the company’s action on diversity commitments. She previously worked as Midlands Hub Leader at EY Foundation.
Christin Owings – Christin is a Managing Director and Partner in the People & Organization Practice at BCG in London. She works with client to support and enable large scale organisational transformations across industries. She has been involved in DE&I work for over a decade in particular on advancing gender diversity both at BCG as well as with clients. She leads BCG’s London/Amsterdam/Brussels DE&I team.
Ade Rawcliffe – Ade is the Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion at ITV, and is a member of the Management Board. She has responsibility for all diversity and inclusion related matters across the Group, including leading, developing and growing ITV’s Diversity & Inclusion strategy on and off screen. Prior to that, Ade led the Creative Diversity team at Channel 4 and spearheaded the delivery of the broadcaster’s 360° Diversity Charter. She oversaw the creation of C4’s Commissioning Diversity Guidelines and developed programmes through diverse funding vehicle the Alpha Fund. Ade also worked in the Features Commissioning team at C4 and as Television Producer at the BBC, ITV and in the independent sector working on shows including: Big Brother, The Big Breakfast and This Morning. She is a Chair of BAFTA’s Learning, Inclusion and Talent Committee, a Board Member of Women in Film & Television (WFTV), and Founding Board Member of Times UP UK.
Esther-Miriam Wagner – Esther-Miriam is the Executive Director of the Woolf Institute. She leads on a number of Woolf Institute projects and frequently chairs Woolf Institute panels and webinars, including the Institute’s ‘How to talk about…‘ series. Esther-Miriam is a Fellow of St Edmund’s College and teaches the MPhil in Middle Eastern Studies: Muslim-Jewish Relations at the University of Cambridge. She writes broadly on sociolinguistics, historical linguistics of Judaeo-Arabic and Yiddish, scribal practice, and Jewish-Muslim relations in Egypt and Muslim Spain as reflected in the Genizah sources.