Citi’s (C) +0.97% new head of diversity, Erika Irish Brown, has big plans for Wall Street. She has vowed to make the US finance hub more divers. Brown has worked on Wall Street for over a decade, her mantra: “What gets measured gets achieved” has brought her here.
Now, as the new head of diversity, equity, and inclusion she plans on applying the same mantra to drive results. In a conversation with Business Insider she says: “DEI is not a ‘nice to have’. It’s a ‘need to have,’ and it’s important we reframe the conversation to be about the value it brings to the business bottom line,” (Business Insider, 2021).
“I think we have to get beyond justifying that business case and get on to actually executing and demonstrating that business value,” she continues.
Since she was hired in June, she is driving the billion-dollar investment to help close the racial wealth gap at Citi. Additionally, the small handful of executives working on this, plan on creating better chances for economic mobility of people of colour in the United States.
Gender diversity is the next thing on Brown’s list – pushing for better representation of women in leadership positions. The goal is to increase women in leadership to 40% by the end of 2021, up from 37% in 2018.
In the same time frame Brown hopes to increase Black leadership to 8%, up from 6% in 2018. Current Citi CEO Jane Fraser, the first woman to lead a major bank in the US stands fully behind her new head of DEI.
Erika Irish Brown brings the right qualifications to bring Citi to the top of the diversity, equity, and inclusion list. Her credentials include working at Bank of America (BAC) +1.12%, Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs (GS) +1.23%, as a DEI executive.
Brown started out in investment banking but decided she wanted to “be an agent for change” in 2009 and has been working on diversifying the financial sector since.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*Stock percentages taken at 10:17am.
*Ward, Marguerite (22. September 2021). Business Insider: Citi’s new head of diversity wants to shake up Wall Street: ‘What gets measured gets achieved’. Last viewed on 23.09.2021 on https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-head-of-diversity-wants-to-shake-up-wall-street-2021-9?r=US&IR=T.
