Happy Tuesday!

You will note below that we have scheduled both our State of the Markets and C-Suite events virtually this year. We are thrilled that Danielle DiMartino Booth and our fabulous CIOs will all be participating. We have broken the event into 2 separate sessions on different days, and you are welcome to attend one or both events. We also have some great speakers coming your way for C-Suite at a time when we all need insightful mentors. More information on the events may be found here.

Please note that we will be charging a nominal fee to attend events and as always our profits go to the Young Women’s Preparatory Network to support the life-changing work they do across Texas. The schools were featured in a recent Washington Post article that can be found here. Please note that YWPN is seeking college-bound mentors for its seniors for 2020/2021. The details can be found below the job listings.

With the Black Lives Matter movement, demand for Chief Diversity Officers is at an all time high, but the dirty secret is that the average tenure of CDO’s is just three years and the first article notes that the reason is that perhaps organizations don’t really want change beyond hiring a CDO. The next article notes that, as we all know, all of the bosses at Wall Street firms are white men, but as you move down the hierarchy, the picture is even more bleak.  “Of the roughly 100,000 executives at financial firms in 2018, only 2,644 were Black and 3,682 were Hispanic, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.” Note that these numbers are unchanged since 2009 despite the firms’ self-described focus on improving diversity.

Mellody Hobson of Ariel Capital is a fan of tying executive compensation to quantifiable goals for diversity. Take the case of Ohio utility, FirstEnergy, whose CEO tied a portion of executive’s bonuses to reaching diversity goals. “I’ve got experience that suggests that if you tie compensation to the things you want to have accomplished, you are much more successful at getting them accomplished,” said Charles E. Jones. The full article can be found here.

On the subject of diversity, the pandemic is setting working mother’s back decades. The lack of childcare and equitable division of both household and childcare responsibilities is forcing many women’s jobs to take a back seat or stretching them to extraordinary lengths. And these setbacks may have lifelong consequences for earning potential and career opportunities. The articles can be found here and here.

I would ask each of you to consider corporate sponsorship of TXWSW. Benefits include attendance at our flagship events and recognition for your firm.  And most importantly, you help us support the life-changing work of the Young Women’s Preparatory Network. To learn more about YWPN, you can find a short video here. To learn more and sponsorship, you may find our sponsor information here. Additionally, we would be happy to create a custom sponsorship for you. Please contact Bianca King at developmentdirector@txwsw.com

Kind regards

Christine