Yulia Voronina (EMBA 2023), Martina Mantovan (EMBA 2023), Luis Ornelas (MBA 2023), and Junqi Tan (MBA 2023), representing the Leadership Team of the new alumni Inclusive Leadership Community, organized a panel of diverse and powerful business leaders in honor of its launch. Alumni in attendance included board members of European universities, investment bank strategists, diversity officers in large corporations, and victims of anti-DEI firings.
Panelists shared their personal stories and actionable insights with the audience. These included conversation tactics and education to counter doubt by DEI-sceptics, staying true to personal values in the face of adversity, and maintaining a strong message of hope to others.
Martina Mantovan opened the event by sharing the founding story of the Inclusive Leadership Community. She and fellow IMD alumni recognized the unique positioning of former classmates in leadership circles and their interest in connecting around this specific topic, which empowered them to form the interest-based community in late 2024.
Luis Ornelas recounted what he is witnessing in the US, stating that millions of Americans are watching their health, well-being, and dignity being “dismantled in real time.” Multinational corporations with operations in the US are removing DEI from their business practices in what appears to be an attempt to reduce political friction with the new administration. Ornelas urged the audience to remain steadfast on DEI as commercial necessity for organizations, and as a moral imperative for society.
Moderator Josefine Van Zanten, former Chief Equity, Inclusion & Diversity Officer at IMD, demonstrated how to use clarifying questions to counter negative claims about diversity initiatives. For example, one can ask, “Do you mean we were not hiring on merit before?” or “Can you give an example of what you mean by DEI ‘going too far’?” Van Zanten reminded leaders to remain confident and well-versed in their commercial case for inclusion.
Business leaders with decision-making power should proactively collect and integrate diversity data into their organizational dashboards and surveys, said Jen Polzin, DE&I manager at Japan Tobacco International (JTI). By placing these indicators in company context, leaders can substantiate the commercial value of diversity initiatives, she noted.
Catherine Canales, Chief Commercial Officer at a publicly traded company, concluded with five lessons from her career, including past retaliation for speaking up against sexual harassment and wrongful firing based on her pregnancy status. But she reminded members that true leadership is rooted in integrity, and our response to these injustices is precisely what integrity is built upon.
The Inclusive Leadership Community plans to continue learning and engagement opportunities around LGBTQ+, gender, disability, and aging in the workplace. While DEI policies for US-linked multinationals may be on shaky ground, the commercial and moral case for DEI has a firm foundation among IMD alumni.
The Inclusive Leadership Community looks forward to more events and mentorship among IMD alumni in diversity-related activities. If you are interested in joining the Community, log in or register to your MyIMD alumni portal where you can sign up for news and events from the community.
Organizations are keen to have clear definitions, tools, and metrics to define equity, inclusion, and diversity operationally and implement policy. Alexander Fleischmann and Josefine van Zanten have prepared operational tools and measurement techniques in their IMD report Inclusive Future.
