In 2022, only an estimated 11.9% of Fortune 500 board seats were filled by Black board members, per Missing Pieces Report. The alarming statistic is part of why executives like Samuel Bright, vice president and general manager of Google Play plus the developer ecosystem at Google, actively push to advocate for diverse voices to be heard in the boardroom.
During the fireside chat “The Kaleidoscope Effect: Redefining Boardrooms” at the 2023 AFROTECH™ Conference, Bright detailed his board service journey including joining TIAA’s board. As previously reported by AFROTECH™, the financial retirement services company is helmed by Thasunda Brown Duckett, who is one of two Black women CEOs to lead a Fortune 500 company.
“I’m very fortunate that TIAA has had DEI ingrained in its DNA,” Bright told Kelly Buchanan Spillers, chief marketing officer of Infor at the time, during the fireside chat. “It is when I was joining the board I was joining a diverse board. Also, there’s a very diverse leadership team and C-suite at TIAA, and I realized that is unfortunately somewhat unique for a Fortune 100 company, and yet the way that that manifests and the reason why that’s so important is because we want to serve all of our participants and our clients.”
He continued, “We want to make sure that we are providing and helping ensure retirement security. In order to do that, we need to reflect those participants and understand their perspectives, and that means having a range of voices in the boardroom and in the leadership team.”
While Bright came into an already diverse board at TIAA, he also works to ensure diversity is prioritized at Google Play. He explained to Spillers that the company has objectives and key results (OKRs) regarding DEI. The move ties into the company’s mission to reflect the perspectives of its customers across the globe.
“We have DEI OKRs where we actually publish those to the company, and it’s very transparent and it talks about ‘what are the ways that I am holding my leadership team accountable to make sure that folks are being treated equitably?,'” Bright said. “‘What are the ways that I show up?’ I talked about how I was doing on my DEI OKRs in a recent all-team meeting, and that can include everything from anonymous manager responsibility surveys to make sure people feel included to amplifying DEI events and hosting panels, and a range of other activities to make sure that is being pulled through and people feel like they belong.”
For Black executives who aspire to be in a position of championing diversity in board service like Bright, he shared that Black Corporate Board Readiness, Good Directors, and the National Association of Corporate Directors are all organizations that helped to prepare him for the mission.
To explore exclusive insights similar to those shared from this fireside chat at AFROTECH™ Conference and other events, click here to watch AFROTECH™ Labs.
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