Hiring Your First DE&I Leader: How to Enable Success

Hunt Scanlon Media’sHiring Your First DE&I Leader: How to Enable Success

November 16th - 12:30pm EST

In the past two years, there has been an unprecedented focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I). Prompted greatly by the 2020 murder of George Floyd, followed by months of Black Lives Matter protests, business leaders have finally begun to recognize the racial inequities embedded deep in the systems in which we operate each day, including our workplaces. Many organizations have responded with a commitment to change the way they operate. As a result, many are searching for their first Chief Diversity/Equity/Inclusion Officer or leader.

We invite you to join Louis Montgomery Jr., a partner with JM Search and former HR & DEI executive for a lively panel discussion among HR Leaders / Hiring Managers who have hired DE&I leaders for their organizations, as well as an inaugural DE&I leader who has been the first to fill the role within their organization. The panel of speakers will share personal stories, insights, and learnings of how to ensure you’re enabling success when hiring for this ever-important role.

Topics to be discussed include:

The impetus and business objectives for hiring a first-ever DE&I Officer
Scoping of the role; Where does it sit/fall within the organization?
Priorities and learnings of the first year
The impact to the organization; How is success measured?

There will be an opportunity for audience members to put their questions to panel members and join the conversation.

Speakers

Louis Montgomery specializes in the placement of senior HR and DE&I leaders and their teams. Louis helps organizations add diversity to their ranks: 75% of his placements have been women and 50% have been people of color. As a former HR and DE&I practitioner, Louis understands what it takes to be successful in this demanding field. His deep experience as an executive search consultant have honed his skills as a top assessor of talent. His background includes recruiting experience across numerous sectors, including private equity-backed companies and publicly-traded firms across consumer goods, financial services, industrial, government contracting, higher education, trade associations and non-profits.

Ian Lee Brown is vice-president and chief diversity and belonging officer at Duke University Health System. He leads the organization’s diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging strategy to ensure these elements are embedded as imperatives within the system’s culture, ensuring employees are able to live their authentic selves and deliver exceptional services to our diverse population of patients and other customers.

Prior to this role, Ian served in various senior-level roles in national healthcare, senior living, and educational organizations, including Erickson Senior Living, the University of Maryland Capital Region Health (formerly Dimensions Healthcare) and the Howard University College of Medicine, leading culture, diversity, talent, community outreach, and operations. In these roles he had responsibility for more than 1,200 employees and managing budgets in excess of $200 million.

Sasha Diskin is the vice president of talent, diversity and inclusion at Horizon Therapeutics, a fast-growing biotech company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of medicines that address critical needs for people impacted by rare, autoimmune and severe inflammatory diseases.

In her role, Sasha champions high-impact human resources and talent initiatives and leads the scaling of Horizon’s company-wide learning and development, talent acquisition, employee engagement and culture improvement efforts to support Horizon’s growth and reputation. She also led the launch of RiSE, Horizon’s inclusion, equity, diversity and allyship strategy and program focused on driving a culture of inclusion while leveraging differences to unlock insight and creativity.

Prior to joining Horizon, Sasha was the director of organizational effectiveness and change management at Baxter International. During her tenure she implemented a Change Management Center of Excellence while leading the change management of several large-scale organizational transformations, including corporate acquisitions, divestitures, reorganizations and culture initiatives. Prior to Baxter, Sasha also provided HR consultancy services for Willis Towers Watson and Bank of America, focusing on business process re-engineering and operational risk management.

Paula Frey has served as Chief Human Resources Officer since January 2019.

Prior to working at Echo, Ms. Frey worked at the Education Corporation of America as EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer. From 2008 to 2015, Ms. Frey worked at Sears Holdings Corporation in multiple roles, including Senior HR Business Partner and Vice President of Human Resources. As the Interim Chief Human Resources Officer at Sears, Ms. Frey was responsible for driving organizational culture and increasing efficiencies for the organization. From 1989 to 2008, Ms. Frey was Senior Director of Human Resources at Motorola, where she worked in Mergers and Acquisitions, Business Partnering, Talent Acquisition, and Talent Management.

Ms. Frey is a graduate of Illinois State University and holds a B.S. in Organizational Management.

Sign up required by 12:30pm EST November 16th

9 Reasons to Attend

Come virtually network with hundreds of DE&I talent leaders and executive recruiters

NETWORK with talent professionals
ENGAGE in high-level debate
MEET the experts and influencers in DE&I talent and recruiting
DISCOVER the latest trends in DE&I recruiting
GAIN valuable market intelligence
LEARN what your competitors are doing
DEVELOP your knowledge in DE&I recruiting
CONNECT with executive recruiters in the DE&I ecosystem
UNCOVER potential new customers