Keynotes

Serving the New Consumer: How D&I Is Redefining the Retailer/Vendor Relationship

Cole Brown Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer
Walmart Stores

The conference kicks off with a bang as the chief diversity officer of the world’s number one retailer discusses how retailers and vendors can work together to better serve today’s fast-changing consumer markets. Brown, an attorney, has years of experience developing and implementing diversity best practices. She is responsible for the oversight and coordination of Walmart’s corporate diversity strategy and the advancement of its company-wide diversity and inclusion efforts, including its groundbreaking supplier diversity program.  Table discussions follow.


History Is Calling: Leading the Charge for Diversity and Inclusion

Andre Hughes Global Managing Partner
Accenture Cisco Business Group

Learn what it takes to champion diversity and inclusion from someone who’s done just that. As the former leader of Accenture’s Human Capital, Inclusion and Diversity, and Corporate Citizenship strategy in the U.S., Andre Hughes led a team that developed globally responsible leaders, maximized human capital and helped implement Accenture business strategies. You can’t afford to sit on the sidelines — learn how to take the lead on diversity and inclusion, changing your organization and advancing your career.


After Diversity: Leveraging Differences to Achieve Inclusion

Andrés Tapia Chief Diversity Officer
Hewitt Associates

Now that you have a diverse workforce, what do you do with it? One of last year’s best-received presenters returns to explore how organizations can move beyond "let’s just get along” thinking into meaningful inclusion strategies that leverage cultural differences in the workforce. Tapia, the author of The Inclusion Paradox: The Obama Era and the Transformation of Global Diversity, will discuss how to lead multicultural work teams that make better decisions, generate new ideas, claim new customers and gain a competitive advantage.

General session extra

View from the C-Suite: Leveraging D&I to Win in the Marketplace
Leadership roundtable

Cathy Green President
Food Lion Family of Banners
Don Knauss Chief Executive Officer
The Clorox Company
Michael Schlotman Chief Financial Officer
The Kroger Co.
James White Chief Executive Officer
Jamba Juice

Get the view on diversity and inclusion from four senior-level executives with combined bottom-line responsibilities for more than $100 billion in annual revenue. They’ll engage in a frank dialogue about diversity and inclusion in the CPG/retail industry, their organizations and their careers. In this special session you’ll acquire practical insight on the strategies that have helped these companies win by leveraging diversity and inclusion. And you’ll
discover what it really means to be a champion of diversity and inclusion.

Special remarks

Rosalyn Taylor O’Neale
Vice President and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer
The Campbell Soup Co.

Opening remarks

Listen as the diversity and inclusion chief of one of the industry’s leading consumer products companies explains how her company is creating nontraditional learning opportunities inside and outside the work environment to help people overcome biases of all kinds. As a former line manager, O’Neale knows what it takes to build strategic relationships that embed diversity and inclusion into an organization. She is the author of 7 Keys 2 Success: Unlocking the Passion for Diversity, a practical guide to creating highly effective and diverse organizations.


Mike Gorshe Partner, Consumer Products and Services Practice
Accenture

Special remarks

Mike Gorshe is a long-time supporter of diversity, a prominent industry leader and member of the Executive Board of NEW. His responsibilities include Accenture’s worldwide trade association initiatives focusing on consumer products and services and food retail.


Erby Foster Director of Diversity
The Clorox Company

Conference Chair

Erby Fosrer will join Trudy Bourgeois of The Center for Workforce Excellence as general session moderator. Foster advises senior management on diversity strategy and is a strong supporter of Students in Free Enterprise, NEW and other diversity groups. Foster has played a key role in building strategic diversity alliances with major retailers and leveraging diversity to achieve the business goals of Clorox, a $5.45 billion CPG company.

Concurrent sessions

Advancing Women of Color: Creating the Leadership It Takes to Win
Advanced workshop

Pamela Carlton President
Springboard Leadership Consulting
Teresa Chipps Vice President
SuperValu
Ann Mukherjee SVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Frito-Lay North America
Cheryl Pearson-McNeil Senior Vice President
The Nielsen Company
Marilyn Thompson Director of Diversity, Consumer
Johnson & Johnson
Ann Mukherjee will appear in the morning session only

The progress of women of color lags behind even the modest cracks in the glass ceiling made by white women. In this session, you’ll get cutting-edge research, real-world insights and best practices that will help you change your company culture and develop an environment where women of color can succeed. Learn from: Pamela Carlton, an expert in cross-cultural leadership; Teresa Chipps, a long-time food industry diversity champion; Ann Mukherjee, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Frito-Lay North America (morning session only); Cheryl Pearson-McNeil, whose public affairs duties include ethnic outreach; and Marilyn Thompson, who has helped develop programs that have made Johnson & Johnson a No. 1 company for diversity. Session will include a new special report on African-American women from Springboard Leadership Consulting.


Beyond Borders: Becoming A Global Leader
Advanced workshop

Jane Hyun President
Hyun & Associates
Lynn Sontag President and Chief Mentoring Officer
Menttium Corporation

Global cultural competencies are a must to succeed in today’s markets. One innocent cultural mistake can sour a business relationship or ruin an opportunity. Acquire global cultural competencies and become a more effective leader and a more valuable member of your organization in this workshop led by executive coach and multicultural leadership strategist, Jane Hyun, author of Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling, and Lynn Sontag, leader of the Menttium 100 program for high-potential women.


Down the Line: Integrating D&I Throughout Your Company Structure
Advanced workshop

Jeff Halter Director, Business Development
The Coca-Cola Company
Maritza Montiel Managing Partner
Deloitte University, Leadership Development Succession

Line managers must have ownership for diversity and inclusion strategies to succeed, and that requires profound individual and structural change. Hear about transformational initiatives that promote ownership and change from two executives who have been deeply involved in integrating D&I into the fabric of their organizations. Jeff Halter of Coca-Cola is the author of Selling to Men, Selling to Women: A New Sales Philosophy for the 21st Century and a contributor to Tom Peters Times and PINK. Maritza Montiel is an expert on talent issues whose duties include executive sponsorship of Deloitte’s Women’s Initiative and ensuring the progress of Deloitte’s cutting-edge diversity and inclusion programs.


Embedding Diversity and Inclusion into Your Organization’s Culture
Intermediate workshop

Phyllis Jefferson Vice President of Learning and Organizational Development
InclusionINC
Margaret Young Key Designer
Mill Square Group

You’ve got D&I directives, a D&I office and D&I training. But how do you change people’s hearts and minds? In this session you’ll use peer dialogue to identify barriers to embedding diversity and inclusion into your organization’s culture, explore solutions to the issues you’ve encountered and leave with answers that can turn D&I into your company’s greatest strength. This session will be facilitated by Phyllis Jefferson, a strategist specializing in D&I planning and management, and Margaret Young, a business consultant who sits on several boards.


Generations at Work: Building Teams that Connect with Consumers
Beginner workshop

Lisbeth McNabb CEO
w2wlink.com
Michael Redding Global Director of Technology
Accenture Technology Labs

Four generations are now working side by side at your company; your consumers are even more age diverse. No multicultural strategy is complete without a robust multigenerational component. In this session you’ll learn why the "one size fits all” solutions of the past do not work today, how to forge work teams that utilize the best of each generation in your workforce and strategies that will help you reach consumers of all ages. Your session will be led by two experts in team building, outreach and networking: Michael Redding, who develops advanced technologies at Accenture’s Customer Labs, and Lisbeth McNabb, a social networking expert and entrepreneur.


Metrics Matter: Measuring and Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion
Intermediate workshop

Katie Edwards Diversity Business Partner
Target Corporation
Tariq Malik Diversity Consultant
Target Corporation

It’s true: What gets measured gets done. In this session two authorities on diversity will explore how to measure D&I, benchmark your company, track goals and use the data to improve your diversity and inclusion game plan. To embed diversity and inclusion into your organization, you must be able to identify and demonstrate its benefits. You’ll leave this workshop with proof that diversity and inclusion impacts the bottom line. Session will be led by diversity consultant Katie Edwards and Tariq Malik, who directs diversity benchmarking and analytics for Target.