Clorox executive to chair NEW multicultural conference

Erby Foster Jr., director of diversity and inclusion for the Clorox Company, will chair the Network’s 2010 Multicultural Workforce Conference March 16-18 at the Dallas W-Victory Hotel in Dallas.

Trudy Bourgeois, session leader of the NEW Multicultural Workforce Conference, said she was "excited to have this opportunity to work more closely with Foster to design and deliver the 2010 Multicultural Workforce Conference."

"I am honored to serve the Network of Executive Women in this very important role,” Foster said. He will work with other committee members to develop programming for the third annual NEW conference. "It has been a fun and exciting two years” since Clorox and NEW first teamed up on diversity issues, he noted.

"NEW is one of our top 10 external partnerships to help connect our women's employee resource group and sales, marketing, finance, product supply and field employees to customers and industry peers,” Foster said. He noted that he and other Clorox executives have made frequent appearances at NEW events in the past two years, including Don Knauss, chairman and CEO; Robin Evitts, vice president and CIO; Lyne Brown, vice president of sales for the Cleaning Division; and Beth Springer, executive vice president for international and natural personal care.

Foster advises the firm’s senior management and board of directors on diversity strategy and employment- branding initiatives. Foster is a CPA with 15 years of experience creating and implementing business strategies designed to increase customer satisfaction, drive growth and expand market share. Foster has played an important role in building strategic alliances to help the company achieve its diversity business goals. In 2000, he was elected the national president and CEO of the National Association of Black Accountants. A San Francisco native, Foster has been featured in Black Enterprise magazine, Diversity Matters, the journal of the Illinois CPA Society, the Wall Street Journal, and CFO magazine.

The Clorox Company is a leading manufacturer and marketer of consumer products with 2008 revenues of $5.3 billion and 8,300 employees worldwide. The company manufactures products in more than two-dozen countries and markets them in more than 100 countries.

Erby Foster Jr.
Clorox executive will chair 2010 NEW Multicultural Workforce Conference.