A Diverse Board: How to Truly Make This Happen- Nelda J. Connors
Nelda J. Connors — Founder & CEO at Pine Grove Holdings LLC, and Public Company Director was recently a panelist at Boards and Business Diversity: Actionable Ways to be Better Than Before. She speaks on being intentional and having the courage to stand up for diversity on boards.
Watch what Nelda said in the video, or read excerpts below.
“To truly make this happen, we’ve used the word ‘intentional’ in a positive way in this discussion. I think that whether you’re an executive in a company or a board member, you must have that courage to make your point about diversity and how important it is. This is crucial not only for all the business reasons but we are at a point in time where it could actually go backward if we’re not careful.
“If the number of diverse people that are not coming up through the ranks, they’re not becoming c-executives, they’re, by definition — the ability of diverse people to be on boards could not happen just because of the numbers. So we have the opportunity to be intentional, to have that courage, to make this happen. And that would be one of the things I would say to any board member and to those who have influence in a company: no matter the color, no matter the gender -stand up for it!”
