A group of 17 people from the Big Four have been named as role models for for ethnic minorities in the influential EMpower lists out today
This is particularly good news for the firms which all signed up to the government’s Race at Work Charter to commit to the recruitment and progression of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) employees, in October last year.
Empower’s judging panel was made up of leading business figures, including Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays, and Dame Vivian Hunt, managing partner at McKinsey. They selected 100 ethnic minority executive role models, and 50 ethnic minority future leaders.
They also chose 15 advocate executives, who are not people of colour but who are dedicated to creating a more diverse and inclusive environment for ethnic minority employees.
Nominees for the advocate category must work within three levels from the chief executive in large organisations, or be leaders in smaller ones.
All Big Four firms were represented in EMpower’s list of 100 ethnic minority executives, which honours senior people of colour acting as role models for ethnic minority employees in their industry.
Two EY partners were listed: Sanjay Bhandari and Adrian Joseph, who is also head of artificial intelligence UK and EMEA. They were joined by Tunji Akintokun, director and head of sales UK PwC, and PwC partner Albertha Charles.
Deloitte partners Nadan Muthukumarana and Mitul Shah, also EMEA reward leader, were listed. KPMG partner Richard Iferenta, and the firm’s global head of citizenship Lord Dr Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick CBE were also recognised.
Those selected to be one of EMpower’s 50 ethnic minority future leaders are not yet senior, but are making a significant contribution to ethnic minority inclusion at work.
This year, the final list included: Bijal Majithia, assistant director at EY; Serita Murray, senior consultant at EY; Shilpa Shah, consulting director and leader of Deloitte NSE alternative delivery capacity; Anjeli Patel, senior consultant at Deloitte; Mary Agbesanwa, senior associate management consultant at PwC; and Dara Kirton, senior manager at PwC.
Three of the Big Four’s senior executives were recognised as advocates: Nick Owen, chairman at Deloitte; Philip Davidson, managing partner at KPMG; and Kevin Ellis, chairman and senior partner at PwC.
Ellis commented, “Equality of opportunity is fundamental to our culture at PwC and I believe it’s important to be open about both our progress and the challenges we face. Equality and diversity is in everyone’s best interests, so we believe a holistic approach to improving ethnic diversity in the workforce.
“By taking a range of actions from voluntarily publishing our ethnicity pay gap, to opening a new centre in Bradford, or partnering with UKBlackTech, we’re hoping to drive positive change for our employees, potential recruits, clients and the communities in which we work,” he added.
Owen, who was recognised as the top advocate, said: “It’s an honour to have been named as the number one EMpower Ethnic Minority Advocate. I am proud that we have built a culture of constant opportunity and growth, providing an environment where all our people can thrive. I will continue to champion this until we achieve ethnic minority, gender and social diversity at all levels of our organisation.”
Commenting on EY's success, Justine Campbell, EY’s UK&I talent managing partner, said how "thrilled" she was to see so many EY people recognised in the role model lists, "from our two partners, Sanjay Bhandari and Adrian Joseph, who have been incredible role models championing diversity, to Bijal Majithia who is recognised as a ‘future leader’ for her sterling work as founder of EY’s Hindu Network and beyond".
"Congratulations to all three on their well-deserved recognition.”
The success of the Big Four is not reflected elsewhere in the profession where there is still a long way to go. No non-Big Four firms received a mention in the list.
EMpower is one of three diversity initiatives that are driven by the inclusivity organisation INvolve. It was founded in 2017 to address the issues faced by ethnic minority employees in the workplace: its sister initiatives, OUTstanding and HERoes, tackle inequality for LGBT+ employees, and for women.
Earlier this year, EY, KPMG and Deloitte were among 15 of the top UK accountancy firms that called for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting among businesses of more than 250 staff. PwC has voluntarily published its ethnicity pay gap data since 2016.
Sourced from ICEAW - written by Frances