Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • September 7, 2020 • Hartford Business Journal 15 The number of executives named as senior leaders varied from com- pany to company. Some, like Oxford-based manufac- turer RBC Bearings Inc. listed only seven top leaders, while others like Greenwich insurance provider W.R. Berkley Corp. listed more than 20. Overall, of the approximately 426 senior executives at Connecticut publicly traded companies examined by HBJ, only 13, or 3.1%, were Black. Twenty of the 31 companies exam- ined had no named African Ameri- cans in top senior-level positions. Black people, however, had better representation on boards of direc- tors: Of the 320 board members identified by HBJ, 23, or 7.2%, were Black. HBJ verified its findings with individual companies. Those numbers tend to be in line with national trends, which show representation of Black profession- als in leadership roles still lags far behind college graduation rates. According to the Center for In- novation report, 10% of Black people in the U.S. hold college degrees, 8% are in professional occupations, but only 3.2% hold ex- ecutive or senior- level positions. Reaching the rank of CEO is even harder. There are only about five Black Fortune 500 CEOS in the country, McKin- ney said, and of the 31 Connecti- cut companies examined by HBJ, none are led by an African American. "We are still in the early stages of the integra- tion of the C- suite," McKinney said. Black people who do hold senior-level roles tend to be in chief diversity officer or hu- man resources positions, HBJ's analysis found. Meantime, Connecticut companies have made better strides in recent years in gender diversity. Nearly 21% of the 426 se- nior leaders identified by HBJ were women. Wooden said the underrepresen- tation of Black people in the C-suite is a result of a "lack of intentionality on the part of corporate America to treat diversity and racial diversity in particular as a business imperative." He points to various studies that show racial diversity actually boosts business performance and share- holder value, something he looks at closely as an investor of the state's $37 billion pension fund. For example, a 2015 McKinsey & Co. study found that gender-diverse and ethnically diverse companies were 15% and 35%, respectively, more likely to outperform competitors. "More diverse companies, we believe, are better able to win top talent and improve their customer orientation, employee satisfaction, and decision-making, and all that leads to a virtuous cycle of increas- ing returns," said the report entitled "Why Diversity Matters." What can be done? Despite the ground that needs to be made up, Wooden said the cur- rent renewed focus on racial equal- ity can spur needed change. He's also trying to play an active role in mov- ing the needle. He published a "corporate call to action" in a May op-ed, urg- ing companies, including those in Connecticut, to play a con- structive role in advancing social change. He also helped launch last year the Northeast Investors' Diversity Ini- tiative, a coalition of about a dozen institutional investors who are com- mitted to racial and gender diversity in Northeast-based corporations. That group — whose membership includes most New England state treasurers and other investors — pub- lished a diversity toolkit, which recom- mends ways companies can make more diverse senior-leadership hires. Suggestions include making sure women and minorities are interviewed for open board seats, expanding crite- ria for qualified board members and disclosing board diversity to investors. More broadly, Wooden says companies of all sizes need to step up talent pipeline development and support of minority workers, including offering training and internship programs as well as mentoring. He credits those types of supports, including having a mentor, with helping him become one of the few partners of color at Day Pitney, where he led the Harford law firm's public pension plan investment practice be- fore being elected as state treasurer. "I believe corporate America is ready and corporate leadership is ready to dive in and make the sig- nificant changes that the moment calls for and that should have been made a long time ago," Wooden said. Nicole Jones Young, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania, said corporate board members tend to be mainly CEOs and top executives of other publicly traded companies, who bring with them broad connections and additional re- sources that could benefit a company. That results in a relatively small pool of potential candidates, and given that Black people are underrepresent- ed in C-suite positions, it's harder for them to get noticed, said Jones. "You tend to see the same group of people revolving in these positions," said Young, who earned her Ph.D. in management at UConn. "If you aren't in the room, or in the conver- sation it's hard to get noticed." McKinney said companies must cast a wider net for talent to diversify their top ranks. He uses Major League Baseball as an analogy. It was primar- ily an all-white league until the 1940s, when Jackie Robinson came around and opened up Americans' eyes to the talents of African Americans. Now MLB teams scout the world for new players. "[Major League Baseball] doesn't care where the person has come from, or what their parents did or do," he said. "Talent is distributed pretty evenly among racial groups. The companies that are seeking to maximize shareholder value will see that there is talent at the senior-most level from communities that have not been well represented in the C-suite." CT companies on diversity forefront For their part, Connecticut com- Continued on page 16 >> HBJ's C-Suite Diversity Analysis HBJ's C-suite diversity analysis of local public companies included busi- nesses that are either headquartered or maintain a large presence in the state. HBJ examined the senior leadership and board members of each company, including executives named in proxy statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as top leaders identified on official company websites. Below is a list of the companies HBJ examined and the diversity within thier collective C-suites. Amphenol Arvinas Inc. Avangrid Inc Barnes Group Biohaven Pharmaceuticals Booking Holdings Charter Communications Cigna Corp CVS Health, Aetna EMCOR Group Inc. Eversource FactSet Research System Gartner Inc. Hubbell Inc. Kaman Corp. People's United Financial Inc Pitney Bowes Inc. Raytheon RBC Bearings Inc. SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc.; Stanley Black & Decker Synchrony Financial Terex Corp. The Hartford Travelers United Rentals Inc. Virtus Investment Partners W.R. Berkley Corp. Webster Financial Corp. World Wrestling Entertainment Inc Xerox Corp. Totals Percentage C-suite executives 426 Men 339 79.6% Women 87 20.4% Black executives 13 3.1% Black men 8 1.9% Black women 5 1.2% Total board of directors 320 Men 237 74.1% Women 83 25.9% Black executives 23 7.2% Black men 12 3.8% Black women 11 3.4% Nicole Jones Young, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior, Franklin & Marshall College Susan Stith, Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion, Cigna PHOTO | CLOE POISSON , CT MIRROR State Treasurer Shawn Wooden last year launched the Northeast Investors' Diversity Initiative, a coalition of institutional investors committed to racial and gender diversity in Northeast-based companies.

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