Hear from:
• Thomas DiNapoli, (remarks) New York State Comptroller who will describe the importance of Amazon conducting a racial equity audit.
• John P. Relman, a leading civil rights lawyer who worked on the Airbnb and Facebook civil rights audits, will discuss how companies can implement a racial equity audit from a products and services standpoint.
• Cyrus Mehri, founding partner of Mehri & Skalet and developer of the “Rooney Rule,” who will delve into best practices in developing diversity, equity and inclusion metrics in the workplace.
• Pamela Coukos, (slides) Co-Founder of Working IDEAL and a nationally recognized expert on pay equity, who will discuss her experience in working on similar audits intended to help build more inclusive workplaces and to address unconscious bias.
• Susan Baker, (slides) Director of Shareholder Advocacy, Trillium Asset Management, who will describe the need for a racial equity audit at major pharmaceutical company, Johnson & Johnson
• An SEIU Pension Fund Trustee, who will discuss the racial equity audit proposals that have been filed at systemically important financial institutions.
Last June, as a result of mass protests of high-profile murders of Black people, numerous corporations made public statements and committed billions of dollars to promote racial equity and economic justice. But are companies taking the necessary steps to address deeply embedded racist business practices? This proxy season, shareholders will have the opportunity to vote on a new proposal calling for racial equity audits at major companies including Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan. Racial Equity Audit proposals are intended to provide an independent, objective review of the corporations’ effectiveness at combating systemic racism, a review that would benefit all stakeholders, including shareholders.
This webinar will delve into the details of this novel shareholder proposal and why a racial equity audit is critical to holding companies accountable to their pledges related to racial justice. The webinar will provide practitioners’ perspectives on what a racial equity audit would entail and the importance of conducting these types of audits through a civil rights and economic justice lens. Proponents of the proposals will present on why a racial equity audit would be beneficial for major issuers who have faced scrutiny on how their policies and practices have adversely impacted communities of color.