Amid DEI Backlash, Developer Group Blazes Path Forward
Emerging real estate developers and potential financial backers gathered in Boston this week to make connections, do deals and share strategies to overcome the challenging investment climate.
Berkshire Touts High Rating in LGBTQ-Friendliness Index
The Boston-based bank is bucking a trend among major, publicly-traded companies to back away from DEI and climate change goals.
Building Opportunities for a New Generation
A self-described “builder,” the outgoing executive director of the Builders of Color Coalition, Colleen Fonseca, is reflecting on how much the group has achieved in three years, and where it still wants to grow.
What Corporate Allyship Looks Like
From chocolate chip to blue chips, Massachusetts business leaders have local and national role models for doing the work needed to authentically live, not hide their corporate values.
For Business Changemakers, the Time for Action Is Now
For me, and doubtless for many of you, July 4 is a day of mixed emotions. But now is the time to stick your head neck out for equity. Try to repair the hypocrisy in your industry.
The Seven Stages from Intention to Impact
In my work with corporate clients, especially in financial services and real estate development, I witness and guide their journey to implement meaningful diversity, equity and inclusion programs and create inclusive cultures in which everyone can feel they belong.
With DEI Under Legal Attack, Companies Quietly Alter Programs
Diversity and inclusion experts say the legal backlash is already having a chilling effect over corporate efforts to address workplace inequality at a time when investment and interest in such initiatives have slowed following the post-Floyd surge.
The DEI Lesson for Leaders in Dr. Claudine Gay’s Resignation from Harvard
Corporate leaders beware. These are not one-off actions that affect only academic institutions. They are the latest salvos in an escalating war against a key tool for future corporate success.
How to Get DEI Right in 2024
The year is going to be another year filled with cultural landmines for companies. But the cost of reversing DEI commitments will be far greater than most companies realize – as much as $5.4 trillion.
Equity, Reproductive Rights Help Mass. Climb in ‘States For Business’ Rankings
A popular ranking of states’ business climates is beginning to put more emphasis on things like reproductive rights, equity and inclusion.
Celebrating Joy in Justice
If you’re trying to make change in your organization, fatigue – yours and your coworkers’ – can be a huge obstacle. Here are three ways to help get around that and keep momentum going.
After Supreme Court Ruling, Weakest Hands Will Show Themselves
After the Supreme Court’s landmark affirmative action decision, eyes now turn to business leaders to see who will be the first to rein in their DEI. But when they do, their customers and employees will be watching.
A Huge Opportunity Is Coming to Boston
It’s sometimes hard for us, residents of the Hub of the Universe, to imagine but our fair city doesn’t necessarily have the best reputation in other parts of the country. But we can all pitch in to help change that narrative when the NAACP’s annual national convention comes to the Boston July 26.
Biz Leader Urges DEI ‘Recommittment’ in Wake of Court’s Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court may have only struck down colleges’ and universities ability to use affirmative action to make sure their student bodies are more diverse, but the head of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce is warning that the ruling could threaten local companies’ efforts to diversify their workforces.
Massachusetts Gets First B Corporation Bank
When you ask Martha’s Vineyard Bank CEO James Anthony what becoming a certified B corporation – a designation for firms that work to make the community and the planet better – changed about the bank, the answer may surprise you.
Five Cities Add DEI Disclosures to Development
Five Greater Boston cities will train a lens on diversity of development teams as a first step toward elevating minority participation in commercial real estate.
KeyBank to Undergo Racial Equity Audit
Following criticism that KeyBank has not improved lending to Black homeowners and homebuyers, the bank’s parent company has commissioned a racial equity audit.
Jemison Says Developers Won’t Be Penalized for DEI Disclosures
Boston Planning & Development Agency Director Arthur Jemison said project approvals won’t be delayed by developers’ disclosures about their diversity strategies, despite the agency’s elevated emphasis on increasing equity in the local commercial real estate industry.
Why ‘Anti-Woke’ Is Bad for Business
The party that once said it wanted the government to be so small it could be drowned in a bathtub now wants it to be big enough to be everywhere – in libraries, business strategy and uteruses. It’s not future-facing, and it’s not good for business.
A Vision for 2023: Offering Others a Seat at the Table
All it takes is one person who is willing to provide opportunities for others to learn and grow, and then scale from smaller projects to bigger ones. And developer Ralph Parent and his mentor Merrill Diamond show how success just begets more success.
