Back in the day, when faced with an employment or investment decision, I would look up the company and immediately go to its leadership and board of directors’ web pages. I wanted to know if they were walking the talk from their diversity pages and how many women and people of color were on their leadership teams. But today, that method for assessing a company’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts is out of step. The majority of employees now, largely Millennials, prefer a fresh perspective on DEI topics.

August 1996. I am sitting on the plane approaching Vancouver, holding my breath, looking out the window. Down there, I see a magical landscape of a fairy-tale-like city immersed in greenery with impressive bodies of water, bathing in the lazy afternoon sun, all wrapped around by a range of spectacular mountains. I am stunned and fall in love with the city before stepping onto its grounds.

What awaits me here?

A seasoned lawyer gives guidance to young women based on her experiences facing the challenges of building a career and balancing family and personal demands. Nicole Janigian Simonian, an international trade attorney at Crowell & Moring in Los Angeles, shares the advice she would have given her younger self.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “you wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” Remember this, repeat it, and stop living for the approval of others. You will never be able to please everyone.

If only I knew when I started my legal career in 1998 what I know now. It was a time when working 13 billable hours a day was not enough, sleeping under your desk was expected, and going home was a reward.

As a cross-sector international membership organization, we are in a unique and privileged position to connect with so many organizations, large and small, in Canada and the United States. This access affords us a meaningful opportunity to explore what is happening in 'corporate North America' on a topic as important as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The opportunity is twofold. First, we have a wonderful learning opportunity from our members and partners because of our access. Equally important, we can leverage our content platforms to share their insights and initiatives with a broader Canada-U.S. network.

Air Canada has long been recognized as one of Canada's Best Diversity Employers. For the last six consecutive years, Mediacorp Canada Inc. has bestowed this honor to Air Canada for its ongoing commitment to D&I (Diversity and Inclusion). And, it’s my honour to offer a few reflections. I joined Air Canada in the mid-1990’s in the U.S. Call Centre Office in Tampa, Florida. One of my first memories was a widely diverse environment of inclusion like I had never known. And, after spending over two decades with Air Canada; in 4 different states, 6 cities and 2 different countries, I see that it’s a company continuing to walk the walk creating a safe space of inclusion in our workplace and communities alike.

In the global world we live today, embracing our diversity is more important than ever. Art One Translations is a global company empowering businesses to grow internationally. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are at the core of everything we do as the translators bridge the gap between cultures. With our multicultural team living and working in over 75 countries, we convey the messages of our clients not only in the languages of their global audiences but making sure these messages resonate with those audiences on a deeper cultural level and ensuring the usability of the products regardless of their end user's language, culture, or background.

The Alliance for Southern California Innovation (Alliance) is committed to showcasing diversity broadly (e.g. geographic, industrial, and individual diversity) and we deeply believe it is our region's superpower. The Alliance is finishing a communication plan for the SoCal Innovation Ecosystem that seeks to help root, spread, and champion the region's position both locally and abroad. Diversity is a central pillar of that work. In the coming months we will host branding materials on a dedicated website and will start to push out this work with our regional partners across the region.

The murder of George Floyd and subsequent peak of the Black Lives Matter movement in June, 2020 was a huge catalyst for change at Communitech, where Tech for Good has long been a guiding principle. Complacency was not an option, and we realized we had a lot more work to do, as an organization, when it came to equity, diversity and inclusion.The May 2021 discovery of a mass grave of 215 children at a residential school site in Kamloops, B.C merely underscored that our effort can never let up as we work towards reconciliation and change. On July 9, 2020, we assembled an internal Tiger Team with a mandate to actively address diversity, equity and inclusion at our organization. We highlighted our Mission, Objectives and Guiding Principles, made this information available to our team, and made a public promise in our guiding principles on our website.

In the aftermath of a challenging year, both Canada and the US are focused on recovering from the economic and social damage that the COVID pandemic wrought. The crisis has shed an even harsher light on the necessity for more equitable and inclusive societies. The Government of Canada is deeply committed to this goal both at home and abroad. The Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles is naturally at the forefront of this effort given Southern California’s social, cultural, and economic global heft. This offers us the opportunity to project Canadian values, to share Canada’s priorities of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Southwest region, and for our team to engage at all levels and across all sectors, with a focus on equity-deserving groups, particularly women, Latinx and Black communities.

Our Foreign and Public Affairs team has put gender and racial equity at the forefront of cultural and advocacy programming. We continue to engage our Consul General in an ambitious and broad ranging outcall program with diverse stakeholders and seek to profile and support Canadian artists from underrepresented groups. Examples include our Connecting Perspectives initiative, which seeks to connect BIPOC artists from across Canada and the US to create new pieces of art together (virtually) and our partnership with Resolve Philly and our UK colleagues to bring together journalists from Canada, the UK and the US to discuss building structural equity in journalism.

The intelligence, innovation, and passion of our colleagues, acting within an inclusive and diverse global organization, is at the heart of our success at InterVISTAS Consulting Inc. As a company within the RoyalHaskoningDHV group, we have taken stock of our corporate pledge of Enhancing Society Together to ensure we are striving for continuous improvement as an equitable, diverse and inclusive organization and community partner.

In our pursuit of a fully inclusive work community, we have revamped our Inclusion Council, intentionally designed for our associates to collaborate, and make an impact on the company. All members are required to attend four Diversity & Inclusion webinars per year and devote time biweekly to attend collaborative council meetings. During this time, these associates research, advise and recommend inclusion strategies that are presented to our Leadership Team for implementation consideration.

We at QAC, are focusing on diversity infusion into technology transformation programs. This is a very opportune time; many companies are beginning their digital journeys. This means that they must have an upskilling program for their technology organizations. Once you need to upskill/augment your staff, this is the perfect point where diversity can be injected into a technology organization.

Purolator is a diverse organization. For us, this means committing to further conversations and actions around diversity and inclusion within the workplace, and the communities we serve, to help ensure our organization continues to grow as a place where all of us can be treated with respect and equality, while also celebrating our differences.

The key path of success has been to establish safety as the foundation – where occupational health and safety is both our obligation and our commitment. The path to health and safety is how we treat one another (guiding behaviours) coupled with how we listen and act upon feedback (associate insight). Respecting diversity is thus an extension of this foundation, where we acknowledge systemic discrimination exists and we are therefore compelled to act.

At RSM US LLP (RSM), we believe inclusion starts with “I.” This means that each of our 13,000+ professionals across the U.S. and in Canada is committed to doing our part to advance racial understanding and inclusion across our firm and within the 87 communities where our people live and work, including here in Southern California.

Being a woman of color and having had to hustle to get my cybersecurity startup off the ground in Canada, the US, and the UK, I have firsthand experience of sexism, racism, and unconscious bias. It is one of the main reasons why at xahive, I have made it a goal that we have substantial diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, procedures, and goals. It is not just a business goal for xahive, but a life-long personal goal based on my experiences.