Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder & CEO, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Hank Williams, CEO of Kloudco, a cloud information management company.  (Photo credit: Andrea Stinson/Stills by Stinson)

   
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Rainbow PUSH Hosts Detroit Forum on Diversity in Tech Industry

By Karen Hudson Samuels/Tell Us Detroit

DETROIT (Tell Us Det) - The tech companies of Silicon Valley are being challenged to have their workplaces reflect the diversity of America. The wake-up call to change the face of technology is being delivered by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and many leading tech companies are starting to respond.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson brought this message of diversity and inclusion in technology to a forum in Detroit titled “Dream Makers, Risk Takers and Money Makers” in partnership with Google.

The event, held Monday evening at the Madison Building, featured a panel of minority CEO’s and leaders who shared their experiences and perspectives on diversity in the tech industry of Silicon Valley and beyond.

Haji Flemings, CEO of Brand Camp University, moderated the panel, asking a range questions on the access to opportunities, the value of diversity and capital for business start-ups.

Chris Genteel, Google Head of Diversity Markets and Supplier Diversity, said his company wants to expand their pool of technologists, “We know there is a huge gap between the jobs that are available in Silicon Valley and throughout the United States and those who are available to take those jobs today”.

Closing the gap is a long term initiative for Google and includes recruiting at historically black colleges. “Google wants to influence kids to see that tech is “cool” and a viable career option for them” said Genteel who is based out Ann Arbor.

The question of diversity being an advantage to companies was asked and answered with this observation: Many firms have come to recognize that diversity in the workplace is a necessity and not just a policy given the global war on talent.

However, the conversation needs to shift, “Diversity should not be an objective but who we are” said Angel Gambino, CEO of The Alchemists Collective. She said her company, located in Corktown, employs women African Americans, a Palestinian and an Indian working. “We should be the thing we are trying to create”.

The challenge of getting minority access to capital to fund an innovative business idea was discussed by the panel with a sobering dose of reality.

“A lot of our friends have ideas, but conducting business is where we are lacking. We don’t know how to take an idea and turn it into a company so that we can be at the table to get some of the funding” said Matt Woodford, President and CEO of Victory Mobile, LLC.

Ideas that get funded are companies, they actually have a model for their idea to enter the market, they have registered as LLC’s, and they have business plans that put them in the position to get funding said Woodford.

So is Detroit, given its demographics, a blueprint for what an inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem looks like?

Jill Ford, a former Silicon Valley angel investor and relative new comer to Detroit did her own research on the city’s bankruptcy and saw in Detroit “An inspiring set of assets” that if put together the right way could “generate substantial revenue and social impact.”

Ford left San Francisco where also worked for Disney and Microsoft, to take a position as a Special Advisor to Mayor Mike Duggan and as Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Gambino, another west coast transplant said “I think we could potentially have a bigger impact than even Silicon Valley, I know that’s bold to say” but she added that Detroit can succeed it incorporates inclusivity into social enterprises, through the triple bottom line (financial, social and environmental) approach to technology advancements.

The facts on minority employment by technology companies came to light in 2014 when Rainbow PUSH succeeded in getting over two dozen leading tech firm to release their EEO-1 reports on workforce.

The findings revealed that “African Americans, Latinos, and women are woefully underrepresented in the boardrooms, tope leadership and general workforce, tech and non-tech.”

The Rev, Jesse Jackson, Rainbow PUSH Coalition President, also participated in a fireside chat at the event. “Revealing the data and being transparent is just a first step, and there is much more work to be done to meet the challenge of transforming the tech industry to resemble the America it depends upon for talent and customers.”
A growing list of companies have answered the clarion call of Rev. Jackson for diverse and inclusive work spaces including, Intel, HP, Yahoo!, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Facebook, and Cisco.


 

 

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