The only Black female CEO in the S&P 400 boosted her company’s minority leadership by 50% in 4 years — here’s how she did it – Business Insider
- Lisa Wardell, the CEO of for-profit education company Adtalem, increased racial diversity in her eight-person senior leadership team by 50% over four years.
- Wardell told Business Insider that mentoring underrepresented employees and placing women with no prior board experience in leadership positions helped diversify the company.
- Wardell was also the only Black female CEO in the Fortune 1000 in 2017. Just two Black women have ever been chief executives of Fortune 500 companies.
Many chief executives are only now making commitments to add more underrepresented minorities to boards and senior leadership. Lisa Wardell, CEO of Adtalem, made it her mission when she joined in 2016, and she’s made a difference.
There were no minorities in Adtalem leadership positions four years ago, and Wardell was able to increase leadership diversity by 50%, hiring three other racial minorities to executive and senior vice president positions.
Adtalem is a $1.2 billion for-profit higher education company that operates schools like the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and Chamberlain University.
In an interview with Business Insider, Wardell said that having diverse leadership in place has not only helped her connect with her employees and the students that attend Adtalem schools, but has also made the company more productive.