We are proud to see several Diageo leaders included in the 2023 Empower Role Model Lists, the annual ranking that showcases international business leaders who are breaking down barriers for people of colour and actively driving a more inclusive working environment.

Chief Executive Ivan Menezes and General Counsel Tom Shropshire have been included in the Executive List, with Chief HR Officer Louise Prashad included in the Advocate List. Malcolm Ellis, Diageo North America Pronghorn Lead, is featured in the Future Leaders List.

The inclusion of Ivan, Tom, and Louise is in recognition of their commitment to championing diversity in the workplace, creating an environment where everyone can thrive, as well as setting stretching ambitions for the future to enable our business to grow. This includes our Society 2030: Spirit of Progress ambition to increase the representation of leaders from ethnically diverse backgrounds to 45% by 2030, with the figure today standing at 41%.

Ivan was recently knighted as part of the King’s New Year’s Honours list, which cited his commitment to championing diversity across British business. Tom is the Sponsor of Diageo’s REACH (Race, Ethnicity, and Culture Heritage) resource group, and together with Louise has close involvement with the AHEAD (African Heritage Employees at Diageo) resource group in North America and our other ethnic resource groups globally. Malcolm’s recognition highlights his work with Pronghorn, a standalone business venture that partners with Diageo to cultivate the next generation of Black entrepreneurs, executive leaders, and founders within the spirits industry. He is also a founding and active member of AHEAD.

Diageo’s commitment to ethnic diversity

Diageo already has a diverse workforce, with 27,000 people in over 70 countries. However, we want to ensure we have ethnic diversity at every level of our business, and through the setting of goals, the introduction of industry-leading policies, as well as various other initiatives, we have seen real progress. 

In addition to our Society 2030 ambition of achieving 45% representation of ethnically diverse employees across leadership, we have embedded an Ethnic Diversity Framework to support our markets in defining stretching, action orientated, multi-year inclusion and diversity plans. 

We continue to make local commitments to promote ethnic diversity. For example, last year Pronghorn made the first of 57 investments in North American, Black-owned spirits brands that will be made over the next ten years. In March, Diageo partnered with the Black FMCG Collective to host its inaugural event in London, bringing together advocates from our peers to celebrate and discuss how we can diversify the FMCG industry, and in 2021 we introduced Origens in Brazil, a tailor-made hiring and development programme to increase ethnic diversity amongst our workforce.

Diageo also works hard to champion ethnic diversity with our suppliers and partners, and we ask our marketing agencies to share details of representation of their ownership. 

To view the 2023 Empower Role Model Lists, visit: https://empower.involverolemodels.org