A Note on the Rise of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Titles — And Why it’s Likely to Continue

By Anastasia Bogomolov

“The pandemic is not agnostic to issues of power, privilege, or equity…This is a clear example of the very issues that diversity and inclusion initiatives are designed to address.” — Maxine Williams, Facebook’s Chief Diversity Officer

Earlier in the year, we published an article around the importance — and steady increase — of diversity and inclusion (D&I) job titles in corporate America. To backtrack, after noticing a trend in ZoomInfo’s database which showed not just the rise in D&I roles (by approximately 113% in the last five years) but also an uptick in rates of online research conducted on the topic, it was clear that something interesting was taking shape in the realm of D&I.

In the first half of 2020, according to ZoomInfo data, around 40% of Fortune 500 companies employed director titles with “diversity” and “inclusion.” The last half of 2020, however, saw the number of people in “diversity” and “inclusion” increase by ~200%, or nearly tripling from the beginning of the year.

Figure 1: The first half of 2020 saw only 40% of Fortune 500 employ someone with a director-level title or above in D&I; the second half of the year witnessed an increase of nearly 200% of titles in D&I.

In 2021, we’re betting against a trend that sees Fortune 500 companies sans D&I execs; in other words, employees will continue to prioritize working for companies who make diversity and inclusion a priority, and hiring will follow suit.

Speaking of hiring, here is a list that’s derived from our platform and highlights the latest exec moves in D&I:

1. Garima Tyagi is the Head Diversity & HR Business Partner at Verizon based in New York City, New York.
2. Bonita White is the Director, Diversity & Inclusion at the Department of Health and Human Services
3. Latasha Gillespie is the Head of Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Amazon.com
4. Namrata Yadav is the Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Learning Strategy at Bank of America
5. Traci Wade is the Senior Director, Diversity at Oracle
6. Erica Dean is the Senior Director, Inclusion & Diversity at Comcast
7. Michelle Charles is the Global Cs Diversity & Inclusion Head at SAP
8. Wendy Lewis is the Diversity Head at McDonald’s
9. Leonor Ayala is the Senior Director, Diversity & Inclusion at NBCUniversal
10. Scott Ballina is the Senior Director, Diversity at Citrix

This is but a small sample that’s indicative of a growing trend in D&I — a promising career path that’s solidifying its place in corporate culture and abroad.

To browse through more consequential go-to-market trends and 2021 business predictions, continue on to ZoomInfo’s latest Annual Report: Going-to-Market Smarter in the New Economy.

Anastasia Bogomolov is a Content, Data and Food Enthusiast; here to serve you (data-driven) stories.

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