ALF Senior Fellow Barry Williams (Class XX) recently published an executive summary of 100 Black Voices: Black Corporate Directors Video Archive Project, which aims to conduct 85-100 video interviews of leading black corporate directors and create a video library for educational purposes. The video archive will document the corporate board experiences, insights, and perspectives of leading black directors. This executive summary presents compelling insights and best practices for selecting boards, building individual effectiveness, and improving board diversity.
This summary of key findings from 100 Black Voices seeks to help:
- Sitting directors who want to identify and mentor new minority directors, make more effective contributions, and have impact in the critical next five years
- Aspiring minority board candidates looking to land their first board appointment and become effective board members
- Public and private companies seeking to increase board diversity
- Search, investment management, regulatory, and DEI advocacy organizations working to help organizations achieve board diversity, and express stakeholder concerns
Barry Lawson Williams is a retired entrepreneur and director of 14 corporate boards. Since 2012, he has focused on promoting diversity on corporate boards and mentoring black professionals. He has conducted studies on financial planning and corporate director succession planning for black professionals, as well as his recent study on the experiences of 50 seasoned black directors on corporate boards.
Barry is currently teaching a two-year course on professional development for post-MBA minorities and supports two minority-oriented venture firms. He has developed and taught a black entrepreneurship course at the Haas Business School.
