Aspiring Black professionals, take note: the Black Executive CMO Alliance is here to help you.
Black Enterprise has revealed that marketing executives from 26 of the world’s most influential brands and companies have banded together to form this newly-formed alliance, which aims to champion diversity at the executive level.
Going by its acronym BECA, the Black Executive CMO Alliance is headed up by Jerri DeVard, the Former Exec VP/Chief Customer Officer at Office Depot Inc. DeVard told Black Enterprise that she helped form BECA because she knows what it feels like to be the only Black executive at a corporation, and wanted other aspiring Black professionals to not feel the same way she once did.
“I’ve been the lonely-only too many times and I’m personally aware of the isolation that comes along with it. It makes you keenly aware of just how different you are, not only because of your gender and race but because of what experiences come from being different, and those differences are not always valued or supported with the fervor given to others,” she said.
Executives from such companies as Netflix, Amazon Studios, Nationwide Insurance, and Peloton are also part of the Black Executive CMO Alliance.
The formation of BECA couldn’t have come at a better time: according to NBC News, Black representation at corporations is still largely non-existent. Less than 1 percent of all Fortune 500 CEOs are Black, 3.2 percent of executives and senior manager-level employees are Black, and nearly 60 percent of all Black executives have said that they experienced racism on the job.
