Right now, our country is fighting two pandemics – COVID-19 and systemic racism – both of which are significantly disadvantaging, hindering, and harming Black, Brown, and Indigenous people of color. To ensure the life sciences industry is addressing these issues head-on, MassBio recently expanded our equity, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I) initiative and issued an Open Letter 2.0 – The CEO Pledge for a More Equitable and Inclusive Life Sciences Industry. So far, the response from our members has been heartening.
As of writing this, over 160 CEOs have signed the Pledge. In doing so, these CEO’s aren’t merely paying lip service to diversity and inclusion, but rather committing themselves to ingraining equity, diversity, and inclusion into every aspect of their organization from the top-down. These CEOs represent the breadth of the industry – from small startups to large pharma companies and everything in between. We’ve seen companies with robust human resources and diversity departments sign, and we’ve also seen small biotechs with limited resources who are eager to implement scalable ED&I solutions over time. Signing this Pledge is a long-term commitment dedicated to moving the industry forward, and MassBio is here to help everyone who needs it through one-on-one meetings, forums, and ample shared resources.
MassBio’s President & CEO Bob Coughlin recently sat down with me for an open discussion on how MassBio is leading way on ED&I initiatives, and what our members can do to get involved and drive change.
To learn more and meet fellow industry professionals focused on ED&I, I encourage you to register for our 3rd Annual ED+I Conference where we will further address the critical role of executive leadership in promoting and cultivating equity, diversity, inclusion, and culture in their companies. You can register and view the full agenda, here.
To learn more about our Open Letter 2.0 and see how MassBio can assist our members with achieving their ED&I goals, please visit our Diversity & Inclusion Resource Page.