ROBERT J. ZIMMER: I think anybody who comes and actually
sees this Professional Service Symposium sees
the types of interactions that our vice presidents are having
with these firms, if anybody actually
sees that, they would be very excited to do it themselves.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JOHN W. ROGERS, JR.: My recollection
is that we started talking about this when we were at lunch
and you were concerned about how do we
get more wealth into our community which
would mean you'd have more successful minority
entrepreneurs, more successful minority leaders in business,
and then ultimately some of those success stories
would ultimately end up qualifying
to be on the board of the University of Chicago.
ROBERT J. ZIMMER: The insight of saying
that we needed to think about this in terms
of a different way of approaching minority
and women owned businesses was very important because as you
well know and as you pointed out,
there are so many institutions that think about minority
owned businesses, particularly in terms
of very limited set of opportunities
in terms of facilities, janitorial services.
And that's a very limited set of opportunities for people.
And for the institution, it's not
taking advantage of all the talent that there is out there.
JOHN W. ROGERS, JR.: But one of the things
you understood right away was that the economy has also
evolved over the last generation.
It used to be that our economy was
much more of a manufacturing based economy
and now it's moved into more of a professional services
technology based economy.
And if you are going to be working
with minority owned businesses, you
want to have minority businesses participating
in the parts of the economy that were growing
and where wealth is being created today.
ROBERT J. ZIMMER: Well, part of my job
is to make sure and give people so much framework
for actually helping them do their job better.
And I believed that this program was actually
going to help every vice president do their job better
because they would have access to talent.
And I think that's exactly what's happened.
JOHN W. ROGERS, JR.: Well, the University of Chicago
really is a role model for other universities
throughout the United States.
I think we're still the only university that's
committed to work with minority businesses outside
of traditional construction, catering, commodity
based part of the economy.
And the professional team here has worked so hard
to execute it, not just talk a good game
and make empty promises, people have actually
fulfilled the commitment to really work
with a wide range of businesses.
Not only is Hyde Park a community
that embraces diversity inclusion
and leaves having bringing different ideas
and perspectives.
The university also brings that special perspective
of really respecting different points of view
and realizing when you bring people together
who are going to have rigorous inquiry
and bring different ideas to the table.
ROBERT J. ZIMMER: This whole sense
of not just being an open place but that you
need that openness to actually be great along the lines
that we aspire to.
So just as the issue about bringing talent
is important this issue about being open and welcoming
to diverse points of view, diverse backgrounds,
diverse experiences all of that makes us better
and fits with what it is we're trying to be.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: Melody, 10 years ago when
I first decided that I was going to bring minority
professional service firms to the university
to meet with our senior decision makers,
money management was not an area that I was even thinking about.
And when I met you, one of the first things
you said to me was endowments are not hiring minority money
management firms.
And I don't know if you recall me saying to you that
in order for me to make an impact in that area,
that I was certainly willing to try, but in order
for me to make an impact in that area
I needed you to teach me the industry because I at that time
had no knowledge of investment industry at all.
MELLODY HOBSON: I totally remember that.
First of all, I remember that we met at a speech
that I was giving in the suburbs of Chicago.
And I remember you came up and you spoke to me.
And I started to talk to you immediately about the areas
that I thought needed to be addressed when it came
to minority firms specifically as it related to investment
management.
And that wasn't necessarily about Ariel at all.
It was just in general that this was a problem that I thought
no one was talking about.
And what I loved about that encounter
is that your eyes perked up and you immediately said,
I need to learn about this and what should I do?
And you subsequently followed up with me
and you came to my office.
And I sat down with you and explained to you
how everything worked.
And you had follow up meetings after that
where you would go deeper and deeper to try to understand.
So you said, I want to be informed when I bring this up
and when I advocate for minority firms.
And an informed person advocating
is the very best thing.
And I think that's why you've had such great results.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: And my conversations,
those early conversations with you
were really what enabled me to ultimately sit down
and have detailed discussions with our endowment team.
At the end of the day, me bringing in initially
about 15 firms.
And the university, two years after that, we
hired our first two African-American money
management firms and now we have about 12 minority
and women-owned investment firms.
MELLODY HOBSON: Here's what I think is great.
One, you wanted knowledge.
And you realized that knowledge would be power.
And that gave you, I think, a great deal of confidence
when you went in to have the conversation with the endowment
team.
Two, because you had done your homework,
I'm sure they were much more open to the conversation.
You hadn't done a light rinse.
You'd gone deep on the subject matter.
And I'm sure that made for a very, very
fulfilling discussion back and forth
and perhaps some aha moments on their side as well.
And I think you have to give them
a lot of credit for being open to the discussion
and ultimately moving on the issue in terms of firms
actually being hired over the course of the last few years,
which I think is not only noteworthy it's something
to be applauded.
I am sure those firms were hired on their merits.
And the great thing about the investment business
is the results are the results.
As I like to say math has no opinion.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: So why do you
think minority firms have such a challenge with getting
opportunities with endowments and foundations as well?
MELLODY HOBSON: I think there are a number of reasons
that we have a hard time with endowments and foundations
around the country and in various parts
of the nonprofit world.
I think some of it is just people
are used to working with the people
that they've known for a very long time
and it's very hard to break in.
I think that's true in life.
But I think this area is particularly
hard wired around some long term relationships.
I think the other thing is that unfortunately we
don't necessarily get the opportunity
to get in front of everyone in the way
that we would hope to so that we could make our case
face to face and eyeball to eyeball and hopefully
be convincing and compelling.
And I think the other thing is there's clearly
institutional bias that is in certain organizations.
I'm not calling people racist.
I'm not trying to create any form of defensiveness.
I'm just saying that when you look
at the history of something over very long periods of time
and you see that no one has ever broken through,
you just have to ask your self some questions
about the process and what bias is creeping
in that's keeping people out.
So I think there are a host of reasons why that has happened.
I'm hopeful also that University of Chicago's leadership
in this regard will break down some barriers
for firms like Ariel and other firms all over the country.
I mean this is super important what has happened
at University of Chicago.
PAT QUINN: : We want to keep this movement going.
It's so important for the university and for our state.
But it also serves as a model for other major institutions
in our state of Illinois.
PRAKHAR BANSAL: I'm marveled actually by the system
that we have in the US, that it gave me the opportunity
to come here from India 16 years ago
and gave me an education and an opportunity
to have a better life.
And I think that's the sort of similar framework
you could say that we have in this diversity symposium
to include people from all backgrounds, all ethnicities.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: I was really excited
when we decided to partner with you
because Johnson Publishing and your father
were such an icon here in Chicago and around the world
as well.
And it just seemed right that the university
would partner with you.
LINDA JOHNSON RICE: Yeah, actually it turned out
to be a great partnership.
And I thank you for leading that charge
and for the University of Chicago
for being so I think forthright and forthcoming and innovative
and almost really cutting edge in coming to us,
coming to Ebony to really have a partnership to really talk
about diversity and the platforms
that the University of Chicago could offer as far as diversity
is concerned.
And then to come to Ebony which is,
I think, a great platform it turned out to be,
I think, a really great partnership for both.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: But it really
was the first time the University of Chicago
had ever ran an ad campaign in a national magazine
and also a magazine that really was
geared towards the African-American community.
LINDA JOHNSON RICE: Right.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: And so it
was huge for the university to take that step
and say, we want to start targeting
the African-American community on a national scale
and looking at how we can utilize this platform
to diversify our student body at the university.
LINDA JOHNSON RICE: To be able to partner
with Ebony just gave--
I think for the university, it was a smart move for them
to directly target the African-American community
in a space with a vehicle like Ebony
that is very well-respected, very authentic, very
well-regarded.
And so therefore it gave credibility
for the University of Chicago, and it
showed their real sincerity towards wanting
to reach this community.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: And then we went
and we took the magazine live essentially.
LINDA JOHNSON RICE: Yeah.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: And this is really
where I would say the second part
of the innovation of this relationship took place.
And we did a education roundtable.
LINDA JOHNSON RICE: Yeah.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: Just for me,
sitting back and watching how the two groups,
the university's creative team worked with your creative team
to pull off this event.
And I think we did that in probably a month.
LINDA JOHNSON RICE: Yeah.
I know that was a very short frame.
And I remember Tamron Hall was the host
as you said from MSNBC.
And MSNBC did carry the live feed of it, I believe.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: Yes.
LINDA JOHNSON RICE: So that was wonderful.
But, yeah.
You know we came together as partners.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: Yeah.
LINDA JOHNSON RICE: We came together
in building a relationship and building a relationship that
was going to lead to a purposeful outcome for both.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: Yeah.
LINDA JOHNSON RICE: For both entities.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
KIM TAYLOR: What's most helpful to us
is when somebody talks about their individual expertise
and how they approach their work.
Because the most important part about this symposium
is the opportunity to get a feel and a comfort
level for the people that you may be calling to hire.
LAUREL PYKE MALSON: The opportunity
for me and for the women and minority partners working
with me for this university to represent
it has been significant and one that we are really
unlikely to have gotten but for the exposure brought
by this program.
That is because, even in large successful diversity
aware law firms, women and lawyers of color including
partners are all too often invisible, invisible to firm
clients and potential clients, and
to our white male colleagues who are the most frequent referral
sources of business.
JULIE SCOTT: Starting with the symposium as I mentioned,
we had the opportunity to have a one on one
session with actual constituents who might actually
need our services in finance, accounting, HR, and IT.
And with that they helped open all the doors from there.
They made it easy for us.
They made the introductions.
They were there to encourage us, to coach us, make us laugh.
Then it moved into a true collaboration
not just as another vendor but as a partner.
And I don't use that lightly.
It was a true game changer for us.
JAMES S. WILLIAMS, JR.: We, at one time,
didn't have any diverse law firms working
with our legal team; now we have two.
We've brought on two information technology
firms; one that has helped us to redesign
our internet, another firm that has done leadership development
with our senior leadership.
Another firm is right now working
with our entire senior leadership in our diversity
inclusion initiative throughout the organization.
So these started as small relationships
where people just met to full blown presentations
to full blown contracts now that are actually working with us
over a long period of time.
ARNE DUNCAN: What this university is doing
is unprecedented.
This idea of an elite institution
and amazing research and academic institution
bringing in fantastic professionals to help them grow
and to help them prosper.
Unfortunately, you can probably count on one hand, if that,
the number of universities around the nation who
have this kind of long term commitment and not just
talk but action.
LESTER H. McKEEVER, JR.: Working with the University of Chicago,
the Medical Center, and Argonne Lab has been great for us.
And this relationship suggests a wonderful intellectual
environment.
We are privileged to be partners with the university,
and it is inspiring to work with the brilliant people
at every level of this organization.
The Professional Service Symposium
is designed to inspire and help minority professional firms
pursue their destiny.
ALEJANDRA Y. CASTILLO, ESQ.: The University of Chicago
is unique because, as you can see in today's symposium,
there is such a wealth of companies
that are bringing forth their best products,
their best thinking.
They're bringing efficiencies.
They're bringing innovation.
So from that perspective the University of Chicago
is ahead of its time because it's really making sure
that minority owned firms are truly integral to the fabric
of the university.
And I think again, as I said before, this
is a testament of its success.
CHRISTOPHER J. WILLIAMS: The fact
that the University of Chicago provides
a forum where firms can come in, present their skills,
and hear what the needs are of the university, that's
very helpful to us in terms of growing our business.
ROSIE RIOS: So it does make a difference when you
invest in your people, right?
There's three pillars of investment.
There's financial capital, physical capital,
and human capital.
I constantly say that human capital
continues to be the best investment that we can make.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: So the symposium, I think,
has really been successful because of the commitment
of the vice presidents but also taking
the time to really get that buy in early on.
DEREK R.B. DOUGLAS: One of the powerful things
about the symposium over the nine years
has been to see the way that the vice presidents who
lead the areas and do the procurement have embraced it.
And not only embraced but kind of look forward
to it every year.
And both connecting with the businesses and the companies
and meeting new ones, but also kind of connecting
with each other and pushing each other
to see how they can do more.
And one of the things I'm excited about for the future is
thinking about how we can move the envelope even further
and setting ambitious goals perhaps even by department,
which I think will help with the ambition of the vice presidents
and their teams to really think about how can we
strive for more opportunity, more firms that they work with.
I think will also help with accountability
because when you have goals and you're looking and measuring
yourself each and every year to see how you're performing
against the goals, it gives you a measure of am I living up
to that, am I hitting it or not.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: We clearly
have the commitment there but now
the next step is to have that commitment
and that accountability which will really
increase the level of business that we're
doing with the minority and women-owned businesses.
So I think it's really important that we also
look to engage these businesses for a long term basis
and not just having these one-off opportunities.
So I think the accountability piece
and setting the goals will really
help us so that we can also see how many years have we actually
done business with some of these firms
and what the true economic impact is
for those firms as well as locally here in Chicago
and nationally as well.
DEREK R.B. DOUGLAS: One of the things that I'm proudest of,
and I know you are too, has been how
this program has become a model, people are looking to it.
And I sometimes get asked, what are the key ingredients
to make this successful?
A lot of places have Business Diversity programs,
but they're not getting the results that we're getting.
And I always start with you have to have
the leadership at the top.
And this initiative wouldn't be what
it is without John Rogers on our board, Bob Zimmer our president
really setting the tone in terms of the importance
to the university, the value, putting their own time
and energy into it, being ambassadors for it.
Every time John speaks, he talks about it.
And I think that leadership is key
but you also need the people to execute, someone like yourself.
And it's important that your role is a senior role
within the university.
You're not in the bowels of the institution.
You're at a senior level which enables
you to have direct access and engage with the vice president
and the decision makers who are having these contracts,
opportunities.
And I tell people that if you really want to be successful,
you have to have the person driving the day to day
that can be in the room.
It's in the room with the people making the decisions
because it's relationship based and it's influence based.
And I think that's a critical part of it.
So those are kudos to you as well.
You've built this over 10 years but I
think some of those key elements are what contributed
to making it so successful.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: Yeah.
And I think that's really important
in professional services because these opportunities they don't
go through procurement, right?
So when a vice president is looking
to hire a financial firm they're picking up the phone
and they're calling someone they know, someone that they've had
long term relationships with.
DEREK R.B. DOUGLAS: One of the things
I'm really excited about on the 10 year anniversary
is your decision to create an award
to give to the vice president or the department that
in your estimation for that year has really performed
at an extremely high level in creating
opportunities and cultivating opportunities for minority
firms in their space.
NADIA M. QUARLES, ESQ.: Yeah.
It will be nice to have a legacy, an award named
after him because he's done so much work in this area.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
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