Wells Fargo CEO Sloan Signs Diversity and Inclusion Pledge

CEO Tim Sloan has signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ pledge, promising to further advance diversity and inclusion (D&I) at Wells Fargo by completing specific actions. Sloan is one of more than 250 CEOs and senior executives from other large companies in the U.S. who have signed it.

“Reaching any ambitious goal requires a specific, sustained commitment from leaders and engagement from all levels of the company, including our board of directors,” Sloan said. “At Wells Fargo, D&I is a core value, and we’ve made substantial progress in areas like developing diverse leaders, growing our diverse supplier base, lending to diverse customers, and supporting diverse nonprofit partners. We are working hard to build an even better Wells Fargo and to move closer to the goals we set for ourselves — both for our own team members and for the customers we serve. Learning from other great companies is one way to make that happen.”

The pledge says that the CEOs and senior executives will increase equity for all, including African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, members of the LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, veterans, and women.

CEOs and senior executives who sign the pledge commit to track their progress and share updates as they achieve three initial goals:

• Creating and maintaining environments in their workplaces that allow for conversations about diversity and inclusion.
• Implementing and expanding “unconscious bias” education to help employees recognize, acknowledge, and minimize any potential blind spots they may have.
• Sharing successful and unsuccessful programs and initiatives they have established around diversity and inclusion.

By signing the pledge, Sloan submitted examples of successful practices at Wells Fargo that advance diversity and inclusion. One is the Diverse Leaders program, which provides three-day sessions for team members who identify as Asian & Pacific Islander, Black/African American, Latino, or LGBT to develop leadership skills. Another is the Supplier Diversity program, which aims to increase the amount of money Wells Fargo spends with vendors that are certified as minority, women, LGBT, veteran, disabled, and small business enterprises. Wells Fargo has committed to spend 15 percent of procurement dollars with certified diverse suppliers by 2020. In 2016, the company spent about $1.1 billion, or almost 12 percent, with diverse suppliers.

In May, DiversityInc magazine named Wells Fargo No. 9 on its list of Top 50 Companies for Diversity. The magazine also named Wells Fargo one of the Top Companies for LGBT employees, No. 13 on its Top 15 Companies for Veterans, and No. 10 on its Top 13 Companies for Diversity Councils.