Harvard program targets diversity at highest levels

The Boston Globe
By Dave Copeland, Globe Correspondent July 1, 2009

Minority executives find support and direction from faculty and one another

Ursula M. Burns takes over as chief executive of Xerox Corp. today, making her the first African-American woman to head a Standard & Poor’s 100 company. Harvard Business School professor David A. Thomas is impressed by Burns’s ascension. But not that much.
“When you consider all the women of color that went into the pipeline for these jobs 25 or 30 years ago, having just one rise to the top means we have a long way to go,’’ said Thomas, who is also the business school’s faculty chair.
Last week, Thomas and his colleagues at Harvard kicked off Next Generation Executive, a program aimed at improving that track record in corporate America. Nearly 30 minority executives from around the country were invited to be part of the first class and spend a week attending intensive sessions at the school aimed at helping them advance even higher. The sessions will be followed up with six months of coaching and culminate with a retreat in Naples, Fla., in December.
“It’s always healthy to get together to exchange ideas with people who are facing similar challenges,’’ said Rudy Wynter, a senior vice president for customers and markets at National Grid PLC in New York, an electric utility. Wynter, who is African-American, was one of 28 executives invited to participate in the program. “Clearly, we’re learning from the faculty at Harvard, but we’re also learning from each other.’’
The Partnership Inc., a Boston-based workplace diversity organization, is partnering with the school to sponsor Next Generation Executive. While in Cambridge, the executives participated in sessions on subjects ranging from managing talent to emerging markets. The costs were paid by the executives’ companies.
“There’s a misconception that there’s not enough talent in the pipeline,’’ said Beverly Edgehill, president and chief executive of Partnership. “We see that the talent is there - what we needed to do was bring them together and get them poised to take the next step.’’
But Lee H. Igel, an assistant professor at New York University who specializes in management and organizational behavior, said programs like Next Generation Executive “may be based on old assumptions.’’ Igel stopped short of proclaiming that corporate America is now “post-racial,’’ but he said everything from Burns’s appointment to the election of Barack Obama as president show significant progress has been made in breaking down racial barriers.

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