The Olin Diversity Council and the Entrepreneurial & Venture Capital Association along with the Weston Career Center hosted “Why Emerging Firms Care about Inclusion” this past April 12th in Knight Hall. The event had fifty people in attendance from the Olin community and local firms.
The keynote speaker Natalie Clay, from Practical Diversity Solutions, gave an enthusiastic speech about the business case for innovation and inclusion. She gave real world solutions to increase not only diversity in small firms but more importantly inclusion efforts and how to measure success.
After Natalie’s speech the panel facilitated by Olin’s own Cambrie Nelson, MBA’17 , discussed their own work around these issues. The panel was honored to have Dr. Cheryl Watkins-Moore, Director of Bioscience & Entrepreneurial Inclusion at BioSTL; Kaori Yazawa, Program Manager at Venture Café; Alex Haimann, MBA’12, Head of Business Development at Less Annoying CRM; and Sandra Marks, Senior Vice President at Clayco.
After the event the audience was invited to networking and discussion about topics raised by the panel and how to increase inclusion in the work we do at Olin and in St. Louis at large. All participants on the panel agreed to work with the Olin Diversity Council and the Entrepreneurial & Venture Capital Association in future events. The ODC and EVCA appreciate the support from Weston Career Center to help make this event a reality.
Guest blogger: Cassandra Jensen, MSW, LCSW, PMBA 36
