Believing that organizations with a demonstrated commitment to corporate social responsibility and diversity, equity and inclusion create greater value for their clients and the communities they serve, Northern Trust Asset Management has added several initiatives and expanded others in its efforts to recruit, retain and promote a high-caliber diverse workforce. For one, it’s conducted industrywide conversations during the pandemic and social unrest in 2020 that addressed DE&I issues. In an internal discussion series, employees shared personal experiences to foster open conversations topics including race. “We define diversity as the quality of inclusiveness of gender, ethnicity, experience and perspective, all of which enrich us as a company and enable us to better serve a diverse client base, including advisers,” said Shundrawn Thomas, president of Northern Trust Asset Management. “Along with passion, competence, intellectual curiosity and humility, diversity is one of our shared values or beliefs that help shape our culture and inform our policies and practices.”
NTAM also has increased from 10% to 15% the firm’s target for commissions paid on equity trades executed through minority brokers in all of its collective investment trusts with trading activity and called for all boards globally, through its proxy committee, to be at least 20% female. It also increased to 65% the ethnic/gender diversity of its 17-member executive committee. Its parent, Northern Trust, committed to provide $100 million in low-cost loans to assist Community Development Financial Institutions in helping communities hard hit by the pandemic and $20 million over five years to expand access to food, housing, health care and education.
Contact: Connie L. Lindsey, head of corporate social responsibility and global diversity, equity and inclusion, cl5@ntrs.com.
— Evan Cooper