Marketing, Communications and Advocacy

ELC DEPARTMENTAL UPDATES

MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS AND ADVOCACY

DEPARTMENT LEAD Libi Sprow Rice

VP/Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

Grounding Our Mission, Elevating Our Brand

The Marketing and Communications team continued stronger supportive collaboration and strategic partnership across the business in programming areas and throughout the enterprise to provide market research, analytics, planning, partnership development and strategy to enhance The ELC presence in the marketplace of ideas. This year, the department amplified awareness of The ELC brand and elevated the thought-leadership of ELC President & CEO, Mike Hyter, through several strategic brand partnerships and media engagements. From The NFL, Forbes Magazine, CNBC and CNN Business to continued collaborations with Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, The Boule and The Links, The ELC was effectively positioned to host critical conversations, Black corporate talent and opportunities to accelerate progress towards stated diversity, equity and inclusion goals in corporate America. The department has several key initiatives that defined The ELC’s progress towards its mission to highlight for 2022.

The ELC’s Influence Demonstrated in Social Media Growth

The Executive Leadership Council commands the second largest Black executive audience on LinkedIn, second only to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), with more than 194,000 active followers who generate more than 1 million impressions of our content across the platform each month. Spurred by an increased cadence of posted articles, research and professional development tools tailored for our ELC members and scholars, The ELC is a credible and essential organization to follow for Black professionals seeking data and insights into how to navigate an evolving corporate workforce, find best-in-class tools for professional development, and stay well-informed of news that centers Black talent.

CEO LinkedIn Chats

• January: ELC Business Brief, “Voting Rights and

American Democracy,” featured speaker Congressman G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), 114th United States

Congress • March: ELC Business Brief, “Women’s History

Month,” featured speaker Jalina Porter, Principal

Deputy Spokesperson, U.S. Department of State • June: ELC Business Brief, “LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in the Workplace,” featured speaker Lanaya Irvin,

President & CEO, Coqual • December: ELC Business Brief, “Making the

Business Case for DEI in Corporate America: Why

It Has Failed and How We Can Do Better,” featured speakers Stacie de Armas, SVP, Diverse Insights,

Intelligence and Initiatives, Nielson; Jeff Green,

Stay connected with The ELC across social media by following us on:

SOCIAL MEDIA TOTALS

FOLLOWERS 231,804

POSTS 2,283

IMPRESSIONS 31,111,626

ENGAGEMENTS 1,541,337

Corporate Culture Reporter, Bloomberg; Melonie

Parker, Chief Diversity Officer, Google; and Seung-

Hwan Jeong, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia.

The December event was The ELC’s first livestreamed thought leadership conversation featuring ELC members, strategic partners and external LinkedIn followers. Nearly 800 senior and mid-level executives from various industries, including finance, human resources, marketing, non-profits, media, healthcare, and others were attracted to this critical DEI conversation. This event allowed us to feature The ELC Legacy Committee report, Beyond Promises to Progress: Black CEOs and C-Suite Officers Speak Out on Diversity, released in December 2021.

The ELC Testimonial Video

In supporting Mike Hyter’s creation of The ELC’s 3-5 year strategic vision for the organization, the Marketing and Communications team created a testimonial video that was presented to the ELC Board in June. The video is a collection of interviews with various ELC stakeholders, including F500 CEOs and Board Directors, corporate sponsors, Institute partners, staff and current members who discuss the value of The ELC in fulfilling their goals and meeting their various needs. Click here to hear from:

Leah Wade

Director, Philanthropy The Executive Leadership Council

Dmitri Stockton

Board Member Target Corporation, Deere & Company, Ryder System, Inc.

Shari Slate

Chief Inclusion & Collaboration Officer & SVP, Inclusive Future & Strategy Cisco

Christophe Beck

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Ecolab

David Rawlinson II

President & CEO Qurate Retail Group

Carla Harris

Senior Client Advisor Morgan Stanley

ELC Advocacy Update

The ELC advocacy agenda was robust in 2022. The advocacy staff conducted 135 meetings with Capitol Hill offices and a meeting with the Senate Banking Committee regarding The ELC’s four advocacy priorities — voting rights, corporate diversity, HBCUs, supply chain diversity and workforce development. The team also employed social media, letters to Congress, written statements and events as communication tactics. The ELC was successful in influencing three pieces of legislation pending action on the Hill.

An ELC $5,000.00 advocacy donation was presented to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to support the LDF efforts at the U. S. Supreme to uphold Affirmative Action.

Inaugural Advocacy Day

The ELC held its first Advocacy Day virtually on the Hill to advocate for the ELC’s four priorities with almost 20 members of Congress and/or staff. ELC members met with 20 bipartisan leaders from the House and the Senate to inform them of The ELC’s organizational priority to advocate for these issues and to understand the work Members of Congress are doing to move these issues forward.

Meetings included members or staff from the following offices:

Senate

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)

House of Representatives

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL19) Rep. French Hill (R-AR02) Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL07) Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA03) Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL13) Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC12) Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC06)

ELC members participating in the meeting were encouraged to take the following actions in support of The ELC’s advocacy priorities.

Voting Rights: Encourage corporate leaders to contact their elected officials to express support for Voting Rights and the protection of democracy. Consider sponsoring voter registration drives for employees or at local universities.

Corporate Diversity: Support the release of enterprise diversity data – to include leadership demographics.

HBCUs: Publicly support the bipartisan bill – H.R.3294 - IGNITE HBCU Excellence Act – which will provide billions in infrastructure support for HBCUs or share a letter of support.

Supplier Diversity: Expand opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses to secure contracts with your enterprise. Support expanding the qualifications of the SBA’s 7(A) and 8(A) programs.

Workforce Development: Champion equitable access to apprenticeship and work-based learning programs in your enterprise.

Additional advocacy efforts include:

Hosted Joint Networking Reception during CBCF week with the Boule and The Links where Rep. Joyce Beatty, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, accepted a $25,000 joint donation from the three organizations to support a CBCF “ELC/Links/Boule” Fellowship.  Partnered with Black Economic Alliance on voting rights programming and other efforts to promote issues aligned with The ELC’s strategic advocacy pillar  Launched Advocacy Dashboard to measure progress

against The ELC Advocacy Strategic Pillars  Partnered with UNCF to support HBCUs impacted by bomb threats  Partnered with National Urban League  Supported the HBCU Caucus in championing the passage of the HBCU infrastructure bill

Welcomed two new Chairs of the Advocacy Committee:

 Tiffany Atwell – SVP, Global Government

Relations, Ecolab  Lori George Billingsley – Board Director, Shake

Shack

ELC Top Media Mentions of 2022

Yahoo Finance: The Executive Leadership Council Announces the Appointment of Lori Walker as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer January 12, 2022

Black Enterprise: Frank Clyburn, A Top Executive At Merck, Tapped As CEO At International Flavors & Fragrances January 21, 2022 - by Jeffrey McKinney

Miami Herald: Black superstars can’t obscure NFL’s lack of Black coaches” instead of just the link to the Miami piece. February 2022

Forbes: America’s Best Large Employers February 10, 2022 - by Samantha Todd

The Atlanta Voice: Kala Gibson Selected to Executive Leadership Council’s Class of 2022 February 17, 2022

Cincinnati Business Journal: Fifth Third

executive joins prestigious national diversity and inclusion group February 22, 2022 - by Steve Watkins

UNCF: UNCF Board Changes: Corporate America Stepping Up to Support UNCF’s Strategy to Prepare HBCUs for the Future April 11, 2022

Fortune: The number of Black Fortune 500 CEOs returns to record high—meet the 6 chief executives May 23, 2022 - by Paige McGlauflin

Afrotech: The Fortune 500 List Has A ‘Record Number’ Of Black CEOs — But There’s Still Only 6 Of Them May 30, 2022

The Washington Post: UK Companies Are

Failing Black Professionals July 18, 2022 – by Chris Hughes

Associated Press: The Executive Leadership Council Honors Target for Outstanding Commitment to DEI at 2022 ELC 36th Annual Recognition Gala September 30, 2022

Black Enterprise: The National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) to Announce Michael E. Hamilton As New Board Chair During Its 44th Annual Conference and Expo at the Georgia World Congress Center October 3, 2022

Black Enterprise: The Executive Leadership Council Honors Target For Outstanding Commitment to DEI At 2022 ELC 36th Annual Recognition Gala October 3, 2022

Yahoo Finance: Corporate Board Chair, Director and Philanthropist, Brenda J. Lauderback to be Honored with The Executive Leadership Council 2022 Alvaro L. Martins Heritage Award October 4, 2022

Black Enterprise: The Executive Leadership Council to Honor 132 Black Scholars with $1.5M in Scholarships During Its Annual Recognition and Fundraising Gala October 5, 2022

Yahoo Finance: GroupM North America CEO Kirk McDonald To Be Honored At Black Enterprise’s Black Men Xcel Summit October 7, 2022 - by Derek Major

McKinsey & Co.: “I’d never been to this kind of event before”: McKinsey research accelerates Black economic mobility November 14, 2022

French Caribbean News: Caribbean Heritage

UK Nationals Dominate 2023 Powerlist November 23, 2022

What can you expect from Marketing, Communication and Advocacy in 2023?

In addition to continuing collaboration and leadership across programming areas and throughout the enterprise, the Marketing, Communication and Advocacy team has established four goals for 2023.

Goal 1: Revise The ELC website

Targeted Outcomes: optimized user experience; seamless integration with MRM and any other online platforms (especially if we have a member portal); clear articulation of differentiation with ELC 2.0

Goal 2: Invest in Institute Marketing Efforts

Targeted Outcomes: data to inform decisions on new and existing audiences; targeted, data-driven marketing campaigns to inform and expand Institute audiences; increased participation and revenue

Goal 3: Invest in Elevating ELC Brand

Targeted Outcomes: relevant data to identify/prioritize key target audiences for ELC messaging; enhanced national marketing campaign eeducating new audiences about ELC thought leadership; increased national brand awareness

Goal 4: Expand Thought Leadership

Targeted Outcomes: increased presence in the following spaces in alignment with our five strategic pillars:  Corporate diversity  Voting rights  HBCUs  Workforce development  Joint Networking Receptions